I periodically see one come up and languish
A bedroom musician should learn mixing his own music?
- Thread starter Akkush
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I think it’s the third thread this month where I want to reply “unless it’s your profession, the only question you should ask yourself is “At the end of the day, does it put a smile on my face?”” And see you basically already did it for me.
And this folks is what kids killing your free time do to you
AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
This whole “if it makes you happy” thing is a bit sketchy.
Editing vocals and programming drums for 8 hours a day makes you happy? Really??
Come on
It’s normal to feel miserable when doing those things, but it’s just part of the job, just like there’s fun parts too.
I mostly do it because I’m a masochist and despite the miserable parts, the satisfaction of hearing the result is also great
And doing it for yourself is one thing, but producing other bands stuff as an amateur when you don’t necessarily like it, now that’s just as soul crushing as any other job or even more, because pay is peanuts and the thing you used to do for fun is now a commitment you’ve made with other people. But on the good side, it forces you to work and become better.
Valuable lesson, I’m probably never “producing” someone else’s stuff again..
Editing vocals and programming drums for 8 hours a day makes you happy? Really??
Come on
It’s normal to feel miserable when doing those things, but it’s just part of the job, just like there’s fun parts too.
I mostly do it because I’m a masochist and despite the miserable parts, the satisfaction of hearing the result is also great
And doing it for yourself is one thing, but producing other bands stuff as an amateur when you don’t necessarily like it, now that’s just as soul crushing as any other job or even more, because pay is peanuts and the thing you used to do for fun is now a commitment you’ve made with other people. But on the good side, it forces you to work and become better.
Valuable lesson, I’m probably never “producing” someone else’s stuff again..
I would save your money and pay someone if you have zero current experience.
If it takes you a year to save, spend that year with a metronome and a looper pedal absolutely, ROBOTICALLY, nailing takes of your riffs/songs/solos/whatever. Spend your time getting OVERPREPARED for the studio so your money is worth it. You'll come out of it a better player, with a better result, in a shorter time, with less headache than trying to learn a skill that people spend years learning in order to make half-decent mixes.
I tried figuring out a PC rig just to play with plugins and record riff ideas. What a nightmare.
I was ready to throw my computer out the window on the first day. Absolutely NOTHING is plug-n-play and there are obstacles the entire way.
My buddy and I gave up after shelling out money for an interface, DAW, and an STL Tones amp sim only to be stuck with about a full second of latency when trying to record and a mediocre tone at best.
I'm all for the DIY spirit and learning new skills but, I really think that path is for people who love it, or have no other choice and want it BADLY.
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wheresthefbomb
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Paying your friends to do stuff for you counts as DIY
gh0styboi
Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong
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There is no universal rule for stuff like this. Do you want to learn it? If a musician wants to learn how to mix and produce - regardless of whether he’s gigging or not - then they should.
There are tons of great resources out there, and it can be learned and done with relatively little money risk at this point. You can spend about $150 for an intereface and $150 for some cheap monitors, $60 for Reaper DAW (if you wanna pay - it’s got a full function free version that requires you to watch a splash screen at startup) to get your started, and you can learn literally everything you need to know using the stock plugins it comes with. There are very solid free amp sims for guitar and bass with and without IR loaders. There’s never been a better time to learn how to track, mix, and produce.
That said, if you don’t want to, have zero interest in learning it, and don’t care, then don’t spend your time or energy on something that is going to be, without fail, incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. It’s rewarding if you’re interested, but it is absolutely infuriating sometimes, and it’s a slow, slow process.
I started about five years ago out of necessity, as the bands I was tryign to keep going kept falling apart, so I wanted a way to create my own stuff when other things fell through. I didn’t have a mix I was confident in or could really say was good enough to actually put out with confidence until last year, and I still have tons - TONS - to learn. Fortunately, I enjoy it 90% of the time, and that makes the other 10% of slamming my head in a door worth it
There are tons of great resources out there, and it can be learned and done with relatively little money risk at this point. You can spend about $150 for an intereface and $150 for some cheap monitors, $60 for Reaper DAW (if you wanna pay - it’s got a full function free version that requires you to watch a splash screen at startup) to get your started, and you can learn literally everything you need to know using the stock plugins it comes with. There are very solid free amp sims for guitar and bass with and without IR loaders. There’s never been a better time to learn how to track, mix, and produce.
That said, if you don’t want to, have zero interest in learning it, and don’t care, then don’t spend your time or energy on something that is going to be, without fail, incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. It’s rewarding if you’re interested, but it is absolutely infuriating sometimes, and it’s a slow, slow process.
I started about five years ago out of necessity, as the bands I was tryign to keep going kept falling apart, so I wanted a way to create my own stuff when other things fell through. I didn’t have a mix I was confident in or could really say was good enough to actually put out with confidence until last year, and I still have tons - TONS - to learn. Fortunately, I enjoy it 90% of the time, and that makes the other 10% of slamming my head in a door worth it
Jacksonluvr636
Well-Known Member
A little of both, I've been playing guitar for ever. Consider myself pretty decent and have a great ear. My "demos" are somewhat acceptable for demos but nowhere near professional sounding.
Just depends on how much time and work you put in plus the type of quality you're going for.
Just depends on how much time and work you put in plus the type of quality you're going for.
So maybe not mixing, but recording decently you should definitely learn to do and the basics (Don't klip!!!) should be within reach. From there you'll find yourself messing around and end up learning to mix somewhat. If you want professional production, choose it as a job or pay someone.
purpledc
Proud blacksheep
I have been a bedroom player for 34 years. I have played for people at parties but never in an actual band. I want to make my own music. And I know that it can be done amazingly well on a laptop because ive seen many many people make their own music on a laptop and it sounds amazing.
And having mastered "using" the pearl mimic drum module and creating sounds the developer didnt think was even possible, I know if you put the time in you can learn anything. But I can also admit without any pride, that im lazy as FUCK. And I barely have enough attention span to try and make more than 10 patches on my quad cortex.
Could I? Yes. Could I learn to mix and master on a laptop with mostly free software? yes. But again. Lazy as fuck is definitely the only thing holding people back. It takes one to know one and i have no problems admitting it.
Shit I still only know the name of three of the many chords I know. I always played by ear and didnt have patience. Ok, thats one other think you need. Is to not be lazy but to also be patient. I am neither. Like I get shit done but I get it done quickly so I can go back to doing whatever the hell i want. Which I usually playing one of my instruments.
I guess for me im more motivated by the actual enjoyment of playing music than I am worried about leaving any traces of it behind after im gone.
Another thing about mastering music is that a good mix is subjective. And if people were so good with it, things wouldnt get re-mastered. A lot of times that happens because a band didnt like how the original turned out. You see it with records that are 10 years old. I say there is no wrong way if the end result is pleasing to your ear. Plus, pick 10 different professionals and you are gonna get10 different sounds. But pay A LOT of money for a well known engineer who cant polish your tracks for you and whoo hoo, now you sound just like everyone else who uses them. Professionals have a signature style to how they record and do final mixing and mastering just like the musicians. You know Nunos playing instantly. But you can also tell whether or not Micheal Wagener recorded his playing or not. Because his signature style of how to gets tones and mixing can be heard on numerous albums of that era.
And having mastered "using" the pearl mimic drum module and creating sounds the developer didnt think was even possible, I know if you put the time in you can learn anything. But I can also admit without any pride, that im lazy as FUCK. And I barely have enough attention span to try and make more than 10 patches on my quad cortex.
Could I? Yes. Could I learn to mix and master on a laptop with mostly free software? yes. But again. Lazy as fuck is definitely the only thing holding people back. It takes one to know one and i have no problems admitting it.
Shit I still only know the name of three of the many chords I know. I always played by ear and didnt have patience. Ok, thats one other think you need. Is to not be lazy but to also be patient. I am neither. Like I get shit done but I get it done quickly so I can go back to doing whatever the hell i want. Which I usually playing one of my instruments.
I guess for me im more motivated by the actual enjoyment of playing music than I am worried about leaving any traces of it behind after im gone.
Another thing about mastering music is that a good mix is subjective. And if people were so good with it, things wouldnt get re-mastered. A lot of times that happens because a band didnt like how the original turned out. You see it with records that are 10 years old. I say there is no wrong way if the end result is pleasing to your ear. Plus, pick 10 different professionals and you are gonna get10 different sounds. But pay A LOT of money for a well known engineer who cant polish your tracks for you and whoo hoo, now you sound just like everyone else who uses them. Professionals have a signature style to how they record and do final mixing and mastering just like the musicians. You know Nunos playing instantly. But you can also tell whether or not Micheal Wagener recorded his playing or not. Because his signature style of how to gets tones and mixing can be heard on numerous albums of that era.
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7 Dying Trees
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Learn to mix yourself, that way you can let people hear it. As you mix more, and learn new tricks you will get better. There's a ton of information out there, and it's basically a skill, and with every skill, the more you work at it, the better the results will be
Phlegethon
Well-Known Member
Does a bedroom guitarist need to do it at a professional level? No. Just needs to do enough to understand what's happening at a basic level. Anything beyond that is welcome, but understanding things even on a basic level will give a significant benefit.
Kaura
Je suis ketchup
I voted no but was the only one doing so, so I switched my vote.
If you ask me. Mixing is one of those things that is more or less accessible for everyone but simply isn't for everyone, kinda like coding/programming. Yes, practically everyone can learn it "from the books" with all the time in the world but then there's natural talents who don't need no books and still manage to excel at what they do. I mean, I've seen people who have claimed having been mixed just for a couple of months and already sound amazing and then there's people (like myself) who've done it for years without huge improvements.
If you ask me. Mixing is one of those things that is more or less accessible for everyone but simply isn't for everyone, kinda like coding/programming. Yes, practically everyone can learn it "from the books" with all the time in the world but then there's natural talents who don't need no books and still manage to excel at what they do. I mean, I've seen people who have claimed having been mixed just for a couple of months and already sound amazing and then there's people (like myself) who've done it for years without huge improvements.
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Drew
Forum MVP
Honestly, I think both are true.
Being a good mix engineer takes a lot of skill and a lot of practice, but there's never been better accesible tools and more knowledge at your fingertips than there is today. If this is something you want to do and get truly good at, you can absolutely put in the time and effort and learn how to record and mix well enough to make a great sounding album in your bedroom.
But, also, if you don't really care about learning the process and getting the degree of control it takes for you to make a mix exactly the way you want to, there's a LOT of really good user friendly tools, stuff like EzDrummer and EzMix and whatnot, where you can get by with just using a few presets and mostly just setting levels otherwise, and still produce good sounding music. And if it's just getting your songs in good enough shape to share them that's what drives you, then the learning curve to get to that threshold using something like EzMix presets is pretty low.
I LIKE the mixing process, so for me taking the time to do it myself isn't really a downside. But, I can see it both ways.
Being a good mix engineer takes a lot of skill and a lot of practice, but there's never been better accesible tools and more knowledge at your fingertips than there is today. If this is something you want to do and get truly good at, you can absolutely put in the time and effort and learn how to record and mix well enough to make a great sounding album in your bedroom.
But, also, if you don't really care about learning the process and getting the degree of control it takes for you to make a mix exactly the way you want to, there's a LOT of really good user friendly tools, stuff like EzDrummer and EzMix and whatnot, where you can get by with just using a few presets and mostly just setting levels otherwise, and still produce good sounding music. And if it's just getting your songs in good enough shape to share them that's what drives you, then the learning curve to get to that threshold using something like EzMix presets is pretty low.
I LIKE the mixing process, so for me taking the time to do it myself isn't really a downside. But, I can see it both ways.
p0ke
7-string guitard
Bit of both here too. I mean, you gotta really invest time in it if you're gonna actually produce commercial grade music, so in that sense I'd leave it to the professionals. But at least some general skills are definitely worth having - better sounding demos are easier to pitch to band members (and I guess labels etc too), and studio work gets easier when you can use the home demos as a sort of pre-production scratch track. Also it's easier to record properly when you've already recorded it as well as you can at home.
GunpointMetal
Well-Known Member
I don't think there's any yes/no answer here. Anyone who wants to play an instrument should work on getting good at the instrument before they worry about other parts of the process, but after that it's all up to you. I LIKE the tedium of engineering. Editing drums and vocals is not hard labor by any means, but I can see how others would not like that at all. I'd much rather put myself through the misery of engineering me while I record guitars, lol. I DO think that at this point in time if you're playing any sort of underground subgenre of metal you should really learn to at least track things yourself for your instrument. Recording studios are rightfully expensive, so the more you can do at home the less financially stressful being in a band will be, IMO.
teamSKDM
Well-Known Member
itd be ideal to at least get decent at pre production. almost every successful band makes demo versions of songs with their limited mixing skills, but many have taken the time to learn how to get a good enough mix and even quick master. the single most important thing to learn is the routing and bussing as that will glue everything together and make it sound like a cohesive song, and then how to tame harsh and booming frequencies and carve space for each track. then youll be 75 percent of the way there already.
