How production changed my view

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Br8k L3gnd

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I remember the days where a cool melody would be all it took for me to attach to a song. However, after so many years of listening critically on my own work and spending so much time listening to reference material, I now view a good song differently. I no longer have instant gratification from a nice melody. The song almost always has to be produced well for me to care. Now, this is of course, opinion based and my idea of a good production will differ from many. I just started to realize how making my own songs changed my view of music completely.

Example, if the melody is great, but the kick drum is weak, I cannot consider it good. To me, this feels like a loss for myself.

I just wanted to share that after listening to music this morning.
 

Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
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I always thought I would get a bigger appreciation for music if I ever tried to produce, as it seems so difficult to get right and to learn. I might empathize more with the endeavor of creating good tunes and softening my annoyance I seem to have with 90% of modern productions.

I do find myself feeling that great mixdown/production technique > great track idea... I can't enjoy the track idea if theyve failed at the first hurdle of having sounds that sound pleasing to the ear.
 

Archon

Gagi
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Jun 27, 2020
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I always thought I would get a bigger appreciation for music if I ever tried to produce, as it seems so difficult to get right and to learn. I might empathize more with the endeavor of creating good tunes and softening my annoyance I seem to have with 90% of modern productions.
Hasn't worked for me haha. It's extremely hard coming up with something great (especially if you're not an artistic person), but why pollute the beautiful thing that is music with half-assed (or straight-up nonexistent) musical ideas wrapped in decent mixdowns? I fail to see any point in that.
 
B

Br8k L3gnd

Guest
I always thought I would get a bigger appreciation for music if I ever tried to produce, as it seems so difficult to get right and to learn. I might empathize more with the endeavor of creating good tunes and softening my annoyance I seem to have with 90% of modern productions.

I do find myself feeling that great mixdown/production technique > great track idea... I can't enjoy the track idea if theyve failed at the first hurdle of having sounds that sound pleasing to the ear.

Hasn't worked for me haha. It's extremely hard coming up with something great (especially if you're not an artistic person), but why pollute the beautiful thing that is music with half-assed (or straight-up nonexistent) musical ideas wrapped in decent mixdowns? I fail to see any point in that.
I get your point. This is where it becomes tough because some genres are just basic. Minimal would be total trash if not for the great mixes on them.

Its funny as someone once told me, if the trance is going to be a#m, a#m, a#m it better sound damn good lol :)
 

dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
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You need both.
You can have a cool melody, but without the proper ambiance/background sounds, "fullness," and coherent mixdown it's going to fall flat. This happened to a lot of early 2010s tech/uplifting-trance.
You can have a good mixdown, but without something to engage the listener your track won't be heard a second time. This happens to virtually every JOOF progressive psytrance release.
 
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LostLegend

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2020
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I have a serious appreciation on older artists and music producers from 'back in the day' before DAW's and digital processing.

In fact I love watching documentaries about how classic albums were made, back when the tricks of the trade were like the dark arts.

I remember one I saw about the making of Pink Floyds 'Wish You Were Here' and they were talking about the guitar on the intro to 'Shine on you crazy diamond'
The reverb rooms and springs they had were not making the sound washout enough, so David Gilmour packed up his guitar, amps and a load of mics and took over a church hall for the day and recorded the intro guitar there with mics placed all over the room for a wide wet signal.
They had no idea if it would work in the track until they headed back to the studio with the recordings (they had to record to a click track in the church which you can actually hear bleed into the original song)

I love stuff like this, music production genuinely was an artform on to itself back then!
 
B

Br8k L3gnd

Guest
I have a serious appreciation on older artists and music producers from 'back in the day' before DAW's and digital processing.

In fact I love watching documentaries about how classic albums were made, back when the tricks of the trade were like the dark arts.

I remember one I saw about the making of Pink Floyds 'Wish You Were Here' and they were talking about the guitar on the intro to 'Shine on you crazy diamond'
The reverb rooms and springs they had were not making the sound washout enough, so David Gilmour packed up his guitar, amps and a load of mics and took over a church hall for the day and recorded the intro guitar there with mics placed all over the room for a wide wet signal.
They had no idea if it would work in the track until they headed back to the studio with the recordings (they had to record to a click track in the church which you can actually hear bleed into the original song)

I love stuff like this, music production genuinely was an artform on to itself back then!
It sure was. I also enjoy that type of stuff and apply it to digital domain. Like a new trick I learned was to feedback the low end on my kick . I send the kick to a aux channel and the aux to another aux. The last aux gets fed back to the first. This does some crazy stuff to low end sounds. I love hearing stories of songs being made on a 4 track. :)
 
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