Music Production and Mixing Tips

If your dream is to hear your songs playing on the radio or to become a big label recording company, you need to know a few basic things about the processes involved in music production and mixing. These simple tips will help steer you in the right path so that you may record your own songs or enter the world of music production as an independent recording label.

The best tip anyone can give you when it comes to music production and mixing is start with a clean recording. Recordings should be made in a studio environment, whenever possible. If you are recording from a home studio, try to eliminate as much outside sound as possible by using directional microphones and sound proofing insulation. Using audio editing software to eliminate unwanted background noises that made their way into your final recording is very important.

Secondly, always try to work with the best tools for the job. One of the most popular music production and mixing software suites are Logic Pro, Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton Live etc. This tools are used by thousands of budding music producers throughout the world for their many features and easy learning curve. Since they offer a full range of recording, mixing and effects.

Go digital whenever possible. Software music production tools do not have the physical limits of hardware devices. This is particularly important if you create music with a techno sound, as you can add electronic effects that were previously very difficult to create or unobtainable for the home recording studio.

As an added bonus, using software music production tools to create your tracks means you have a large part of the task finished when you are ready to promote your music online or create CD's for sale. For the home based music producer, software based music tools will make it possible to do all of your work in a smaller amount of space as you will not require a huge room to store mixing boards, recording equipment and physical copies of recordings.

Just put the software into your computer, plug in your microphones and record straight to your computer. Then edit the track, mix and save it all on the same machine. Using software based music production tools, your recording studio and production company could be transported easily in your laptop computer.

Our final tip pertains to the actual mixing of the recording. One area where most amateur music producers fail is in getting carried away with mixing. At the beginning of the music production process, we started with a clean audio recording. Get carried away with adding too many effects, like reverb and EQ, or shifting the balance of the sound to one side or the other and the music won't sound clean any more.

As a rule, start with a clean recording and all of the mixer controls set to neutral levels. Then add or take away one effect at a time until you find the perfect mixture for your sound.