If the sound isn't working, change it

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’ve been EQing a kick drum for what feels like hours, trying to get it to hit in the way you imagine. But it’s just not quite right.

Or: you keep trying different effects plugins, hoping to get a part to lift in the way you want, but it just. isn’t. quite. working.

I want to encourage you to view these as warning signs. Because: if you’re trying overly hard to make a sound fit in your song … it’s probably the wrong sound.

A perfect production is one where you can do the mix with just the volume faders. If you can do that, it means that the sounds that you have recorded are exactly the right sounds.

I have wasted a lot of time in my life trying to force the wrong sounds to work. I have learned subsequently that the right answer is to re-record (or re-program) the part.

Don’t keep throwing plugins at a sound that isn’t working; change the sound.

Zooming out — jamie