In a moment I’m going to share with you some concepts and techniques that I’ve observed over nearly 25 years of working with many Grammy Award-winning artists and producers.
I’ll take you INSIDE the thought processes that take place in the recording studio so you can dramatically SHOOT the quality of your Next Hit Song.
These are NOT just engineering tips, they are HOW TO THINK tips to ENSURE your music ends up sounding just like it did in your head.
This will save years of trial and error and guesswork for the average musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and artist trying to find a competitive edge that will make their songs stand out.
Whether you’re trying to get a record label deal, independently sell your own CD, or post your music on MySpace, you need your music to EXPLODE out of the speakers to give yourself an edge.
Before you start doing anything, the first thing you should do is listen to some reference CDs of several different types of songs that are similar to the ones you’re trying to work on.
Then listen to your music and immediately go back and listen to a few more CDs to form a mental picture in your “mind ear” of what you want your sound to be like. What is your intention?
Why is it important to do this? Well, it will help you get acquainted with the REAL sound of the speaker system you are listening to, even if it is your own. Our ears quickly adapt to the listening environment and our minds will make us think we are hearing things accurately when in fact we have simply “filled in the blanks”.
If the CDs you just listened to sound punchy and clear and your song sounds darker and a bit weak in comparison, then you have an idea of what you need to work on to improve your quality.
You should get used to having a reference point so you know exactly what you are trying to do, before you start doing anything. As you continue to work, take regular 15-minute breaks, and then listen to your reference again. This is crucial because our sonic memory is very short and our ears WILL ADAPT and can deceive us.
One question I always get asked is “What’s the best way to start polishing and mixing the new song I just wrote, so that it ends up having the same impact and quality as the CDs I buy?”
My advice is: after listening to a few references, listen to their song and get a mental picture of how it actually sounds compared to it. What is the actual sound quality? And then imagine how you want it to sound. What was missing compared to the reference?
Always start with a vision. Always know your destination before you start. A big mistake many people make is diving in with no idea what they’re really trying to do.
You have to form a mental image to make it clear to you, then make it happen. If you don’t have a clear vision, you only have a 50/50 chance that the outcome will work or not. Then you probably won’t know how to fix it if things start to go wrong because you didn’t know exactly what you were trying to do in the first place. Always know your destination before embarking on any trip.
You have to build the impact of your song like building a house one brick at a time. The trick is to identify the main elements and make sure they are NEVER lost.
If you add something new and suddenly a main part of the beat you heard before isn’t so clear, get rid of it, turn it down, or move it in and out. Don’t fall in love with anywhere. Get rid of it if necessary.
One article is not enough to distill 25 years of information, so I will be sharing many more tips and tricks with the music community in the future. Music is not a mystical secret process within the reach of a select few. I want to do what I can to help anyone interested in improving the quality of music in general.
Copyright 2006 Khaliq Glover aka Khaliq-O-Vision