Teach 1 Tuesday
Teach 1 Tuesday
Sonic Synergy: Mastering the Art of Collaboration with Your Mixing Engineer
Are you ready to transform your music with the perfect mixing engineer? Learn the secrets to finding an expert who can elevate your tracks to professional levels in this enlightening episode of Teach One Tuesday. We'll guide you through the critical steps, starting with how to vet an engineer's experience and read reviews effectively. You'll discover the importance of providing style-specific references to ensure your engineer captures the exact sound you're aiming for.
But that's not all—understanding the language of mixing can significantly enhance your collaboration. We break down key terms like compressor, frequency spectrum, panning, and gain staging, equipping you with the basics to communicate your vision clearly. Whether you're an aspiring artist or a seasoned musician, this episode offers invaluable tips to help you make informed decisions and produce outstanding music. Tune in for practical advice and unlock your full musical potential!
The Toolkit for musicianship mastery: http://bit.ly/3k5v9Vi
Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645
Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com
Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king
The Toni King Experience
Hello everyone and welcome back to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast. We're going to get into a great subject for today, but before we do that, let's get into that great theme music family. Alright, alright, let's get into it. Before I get into the subject for today, I want to get into some links for you guys to check out. First, the toolkit for musicianship mastery. Calling all my musicians this is a comprehensive list, I think, of things to know and to learn and to work on to become a great musician my YouTube channel, the Tony King Experience. Go and like and subscribe. Know and to learn and to work on to become a great musician. My youtube channel, the tony king experience. Go and like and subscribe. I'm giving even more value as it pertains to the music production process songwriting, singing so many amazing things. Go, check it out. You're listening to the podcast. Do me a favor go and tell people about this amazing podcast where we are empowering people musically to write and to become the great artists that they want to be and produce great music. All right, my business, rare Keys Production and Music School. We are here to assist you and that can start with just a consultation. So please go and check us out. The link will be there for you. Shoot us an email, let us know what you need and, last but not least, if you need to know or want to know more about me, there's a link tree, link there for you to know about me and who I am and my music for you to, for your listening pleasure.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's get into the subject for today. What I want to talk about today is finding the right mixing or mastering engineer. I'm gonna say more so mixing engineer that's going to take your music to the next level. This is very, very important and, uh, it's it's something that we should really hone in on, because you can make or create a great song, you can have great sounds, great vocals, great background vocals, you know, uh, great chord progressions, counter melodies, you can have all this great stuff, but if you don't have a mixing engineer that has understanding and that's seasoned and that can really take your song or songs to the next level, you would have wasted a lot of time and your listeners will not get the experience that you want or need them to have and that will cause them to want to continue to listen to your music and follow your artistry. All right. So we want to get into some things that you can really do to make sure that you get the right engineer. First of all, just experience go and check people out. Go and look at their reviews um. Check out, uh. Sometimes they'll have um how long they have been mixing or in the field. That's also a great thing, all right, so start there. Who are they? How long have they been doing this?
Speaker 1:The second thing you can do is make sure that you have references for the style of music uh that you're in. They usually ask for this. They're going to ask for a reference because they need to know, um how they want the top end to sound, or the mids to sound, or the lower end of the spectrum to sound. They want to know, you know, where's the hi-hat, or or you know, um where is the energy really going to be. You know so many, so many decisions and they want to know, so they need references, um. So they're going to ask you that. So have a list um. I want two or three that you can have um. That will help them a lot.
Speaker 1:The next thing you can do is really start to learn the language uh yourself, because it is a language. There are certain certain things that, um, yeah, just like spanish or italian, this language has its own terminology. So begin to learn what things mean uh, what a compressor is, and, and the frequency spectrum, and, and panning and game staging, you know. Start to learn at least some information as it pertains to this process, so that you can communicate more effectively. Now, I'm not saying that you need to be able to do this to get a good mix. No, you don't, um, because you can describe what you need to describe to them and they will understand what you mean. But still, I think it's great that you have some type of knowledge as it pertains to this process, so start to learn.
Speaker 1:The next thing you can do is really start to hone in on certain things. As you are listening to your favorite songs, as you start listening to what the bass drum sounds like, start listening to what's panned left or right. Panning just means that you have an instrument that you're going to hear on the left side or the right side. That's what panning is right. What are the? You know what's happening as far as the compression. You could also, you know what you can also do is go on YouTube. There are people that are explaining these things all the time, have videos that are explaining these processes all the time. So that's the next thing Go on YouTube, find some videos and learn some basic information. Choose some things, because you know you can really go deep as far as compression is concerned, as far as EQ is concerned, you can really go deep with a lot of this stuff and saturation and and different techniques. So I'm not asking you to go deep, I'm just asking you to get, um, some basic information. You know, as it pertains to the process. You know, all these things are super, super important.
Speaker 1:And, um, the next thing is don't be afraid to send back music, um to to have your engineer, um, make some very small or big changes. You know, um, you want to be as clear in the beginning as possible. Have your references, tell them what you want, how we want instruments to be, anything that you want to tell them. Make sure that you know. They know upfront, okay, but if something is not, if something doesn't sound the way you want it to sound, do not be afraid to send it back and say hey, I just want you know this to be up a little bit. I want the snare to be up a little bit. I want the or the hi-hat is too loud, or you know the the bottom end, you know is is too much energy in in the lower part of the frequency spectrum. I need you to bring that down just a little bit. Or maybe I want it to be a little. Well, that's more of a mastering thing if you want the whole track to be louder, but so there are different things. Or maybe you want the vocals to be up, or any number of things can arise or that you want changed when they send you your music, and so do not be afraid to send back music and work with them and communicate.
Speaker 1:Just because they have they haven't gotten it right the very first time doesn't mean they're not a great engineer. It just means that you just want little things changed right so that you can get the sound, uh, that you want. It's great too when you get your track to go and listen to it. If you have a system, you have speakers yourself, listen to it on your phone, listen to it in your car, because people are going to have different listening experiences depending on um, where they are listen or what they are listening to the music on, so make sure you get that experience first, all right, and again send back the music on. So make sure you get that experience first, all right, and again send back the music. Let them know what you want. They usually make you know if it's a very busy person, which I have. A guy that I have that mixes my music. His name is Leo. So sometimes if I send back music for corrections, he'll say he'll get it to me the next day because I'm sure he's working on other projects. That He'll say he'll get it to me the next day because I'm sure he's working on other projects, that's no problem, and he'll correct those few things and usually after that you know then we're good to go. So these are just some things that I want you to look out for as you are picking your engineer and as you're getting your music ready and you're in those final steps. These are some tips and things that you can follow as you are doing that, because at the end of the day, of course, you enjoy the music first.
Speaker 1:Well, depending on how much you're involved, some people they write the music and then they pass it off to someone. Somebody like me I basically do everything and even have mix as well. But I usually do everything, and maybe I stop at half mix as well, but I usually do everything. And maybe I stop at the mixing and mastering stage and I hang it off at that point. Um, but, but I'm writing it, I'm recording it and producing it, arranging it, land, land, the tracks down, everything. But for some, you know you're you're stopping at a certain point and you're handing it off, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. So you know, be prepared, you know to, to be flexible, be prepared to to give any information that you need to give, because we want your music to be to please you, we want you to enjoy it first, and then you're going to want your listeners or your audience to enjoy it after you. But that last little step, there's, there's a couple of steps to mixing and then the mastering is a whole nother thing. There's, there's a couple of steps to mixing and then the mastering is a whole nother thing. I'll do another episode on that. But then the mastering, you know, along with that, is going to take your music to the next level and dimension. So whether so people can really enjoy and really dig your music.
Speaker 1:All right, I want to thank you so much for checking this out before we go. Do me a favor, family. Just right quick. Just right quick. I'm gonna go down these links one more time. The toolkit for musicianship mastery go check out the class. My youtube channel the tony king the tony king experience on youtube. Go check it out. Learn some great, even great things even more uh, value that I'm giving on my channel. You're listening to the podcast, but do me a favor, spread the word about teach one tuesday podcast how we are helping people go to the next level. My business, rare Keys Production and Music School. We are here to serve you and even if that starts with a consultation, let's get together and let's create your next hit. And last but not least, the Linktree link. If you want to learn more about me, all right, it is there for you. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that by a mindset. Thanks so much, tony king out.