Production

[ShaunS]

A warm hi from Australia to my Taxi people,


I'm noticing with my returns, that the phrase:
"It would be good for you to learn more about production'' comes up from time to time.
I've been submitting work now for about 9 months, so, I guess still very much in the formulative stage of my skill building, when the screeners talk of 'production' are we talking the main three - EQ, compression and reverb, which in all honesty I am still learning. would there be something else?
I know it's a fuzzy and very broad question, but any pointers would be appreciated.
regards
ShaunS

[deantaylor]

Production is a broad thing, imo. I think they also mean it to include recording tracks, arranging, editing, mixing (levels, panning, effects, processing, etc), mastering.

[cosmicdolphin]

would there be something else?

As Dean has alluded to it's much broader than the 3 mixing tools you mention

Good production starts at the writing / arranging stage, carries through recording and editing and can include skills such as sound design and then onto mixing and finally mastering

Try to think of it holistcally.

You can't make a great mix from a bad arrangement or a poor recording or performance. None of these are massively difficult on their own but it requires a rounded skillset to be accomplished at all of them.

[AlanHall]

Posting up links to some work that you think is representative - or a link to your Taxi web page - can allow forum members to offer helpful, constructive advice to get you working on the important things. The PEER-TO-PEER section is designed for this kind of membership mutual support. Stay positive, and ask for help. It is freely given!

[ochaim]

Dean Krippaene had a great presentation at a Road Rally years ago about how to "reverse engineer" a reference track when writing your own.

Rather than recreating it, you distill the reference track into it's elements/components and use those as the building blocks.

So going through each sound element and noting how they're written/recorded/mixed, you don't only dial into the style of the reference but you also learn the production techniques used.
Other things to note are how the energy flows. ie. does the section before the chorus get stripped back so there is room for contrast/release/pay off in the chorus?

The main thing for this to work is being able to listen really critically so you can parse out the elements and how they're arranged in the reference tracks.

Once I started using this "reverse engineering" approach, it really helped me understand why great sounding tracks sound the way they do and helped my own tracks get closer to sounding like them.

But we all have our own ways of getting there. This one is certainly worth a try.

[ShaunS]

thanks to all of you for the feedback, its valuable and appreciated. I will take it all on board.
ShaunS

[prizzi]

Hi Shaun,

As Alan asked...do you have any links to your returned tracks?

-Phil