4 Cricital Pain Points That Every Music Producer Needs to Fix

There are multiple things that could be blocking you from creating tracks you love, and today we’re going to go through the major pain points that every producer needs to be a pro at to make killer tracks. Let’s go through them now…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Nail down your idea as it is the most important part of your track.

The most crucial part of the song is the idea, as an awesome idea and arrangement can often go further than a perfectly mixed and sound-designed bad idea. Therefore, spend more time looking for ideas, as working on a nice idea helps you not only possibly deliver a better track, but also stimulates you to keep on working on the track until you finish, which is a key skill to have as a producer.

Finding good ideas can be challenging, so I suggest getting better at it by trying this:

1. Practice creating ideas every week. Instead of creating songs, this practice involves only sitting and creating an idea with a piano. Once you find a good idea, put it aside, and go to the next one. I recommend two of these per week, and this will keep your creativity sharp;
2. Practice being an imperfect mirror. You’ve likely heard that it is good to use reference tracks when creating songs, but it can lead you to copy a song you like. Therefore, you need to learn how to copy it with a twist.
   • Use multiple references to get the bass from one, the percussions from another, and the main lead from another;
   • Change the key and the groove of the song while keeping the vibe; In essence, learn how to use references to trigger your creativity, but also don’t let your new idea be a copy of what you’re referencing.
3. Study your favorite artists. Pick 5 tracks you like the lead (or the bass, or the chord progression), and copy it to midi. If you have a MIDI keyboard, learn how to play it. Now:
   • Play/create something similar by borrowing parts from a reference, sometimes even just a rhythm, or;
   • Mrthrerge one lead with another. By practicing this, you’ll likely come up with leads, chords, and basses, that inspire you since they are similar to what you like, but possibly different enough to use them on your own songs (remember item 2)

2. Learn how to fix your kick and bass properly.

The second major pain point of your music is your kick and bass, and if you don’t nail it, your song could end up weak and powerless. Here are a few things that I do in all my tracks to understand if my low end is strong:

1. Compare your kick to a reference track: Listen and render your kick to audio, and then compare your kick’s wave to a reference track. It can’t be much longer or shorter, and having a similar wave is already a good starting point. You can also compare it further with a spectrum and check the peak levels, frequency, body, and other elements of your kick, as you can see in this video, too make sure you have a good kick to begin with;
2. Use a sine wave as your sub bass. I love using a sine wave generated by Serum (or Vital, which is free) as a sub because (a) it’s clean, (b) it’s mono by default, (c) it’s constant, so every note you play will have the same loudness (provided you don’t have any EQs, compression or saturation on it), which then will give you a constant low end.
   The good thing is that you can pick a spectrum analyzer, as shown in this video, and level your sub according to how a reference track does it, leaving your sub as powerful as your reference;
3. Cut the sub from the rest of your bass. In a new bass layer, now you’re going to cut the sub from it since you’ll already have a dedicated channel for it. “But, where to cut, right?” Look at your bass progression and do a cut below the lowest note of the progression. For example, if your lowest note is E (82,4hz), then make a cut around D (73hz) to give a safety margin, and you’ll end up with a ‘subless’ bass;
4. Level your ‘rest of the bass’ using a spectrum analyzer. As you did with the sub, pick a reference track and look at the loudness of the rest of the bass. Now, level up or down your bass to match what you’re seeing in the reference.

3. Learn how to avoid making your song repetitive.

After you find a good idea, it’s time to arrange it and make it into a story, and for that, there are a few arrangement tricks that you can use:

1. Make sure the idea and the arrangement work before anything. Before you obsess about the perfect kick or clap, make sure the idea works, so just throw in any sounds into your song that fit the vibe you’re after. Of course, you can’t throw in soft sounds if you want an aggressive song, so make sure they are compatible. If you want, use sounds from past songs as a placeholder, and replace them later;
2. Make your song evolve over time. If your song doesn’t change, it can end up being boring and repetitive, and that’s why I recommend
   • “every 8 bar loop, something new has to happen”. You can add more elements, or take some away, but listen to your favorite songs and you’ll see that, in most of them, every 8 bar, or 16 bars, something new happens to keep the song exciting and moving;
   • In addition, it’s important to make your song grow between sections, always making it more exciting and intense than before.
     For example, if your drop 2 is less exciting than your drop 1, why should the listener keep on listening then? So, add new elements to drop 2 and make it more intense;
3. Use sound design and composition to elevate your arrangement. A way to make your song develop is by adding new tonalities into your song, opening filters and making them more exciting, or even adding new elements that complement the vibe of your song. Remember though… you don’t need a crazy sound design to create a signature sound, as most people remember you by the emotions you generate in them, so it’s mainly the vibe you’re delivering that matters to them.

4. Level up your elements the right way.

The last pain point I see most producers making is about properly leveling the elements in their songs. So, let’s go a bit deeper on this:

1. Bring up your most important elements. Your song’s most important elements must be the loudest and they can’t be drowned by anything. For example, if you want your lead to shine, but your pad is getting in the way, then you need to either (a) EQ your pad to create space for the lead, or (b) turn it down in volume. Remember to think ‘Who is the king, or queen of this EQ range?’, and make that element shine in that space;
2. Use reference tracks to help you level your tracks. As we did with the kick and bass in topic #1, where I recommend you use a reference to level your tracks, do the same with the rest of your elements. Place your reference at the same perceived loudness as your track and now think… Is your clap louder or quieter? Adjust it then. Now, what about the hat? Adjust it, now what about the lead?
   And you can do the same thing for bands… Is 200-1000hz louder or quieter? If you’re unsure, use a free LUFS meter like Youlean. Now, go into the main elements of this region and EQ them or level them up or down;
3. Match the EQ curve of your track with another. I use Match EQ by iZotope in all my tracks since it gives me a sense of whether I’m too loud or quiet in any region of my song by matching the EQ curve of my song with a reference, and I show you how I do it in this video. For example, compare the end of your drop with the end of the references drop, and if you check you’re too loud/quiet in any region, find the ‘king of that region’, and adjust it to make your tonal balance closer to the reference.

4 QUICK TIPS FOR YOU

What other elements are crucial to your songs?

1. Add some ear candy:
Add some ear candy to enhance your songs. In addition to your main elements, add background elements like tension strings, nature sounds, crackles, noises, vocal blurs, etc to complement your song. These elements are the elements that won’t matter much to your song when they are there, but will make your sound a bit dry and empty if you don’t have them there (watch how to do them here);

2. Don’t forget to make your song competitively loud as references:
If you’re mastering your song and it’s clipping, but it’s still quieter than reference tracks, you likely have mixing issues that you still need to fix. In other words, you still need to open more space in your mix so you can make your master louder. For that, check out this video about the biggest mixing issues that can be messing with your loudness.

3. Complement the transitions with FX:
Transitions are really important to help your song feel fluid, especially when moving from one section to another. You can use white noise, rattles, tonal risers, and fallers, but they have to complement the tension and release of your sections. In other words, these elements need to intensify parts that you want to be intense, like build-ups, and soften parts that you want to cool down, like the drop 1 to the break.

4. Don’t let your song be overly stereo:
I don’t like when songs disappear when you put them in mono as many sound systems in clubs, cellphones and portable speakers are still mono. Therefore, make sure to check your song in mono and if the main elements disappear, consider adding a bit of mono content to them. Your song can still be wide, it just can’t disappear in mono (check this video here for more).