REAL TALK: There’s no silver bullet, but if you’re dedicated to upping your game, there is ONE area to focus on above all others that will dramatically improve the quality of your music – and as far as I can tell, all the top producers have this skill down...
...and it has to do with sound choices, but it’s probably not quite what you’re thinking.
We all know that sound choices are very important, but consider the following metaphor:
The notes and rhythms in your music – the parts that you could write on manuscript paper, or that you’d see in a piano roll editor – you can think of those as being the script and story of your production.
Using this movie analogy, if the music itself is the script and story, then your sound choices are the cast.
The cast are what carry the script and story.
So what? Well, I think there’s a bigger concept here about art – a concept that George Lucas (filmmaker behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones) understood well. I’ve found a snippet from a really old George Lucas interview talking about Carrie Fisher (RIP) where he pretty much breaks this down into a formula.
In particular, he talks about his search for the ideal actor to play Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movie. Listen for yourself, paying special attention to how significant this search for the right cast member was to George Lucas…
I was looking for a princess who was young. Ideally I wanted somebody about sixteen years old, seventeen years old. They both, Luke and Leia, were supposed to be around the same age, and I wanted somebody teenager-like.
So it was finding somebody who could hold her own against strong actors and still be the princess that she needed to be, and be the authority figure that she needed to be - and make it believable. And she was able to do that.
...With these actors, all of them, I'd seen thousands of people. Tested twenty or thirty people and then gone down to a very finite group of maybe seven or eight actors for each role, on film. And then studied it, and then we did that process again.
So it was a very complicated procedure that took like nine months to go through, so it wasn't a, just a [clicks fingers] - “that's the one” - kinda thing. It was a very arduous, thoughtful process.
...He describes a VERY ARDUOUS, THOUGHTFUL process.
It took them NINE MONTHS(!)
They had thousands of actors lined up to audition for the part, plus a whole bunch of screen tests – and that’s just for ONE character.
If you notice, George describes a three step process:
- Having a vision in mind: He said he was looking for a princess – not an actor, but a princess. He goes on to describe what he was looking for in more detail. Notice that there were some details he was willing to be flexible on, and other details that he wasn’t willing to compromise on at all.
- Auditioning process: They tried that metaphorical ‘glass slipper’ on as many potential candidates as they could find. Obviously a fixer-upper would not do.
- Testing: Finally, they tested the best of the bunch out against each other, on film, and presumably in conjunction with the top candidates for the other roles who they’d potentially be sharing screen time with. And they repeated this as a process of elimination.
My point is: auditioning instruments/samples/sounds for your music deserves that same level of priority. I’d be willing to bet that the reason the casting team on Star Wars were willing to go to these lengths to find their star is because they knew it was necessary to produce something so powerful on a modest budget ($11m).
This approach couldn’t apply better to music production. It’s a big idea that I think a lot of producers aren’t really conscious of. They maybe bumble through and figure out a working combination of instruments some of the time, but they’re not 100% conscious of what it is that they’re doing that’s successful – and it’s this: the auditioning process.
Further thoughts: On the same metaphor, effect plugins are like costume, lighting and effects. So what do you think happens if you have the wrong cast member? There’s no amount of makeup, costume or lighting that can fix that. Imagine if Justin Beiber had accidentally been cast for the part of Princess Leia; that couldn’t work.
Another analogy: You can’t make a world class Italian pasta dish with, say, half a tub of peanut butter and some shrivelled up peas. Not even the greatest chef in the world could do what they do best using the complete wrong ingredients.
So in practical terms?
- Logically, the more important the role of an instrument is in your production, the more care (not necessarily time, but care!) needs to be taken to ensure the right choice is made.
- You can’t expect to get it right first time. If you’re somewhat unsure about a sound choice, start testing some alternatives and compare them against each other, in context.
- When you take the time to find the sounds that naturally work together, the mixdown becomes about making the right sounds ‘shine’, rather than struggling to make the wrong sounds simply ‘work’.
- Sometimes elaborate effect chains are required to make a sound work, but this is more like sound design than it is mixing – a vital distinction!
- An extra 1 hour spent auditioning alternative sounds could save you 10 hours of banging your head against the wall trying to force incompatible sounds to work together.
Go and make a playlist of the best music you’re digging at the moment. Listen to them and pay really close attention to how the relationships between the various sound timbres, and how they complement each other. Consider to what extent that’s ‘natural compatibility’, and to what extent that’s ‘shoehorned with effects’.
Best of luck!
Owen The Geek
tl;dr: If you want to save time and have your music sound much more professional, listen to the George Lucas interview and then read the bullet points at the end of this post
Submitted May 04, 2017 at 05:58PM by OwenTheGeek https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/69ab2z/probably_the_one_single_most_impactful_thing_ive/?utm_source=ifttt