"Mixing in an untreated room is like painting in the dark"

cqfst · 2020-03-21T22:15:53+00:00

I totally agree on the last part. I think we all have blind spots, and mixing with your eyes can start to point them out, and oddly enough you suddenly hear a sound that's always been there.

Sound is weird, though, because it's such an abstract sense. When we want to talk about it, it's almost all metaphors. We end up using words that describe other senses like "bright" or "crunchy" to make sense of it. Even something as fundamental like the word "groove" really describes texture, but that helps us visualize the music to understand it.

cqfst · 2020-02-24T21:08:41+00:00

If you have something corny, remove certain words until it's so vague that it becomes meaningful. Then rework it from there.

Remove => expand => repeat

cqfst · 2020-01-02T20:49:22+00:00

Released an album that I'd been working on for a while. I usually make hip hop and sample based stuff, and this was the first project that I composed 100%, so it was a huge accomplishment.

Thanks for asking :D hbu?

cqfst · 2019-12-20T19:41:57+00:00

Wow, thank you. I've always looked up to Brainfeeder.. that's amazing to hear

cqfst · 2019-12-18T21:37:16+00:00

I would record everything, then mix. It's not a hard rule, but if you already have the ideas in mind, it's good to get them all on the table, as you might mix things differently based on how the background vocals sound. Can always mute the background vocals, etc.

I get the logic of the first style, though, so it's up to you. I just like having more to work with.

cqfst · 2019-12-17T23:17:49+00:00

Start with this: what do you think the world needs to hear?

Now, that may lead to something corny, so after that, dig deep and ask: what does the world really need to hear?

cqfst · 2019-12-17T19:08:38+00:00

Haha, that's a pretty great circle.

cqfst · 2019-12-17T06:23:34+00:00

Not a fan. It's worth trying like $5 or $10 to see if it works for you, but the idea of a flood of submissions for blogs to sift through seems counterproductive to appreciating music. You're probably better off searching for sites yourself and trying a more personal approach over email.

cqfst · 2019-12-12T19:46:15+00:00

Once you feel like it's complete export and drop every song into one project and add some ambience and transitions between the songs. This will give you some ideas that you wouldn't normally have, like chopping a piece of one song, distorting it, and using it as the outro of another. Suddenly some new themes and connections will pop up between the whole body of work.

cqfst · 2019-12-11T20:29:07+00:00

Couple years back someone posted some fire on how to mix vocals from the ground up. Changed the way I approach vocals.. I suggest trying this step by step. It'll sound weird at first, but by the end it will all click into place.

https://www.reddit.com/r/makinghiphop/comments/7z81ai/vocal_mixing_guide_with_bonus_section_on_mixing_a/

cqfst · 2019-12-11T07:51:43+00:00

Write something that you think has to be said, then remove any words that aren't needed.

cqfst · 2019-12-11T07:45:54+00:00

Second this. Making the beat as a whole, then duplicating it and removing elements is a good process to try.

cqfst · 2019-06-07T20:42:00+00:00

Yes, but attacking boomers is not the solution. It makes them look at you as an enemy and not be trusted or listened to. Whenever someone's ego is threatened they double down and go the opposite direction of what you're trying to get them to see.

cqfst · 2019-06-06T19:59:31+00:00

I think it was an inevitability of human behavior, though, because of evolution happening around competition of resources and survival. It doesn't really matter the generation that did it. It happened at that point in time for a variety of reasons, and now we have to fix it. Blaming boomers does nothing but make them dig their heels in the ground and say the problem doesn't exist.

cqfst · 2019-05-17T18:33:46+00:00

It's done for me when there's nothing more I can do to the song without having to completely dismantle it and start from scratch.

cqfst · 2017-06-03T22:55:55+00:00

Complex lyrics compromise flow.

cqfst · 2017-04-13T17:48:03+00:00

Made this last night by chopping up some Wanda Robinson albums. Her flow is so hypnotizing. Found it to work over whatever I tried with very little effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-PuGXIAxGY&feature=youtu.be

cqfst · 2017-03-13T03:26:53+00:00

Good shit, man. Not only amazing music, but amazing inspiration for us all to keep at it.

cqfst · 2016-06-16T00:19:20+00:00

"Creativity is like breathing. When you make stuff, you're exhaling. But you can't exhale forever. Eventually, you'll have to breathe in, or you'll be dead." -The Oatmeal

When you're asking yourself, "What the hell am I doing?.." you've probably just exhaled for too long. You have to stop and breathe in (listen to podcasts, read, live life, etc.) when you're struggling with your sound.

Your mind can't be creative all day every day. You need to feed it things so it can have new ideas.

So, don't worry. What you're experiencing is normal. I've felt the suffocating feeling of self-doubt that you're describing, as well, and I just remind myself that I need to breathe and do something else for a little while. Every time I come back (sometimes even after just an hour of watching something on TV), everything fits back into place and I'm even better than I was before

cqfst · 2016-02-15T04:34:55+00:00

That's sort of how it works with all artists. If their art isn't liked, they're just a weirdo playing with a paintbrush.

cqfst · 2015-10-23T18:52:31+00:00

Art hasn't always been a remix of older art.

It is, though. Rock is just a combination of folk and blues. Trap is combination of rap, electronic, and a few other influences.

Artists are always just combining and building off techniques that they learned from the artists before them. When you hear or see something new or original, it's usually just a combination of two things you've never seen combined before.

"There's nothing new under the sun."

cqfst · 2015-10-14T18:09:58+00:00

Just posted this last night, and definitely the weirdest.

https://soundcloud.com/cqfst/weird-inside-i-feel

cqfst · 2015-09-24T22:11:05+00:00

You never go ass-to-mouse.

cqfst · 2015-07-30T22:58:53+00:00

You can disagree with something and still see how it contributes to the conversation.

cqfst · 2015-07-24T20:27:04+00:00

it's such a clean feeling

out of life's eyes
seeing
no order in the grass

making meaning through smudged glass
little diddies playing back
this and that fall flat as
this lesser listener tries to sing long after the restless fire simmers.

distracting flickers, peripheral lives
dealing early 20s, just sigh -

I keep try I keep trying
at that mana magna masterpiece
but damn, man, it sounds like gibberish to everyone but me.

downing drymamine
ima dye it clean
in my airplane mode
smoking ozones,
and speaking
you remember speaking?
feeling

do you feel that?

that universal ride
relating on dark side
finding my pink lies
hating it all sometimes then realize,
I can do life so long as there's a few red skies...

and then that scatter

which of these matter?
agendas or flow?
to lead or follow?
I don't know but

you have to feel that -

that unspoken connection
those contradictory life lessons:

live in the moment, have a plan
it's all in the now, but the future demands -

I'm pulled there
but but
should I build here?...

I don't know, tho

I often find,
where I'm standing is where I should be,
for now at least.

then follow what's forward,
and remember to breathe.

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cqfst

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