Today's post is a guest post from producer and partner Gary Gray who recently released a new book all about producing tracks for licensing called, The Home Studio Bible.
Over to you Gary....
Most people start off their mixing career knowing nothing
or next to nothing about mixing. The first few sessions are often exhilarating
and magical and, believe it or not, most of these sessions, despite of the fact
(and sometimes BECAUSE of the fact) that the person doesn't know much about
mixing yet, their mixes come out sounding pretty damned good!
And then somewhere along the line, they start to learn
what's WRONG with what they are doing. Unfortunately, not all of what they are
taught is correct.
In a sonic world wide open to opinion and influence, one
misguided or false comment or incorrect "lesson" from an "authority" - which is
pretty much anyone besides yourself when you're first starting out -- becomes a
"fact" in the mind of the beginner.
And this problem of accepting false ideas becomes less
likely to occur as the person becomes more educated, more experienced and more
cynical, right?
Um, well, no, not exactly. In fact I'd go so far as to say absolutely
not.
Even seasoned studio vets sometimes find their confidence
shaken by a comment made by someone they
consider to be an authority. It can be
deadly and lead to a really bad case of "second-guessing," a killer disease in
the mind of any otherwise fully competent mixer, such as yourself. I cover this concept in detail in my book on
music production and audio engineering, in Chapter 13: CONFIDENCE AND MIXING -
THE END OF 'SECOND-GUESSING' YOURSELF.
I recently was accepted as a Voting Member of The Grammy
Recording Academy - which means I can submit material for consideration and
vote for who wins a Grammy Award. This
is something that I worked years to achieve and it's a great honor and quite an
acknowledgement from the Music Industry to achieve this status. I'm also a
teacher and have many students who are up and coming producer/engineers.
So some might consider me a sort of an "authority" when
it comes to teaching music production and audio engineering. Even if that were the case, the first thing I'd like
to teach you is to question everything you are taught, every tutorial that you
watch (even mine), every book that you read (even mine), and all the courses
that you take (even mine).
The best Mixing and Mastering Engineers realize the fact
that there are only three actual authorities in the world, their right ear,
their left ear, and their forearm (upon which the goose-bump test is carried
out as they listen to music).
I have one simple, singular top priority and exact goal
with every student I teach:
To Increase Their Confidence. Period.
When I do that, their mixes and masters sound
consistently great. If anything
shakes that confidence, the quality of their work drops off markedly. We are human and can be swayed to think less
of ourselves and our work. I do
everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen to up-and-coming producers
and engineers. And even to seasoned pros! With self-confidence present in the
producer/engineer, any "lesson" attempted will result in success.
I'm releasing the 2nd edition of my book "30
Years In 30 Days - Discover 30 Years Of Music Production and Audio Engineering
- In Just 30 Days!" with a new shorter title: "The Home Studio Bible."
I've updated all
30 Chapters. Since the first edition was published, Aaron Davison and I
released a 2nd course (the first one is called "How To
Produce Music That Will Get Licensed And Make You Money"). The 2nd
course is called "The Mysteries
Of Mastering Solved."
"The
Home Studio Bible" is written to stand on its own so that
anyone who reads one Chapter a day (there are 30 Chapters), will be, by Day 30,
already creating extremely improved mixes and masters of their music. Your chances
of getting your music licensed will increase tremendously. The number of book readers who have gotten
their music licensed makes all the work that Aaron and I do totally worthwhile.
The book can also be used as an accompanying text for the
two courses mentioned above.
Due to the fact that I have incredibly bright students in
all corners of the globe who do question everything they
read, I have gotten great feedback, comments and testimonials from the first
edition which I've gathered up and used to update this new 2nd
edition.
Believe me, your frustrations, questions and problems are
shared, and I've had the opportunity to be a clearing house and to sort them
out and come up with answers, solutions and confidence-building approaches to
mixing and mastering in a home studio environment, with the end goal being -
the successful licensing of your music.
I've also been networking heavily recently (as suggested
and directed by Aaron Davison) and the result has been relationships with
people including the head of A&R for Warner Bros. Records, The Disney Music
Group executive staff and several Music Supervisors directly. I have also listened to their frustrations, questions and problems. By observing
both sides, (Music Supervisors and Musicians) I've been able to come up with
approaches to mixing and mastering that can help solve problems in both worlds
- yours and the music supervisor's - because both of you want the same thing:
Masterpiece Quality Recordings.
What I've been finding is that the initial confidence you
had when you first started out was completely
valid and well founded. Since you didn't "know much" you used what you
did know about: your ears!
"The
Home Studio Bible" contains 30 Chapters of proven tips,
techniques and "secrets" which will allow you to regain that confidence and
create awesome tracks which will get licensed and make you money. Because a lot of what you've been doing in
your home studio is correct. So, learn
what you've been doing RIGHT in your home studio. - Gary Gray
To find out more about "The Home Studio Bible" and how it can help you achieve your Music
Licensing dreams, you can visit my website, https://garygray.leadpages.net/htlym-gg-book-sales-page-1/
