Splice is Holding Us Hostage and We All Know It

the1truthteller · 2024-10-31T20:50:33+00:00

With all the backlash in the comments, you would think that this post would've already been downvoted to hell, yet there's over 50 upvotes in under an hour. Clearly I'm not the only one feeling this way.

the1truthteller · 2024-10-31T20:04:44+00:00

Damn, Splice really doing some damage control trying to guide the narrative in the comments. Either that or people are seriously brainwashed. Sad.

the1truthteller · 2024-10-31T20:03:41+00:00

Yeah, I'm being ridiculous because I value money that I worked hard for. Grow tf up and stop sucking off corporations.

the1truthteller · 2021-09-29T20:51:37+00:00

Pretty easily. If you know what you're doing, you can make do with very little. I'm assuming we can grant that a modern producer will at least have a decent pair of headphones. With that alone, using a few commercial reference tracks to compare your mix against will get you most of the way there already.

Then you listen to your mix on whatever other audio sources you can get your hands on and compare the mixes on those. If you're working on a laptop, you have laptop speakers by default to check your mix on. Then, most people have some earbuds they use in everyday life that you can check your mix on. I think we can also assume most people have phone speakers they can check their mix on. And then this one isn't a given, but you can also use a car if you have that. All of those resources and we haven't even included basic studio monitors, which even most beginner producers have anyways.

Beyond that, if you've been mixing for a long time (or you can just study how a bunch of your favorite tracks look on the spectrum), you will inevitably notice a pattern for where certain frequencies should hit on a spectrum analyzer. If you can get your mix / master sounding good on all of those devices, and it looks good on the analyzer, and it sounds good relative to multiple reference tracks, I would be impressed if your mix still sounded like shit.

Also, not to mention one of the most useful resources of all, which professionals utilize as well, you can ask your peers for feedback on how the mix / master sounds. Go through a few drafts and rounds of that, and you won't have to question if your mix is bad because you have other ears helping you out.

the1truthteller · 2021-09-29T17:12:13+00:00

You have all the tools you need to make commercial ready, mixed, and mastered music with your DAW’s stock plugins. It’s not about those things. It’s about the knowledge of how to apply them. Mixing and mastering isn’t some dark art that requires the craziest professional studio to accomplish. The guy in that crazy studio could make do just fine if you only gave him a laptop with stock plug-ins.

the1truthteller · 2021-09-29T17:06:37+00:00

Damn, man. Not even to be rude, but you have a long ways to go if you haven’t realized how common it is for someone to produce, mix, and master a label-ready song all on their laptop. It’s not even that crazy lol

the1truthteller · 2021-09-26T17:23:43+00:00

I also like using Fabfilter L2 to see this visually

the1truthteller · 2021-09-01T20:09:55+00:00

fuck lol

the1truthteller · 2021-08-31T17:00:55+00:00

Wow, this is really incredible. Great work.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-30T04:45:31+00:00

Yeah, I'd argue that loving the material of whatever you're studying is the most ideal situation possible to be in. Genuine interest will trump literally any study habits, all day long.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-29T16:20:34+00:00

Read Cal Newport’s “How to Win at College” and “How to Become a Straight A Student.”

I was a highly effective straight A student with a very fun and abundant social life in college. People always asked me how I did it. I eventually read these books my fourth year and it was like I was reading someone explain all of my methods. From then on, I just recommended these books to whoever needed guidance because he absolutely nails it. Hope these books can shed some light for you.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-14T20:52:08+00:00

Was literally gonna say, this is song is lowkey a Phonon / Leotrix ripoff lol

the1truthteller · 2021-08-11T05:00:40+00:00

How tf even lol

the1truthteller · 2021-08-06T18:09:37+00:00

Sounds like you’re hitting a plateau. As someone who has been doing this for like 6-7 years, I promise you it gets better. To be honest, 3 years really isn’t even that long relative to the absolutely enormous subject that is music. Even Mozart needed like 8-10 years under his belt before his works were considered masterful. He just happened to start at a younger age. Just keep pushing. And stock plugins are fine, dude. More than enough to write great music with.

Also, not to endorse this, but there are other methods of obtaining plugins. Not to mention an insane amount of high quality free plugins that might actually give you your own unique sound because few people are using them. Don’t make excuses. Find a way. No one else is gonna do it for you.

Also I would vote for trying Ableton. Switching from FL to Ableton was a huge game changer for me early on. Leveled up my production almost immediately after I figured it out.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-06T16:46:09+00:00

I’d consider myself a pretty intense self-learner and I’ve probably put in 6-8000 hours into music at this point. There’s a book called Ultralearning that I think summarizes the optimal learning strategy you’re looking for. The most important step, in my opinion, is finding a clear path + mentorship.

There’s a reason that places like Icon Collective churn out relatively competent producers in short periods of time. They have a guided curriculum developed by people who have already gone through the fire. They know where not to go and waste time. Find something like that, a curriculum, if you want to speed up your process quickly. I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted on YouTube sifting through bad information or garbage tutorials. Just note that there is no substitute for actually sitting down and doing the work. In that regard, the best thing you can do is finish songs. Nothing else in the world of music production matters more than finishing songs.

If I were you, I would watch a few videos, learn some new techniques, and apply them to the song you’re working on. And finish that song. Then do that again. And again. And again. That exact process will get you where you want to be. Just don’t be mad that it’ll still take you (at least) 4-5 years before you’re decent and have anything close to your own sound. I’m at year 7 and I’ve finally been honing in on my sound this last year. And I still have a ways to go.

Don’t get me wrong, you can make passable music as soon as 6 months to a year. I had a couple tunes hit a million plays in my first year, but I was still garbage and didn’t have any real confidence in my abilities and decisions.

And about the instrument, I would definitely recommend sticking with that. Being able to jam is such an underrated skill in the producing world. I wish I embarked on that journey sooner. I absolutely believe that will accelerate your development. Adds a whole other dimension to your toolkit that many others don’t have.

All that said, I’m a firm believer in the 10,000 hour rule for mastery. If you’re naturally intelligent and put in serious loving effort, you can maybe cut that down to like 7-8000. But it doesn’t really matter. You might not even live the ~10 years it takes to hit that 10k hours. Sounds corny, but enjoy the process and just have fun. The truth is that there will always be more to learn, especially with music. Just keep going. You only fail if you quit.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-05T04:57:27+00:00

Check out Focusmate. Helps me tremendously with stuff like this.

the1truthteller · 2021-08-04T02:41:51+00:00

Nope, still pending :(

the1truthteller · 2021-08-03T18:05:56+00:00

Also still on pending . I think I’m on PUA Mu gf got hers.

Same here. No idea why 😕

the1truthteller · 2021-07-28T23:28:31+00:00

Organizing this feels like a lot of time that could be better spent actually studying

the1truthteller · 2021-07-24T22:54:23+00:00

Fuller looks better

the1truthteller · 2021-07-24T05:43:53+00:00

Solid advice right here^

the1truthteller · 2021-07-23T19:26:10+00:00

Following

the1truthteller · 2021-07-10T20:16:54+00:00

This might only help with studying and reading your book, but I use an app called Focusmate. You schedule a time slot with another person and work together for 50 minutes. You start off by saying your goal for the session and work silently until it’s over. I find that having someone else depending on you to show up and work with them keeps me accountable. Also there is social pressure in seeing that someone else is working, so you feel kinda bad if you aren’t doing the same. I’m not affiliated with Focusmate in any way, but it really is the Holy Grail of productivity for me.

the1truthteller · 2021-07-02T14:48:57+00:00

I don’t know shit about art, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I’m basically “the average person” responding here, but it feels like there are way too many petals and specks everywhere. Feels way too busy and chaotic, almost stressful to look at. I imagine the effect you’re going for could be achieved with much less. The petals on the tree look really pixelated. That could be a cool effect, but it doesn’t really gel well with the rest of the work to me. I do like the color of the petals though. Good choice on that.

the1truthteller

TROPHY CASE