Music production techniques that you have to UNLEARN for things to finally click!

As producers, when we start learning, we often learn things that help initially, but that we need to unlearn to continue making progress with our music and career.

So, here are a few of the most important things you’ll need to unlearn as a music producer…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Avoid these production techniques.

We learn a lot of production techniques while watching tutorials that we take as absolute truths, but as we develop, they can start causing us more harm than good. Here’s what you need to unlearn:

1. “Low-cut everything but the bass”. While low-cutting is not wrong because it can open space in your mix, it can also kill the energy of your track if you (a) low-cut it too high, or (b) low-cut it too steeply. To avoid overdoing it:
   • Use gentle slopes to avoid being too aggressive with your cuts;
   • Use your ears, and stop cutting when the sound starts losing body or character;
   • Cut frequencies that are already in your song, for example, if you have a mid bass or a piano, your pad doesn’t need to have that much low end;
2. “When mixing, just focus on EQ cuts, not boosts”. Whatever stage you are in your production phase, do what needs to be done to get the sound where you want it to be.
   Sometimes you need to push the highs a bit more, so be intentional and just do it. After all, if you cut the lows and mids, and then raise the volume of that track, isn’t that the same as boosting only the highs?;
3. “I can fix this sound with sound design and FX”. Stop trying to fix a bad sound with FX. Just find another sample/preset that fits better for what you’re looking for. Rule of thumb, if you’re doing too much to save a sound, stop and get another one;
4. “I’ll fix it in the mix”. No, fix it now. Stop leaving a problem for the future, and if you know you’ll need to fix it, do it now. Your song will sound better, and it’s one less step for you to do in your mix, so don’t leave it to the mix, do it now;
5. “Make everything below 200hz mono”. You don’t NEED to make anything mono in your bass. However, I like it when you make your SUB mono, which is the first sine wave of your bass, but the rest can be stereo.
   Listen to your favorite songs and check with a tool like Metric AB how stereo their basses are. If you want to learn more about this, watch this video, and it will show you exactly.

2. Stop taking action on bad workflow advice.

In addition to technical techniques, there’s a lot of bad advice that influences your workflow and way of producing, which can make you produce slower, get you stuck, or even make you go crazy and frustrated.

So, here’s what you need to unlearn:

1. “Make everything from scratch”. Some experienced producers say you need to stop using loops and presets to be more original, but you don’t need to. Use presets, loops, and samples, and tweak them to make them more original. This can (a) make you finish songs faster by not overthinking sound design, (b) save you time and skills because creating everything from scratch is hard;
2. “Don’t use reference tracks to avoid sounding like others”. As with presets, reference tracks can help you a lot, so use them as much as you can.
   • When you get stuck, check what your references are doing and do something similar. But, to avoid sounding like you’re copying one, use two or three references and get a bit from all of them;
   • Use references to help you with your mixing by first putting them at the same loudness as your track and then compare the levels of your kick, hats, claps, melodies, etc;
3. “Don’t stop mixing your track until you’re done”. After two hours mixing your song, stop, and take a 15-minute break, at least. Even if you finish it under two hours, give yourself a break and come back to it the next day. When mixing, you need to give breaks to refresh your ears and get back to it with a fresh perspective;
4. “Finish all your tracks”. When you’re developing your skills, you should finish all your tracks because that helps you develop your skills, even if the idea is not the best.
   But, when you’ve already released songs and know how to make them, finishing everything you start can be a waste of time. Instead, focus your time on developing great ideas, and only finish the best ideas you have to avoid wasting time with ideas that are dead ends.

3. Stop surrounding yourself with limiting beliefs.

As a producer, you’ll encounter beliefs that hold you back or create self-doubt in your mind, taking your focus away from what matters and sometimes even burning you out from making music. So, here’s what you need to unlearn:

1. “I’m just not good enough to make it” or “I just don’t have talent for this”. If your skills as a producer are not where you want to be, blaming a ‘lack of talent’ is pretty much an excuse for what you need to do. You can do it, but you need to work harder, so you can push more, and smarter, so you can push in the right direction. Check this post on the fastest ways to learn, but dust that belief away because it’s just your mind playing tricks on you;
2. “You can’t do X or Y in genre Z because that is not how genre Z is structured”. Sometimes, you’ll see feedback like this in your tracks, and even though they are not wrong, that’s exactly what can make you stand out and what created some genres. If you play it safe every time, making exactly what is expected in a genre, you can end up sounding generic. Instead, break some of the patterns of your genre.
   • Introduce elements that bring something new to the genre while also staying true to it, or;
   • Merge your current genre with another one (more ideas here);
3. “I need to wait until I’m inspired”. Good producers can get in the zone on demand, and you need to learn how to do that too:
   • Create an inspiration playlist on YouTube/Spotify with music that gets you psyched;
   • Watch some tutorials online from producers making music you love, as that can also get you inspired;
   • Challenge yourself to create something like your favorite artist, as this can tap into the reasons you started producing in the first place, and get you psyched up;

4. Stop believing in these marketing myths.

As we develop our music and start thinking about marketing, releases and success, and with this can come some frustrations and excuses on why things aren’t happening for us. But, here’s what you need to unlearn.

1. “I need to sign to label to explode”. Many producers, like One True God or Marc Rebillet, self-release most of their music and are doing amazingly with their music, and also touring a lot. Instead, what you need is to:
   • Consistently release music;
   • Promote your music as even good music doesn’t sell itself (learn several ways to promote your music in this post);
   • Be strategic with your networking and go to events to meet new producers and A&Rs that can help you in the future;
   • And/Or, like Marc Rebillet, make content on Youtube, which can attract you followers and, over time, build you an audience;
2. “If I make music like my hero, I’ll achieve what he/she has”. Even though copying a track can be an amazing way to learn and develop your skills, it can be a reason why labels reject your songs… you’re too much like your favorite artist, and it sounds ‘repetitive’. To avoid falling into this trap:
   • Merge your inspirations and try sounding like a combination of your favorite 3-5 artists;
   • Add elements that you don’t often see in your favorite artists often using;
   • Ask for feedback from friends and check if they feel you’re too much like your favorite artist;
   • If that’s happening to you now, diversify your inspirations, sometimes even from another genre, and with time, you’ll end up sounding less like just one producer;
3. “If I’m not big, big labels won’t sign me”. Anjuna Explorations, from Anjunabeats, released Laure’s first-ever original release, and this is just one of many cases to show that labels are looking for good music more than anything. Instead, what you need is to
   • Discover better ways to send your music to labels, like collaborating with artists who are already in the label or understanding the best ways to send your songs to them (read more about this here);
   • If labels are answering you already, you need to level up your music. Ask producer friends for feedback to make sure the quality is good, and experiment more to be more unique, as these could be reasons why

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

But, how do you actually unlearn things, or even when do you need to unlearn things?

1. Never stop learning new things.
The best way to test if what you’re doing is the best way to do it is by always keeping yourself updated with new techniques, especially for topics you’re not 100% happy with.

2. Challenge yourself beyond your comfort zone.
Once you discover a new technique, test it and see which one gets the best result. You can also ask a friend to help you compare your results for a more unbiased opinion, but you must always test what you learn to grow as a producer and leave old habits behind.

3. If you’re getting bad feedback on something, change it.
If you consistently get feedback that says, for example, your low end is an issue on your songs, you need to unlearn your current methods and look for new ones on how to make a solid low end. You can do this by asking a friend how they do that, or even try to collaborate with them to discover exactly how they do it.