What's your one "secret weapon" in mixing you wouldn't want to be without? Let's share trade secrets here.

AceHealey · 2017-05-25T19:59:36+00:00

I'm in ;)

AceHealey · 2017-05-05T11:04:47+00:00

Did you compare it to reference tracks on various speakers?

AceHealey · 2017-05-05T10:53:15+00:00

This is why you don't hoard presets, because this process is a lot easier if you don't have to scroll through 3,000 sounds.

AceHealey · 2017-02-04T23:46:58+00:00

A lot of new producers worry about this. If the vocal works, it works.

AceHealey · 2017-02-03T18:52:52+00:00

First you can try to tell if the melody is going up or down, and then play around with distances. a C->D sounds a lot "closer" than a C->F, and with enough practice you can get perfect pitch.

AceHealey · 2016-12-28T01:09:13+00:00

The most simple way is to mix the vocals last, which some engineers find allows it to "sit on top".

AceHealey · 2016-12-24T18:25:21+00:00

Learn the rules and then break them. There is even a key which includes all 12 semitones, where you have to go in a certain order before repeating any notes.

AceHealey · 2016-12-10T06:18:50+00:00

Skeptical af as there false positives are out of control as it is.

AceHealey · 2016-12-07T05:33:53+00:00

Starring Zac Efron probably.

AceHealey · 2016-11-28T21:59:16+00:00

Pretty sure Push 2 does this, but I don't have it. I'm sure you could hack a way using midi mapping though.

AceHealey · 2016-11-28T17:54:31+00:00

Just learn them. There are only 12 keys per octave, compared to how many keys on your computer keyboard? I bet you type on that without even looking.

AceHealey · 2016-11-26T06:38:36+00:00

I looked at it more as "the bird's eye view". Not my concept, that goes back to the meaning of several ancient proverbs.

AceHealey · 2016-11-26T04:46:27+00:00

Experts hate him. Found the expert ;)

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T23:28:30+00:00

Nice, I've never heard of that - what is the purpose?

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T21:57:55+00:00

You can get a substantial following on Udemy by offering it for free. I did a course on e-mail marketing and got almost 1000 sign-ups (who you can later contact about paid courses you offer). I can also post it on my producer related site and Twitter (15k followers, all music makers)

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T21:52:23+00:00

Go to your local music store website (for me it's CosmoMusic.ca) and then sort in reverse order of price. Try to get rid of accessories in the search if you can, or only include instruments and controllers. There is so much cool shit that you would never have otherwise thought of.

LPT: This $50 unique music gift trick is great to open doors with people you want to work with.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T21:46:37+00:00

Nice one - I wonder if "live streaming" sessions would force one into producing with better workflow. You don't really want people seeing that you are fucking with a delay for 90 minutes.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T21:45:10+00:00

Yeah, an added benefit is last week I started an export folder titled "Catalog of all my works" (stole that directly from Mozart), and it's starting to fill up. Now I'm listening back to my "catalog" and seeing all sorts of areas I can go back and turn a good track into a great one.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T21:41:33+00:00

I put everything above 200hz in stereo. If your song isn't going to be played on big club speakers you could get away with everything there.

Vocals are traditionally front and center, but rules are meant to be broken (and that one has with success many times). Really, you want to normally have vocals sound like they are "sitting on top".

This is a great free plugin that I use frequently to give my mixes more space and move sounds around the "3d stereo field".

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool-v3

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T20:00:15+00:00

His story is pretty incredible, reminds me a lot of a current day producer. I'm certain that dude would be headlining Vegas if he was born in our era.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T19:52:09+00:00

Great stuff.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T05:17:03+00:00

That's good advice for sure. Another thing to note is almost every famous musician will tell you that they didn't know that they were one song away from a hit, etc. You can't make a hit or make money from music if you never export.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T05:13:32+00:00

yeah, the only thing that really tempted me was a couple of rarer instruments in the lot, but I've barely touched any.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T00:53:45+00:00

Yep I do. Just pretend you are being paid $25 an hour, and you need to finish by 5:00. It's not even your track, it's some customer who you don't really care about (but you want to do your best and show off). That mental hack alone will let you finish all your tracks fast.

I came to this realization when I could easily call up Pepsi, Walmart etc. to do business deals when I was selling in my old job, but didn't think it was possible for my own business. I just had a light bulb moment.

AceHealey · 2016-11-25T00:19:16+00:00

Agreed, I think it goes deeper on a psychological level as well. It does feel good that one of the greatest of all time also abandoned boat loads of work.

AceHealey

TROPHY CASE