So, here we are talking about mix down.
First of all, the quality of your song is determined by the quality of your mix down. No matter how many plugins you put on your master track, if my track has a better mix than yours, you will lose.
With that being said:

The quality of your mix down is determined by the quality of your sounds. 

So, if your track doesn't sound "loud" enough and you've pushed it to the max, you're probably using shitty samples. 

Now i will unveil the secret to get a good mix down without having gazillions of dollars of gear... Ready ? 

READY?

SNARE ROOOLLSSSS..........

LISTEN!

Yeah, that's really it. 

No, actually, that's not. 

The truth of the matter is that you can make good mix downs even without listening using spectrum analyzers & co. but the real shit comes when your taste is combined with your hearing to determine what should be in front of the mix and what should come after. A "BAD MIX" is a mix where you can't enjoy the listening experience because something is messed up. So, ASSUMING ALL YOUR SOUNDS HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO FIT, here's what you gotta to the get a good mix (whatever style of music you're making); prioritized gain staging. What does this mean?

This means that you should bring element into the mix in according to their importance. Let's say i'm mixing an hip hop track. This would be my order of gain staging (of course this is totally personal):

- VOCAL 

- SNARE 

- BASS 

- KICK 

- HAT

- LEAD SYNTH 

- CHORDS 

- SECONDARY PERCUSSION

- ADLYBS & DOUBLE TRACKS 

- ETC ETC..

Why i'm mixing this way? Because this way i know that the most important thing in the song are not buried by the least important. 

So if i'm mixing an house track: 

- KICK

- LEAD 

- BASS 

- HAT 

- CLAP 

- KEYS 

- ETC ETC 

And so fourth. Using this workflow will allow you to get pretty good mixes without having to worry to much about loudness & co. 

                                                              

AESTETICS & SOUND 

According to wikipedia: 

Aesthetics (/ɛsˈθɛtɪks/; also spelled æsthetics and esthetics also known in Greek as Αισθητική, or "Aisthētiké") is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.^[1][2] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgements of sentiment and taste.^[3] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".^[4][5] 

(not even trying to change font here). 

So what does Aestetic has to do with music? It's very simple. Aestetics dictates the direction our production should be taking. In simpler words: aestetics gives a hint on how to create a certain vibe. 

For example: let's say your producing a dubstep track. Using an house kick will not yield the desired results as much as using a dubstep kick: not only because the envelopes and frequency response of the two are different, but also because of the timbre of the instrument used. Try to imagine Michelangelo carving out the David from raw marble and giving it a cubist form: isn't that messed up? Same thing with music. 

My way to deal with aestetics is: trust your ears and follow the standards. If something work, it's usually because there's a reason that makes it work. I know it sounds un-creative and boring, but sometimes following the rules of the type of art that you're making it's crucial to get the result you want. Why?

Again, because following the path you want is the only way to get the result you want. I love browsing into my sample libraries to find a sound that could potentially fit into my production, but sometimes it's waaaaay simpler to just follow this scheme: 

"What do i want?"

"Did i get it?" 

REPEAT 

So my suggestion is: listen to what you like and try to emulate what others are doing. While you're doing that, you will understand WHY things work all togheter and what makes everything gel nicely. 

See ya, next post about mixdown! 

Vibes

VIBES

My first post is about vibes. I guess everybody makes music to tell something, like i don't know shit they've been through or how much they love their dog. Anyway, vibe is like the fundamental thing that makes your music work. Forget about all that shit about mix downs sound selection etc etc (will talk about that also) and think about the vibe you wanna portrait with your beat (i guess you make electronic music). Still confused ?
Let's say i'm writing a score for a horror movie or some kind of trappy midi arpeggio. It make no fuckin sense to use a super bright supersaw (if you don't know what a supersaw is you're a n00b) as the  main sound cause 99% of the time supersaws sound cheesy and happy. It also make no fuckin sense to use the classic I-V-VI-V chord progression, cause 99% of the time such progressions are used to communicate how much you hate masturbating thinking at your ex girlfriend.

So here we're, blank page, 2 audio channels and 2 midi channels. What can i do to get a scary vibe ?
Easy af:

DONT MAKE UN-SCARY MUSIC!

Like, it's sooooo easy! Don't fall into the trap of thinking "okay so now i will do this and that etc etc etc". Be determinate and be committed to delete ANYTHING that doesn't follow that vibe. You can do as much creative shit as you like as long as you follow the path you want. The second you get into that mindset you will find that producing will be much more easy, because you will be satisfying your gut instinct at maximum, you will not get any weird fills or stupid arrangement decisions because all your energy will be canalized into making what you've planned to make.

Now, the thing with this approach is that it allows you to build your story (yeah music to me is like a story) with much more impact: if all the parts work with each other it's super easy to get a biiiiiig track with a lot less effort. On the other hand, if you start to wonder about this and that ("i don't like how the build connects to the drop" ", " i feel there's no connection between bridge and hook") shit will be falling to pieces as soon as somebody else start hearing it. And you don't want that. You wanna give the listeners the most engaging 3.20 minutes of their lives. So scrap the shit that doesn't work and build your track reminding yourself what kind of vibe you wanna create.

Now, to me vibe is essentially crafted with few elements:

- right sound  (is this the envelope i want? is this the tone i want? is this the timbre i want? does this sounds feel "scary" overall?)
- right midi (i'm i playing the right notes? is the rhythm right for the kind of vibe?)
- right space (does this sound moar scary in a hall or in a cavern?)
- right arrangement placement (does the hook lead really need to be present in the intro?)

And that's really it. Don't overcomplicate yourself and move on to the next sound, or the next part of the arrangement. If you get the vibe right, everything will have sense.


See ya!

HI!

Hi!

This is my first post on this page. My name is Giorgio Giannone and i like making music. I mean, i really like making music. It's not like an hobby thing. It's really personal and self-rewarding.
NOW, since making music is a very complex business (at least for me) i will try to update this page as much as i can with all the stuff i learn while i'm making music. Hope you enjoy your reading !