Basic Music Production Tips

There are mainly pitfalls along the road of music production; most of these holes can be avoid if the mixing beginner has a few music production basics to help them at the start. Once a person that is new to music production knows the basics and knows the golden rules their learning process and overall education in this field will be at a far greater level than those who jump straight in without knowing or reading anything. Here are some helpful tips:

Always back up all files that are needed in you mix – before you sit down to start a mix, make sure you have all your audio files and arrangement files saved and backed up on something away from your computer. Be that an external drive, DVD/CD, memory stick or even online. Anything could happen, such as a virus infection, hard drive melt down or something else infinitely random.

Mix within a peaceful environment – You cannot do any of the music production basics let alone mix if there is excessive noise going on around you. Even while using headphones it is not good as it is distracting. You do not need extreme silence, although that would be nice. Just all other noise needs to be in the background and not breaking your concentration. Never ever turn speakers up above a comfortable listening level to drown out or counter noise interfering with your ability to mix competently.

Listen though a track before mixing and write ideas down – I always listen through a track I am about to mix and write down ideas I have for the mixing direction. The inspiration could come from specific vocals/words or just a feeling/idea I thought up in that moment of listening; it is easy to put your ideas into practise once you know the music production basics. It is always good to have an idea or direction of how you want the track to go. At this stage an idea would probably be formed anyway. When listening to the track for ideas wait at least 24 hours, or, if you are like me and/or you have time on your hands wait longer and listen to it as fresh and forgetful as you can and base your mixing idea on the first impressions you get.