Take It Easy. Don't let the sound of EQin drive you crazy

[Heavy Metal]

Hi

I'm new to music production and have learned a bit but realise that there is a lot more to learn.

My end goal is to produce original music to put on video sharing platforms so the end result doesn't need to be "radio ready" as I think they say but obviously I want it to be as good as possible.

Anyway I am going to buy EZMix to help me along on my journey of producing something that sounds good before having to spend the old 10,000 hours.

Does anyone have any advice / suggestions / recommendations along the lines of simplifying and speeding up the process?

If Vermeer used a camera obscura then I'm happy to take shortcuts too

[CS70]

Spend the 10.000 hours. In the meantime, hire someone to do recording and mixing for you.
Or go, and put out crap of course, you'll be one more noise-maker among millions.

Stuff like EZ is like buying your clothes from H&M in complete sets from underwear to hat, already made and without looking at the size. If you look like Scarlett Johansson (*) it will work fine, for the rest of the world it's not a great idea.

(*) Or Henry Cavill, in the name of gender equality

Jokes apart, you don't need 10.000hrs - but why you would want to do something without knowing how to do it beats me.

[muzines]

Spend the 10.000 hours. In the meantime, hire someone to do recording and mixing for you.

+1

Jokes apart, you don't need 10.000hrs - but why you would want to do something without knowing how to do it beats me.

+1

It seems people these days are more interested in marketing a product on their streaming channel than actually creating it in the first place.

It's so strange to me, I fell in love with music, I just wanted to make it, to understand why music I valued worked, what made it tick. To understand what makes a good arrangement, and why do certain combinations of sounds, chords and melodies hit me hard and other's don't. And to be able to begin to aspire to create something that I thought was "good", let alone get anywhere near "great".

It's the modern world, I guess, but it's strange to me. In my world, the art should motivate the commerce, but the important part is the art. If the art is just one complication that seems to take way to long to get to a point where you can market something legitimately, then team up with someone else who's already making art, and help them with their marketing - you can help each other out.

If it's really about creating art, then there are no shortcuts, but you shouldn't care, because you'd be having too much fun making it, creating, learning, getting better, and learning how to use all the *amazing* tools and resources *everyone* has inexpensive access too these days. If you think this is a pain, try struggling through writing and recording a song with a Casio home keyboard, Argos guitar and a portastudio...

[Kwackman]

I think there's a couple of ways to decrease 10 000 hours.
Read a book by an expert - Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets for the small studio".
Get on-line one-to-one tutorials from an expert.
Zukan (Samplecraze.com) and the Elf from are two people who have happy customers around these parts.

[The Elf]

obviously I want it to be as good as possible.

Laudable.

I am going to buy EZMix...

Questionable.

You want quality, but you want it quickly. Understandable, but to reach this combination I think you would be wise to hire in a mix engineer. Not only is this far more likely to achieve your aim of quality, but it is also a chance to get a head start in learning the art.

[RichardT]

There are two basic skills you need, writing music, and producing music. Obviously they overlap but you do need to address both if you want to release your own material.

They are both very big undertakings if you’re starting from near the beginning.

Forget EZMix, it won’t help you learn, and it won’t help you produce good music if you don’t have the skills.

I’d suggest a mix of practice, books, on-line and face-to-face courses, topped up with one-to-one mentoring, plus working with others who have some of the skills you want to learn.

I’d also suggest releasing music only when you think it’s very good.

Good luck!

[Watchmaker]

There is not really a window where can can say "good enough" if you want to achieve excellence. There are no shortcuts, only experience and effort. And understand, that AI will never be able to make decisions based on emotional content, which is arguably what music is all about.

I used to know a death metal guitarist who has a t-shirt that said "go home and practice!" so suck it up!

[Drew Stephenson]

I think this is one of those situations where a bit of upfront work pays off in spades further down the line.
I.e. if the overall objective is going from A to C. Then spending more time of the foundations of A to B, will lead to a much quicker route from B to C. If you try to rush to B, then you're likely to spend much, much longer going from B to C.

So you probably have a bit of choice in front of you. Do you want to be a musician who understands a bit about production? Or do you want to be a musician and producer?
If your key driver is just making music, then your best bet is probably to find someone who's more interested in the production side and work with them. But working with them will be easier if you understand the fundamentals of audio engineering.
If you want to be a musician and producer then there aren't really any short cuts. You need to start with the fundamentals.
You'll have spotted the consistent theme here...

Alternatively, get EZMix, have a play, produce some stuff and prove us all wrong!
I use EZKeys so I recognise how powerful these tools are, just remember that you are taking short-cuts and at some point you will hit the limits of those short-cuts. And if you want to go further you will need to go back to basics and, here we go again, start with the fundamentals.

[george_vel]

...
Alternatively, get EZMix, have a play, produce some stuff and prove us all wrong!
I use EZKeys so I recognise how powerful these tools are...

Now you've made me super curious

But no!
I'll resist the temptation and will continue with Mike's book

[Drew Stephenson]

...
Alternatively, get EZMix, have a play, produce some stuff and prove us all wrong!
I use EZKeys so I recognise how powerful these tools are...

Now you've made me super curious

I've only used EZkeys on about 3 projects so far but I have been very impressed with it. But here's the key thing (pun intended):
it does nothing for my piano playing.
That's a compromise I'm happy to make because becoming a pianist is not in my current list of objectives. But if it was, I'd be kidding myself if I thought it would make a difference.
Tools for the job and all that.

[CS70]

Part of the challenge of using these kind of things is that by relying on them one never finds his/her voice. Everybody can use them and gets the same performances and sounds etc so it all becomes more of the same sameness.

That's not a biggie for backing parts or secondary embellishments, but learning an instrument (and your shortcomings as much as your abilities) will give you your voice - your preferred choice of notes, your favorite key changes and voicings, your choice of notes and so forth. Mixing is like playing an instrument - you find your preferences, your tricks, your favorite go-to ideas, which makes your mixes sound.. well, yours.

[Heavy Metal]

Thanks for the replies

[rggillespie]

Sorry to disagree but I'm a little surprised by the response to this question. There's such a mountain of stuff to try and get your head round when you start out its totally bewildering. So having something to help like ez mix with plenty of presets, sounds a good place to start. Just to get you going and help ease the learning curve. I imagine that whom it's aimed at, the beginner starting out wanting to make their own music. Surely having that leg up is valuable and with some success hopefully it will encourage you to want to learn more as you go along. Maybe they offer a trial period and you can try that and see how you go, best of luck its a fun journey!

[CS70]

Just to get you going and help ease the learning curve.

But that's exactly what it doesn't.

[Heavy Metal]

Sorry to disagree but I'm a little surprised by the response to this question. There's such a mountain of stuff to try and get your head round when you start out its totally bewildering. So having something to help like ez mix with plenty of presets, sounds a good place to start. Just to get you going and help ease the learning curve. I imagine that whom it's aimed at, the beginner starting out wanting to make their own music. Surely having that leg up is valuable and with some success hopefully it will encourage you to want to learn more as you go along. Maybe they offer a trial period and you can try that and see how you go, best of luck its a fun journey!

Thanks rggillespie. I've bought EZ Mix and am giving it a whirl.

[Drew Stephenson]

Let us know how you get on with it, I'm really curious.

[Heavy Metal]

Let us know how you get on with it, I'm really curious.

Will do. I won't forget you guys when I'm picking up my platinum discs and providing Taylor Swift with source material

[Heavy Metal]

I think there's a couple of ways to decrease 10 000 hours.
Read a book by an expert - Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets for the small studio".
Get on-line one-to-one tutorials from an expert.
Zukan (Samplecraze.com) and the Elf from are two people who have happy customers around these parts.

Hi Kwackman

I've ordered the above book but have now realised to my horror that Mike wrote a prequel called Recording Secrets... Please tell me this is not absolutely necessary and that I'll be just fine studying Mixing Secrets only.

Cheers

HM

[Sam Spoons]

I have both, they stand alone and cover different parts of the process, the titles are self explanatory. If you have recorded tracks you want to mix down you need "Mixing Secrets", if you are about to record something new from scratch then "Recording Secrets" is where the relevant advice will be found for that part of the process.

[Heavy Metal]

I have both, they stand alone and cover different parts of the process, the titles are self explanatory. If you have recorded tracks you want to mix down you need "Mixing Secrets", if you are about to record something new from scratch then "Recording Secrets" is where the relevant advice will be found for that part of the process.

Thanks Sam

Phew! I've already recorded the tracks so I can just forget about Recording Secrets until the next time