If haven't liked Lockjaw's Facebook page yet I'd highly recommend it! He regularly posts sick tips aimed at all levels of producer.
https://www.facebook.com/lockjawdnb/
Here's his latest few posts:
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Finishing projects is one of the most important things you can do. If you don't finish it, delete it.
It doesn't even matter if you've fallen out of love or dislike the project any more or if it torments you at night; in fact, this might be even more reason to finish those projects you've started but haven't finished.
Finishing a project and seeing it through to completion rewards you in a few ways. It enforces discipline, it forces you to develop a methodology and personal techniques for producing that you repeat and allows you to close the book on (and thus, learn more effectively from) a troublesome project or a project where you tried something new. Not to mention, the clutter of unfinished projects does nothing to help your mental state and organisation.
Many people bemoan the process of finishing tunes; they can't find the ways to do it or they're unsure if a piece is worth finishing or they're unsure of when a piece is done. Well, here's a definition that you can aim to fulfill that signifies a tune is "done".
1. A tune/project is done (ie. requires no more work) when it is fully arranged and functional from a compositional view. If it were written by someone else you would not, at this point question any points of its arrangement or composition; it sounds like a finished piece of music.
2. You are physically incapable of and unable to know how to improve any part of it (bar deleting and re-writing the whole thing, which I don't usually recommend) given a reasonable time-frame (ie. not a decade). You have gone through the project with a fine-tooth comb and have reached the boundaries of your current production knowledge (at this point in time) in bettering it.
I believe these two points, in a nutshell, give you a good idea of when something is done. For me, I know a tune is done when I've put in a satisfactory amount of effort and I also cannot think of how to improve it. If you've reached this point, you should know inside that you've done all you can and the project's final task is to be finalised. Render it out, upload it somewhere, show a friend, whatever, but after this, you shouldn't feel the need to re-open it. Start something new and repeat the process. A few months or years from now, you'll listen to it again and I can guarantee you'll be at least mildly surprised at the effort you put in that you can hear in the tune. You'll hear the flaws, primitive production value and maybe even cringe at it but you'll be proud that you started something, finished it, and moved on with the increased knowledge and skill you gained from the process of finishing the tune. It's the process of finishing which is as, if not more important than the tune itself.
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Producing a tune is like carving a statue.
I don't know how other people go about producing music from square 0 to square 100 but the way I do it is like this...
Imagine you are Michelangelo about to carve David from a huge block of stone. You start off with a huge pillar of blank stone. This is like your blank project.
First, you chisel away big chunks of the stone and get a rough shape of David going. This is you at your PC coming up with big, simple ideas and basic arrangements for your tune.
Next, you start chipping off smaller bits of stone and making David look more and more like a human. In our producing analogy, this is you fleshing out your arrangement, designing sounds with more depth and bringing some personality and vibe to your tune.
Now, after a chipping away at David for a few weeks or months, he looks basically like a normal person from afar but up close, there are some annoying imperfections and things to be cleaned up. In music, your tune is now done; it would work in a club but upon closer inspection, there are details missing and it still sounds a touch copy-paste.
Finally, you bust out the fine sandpaper and start working on David, smoothing a touch here and sanding down a little there to bring his level of realism to full. You come back every day and repeat this process until all the creases are ironed out. At your PC, you come back each day and listen to your tune and EQ a dB out here, raise this track volume a little there and day by day, the creases in the tune get smoothed out to perfection.
Now, after months and months of detailing and re-analysing and painstaking attention to detail, David is unveiled as a marvel of human creative endeavor to the world. Back in the modern day, after weeks and months of careful EQing, your tune is unveiled to the internet, receives a grand total of 183 SoundCloud plays and you delete the folder and start a new project.
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Take care of your transients or they'll take care of you.
When you're layering drum hits and constructing your beats, make sure to pay attention to the transients of your hits.
Sometimes, hi hats or other percussion that lands on the kick and snare can obscure or screw up the transients so make sure to prioritise the transients you need the most.
Additionally, you can use the track delay function of your DAW to nudge tracks forward or back by milliseconds. This relates to the previous point because if you have a cowbell or something landing on your snare and ruining the punchiness of your snare, you can shift the cowbell by a couple milliseconds back or forth to let the snare come through properly.
You get the idea; use your ears to make sure all your drum hits sound good and shift them a little if you need to.
Hope this helps someone
https://www.facebook.com/lockjawdnb/
Here's his latest few posts:
---------
Finishing projects is one of the most important things you can do. If you don't finish it, delete it.
It doesn't even matter if you've fallen out of love or dislike the project any more or if it torments you at night; in fact, this might be even more reason to finish those projects you've started but haven't finished.
Finishing a project and seeing it through to completion rewards you in a few ways. It enforces discipline, it forces you to develop a methodology and personal techniques for producing that you repeat and allows you to close the book on (and thus, learn more effectively from) a troublesome project or a project where you tried something new. Not to mention, the clutter of unfinished projects does nothing to help your mental state and organisation.
Many people bemoan the process of finishing tunes; they can't find the ways to do it or they're unsure if a piece is worth finishing or they're unsure of when a piece is done. Well, here's a definition that you can aim to fulfill that signifies a tune is "done".
1. A tune/project is done (ie. requires no more work) when it is fully arranged and functional from a compositional view. If it were written by someone else you would not, at this point question any points of its arrangement or composition; it sounds like a finished piece of music.
2. You are physically incapable of and unable to know how to improve any part of it (bar deleting and re-writing the whole thing, which I don't usually recommend) given a reasonable time-frame (ie. not a decade). You have gone through the project with a fine-tooth comb and have reached the boundaries of your current production knowledge (at this point in time) in bettering it.
I believe these two points, in a nutshell, give you a good idea of when something is done. For me, I know a tune is done when I've put in a satisfactory amount of effort and I also cannot think of how to improve it. If you've reached this point, you should know inside that you've done all you can and the project's final task is to be finalised. Render it out, upload it somewhere, show a friend, whatever, but after this, you shouldn't feel the need to re-open it. Start something new and repeat the process. A few months or years from now, you'll listen to it again and I can guarantee you'll be at least mildly surprised at the effort you put in that you can hear in the tune. You'll hear the flaws, primitive production value and maybe even cringe at it but you'll be proud that you started something, finished it, and moved on with the increased knowledge and skill you gained from the process of finishing the tune. It's the process of finishing which is as, if not more important than the tune itself.
----------
Producing a tune is like carving a statue.
I don't know how other people go about producing music from square 0 to square 100 but the way I do it is like this...
Imagine you are Michelangelo about to carve David from a huge block of stone. You start off with a huge pillar of blank stone. This is like your blank project.
First, you chisel away big chunks of the stone and get a rough shape of David going. This is you at your PC coming up with big, simple ideas and basic arrangements for your tune.
Next, you start chipping off smaller bits of stone and making David look more and more like a human. In our producing analogy, this is you fleshing out your arrangement, designing sounds with more depth and bringing some personality and vibe to your tune.
Now, after a chipping away at David for a few weeks or months, he looks basically like a normal person from afar but up close, there are some annoying imperfections and things to be cleaned up. In music, your tune is now done; it would work in a club but upon closer inspection, there are details missing and it still sounds a touch copy-paste.
Finally, you bust out the fine sandpaper and start working on David, smoothing a touch here and sanding down a little there to bring his level of realism to full. You come back every day and repeat this process until all the creases are ironed out. At your PC, you come back each day and listen to your tune and EQ a dB out here, raise this track volume a little there and day by day, the creases in the tune get smoothed out to perfection.
Now, after months and months of detailing and re-analysing and painstaking attention to detail, David is unveiled as a marvel of human creative endeavor to the world. Back in the modern day, after weeks and months of careful EQing, your tune is unveiled to the internet, receives a grand total of 183 SoundCloud plays and you delete the folder and start a new project.
----------
Take care of your transients or they'll take care of you.
When you're layering drum hits and constructing your beats, make sure to pay attention to the transients of your hits.
Sometimes, hi hats or other percussion that lands on the kick and snare can obscure or screw up the transients so make sure to prioritise the transients you need the most.
Additionally, you can use the track delay function of your DAW to nudge tracks forward or back by milliseconds. This relates to the previous point because if you have a cowbell or something landing on your snare and ruining the punchiness of your snare, you can shift the cowbell by a couple milliseconds back or forth to let the snare come through properly.
You get the idea; use your ears to make sure all your drum hits sound good and shift them a little if you need to.
Hope this helps someone
