There’s a lot that goes into the production of your music. It’s got to be written, performed, tweaked (with each person involved adding his or her own personal touch), recorded, mixed, mastered, and finally distributed.
All of this takes months or years before any potential listeners get to hear your record.
Although this is often a difficult process, there is one step you can do to make the production go quicker, easier, and more pain-free.
Moreover, this step is a vital component to creating a hit record.
It’s simply this… continually work on building a cohesive vision of where your music is going.
In other words, you must have a picture in your head of the final sound and “feel†you’re trying to create. To get this vision, it involves actually stopping and taking time to answer the difficult questions.
You must think about (from the start) what sounds you want to experiment with and how you want the music to flow together. Think about how you would describe your music to people who’ve never heard it.
If you’re not certain of this picture, then you’re in for a difficult time. Because you’re going to go back and forth between changes and be indecisive about your music.
It’s a bit like being lost in the woods. If you keep on changing directions, then you’re never going to find your way out. You’ll keep going in circles.
As a result, you’re going to frustrate those who you work with (sometimes causing disagreements that can result in disaster) and it’s going to take longer to create the record.
Plus, you should also keep in mind that this vision is part of the creation process.
You’re not going to get the complete vision, until you’ve discussed your ideas with all of the people who help in the music production.
The holes of your final vision get filled-in as your music is produced and experimentation with different sounds takes place.
In the case of the mastering engineer, for instance, you need his expertise to get a clear view of what can technologically be done (based on his tools and skills).
This is the same with the mixing and recording engineer.
Another key point is that the more experienced the people you work with are, the better. Their experience is going to help guide you to making the best decisions based on years of working in-the-trenches.
They know what to expect and can guide you painlessly to creating your vision. All you have to do is figure-out how to explain it to them. Those with good communication skills are going to be the best people to work with.
Additionally, the biggest place where experience matters to help create your vision is in the mastering studio.
Mastering is the process of putting the final touches on your music and making all the sounds run seamlessly together. It makes your record complete.
About the Author:
Lorenz Vauck is an Audio Mastering Engineer, Musician, and Internet Entrepreneur from Dresden, Saxony, Germany. He is the Managing Director and Chief Mastering Engineer of XARC Mastering, one of the world’s first online audio mastering studios established in 2003.