being someone who wants to just concentrate solely on creating content when i have the time away from paying the bills, i feel i’m potentially alienating myself from anyone that could possibly want to exploit my work commercially. if you ain’t the finished product, i don’t think a lot of people are interested these days…
i think it’s important artistically, to always be moving to the next project to avoid a creative block, but in my case, i think i’m leaving behind tracks that might be really good with the right help. i’m trying to get someone involved that has an objective ear, and technical knowhow to get my work to the next level, but the lack of money involved in the music industry maybe doesn’t give people the motivation to give their time to that.
i’m producing virtually everything through cans so as not to get myself evicted from my flat, and i find myself with lots of semi finished projects and an aversion to spend dollar on mastering etc, because of their distance to my music, and my cynicism …
there are never any easy answers in a world where there are lots of talented producers with more skill than me and not enough coin involved nowadays to help them get anywhere, what chance is there for someone like me with unrefined output.
Nah you’re just asking yourself too much questions man.
Don’t start that way or you’re gonna loose it with doubts, so many details can make you succeed or fail, just let it be, make your tunes, first time and experience will make you good enough at mixing and mastering yourself so your tracks stand alone correctly to be heard until mastering.
Then if you truly believe in it you can see about paying for having some mastered
a few people i know have suggested that i pay to get followers, comments, plays, etc to generate a fake vibe around my soundcloud.
i’m really not feeling that approach, but if someone convinced me it made all the difference to get the right support behind me i may consider it against my better judgement.
i didn’t see your post, must have posted at the same time…
yea, i hear what you’re saying… i’ve been doing the same thing for a while now. i don’t think i’m deluded when i say i’ve got more than a few bits that are definitely good enough for release, but if i don’t do something different to what i’ve currently been doing how can i expect anything more to happen?
i get a lot of enjoyment from making music, but my audience is tiny, and i’d like more people to hear what i’ve got to share.
My only suggestion about using a mastering engineer: BE SURE YOURE HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR TRACK FIRST!! I’ve worked with lots of engineers and anytime a mix isn’t entirely perfect (to you), the mastering WILL show those imperfections far more. So if you have phase issues for example they will most certainly be clearer and totally obvious in your ear and will not sound good.
great tip, most mastering engineers will charge you if you max a change and ask them to master the track over again…as well they should…ran into this my first time out
Yo so I just ordered a nice set of studio monitors. I feel you on all of these levels.
I moved back in with my parents (notnan option for many, I am blessed) to focus on what I WANT to do in life, which is music.
I don’t know what help this may be to you, but as a producer, I would love to listen to some of your tracks, give you some creative input, technical input, etc.
What helps me is posting stuff online somewhere, then going around to my different devices (phones, headphones, tiny speakers, cars, friends’ cars) just go get an idea of how it feels in different places. Then take notes. Take lots of notes. Use your smartphone if you got it, or carry around a tiny notebook. Note what other say about it too. Ask them to tell what is wrong with it, not what is good.
I think the hardest part is getting heard.It seems like no one has time to just sit down and listen to something new. they are all too busy listening to music thats hyped. i think if you have raw talent whether you mastered or not that is enough people like you and take the time to listen that anyone can make it as a producer. I have set goals for myself as far as making a name for myself. get people to listen locally, perform locally. get it local and the expand from there. Maybe im totally in the wrong direction on this but it makes sense to me. Getting the music out there to people who wanna listen is the best option. once people notice you and think your something then it should move from there. Right?
To say it as polite as possible…hm. How big are our chances to get far with this music?
More and more people get into producing. Everybody want’s to be a producer. The ‘skill’ of each individual producer becomes more and more equal as a lot of mysteries of sound design, mastering etc get uncovered. Just listen through soundcloud or itunes or whatever. People start to sound the same. Because you got all kinds of tutorials and patches/sample packs out there. People might say they only use a few or change them up but a lot of times that’s not true. People try to put in less effort more and more. It becomes a ‘casted’ type of music. A product. Producers want to use little to no effort yet try to get the maximum profit out of it. That’s how it is atm and if it keeps going on like this i see little to no hope for electronic music.
People say it is the future. Maybe. But if it doesn’t change it will move in the background more and more. It won’t be anything spectacular anymore.
The market for electronic music is saturated. Oversaturated. That’s a fact.
Technical stuff (sound design, mixing, mastering, etc) can all be learnt. But if you’ve got nothing but shit ideas, the only way you’ll be doing anything worthwhile is as the engineer for someone who has got good ideas.
