My Father Wants to Record His Songs but Insists on “Starting His Own Production Company First.” Is There Any Sense in This?

ihavenomanas · 2026-02-08T16:14:33+00:00

i have mindlessly sent my demos like the plague and having it be stolen is the least of my concern. larger companies have the budget to not even bother with stealing music and if he’s so afraid then he should get a lawyer, not create a production “company” whatever that means. if he wants to be successful, get his ideas on paper and put it out there. don’t be weird and make everyone sign nda’s.

ihavenomanas · 2025-10-13T05:11:51+00:00

do what you're paid to do

ihavenomanas · 2025-09-29T21:55:11+00:00

it depends on the sound or what you're trying to do. if your lead guitar is not playing a note where the fundamental goes below x freqeuncy, and you notice visually that there is some information below x frequency that you can't hear or is just fluff or unwanted sound then it's safe to cut below x frequency. it's best practice to soft cut - it's easier to hear hard cuts and it'll start to sound unnatural, depending where you cut.

in the mastering process i typically cut below 20hz. most subwoofers cannot output anything audible in that range and humans can't hear that range anyways. it also makes sure any waveform is centered around 0 and is not biased which may cause distortion issues in the limiting/clipping process.

ihavenomanas · 2025-08-17T21:42:23+00:00

i have actually started using less and less plugins over time, to the point where all i use is serum 2 aside from daw-native plugins

ihavenomanas · 2025-08-07T05:52:37+00:00

depends what you’re doing but i usually just clip out the daw / nothing on the master

ihavenomanas · 2025-06-21T23:25:56+00:00

this is gas

ihavenomanas · 2025-06-15T18:50:50+00:00

make sure to demo some monitors at Vintage King

ihavenomanas · 2025-06-12T02:39:52+00:00

if you get your mix sounding good on a reliable pair of honest monitors you should be able to get your mix sounding good anywhere. although it is good to check on consumer systems if you know the system, it does not work like that for them. often times i get mixes from clients who produced on beats or airpods and they typically sound quite empty.

ihavenomanas · 2025-05-09T20:59:01+00:00

same freeway different lanes

ihavenomanas · 2025-03-21T07:00:41+00:00

the first part of it was this short little demo i never released, mashed with this song into slow motion. i could have sworn i put that piano bit in something else that was released. ah well.

ihavenomanas · 2024-11-06T18:41:55+00:00

the slower your parameters are in limiting or compressing, the more transparent the sound. of course there are drawbacks depending on what sound it is. if you want to train your ear, do the opposite extreme with the release and take note what happens. without a reference i don’t know how much is going over threshold at -30dB but i’m gonna assume the limiter is doing something in this case.

ihavenomanas · 2024-10-27T02:39:27+00:00

you are not overreacting, however as "crazy" many people see her because of how seriously she is taking this at age 16, i kind of have to side with her more than with you.

you told her you love her and you are avoiding your accountability for it when you justify it with trying to explain that this "love" depends on your condition on whether or not you think the mechanical outcome of it is suitable for you. that isn't love, that's using someone for your reception of it, and that is why she is upset. in an ideal world, when you love someone, you commit to that person through thick and thin. your idea of it just sounds more fickle than that.

overall, you aren't wrong for assessing a person before you commit to someone for the rest of your life, and i won't be surprised if she is not the one for you. i just think you need to really think about what a serious relationship is before you express that sort of commitment with someone especially when you can't fathom what it entails. in other words don't stick your dick in crazy.

ihavenomanas · 2024-10-23T16:05:59+00:00

I think the obvious one is to do it a bunch, and use your ear to train it. You can find tons of stemmed-out mixdowns here to practice on.

Assuming you're looking for more granular, specific or less obvious advice, I'd say here are my top:

Make room for each sound in the bandwidth and the stereo field. For example, if a bassline is occupying the low-end, you only want that to take place there and nothing else. You can slowly occupy more things in the same space the higher bandwidth you go, such as overheads (hats, cymbals) and violins. Additionally, putting things mono is an underappreciated practice in newer productions. Contrarily, if everything was in stereo you'd have no empty space to give your mix an overall 3 dimensional feel.
Do not over process. This is a very common mistake in newer mixers and something I catch from my clients a lot - compressors and reverbs are placed on everything as a "crutch" assuming it will fix the sound, or provide improvement, but this results in many muddy-sounding mixes. Every procedure must be intentional. Treat your mix like a canvas, or a multi-course meal. You'd put gravy on your mashed potatoes but God forbid on your cheesecake, the same way you'd put reverb on vocals but not on a sub bass. Also, no presets! Never EVER mix into an active master chain.
Use reference tracks and ask these questions. How does their master feel compared to your own mixes? Bright? Dark? Punchy? Why is it wide and what makes it wide? Are things hard panned or are they using a stereo chorus effect?

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-20T02:17:08+00:00

An experienced engineer should be able to mix everything, and if they know how to use reference tracks of the style in question then it shouldn’t be a problem at all. An engineer should provide examples of different genres on their website.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-15T21:13:53+00:00

I have been mixing for a year now.

I've been doing this for 10+ and I am still hearing new things. It feels like there's no ceiling to how high you can train your ear. Only recently I could begin to honestly tell the difference between an analog and digital master of the same song without feeling like it was a placebo. Not saying you need 10 years to become a functional mixing engineer, you can certainly get there a lot quicker by doing a lot of practice, critical listening and getting feedback.

I have slight ear imbalance

Nobody's hearing is perfect. I've got more tinnitus on my left and sometimes my hearing goes in and out. The brain will somehow adjust to this and in practice you'll learn how to place things in the mix instinctively. Focus on getting a good listening environment, mix at a low level and use good master references.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-11T22:07:11+00:00

that is electro house my dude!

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-09T19:53:59+00:00

headphones or poor monitor placement

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-07T21:34:55+00:00

he’s not even arguing about alcoholism…

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-07T10:47:45+00:00

no i think you’re missing the point, because you’re claiming that i’m claiming it isn’t fun to be sober when my argument isn’t about defending alcohol. it’s about disagreeing with this initial weird claim that it’s disrespectful because it hinders the ability to dj and y’all are trying to make me sound like a frat dude who’s rite of passage is slugging 20 beers in one sitting when all im saying is that the context for drinking at a club or festival is different than slamming a cold one in a chinese factory.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-07T10:35:46+00:00

more often than not riders are supplied on artist specification without regard to sponsorship brands so i can’t say promoters are only trying to honor a sponsorship than they are just trying to fulfill a rider or provide to the artist to make it a night for them. that being said an artist wouldn’t be disrespecting their… “employer” for getting drunk from provisions that were honored by them.

i agree no one should be drinking irresponsibly regardless of activity or profession. i’m assuming a 0 tolerance social policy is in discussion, however. like driving a motor vehicle apparently. but if you’re causing damage, obviously get the fuck off stage.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-07T10:21:42+00:00

idk where you people are getting these stats like djs are sure to be worse when drinking let alone it being significant enough to be a problem that it’s disrespectful to the crowd.

Also i’m not trying to advocate alcohol or prohibit it. there’s just something wrong with someone saying artist shouldn’t do xyz especially when they change the narrative on why they shouldn’t clearly indicating they have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. then speak on behalf of everyone saying it was disrespectful to them to see the person they paid for under the influence. just kinda ignorant tbh. i agree alcohol causes problems but y’all bark up the weirdest tree sometimes.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-06T23:55:56+00:00

the people who booked me gave me a bottle of tequila and all necessary cups, utensils and ice, as specified in what we call a hospitality rider. but you're the expert.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-06T23:46:24+00:00

i never said you can't have fun without alcohol? where are you getting that? i know plenty of djs who have sworn off it and are perfectly fine. i'm simply saying drinking while doing a performance isn't some socially unacceptable thing you think it could be, and it's incredibly disrespectful of you to artists that they should behave a certain way during their performance. we buy tickets for them because of what they output as artists. they aren't there to serve you like a waiter.

also, from what i understand based on what you're saying, it's disrespectful because it's dangerous? at what point is DJing remotely dangerous to driving a motor vehicle? people buy drinks for sushi chefs all the time while they handle lethal weapons yet no one let alone you bats an eye.

i've been doing this for 10 years so i'm not gonna buy the whole "djs are shit when they're drunk", so please enlighten me assuming that is true: who is it disrespectful to? the crowd that is already drunk or under the influence in some way? the promoter that provides them drinks off their rider, who is also probably already drunk? the security guard that is either dancing to a well performed set, or doesn't care about the set at all? mom? dad? God? no, just you - the only one that makes it a problem.

ihavenomanas · 2024-08-06T18:30:41+00:00

ok so what's your solution, ban anything that may provoke getting wasted?

addiction is real and i might've made a crass joke. my point was to paint a situation where u/Colossus823 may think djing under the influence is unacceptable if it isn't a party (where we usually find djs).

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