PRODUCTION POWER TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS

We’ve gathered some of the best studio minds to come up with some incredible insider tips on all aspects of music production, from getting prepped for a session, to finishing a mix, with some invaluable advice from start to finish. If your music is stuck in a rut or on a demo downer, then these experts can lift it from mix hell and make it shine…

The age-old question in music production is “why doesn’t my music sound as good as my favourite artist’s?”. It’s the creation of what you think is the greatest piece of music ever, and then that moment when you A-B it with the work of your go-to musical hero, the quality level of which you were aiming at all along. But your music is just not ‘there’, not as loud, as present, as well mixed… It just doesn’t sound ‘pro’. So what are you going to do about it?

The obvious 21st century solutions are to sign up for a course, read dozens of features online, or watch a gazillion YouTube videos with ‘experts’ who claim to have the answers if you dive in, like and subscribe. Or, what you could do, is ask the actual experts. And that’s what we are doing with this feature: simply asking a range of artists, engineers and producers who have, in one way or another, been there, seen it and done that. Or more importantly heard it and solved it.

They’ve all come face to face with exactly the same dilemma as we and you have had with music – how to raise the production stakes – but they’ve broken through, successfully tweaked, organised, mixed and mastered their craft to the point where they are making a living from it. And in some cases a pretty good one.

So pause your videos, drop your tablets and prepare to hear some words of wisdom, some sage studio nuggets from the experts; ‘horse’s mouth’ tips to help you turn your ideas, rough demos and potential masterpieces into release-ready, stream-ready, and definite door-opening downloads.

IT’S ALL IN THE PREP

The first must-do action our experts advise before anything else in music production is to get organised, and this goes down to DAW level.

Producer/engineer Mark Rankin is a stickler for getting everything prepped before an EQ is tweaked: “I set up the session with correct tempo, then organise and colour code the files. My system is drums (in order of kick, snare, hi-hat, toms, overhead and room mics), then bass,

guitars, keys, strings, FX, lead vocals, backing vox and effect sends. Then I’ll run through the song and add markers that are numbered so I can easily jump between sections. The aim is to be able to navigate around the song with ease, because if I have an idea, I want to move fast.”

“When I start work on a mix the first thing I do is get the session prepped,” agrees producer/engineer Rhiannon Mair. “I load the stems into Pro Tools, check each track, and label everything, including group stems. Sometimes I use a session template with my auxes and go-to plugins ready to go. I like to get the ‘admin’ part of the mix done before I start EQ or compression.”

Templates are indeed a brilliant way to get organised and save time at the start of your session. Pretty much every DAW lets you set up template sessions – basically your own bespoke setups with maybe channels all set up with your favourite instruments, EQs and compressors, and guitar and vocal record input channels and sends set up with favourite plugin effects. Simply set aside a morning to create a template for each of your different working practices and you will save this admin time at the start of each session. We have some template essentials laid out in our first step-by-step walkthrough.

VOCAL RECORDING

One thing all of our experts agree on is that vocals can make or break a track, and it all comes down to the quality of the recording. An early consideration, they say, is the room your vocalist is in, and Rhiannon’s advice is to try and find the least reflective space possible.

“I always prefer to get vocals sounding as dry or natural as possible as it makes the mixing process far easier. If you don’t have access to a studio then recording vocals in a bedroom can sound OK or using something like a reflection shield helps massively. Back when I was at uni I used to hang a duvet in my bedroom cupboard and set up a mic in there and it sounded alright. I’ve always preferred getting the vocal to sound great beforehand by picking a mic and preamp that suits the vocalist and sits well in the track. All I usually need is gentle compression and EQ as all of the hard work has already been done.”

Mark Rankin has recorded possibly the most famous vocalist on the planet in Adele and he advocates compression all the way. “It helps a lot when recording vocals but it’s easy to overdo it. I like to give the singer something to push against, so I’ll have a compressor on the input chain that is hitting the loudest parts -3dB to -6dB, nothing crazy. But then I’ll have an aggressive compressor on the monitor chain that’s not being recorded but is being sent to headphones. This gives the ‘finished’ vocal sound, but is a bit of a safety net and can be dialled back later if something is too much.”

DEMO ISSUES

A lot of our producers and mix engineers might find themselves having to work from existing recordings, and receive demos of varying quality that they have to mix into shape or use as a starting point. So what is the most common issue when it comes to demos when they receive them?

Mark Rankin adds: “From a mix point of view, it’s usually a lack of dynamics or sound issues with tracks sounding muddy or thin. It often comes down to the fact that people have spent a lot of time and energy to get it to where it is, and now perhaps can’t quite see the wood for the trees.”

Katie May, head engineer at Real World Studios, agrees: “It can be muddy in terms of frequency and stereo image. Multiple guitars might be panned centrally and have too much low end that might sound great in solo, but when listening in context are battling with the bass and/or kick. I think a really important part of the mixing process is finding a defined space for each instrument to sit, and a lot of unmixed material I hear can sound very ‘mushed’ together.”

“For me, it’s where there are parts that overlap either sonically, rhythmically or harmonically,” agrees Rhiannon. “When I start working with a demo I usually strip it back to vocals and accompaniment and then start bringing in parts individually, and make a mental note of what needs looking at or rearranging. I always ask the artist for a reference list and their previous tracks to get an idea of where they’re coming from and where it is that they want to go.”

Real World Studio’s Tim Oliver advises simply to look past the mistakes of a demo: “By its nature, a demo is always missing the skills of a professional recording engineer and producer – it sounds rubbish and lacks a coherent sonic narrative. The skill of any producer, label bod or engineer is to hear past that and imagine what it can be.”

MIXING MASTERCLASS

Tim uses that ethos as the first step of his mixing process. The next, for him, is mixing the all-important vocal: “I work on the vocal, if there is one, to best enhance its nature, adding compression, EQ, colour/ saturation, and space,” he says. “Everything has to hang around the vocal, so it’s good to have it sounding great for reference as you build the backing track.”

Mark Rankin has a very specific order to his mixing that we could all learn from. “I’ll get the heart of the song running, usually that’s drums and bass. With live drums, I start

“WHEN I START WITH A DEMO I USUALLY STRIP IT BACK TO VOCALS AND THEN START BRINGING IN PARTS INDIVIDUALLY”

with the overheads and ambient mics as they contain the ‘air’ around a kit. Then I’ll bring in kick and snare and EQ and compress those so they’re solid. Bass is next and it’s important to nail how that interacts with drums. Same with guitars and synths, if they’re all working together it creates momentum and life in the song.

“Lead vocal is next,” he continues. “It needs to interact with the instruments but also have a clear space to thrive. This could be a small slap delay or short reverb that’s not distracting but makes the vocal better. Make sure the effects are suited to the style of the song and the emotion is showing through. If it’s a fast or busy song then maybe a long reverb isn’t helping.”

Katie May has a similar approach to a mix: “I start by getting a rough fader balance before moving onto each individual instrument. As a drummer I tend to start with the rhythm section, firstly making sure all of the drum mics are in phase. This is a really easy step to miss but can have an incredibly big impact on the final drum sound. It’s surprising how many mix files I get where the snare top mic is out of phase with the snare bottom mic. If they are out of phase, as soon as I flip it the snare will suddenly sound really natural and fat, meaning all I have to do is polish what I already have instead of fighting hard with EQs.

“Once the drums and bass gel, I’ll add in the supporting layers one by one, and tweak until it’s sounding good. This involves rolling off the low end of most elements while listening in context to avoid any unnecessary muddiness. I personally like to get the instrumental sounding ace by itself before mixing the vocals in, which might be a controversial take. That said, I truly don’t think there should be any rules to it, and if your method gets you the results you’re after then don’t question it!”

Which is great advice, but what do our experts believe is the one key factor that raises a demo from

‘demo’ status to ‘release’ ready?

Katie replies with: “It’s the mix engineer not being afraid to do extreme things like hard panning or

extreme EQing. There are absolutely no rules to mixing, and if you’re not having fun with it then maybe think about changing up your workflow. It should be an exciting process: mangling guitars with distortion or old delays, or putting vocals through amp sims when you need a bit of extra grit – anything that makes your mix sound interesting, grabs the attention of the listener, and most importantly, serves the narrative of the song.”

Mark Rankin’s advice is to make sure the lead elements have space to shine. “If you have a killer vocal let the other instruments support that. Spend some time working on the atmosphere that you’re trying to create on the song. Ambience can transport the listener into the room with the band or artist. Automating instruments so that they come into focus when there’s space can help keep things simple and keep the listener engaged.”

Rhiannon’s tip is possibly the most interesting yet: don’t bin the demo! “Usually, some part if not all of the demo ends up in the final track and I can’t count how many times I have used demo vocals in the final version.”

Tim’s advice is more abstract but no less interesting: “I think the magic happens when you find the glue that makes the piece work. This is key and isn’t always one thing. It can be finding the tonal centre of the track, the motor of the groove, or the energy of the vocal. Something will make it resonate and the skill is finding that and building around it.”

So there you have it, practical advice, hands-on tips, more philosophical thoughts and some mixing magic to help take your demos from ordinary to extraordinary. But before we go, the end of the feature seems as good a place as any to ask our panel how they know if a mix or piece of music is done?

Katie May: “I listen to lots of music in the car so am very used to the sound of it, and find it a really good way of judging how the low end translates across different systems. If I find myself getting excited by the way it sounds while I’m driving to work then the mix is probably done. As soon as your body reacts positively to a mix then you’ve done your job.”

And finally the sagest words on finalising a mix come from Tim Oliver: “A mix is never done, only ever abandoned. My tip would be – shut down and go to the pub.”