Teach 1 Tuesday

Listen to This: The Ultimate Song Reference Guide for Producers

• Toni King • Season 1 • Episode 45

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Ready to transform your music production skills? Dive into this treasure trove of sonic inspiration as we continue our exploration of outstanding tracks that serve as masterclasses in arrangement, mixing, and engineering.

Ever wondered how top producers make vocals sound so massive in professional mixes? I share my discovery about using imaging techniques on lead vocals—a game-changing approach I recognized while studying John Legend's "Bigger Love" and successfully implemented in my own projects. These are the kinds of actionable insights you'll gain as we break down what makes these productions special.

From Nick Jonas's meticulously crafted "Spaceman" album to Victoria Monet's Michael Jackson-influenced vocal stylings on "Goodbye," each recommendation offers unique production lessons across genres. We explore the massive, enveloping sound of country tracks like Carrie Underwood's "Denim and Rhinestones," the pristine pop engineering of Katy Perry's hits, and the spectacular vocal arrangements in gospel productions from Transformation Church.

This curated playlist spans pop, R&B, country, and gospel, providing a comprehensive education in contemporary production techniques. Each track represents the pinnacle of professional sound crafting, offering valuable reference points for your own creative journey. The goal isn't to copy these productions but to understand the principles that make them exceptional so you can develop your unique sonic signature.

What production elements do you struggle with most? What songs have transformed your approach to making music? Share your thoughts in the comments on Buzzsprout, and let me know what aspects of music production you'd like me to explore in future episodes. Together, we'll continue building the skills needed to elevate your sound to professional heights.



Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645


Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com


Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king


The Sonic Kingship Art: https://www.rhuffmusic.com/post/it-s-a-big-music-industry-so-where-do-i-fit-in





The Toni King Experience

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back everyone to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast. We're going to continue with music production, talking about songs. But before we get into that, let's get into that great theme, music, family. All right, all right, let's get into this. Man, I'm excited to continue with this.

Speaker 1:

I gave a lot of songs last episode. I just want to continue with that and then, you know, I'll continue to expand upon different ideas. But I just want to give you, uh, a list. Continue with with a list of songs that I think that will be helpful for you to listen to. Uh, for musical ideas, obviously, melody, kind of melody, percussion, you know, bass placement, all that kind of stuff in engineering, and so, uh, I think that it's important to have examples, um, that you can, that you can look to. All right, so I'm just going to jump straight in here and, um, I want to start with nick jonas, uh, his record, um, his album, rather spaceman, and I'm just going to give you just I think I got about five songs here that's on my list, five songs that's on my list for him that I just like, but just also for what we're talking about here.

Speaker 1:

First song is going to be sexual. Second song is going to be deeper love. Third song is going to be sexual, um, sex. Second song is going to be deeper love. Um, third song is going to be if I fall, the fourth song will be nervous. And the last song that I'm going to suggest um is selfish. Now I'm suggesting um, this entire album. I'm not just. You know, you can go and listen to the entire album for production and for mixing and mastering ideas.

Speaker 1:

But this is definitely a great, great example, um, uh, or great examples rather, of some great music to listen to, to get some amazing ideas. I'm just going to skip down here on my list and just continue to uh, so let's continue to tell you about these songs. So I'm going to tell you about a song by Nicole and Foster child. The single is called float. All right and just so, just overall amazing song. I absolutely love it. And for for my vocalists out there, you know, pay attention to what's happening vocally there's some very amazing vocal ideas that are happening, uh, in this song float, uh. So, yeah, go and check that out. Okay, let me skip down here. I'm not going to do as long of an episode for this one, cause I gave a lot of music, um, before, but I'm just going to continue to just give you some so you can uh, so you can go ahead and listen to it and make your own list for great production ideas and mixing and mastering.

Speaker 1:

The next song I want to suggest for you is shine by elaine. I think that's how I think that's how you pronounce her name, but shine. I just love this song too. It's just a great, feel good, amazing song. Um, not really for you know. It's a great mix, but not really for great, not really for mixed purposes, but just an overall song how it's laid out, but the the arrangements, with the word I'm searching for for the arrangement it's great, it's amazing. So go, I. I definitely pumped this on when I'm you know I need something to, I need to pick me up, but it's a great song though, so go check it out.

Speaker 1:

The next one is by john legend. The album is bigger love, um, and the song Bigger Love. It's a great, amazing song. Of course, these big ticket artists have the best of the best when it comes to everything but Mix of the Mastering. It's a great, it's an amazing mix, and one of the things I took from this and I was thinking about it and I was thinking about how some engineers get the vocals so big in the mix, because some vocals, depending on the song, are very mono or not very mono, but they're mono, and there are other songs that are more stereo. And I was thinking about it one day for some stuff that I was working on, for some covers that I was doing, and how to just have my vocal have more of a presence in the mix. And I thought about it and I thought about it, I thought about bigger love and I was like man, how are they doing that? And it came to me that at least my idea, at least my theory, is that they use an imager on the lead vocal. And of course, you got all your regular stuff eq, compression, you know you got a saturation, you got you got, uh, delay and reverb and and all the all that stuff on there.

Speaker 1:

But I had did a recent cover and I tried this idea out, and that's what it's all about as well. It's about trying things. You're not going to know everything just from theory. You got to try things out and so I put my imager on the the, the cover that I was doing, and the cover is a safe is escaping me right now. Uh, what cover it was.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, um, if you want to hear my covers, go to my, go to my YouTube channel. Uh, the Tony King experience. It's on there. Please go check it out. It's, it's, it's a, the logo is royalty with a crown over it. It's black. So go check tony king experience to hear my covers and my my loose mixes on there.

Speaker 1:

But I tried this out on the very latest uh cover of mine, number two, number nine, and and um, I tried this out and it sound, it sound great, it sound amazing. So, yeah, so I I took that from bigger love. I'm sure it's on other records as well, but bigger love stood out, stood out to me in my memory, um, to try this idea. All right, so let me go on here. Um, katie perry got some great stuff.

Speaker 1:

The album is smile and um, the two songs I want to suggest to you is never really over, and smile and uh, you know, of course, like I said, these, these top artists have, you know, top engineers, so the mixes you just have to, you know, assume the mixes are going to be out of this world and so, yeah, please go check that out. That's more on. I want to say I'm not really. It's not r&b, it's more on the pop, it's more on the pop side. Okay, yeah, it's more on the. And so let me go down here on the list there's a guy, there's a country guy, and the single was called Good Thing, the artist is Kurt Chambers and the song itself is called Good Thing, and so it's country music and it's a very big sound, very big, amazing sound. That's one of the reasons why I absolutely love, love, love country music. Just how big the sound. That's one of the reasons why I absolutely love, love, love country music. Just how big the sound is, it is just, it is so amazing, it fills you up and that's what I love about country music and any and any great mix.

Speaker 1:

Moving down, uh, oh, one, one of the great songs by charlie pooth um, this is, this is a single. Uh, that's not how it works. It is a great, you know, great, great song. Um, and just, he's just amazing, just as a producer, vocal, arranger. You know all the, all the things that charlie pooth does. Um, go check out this song. It's amazing, of course, a great mix, great tool to be used. I'm going to move down to the jonas brothers here.

Speaker 1:

Um, the album is called the album and the two songs I want to give you from that album is wings and waffle house. Waffle house, I believe, was the big hit. All right, and my wife me, my wife and I actually, you know really like this song. Bump was bumping to it a whole lot. Uh, some good stuff. Let me move down here, man, and suggest some more good stuff.

Speaker 1:

There's a church called Transformation Church and they have an album. Well, it's a single called Most High. It's a single called Most High and they're just showing off on this song. It's gospel music. For those who love gospel music or those who just love good music, period, I'm going to suggest two most high by the same people. A transformation worship is the group, uh, most high, and I will. It's just absolutely crazy, it's big, it's just out of this world, the arrangements, everything. Go and check out transformation worship. Again, most high, and I will all right.

Speaker 1:

One of one of my favorite um country songs, um, by carrie underwood, is denim and rhinestones. Oh, it's such a big, amazing sound. Once again, her vote. She's just, she's just completely showing off on this record vocally herself, just to leave vocal. She's doing her thing and but this record vocally herself, just to leave vocal. She's doing her thing and but the entire song is just so amazing arrangement, the sounds, of course you know it's a big sound and it is just absolutely out of this world. And you know, I'll suggest one more. I'll suggest one more and and and.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think between the last episode and this episode you have a lot of music to go listen to. Some great examples across the board Arrangement, production, engineering, vocal arranging, all that. Some great examples. The very last one is by Victoria Monet. The album is Jaguar II and the song is called Goodbye. It is a great song. The vocal to me kind of sounds like it's loosely Michael Jackson type of style Later Michael Jackson, not the early Michael Jackson, but the pale one, if you will. So yeah, goodbye is a great, amazing song.

Speaker 1:

Of course you have several people working on these songs. You know it's I mean so many I'm talking about when I say several people. When it comes to the songwriting process is what I'm talking about. Of course you have a lot of people working on the record, but on the songwriting side and as far as the arranging side, you have so many people in the room, and so this is a great song Goodbye by Victoria Monet, and on and on and on man, and let me know if you guys want me to continue suggesting songs. But I'm just going to stop here, because there's so much, you know, there's so much music with so many great ideas out here that you can listen to and implement in your own workflow, and that's what I want to provide you with. I want to provide you with all that you need so that you can be successful.

Speaker 1:

This is, I'm, about sharing. This is what this channel is, excuse me. This is what this podcast, rather, is about. This is what my blog is about Sonic Kingship Art Blog. Go check that out if you haven't. This is what all this is about for me. I am here to suggest and give you some great tips, great information, so you can be successful yourself. So please don't hesitate to let me know. If it's something you want me to expand upon or you want me to continue to suggest more music, please let me know. Don't hesitate. We take comments on Buzzsprout now so you can leave me a message there and let me know what you want to hear more about. But this is the list, the continued list, that I've given for this second episode, and I believe this is some great stuff, great examples, all right, 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 your mindset. Thanks so much, tony King out.