I haven't had this problem before. It's a good problem to have, I guess, which is I'm working on a lot of different projects, because I'm getting so many new ideas now.

In the past, I'd keep all my ideas in one "note" on my phone, and then pull from them during "songwriting time."

But now, I have multiple different types of projects in different genres, and there are some from a couple of months ago that I completely forgot about and just found and realize I still need to finish.

I'm thinking I need a better system so I can keep track of what's been started and what's still open. I'd like some ideas on how to get started on being more organized. 🙂

I've recently been practicing the diminished half-whole scale and discovered that it includes the dominant chord alterations b9, #9, #11, and 13. However, I'm still not quite able to use this scale well. Are there any good practice methods? Guidance on how to practice would be greatly appreciated.

As someone who is perpetually just one soundpack away from the perfect idea, I often find myself heading for the oneshots / pads, but reluctant to use the more "readymade" loops, unless I can find some esoteric / slicing way of disguising the fact I used a loop. Percussion loops are borderline. But all those full arps / chord progression loops I struggle to find a use for, if they can't be chopped into a oneshot, or altered easily.

Has anyone here just given in and thought "f-it, I'm just going to barely modify this synth line, because I like how it sounds". Instead of the usual "I like it, but I'm going to design my own version, even if it kills me".

What's your stance on using loops?

So what would be the very Pros and the very cons of artists also becoming mixing and mastering engineers and producing their own pieces? In your perspective and experience?

I freaking love the hard right drums and bass, hard left guitar and other instrumentation (with variations therein), vocals dead center. Sounds amazing to my ears but have never been able to mix my own music in such a way that sounds good. Curious if others are into it and/or fucked with it.

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Ok so I’ve been working on a song now for a few weeks and I really believe it has a lot of potential. The biggest hurdle I’m trying to get through with songwriting is less about having ideas and more about the workflow and executing my ideas.

With this song I created the full drum track in midi and then recorded all the guitar and bass parts over it no matter how sloppy they came out (and it did come out sloppy) but I have an idea now of other things to add in (keyboards, guitar solo) before I finish with doing the vocals.

My question is should I practice mixing this raw recording to figure out how the song sounds more organized by doing panning, eq, compression and maybe even experiment with reverb and effects I might want to use in final mix or should I re-record until I get a near perfect, on tempo version of the track and then worry about all the mixing and effects? What is the way to get the best workflow with recording a song and after lots of practice how long does it take you guys? I imagine all of this is a matter of just practicing using my daw more and if I do more I’ll create finished songs faster

Hey everyone,

I’ve been producing variations of melodic house for about two years now. At this point, I feel like I’ve got a solid handle on the technical foundations—I understand arrangement, automation, sound design, EQing, compression, and saturation. On paper, the elements are all there.

But when it comes to the actual music, my tracks just don't satisfy me. Every time I open a project, I quickly start feeling completely lost.

My biggest hurdle right now is chord progressions and melodies. I keep watching tutorials where people throw numbers on the screen and talk about inversions or scale degree formulas. Whenever I try to replicate that approach, the result just sounds like absolute dog shit. It’s stiff, lifeless, and has zero emotional spark.

I know chords are supposed to be the roadmap to good melodies, but relying on grid math isn't working for me, and building on top of them leaves my tracks feeling flat or disjointed.

For those who have been through this stage:

How did you move past the "math and numbers" approach to build progressions that actually *feel* good?

How do you bridge the gap between technical mixing/sound design and writing compelling lead melodies?

Are there specific workflow changes or compositional exercises that helped you get out of your head and past this 16-bar loop hurdle?

Appreciate any advice, workflow shifts, or real talk. Thanks!

Hey follow producers/engineers,

I'm curious about something.

Do you first start off making a solid drum foundation - kicks, snare, drums balance, having the drums exactly how you like it - and then add all instruments and other elements and EQ those elements/instruments around the kick/snare/drums, or are you the type that starts off with all elements/instruments and adds the drums in later?

For years I find myself adding in the kicks/snare in after I made a composition I like, only to find myself struggling to find a fitting kick/snare. Because then, I find myself trying to EQ the kick and snare relative to the instruments/elements/composition, instead of EQing the elements/instruments/etc relative to the kick/snare/drums.

I hope I'm not too vague with what I'm trying to explain and ask.

I feel like experimenting with starting off with a solid kick/snare/drums pattern and tweak them exactly how I like before I add all other instruments/elements, and EQ those to fit the kick, instead of having to EQ the kick to fit all elements.

What are you thoughts on this process?

What do you think are the pro's and con's of starting off with a solid drum foundation and EQing the track around it, vs adding the drums afterwards and having to EQ the drums around the track/composition?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and process.

Thanks!

Hi, I’ve been producing house music and most recently UKG ukg for a little more than a year. But in that timeframe, I’ve only made a few songs none of them where I want them and none that I feel I want to release. Going forward I want to be able to create lots of songs and create many ideas very quick while still getting better with producing. I was wondering what people’s tips are forgetting better and making songs quicker and creating ideas. I think it’s also easy to get stuck and uninspired when opening a fresh project. So it’s also wondering how you guys start songs. At the moment, I don’t really know how to start and I think that’s stopping me from wanting to start a new song. Any advise is much appreciated.

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

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Hi there,

I'm in the early planning stages of releasing my first single which will be a simple, bare bones track:

Just acoustic guitar and vocals

I haven't yet explored studios around me, but am curious about the potential pros and cons of recording the vocal and acoustic tracks at home, then sending the stems for professional mixing and mastering?

I don't have much pro studio experience (Have recorded 3-4 times total in a studio, mainly electric guitar tracking) but make rough home demoes from time to time.

(Using Reaper with a Focusrite Interface, mics are Rode Condenser mic and SM57)

I can track guitar reliably in a studio environment but as a relatively new vocalist (past 3-4 years), I tend to get hyper-conscious of my vocals in a recording context with others present.

I feel the pressure of having to nail a take in this context, as well as the pressure of working against the clock, will result in less than ideal vocal tracking.

Singing at home, there are no time restraints and I feel I can sing freely and really connect emotionally to what I'm singing, which is difficult for me to do under the pressure of time-bound recording with someone who is more or less a stranger!

I have home demoe'd the song and feel as far as raw stems go with no FX, mixing, compression etc. they sound decent (Played in tempo to a click, vocals on pitch etc.)

Anyways, any input or help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

So my friend and I are writing music together, mainly in the realm of Grime instrumentals meets RnB meets EDM.

However, when I’m on my own I quite like to write more metal adjacent music, not the really crazy riffs, more towards Linkin Park’s Numb with the style of guitar but with much lower tunings (I have an 8 string)

My friend loves this stuff and wants to sing on it but he has quite a soft voice that’s quite poppy, think like Ruel.

Has anyone had any success in working with a softer vocalist with heavy instrumentals? Any tips for arrangement, processing, technique?

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Motivation Thread! Share your successes and and encouraging words here. Posts/Comments looking for motivation can also be appropriate here.

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced. Note that our rules on "no promotion" are still in effect and apply to this post.

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I am trying to up my production skills by remaking songs that I like, but I'm finding that I'm having a lot of trouble figuring what goes on sometimes particularly mid range instruments. I see other people remake songs on YouTube and stuff and can't for the life of me figure out how they can hear different instruments, let alone stuff like layering. What can I do to make it easier to hear all of the separate instruments in a song?

I have come across an issue while recording and mixing music and am wondering if anyone else has encountered something similar. I want a drum sound that is big and punchy and tight sounding, but it seems that every kit that has this sound also features crash cymbals with a ton of attack at the very beginning of the cymbal hit. I'm sure this works great when you want to use the crash to accent certain things, but the beats I am programming are riding on the crash throughout the riff, so it sounds really weird having this huge amount of stick attack every time the crash cymbal is hit.

What I really want is more of a consistent wash of soaring high end frequencies rather than jarring pumping over and over. I have tried reducing the velocity, compressing, eq-ing, transient shaping plugins, etc but I can't seem to really get rid of that attack without affecting the sound of the cymbal too much. The only thing that probably would work is going through and manually automating the beginning of the cymbal hit down but that is very tedious.

Modern and massive 2 and ezx metal machine both have this issue. If anyone knows of another midi pack that might work better or has any other tips for reducing the attack let me know.

I love writing music and I’ve written and recorded a few songs, but I keep running into the same issue when it comes to recording.

I record my lyrics as I write them, so by the time I’m done writing a song, I have a rough demo recorded.

The problem is when I sit down to officially record the completed song, I sound completely different and it feels like I can’t sing anymore. I’ll listen back to my demo, where I was barely trying, and my vocals sound great, almost perfect I’d say. But when it comes to recording the final version, I’m doing like 20 takes on the first line because I can’t get myself to sound as good as I did on the demo.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I psyching myself out or trying too hard? Am I overthinking? I just can’t understand why I sound so good and relaxed in my demo and why I can’t match that sound in my final version.

So I was recording a fender hotrod deluxe with the spring reverb cranked going into a a sm57, and when I hear the recording back through headphones you can’t really hear the reverb and delay on it as much as in person, however when I add another Marshall amp and record it with a rode NT1 I can hear the effects much more clearer. Is this normal? Should I just record reverb and delay heavy guitars in stereo rather than mono, or is there some work around this.

How can I support and encourage without getting in the way.

My son recently joined a band.

The band is made up of 6 kids who are 14 and 15 years old.

The band had been established for about 6 months prior to my son joining. They were originally a 3-4 piece act. They did a shuffle around and now it's a 6 piece band.

Prior to my son joining they had a song already on Spotify.

The band (in my opinion) is very good. They write all of their own music.

They get a gig every one to two weeks. They get paid for these gigs.

The kids organise their own gigs and radio interviews. I don't know how they are doing it but it happens.  They have gigs lined up for the next couple of months.

I'm trying to be supportive. More than driving my son to band practice and to his gigs. How can I support them more.

From my understanding they won something (before my son and the newer kids joined) to be able to get a song recorded and on Spotify.

Can I help fund a recording session so they can have more songs on Spotify? Or is there another way I can support them?

We are in a city with population approximately 100k in Australia.

I write and record rock songs at home, mostly guitar with some keyboards.

The arrangement and production/mixing process are pretty much one and the same for me. If I can't imagine how I will make the mix work, I make different choices for the arrangement.

One thing that is always a thorn in my side when planning the arrangement is how to prevent the eventual mix from being lop-sided when it comes to panning. I often find myself adding an additional guitar part just so I know the mix will be even.

Right now, for example I have a song which is acoustic guitar, with an electric playing the chords staccato over the top. I've doubled tracked the acoustic guitar and panned it left and right, but double tracking the staccato electric guitar chords in the same way as well feels silly - double tracking everything on the left and right feels a bit amateur sometimes. I've panned the electric guitar left, but it leaves a gaping hole on the right. I maybe want some lead guitar in certain sections, which balances it out during those sections, but then is still unbalanced when the lead guitar's not playing.

Am I the only one who is constantly thinking about this when deciding on their arrangements?

There are a few live performance videos he does where he's not wearing in ears and it looks like he's monitoring with just studio monitors. But he's recording vocals as well, so I don't get how he's doing that without getting feedback or at least tons of bleed in the vocal track.

Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5JitOUDdXw
https://youtu.be/H2I6V0NlaHg?si=F6XUsCLi05bIxs7k

Maybe there is lots of bleed but it just gets covered by the rest of the music anyway?