9 Things You’ll Learn From Analyzing Popular Music Productions

I believe one of the best ways to improve your music production skills is to listen and dissect popular songs throughout history.

And I would even suggest blatantly stealing ideas and making them your own. If you can get so inspired by a certain song that you borrow its ideas and create your own I think that’s pretty great.

Through my research I’ve found out some really cool music production tips that I’ll be sharing with you when the series is ready.

Here’s a tease preview of what you’ll learn:

The chord progression trick in “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” that separates the amateurs from the Elton Johns.
The easy way “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars creates new sections in a song, even if you’re using the same three chords.
How to get the quirky guitar sound in Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years.” Hint, it’s not a guitar amp…
How counter-melodies can add a completely new dimension to a song and take it to a new level.
How to use breaks and buildups effectively to create incredible dynamics.
The quirky panning techniques you can learn from The Offspring.
How to use master buss compression to create dynamic changes in different parts of a song.
Making the most of textures in a sparse arrangement.
How to get the bass sound from Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.”

Actually, I think it’s such a cool sound I’ll just tell you how to get it:

“The distinct eighties funk sound from Tony Levine is from a fretless Musicman bass, with a heavy amount of compression thrown in for sustain. The thickness of the bass is from the Boss OC2 Octave pedal that doubles his notes an octave down. There also seems to a be slight chorus effect on the bass as well. To eliminate the muddy sound you could get from the chorus effect on an octave bass you could add the chorus via a send that’s high-pass filtered so only the highs of the bass guitar will be choruses. This will give the bass a chorused, 80’s sound while still retaining clarity in the mix.”

Cool right? Targeting only the highs of the bass you can get a super cool chorus bass sound without any of the mud!

That’s only a fraction of what you’ll discover when the series is ready.

I’ll be giving my current customers an exclusive early-bird discount as soon as it’s ready so if you want to be the first to get notified grab a copy of Recording & Mixing Strategies right here.

www.audio-issues.com/strategies

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About Audio Issues and Björgvin Benediktsson

We help musicians transform their recordings into radio-ready and release-worthy records they’re proud to release.

We do this by offering simple and practical music production and success skills they can use immediately to level themselves up – while rejecting negativity and gear-shaming from the industry. A rising tide floats all boats and the ocean is big enough for all of us to surf the sound waves.

Björgvin’s step-by-step mixing process has helped thousands of musicians confidently mix their music from their home studios. If you’d like to join them, check out the best-selling book Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins right here.