Author: urmadmin

Introduction To The Series:

Tired of endless tutorial videos and thick books on mixing? Take a break and live a bit!

*SHH, JOEL WANASEK WILL HEAR YOU!!!*

All “#Smalltime” jokes aside – Believe it or not, staring at a computer screen or sitting in front of a mixing console in the studio for weeks-on-end without seeing any sunlight isn’t the only way to improve your productions…

Often, simply going about your everyday tasks while focusing on a certain goal you have in mind is enough to cause breakthroughs and improvements! Sound a bit crazy? Read on to find out exactly what I mean…

Here are 3 tips which might have a positive effect on your musical output and help expand your studio business in the process:

1 – Listen & Learn (To/From Other Genres)

“You’ll learn more from the stuff you hate, than you will from the stuff you love. Just remember, not only do we have to be really passionate about what we are doing… We have to be really open minded. Why? Because if you’re close-minded, the open-minded guy sitting next to you will go right past you… And you’re not even going to realize he went right past you. So, don’t discriminate.” – Manny Marroquin (Mixer – The Weeknd, Rihanna, Linkin Park)

Time for a (hopefully) relevant little backstory…

As a young kid growing up, I was heavily influenced by the music which my parents were listening to. Luckily for me, this usually meant that great classic rock acts such as David Bowie, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones etc. were on constant rotation in the car, or around the house at any given moment.

As is fairly common in the case of young kids who are raised on classic rock, I eventually found my way into the world of heavy music.

The problem? I also took on what I like to call a “closed-minded metalhead superiority complex” in the process.

Not sure what I’m on about?

Here’s some further context… I was the kind of teenager who proudly wore an “if it ain’t metal, it ain’t music” t-shirt. I looked-down on anybody with varying musical tastes to my own as “inferior human beings”…

Almost sounds too stereotypical and cringe-y to be true huh? Unfortunately, that was me as a 12 year-old…

Fast forward a few years to my teens…

Thankfully, getting into the technical side of audio and learning about synthesis, alongside discovering various crossover bands such as The Prodigy, Pendulum and Enter Shikari really helped open my eyes towards the possibility of good music outside of metal. As I progressed in my audio career and began to explore a wider range of music, I eventually reached a point where I had abandoned my limited mindset entirely, and simply listened to anything that sounded good regardless of genre.

Cool Story Bro, Your Point?

Based on the little life story I’ve just told you, here are a few pieces of advice on interacting with music for a better career in audio:

• Limiting yourself to to a single musical scene can eventually get boring and result in creative stagnation: Metal is awesome, but not awesome enough to be the sole source of listening and creative release for your entire career…

• The exact same concept also applies to music production: The truth is, most metal mixes will follow a similar formula when it comes to instrumentation and processing. Learning how to mix different instruments and overcome the various challenges a Country, EDM or Hip-Hop track might throw your way will only serve towards improving your capabilities as an engineer. What have you got to lose?

NOTE: A prime opportunity for broadening your musical horizons is this month’s NailTheMix, featuring a great selection of country tracks provided by mixing legend Billy Decker. Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV2CrMB6czw

• Don’t generalise based on a single experience: Just because you dislike a particular band or artist doesn’t mean that you won’t find something else which you do like within the same genre if you give it a chance…

Conclusion: There is a definite element of personal taste involved in this whole argument. You don’t have to like EVERYTHING.

I can however guarantee that if you step outside of your comfort zone and just give some other genres a chance, you’re bound to find SOMETHING that will tickle your musical senses eventually!

2 – Creative Crosstalk

One of the awesome things about working in media is the amount of transferability, or as I like to call it “Crosstalk” that exists between creative skillsets.

Having the knowledge necessary for making sure each and every aspect of what you do is up to a fairly professional standard is important towards making a good first-impression on whoever may be watching (or listening). A great way of doing this is by gaining a some basic skills in each of the media elements involved in the overall process.

At this point you may be thinking: “Can’t I just pay somebody else to do that stuff…?”

Sure you can! But the costs involved in constantly having to outsource to maintain a certain level of professionalism can really start to add up over time…

Instead, why not invest 10-20 hours of your spare time towards becoming moderately competent in a new skill which will most likely have a positive domino-effect on the quality of everything you put out from that moment onwards?

In order to give you some further perspective – Here are a few basic examples of what I like to call “Creative Crosstalk” from my own life:

• Video > Music Production: As I’ve already discussed briefly in this article, having eye catching visual content is imperative towards making sure people take notice of your content in this day and age. I can tell you from personal experience that any piece of music I’ve ever released with an accompanying video has received far more interest than the ones which went without…

• You don’t need to spend a fortune to achieve decent results either, a GoPro and a set of studio lights which you can use to capture high-quality playthrough videos will only set you back a-few-hundred $!

• Art > Writing: Having some basic artistic & image editing skills allows me to put together the simple graphics which I use within my URM Blogs on a weekly basis. Are they intricate and flashy? No… But they do (hopefully) help convey my points and add a nice splash of colour to some otherwise long and often technical articles on music production!

• Writing > Music Production: My brother (who works alongside me at our studio “Brett Brothers Recording Studio”) is an avid reader of fantasy & science fiction, and has been writing his own material for a few years now. His insight into storytelling and literature often comes in handy while writing lyrics and coming up with visual concepts.

NOTE: All of this being said, you don’t NEED to learn how to do everything… It’s important to remember that a lot of this stuff can’t really be forced, and usually requires an initial level of pre-existing interest to build on in the first place – But don’t be afraid to give it your best shot at any rate!

3 – Connect & Collaborate!

Ever put high hopes on the success of a project, only for it to seemingly disappear off the face of the earth and sink into obscurity within a few days of sharing? Might be time to pool your (and someone else’s) resources and expand your potential reach!

Although audio engineering may seem like a nerdy job which is well suited to introverts from the outside, the hard truth is that it relies heavily on networking and socialising if it’s to be done successfully.

This being the case – Here are a few of the incredible advantages of teaming up with somebody else for a project or two:

• Gain access to a far greater network of potential listener’s than if you were to go it all on your own: This will often come in the form of advertising on social media, which can potentially result in people you’ve never even met liking, sharing and purchasing your content.

NOTE: Why do you think big YouTubers appear on each other’s channels from time to time? – For this very reason…

• If your collaborator feels invested in the project, they’ll most likely put more effort into it’s success: Bringing in somebody at the last moment to just sing through some lyrics you’ve written yourself is great and all, but actually involving them in the writing process and letting them contribute from the get-go will give them a greater connection to the material as a result.

• Working with talented people can raise your overall production standards and help push you into the higher leagues: Choose who you work with carefully. If done right, you might just get noticed by the right people and open-up some valuable business opportunities in the process.

• If people enjoy working with you, they’ll tell others: As proven time and time again throughout the course of musical history, word of mouth is one of the most powerful advertising tools that exists. Making sure you’re down-to-earth and simply cool to hang out with in the studio will go a long way towards prompting the people you work with to recommend your services to friends and family. Remember: No amount of technical perfection will make up for an unpleasant working experience.

NOTE: Check out my Two-Part “5 Recording Tips” URM Blog series from a while back for some important advice how to interact with musicians in the studio for optimal results:

https://urm.academy/make-your-studio-session-50-better-with-these-5-tips-part-1/

CONCLUSION:

Upon finishing this Blog entry, I noticed that there’s a certain unintentional, overlapping theme of “expansion” present in each of the topics I’ve talked about. That being said, if I had to compile the entirety of this article down to a three pieces of simple advice they would probably go a little something like this:

1 – Don’t limit your musical potential by blindly sticking within a set of self-made boundaries based on identity or ego!

2 – Don’t be afraid to try out new things and test your creative abilities. You never know, you might just end-up being good at them!

3 – Utilising your existing relationships and networking via the results is extremely valuable towards maintaining steady growth. Don’t end up a tech-obsessed studio hermit with no connections to the outside world!

Final Words:

This concludes “Live And Learn: Audio Lessons From Everyday Life – Part 1.” I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to comment below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any questions.

Stay tuned for more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!

Want mix tips from URM Academy? Read them here!

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!

| By Dave Whalen | 

Back in 1999 I was working as a clerk in a department store. I was working 12-15 hours a week, barely surviving, and my prospects weren’t looking that great. Of course, I had well-meaning managers who would give me advice on how I could get ahead a little. But what did they know, they were just the people who had the job I wanted. Looking back, I was pretty lucky that I had people around me who wanted to see me be successful. 

After about a year of being a complete slacker I decided that it was time to make a change and act on some of the advice my bosses were giving me about work. About a year after that I had gone from being that slacker clerk kid to being in management, and converted, officially, from being part-time to being full-time… And it’s the only case of that happening that I’m aware of at that store. I’d even gained the trust and confidence of the store director to leave me in charge when he was unavailable.

Early in my audio career… Apparently not fully translating the lessons learned as a department store clerk effectively, I fell into the same trap. I was super concerned about the projects I was working on and getting the best product I could, but I did it ultimately from the perspective of how it would make me look. And while it yielded me some results for a while, it didn’t serve me very in the long term.

So what happened that turned it all around for me?

It comes back to the advice that my bosses were giving me.

Coincidentally, I was inspired to write this piece when I heard some very similar advice from Kevin Churko on the URM podcast. It all really boils down to this:

Who do you work for?

For a long time, I was convinced that I worked for me. After all, the reason I needed to work was so I could eat and have a roof over my head. As it turns out, that bit of food and maybe a roof was all I’d ever have with that attitude… Because other people weren’t nearly as interested in my selfish desires as I was. What they are interested in, however, is themselves, and what you can do for them. What this means is that, ultimately, you need to serve your clients and serve them well. Not just from the perspective of how it affects your business, but from the view of how you can help your clients thrive and prosper.

Now writing vague platitudes which lack definition and purpose is easy – I know, it’s what I do.

“Who do you work for? I shouldn’t work for me? What the hell do you mean by that anyway?”

Well, I’m glad you asked, because working for the right person, when done well, manifests itself in some very tangible ways:

Serve others well

This point is possibly the hardest to define… Possibly the most important thing you’ll ever do… And is 100% a matter of your frame of mind. It’s important to note that every interaction you have with your potential, current, and former clients will start with this as the base. Serving people well actually isn’t a “tip” so much as it’s a worldview. With enough conscious practice, you will eventually approach all your interactions with people with the intention of serving them well, and that in turn will serve you well.

If you want a good primer on this I recommend reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Bring value to your boss

Back to my days as a clerk at the department store, this is the advice my bosses kept giving me. I remember one boss in particular – Ray – told me that if I want to get ahead I needed to understand what he wanted, and take that off his plate. He wanted to know I could be trusted to make his job a little easier so that he could focus on other, more important things.

This is much like (in my mind) what Kevin described when he talked about going to work for Mutt Lange. One of the first things he did was to fix the tape machine so it would sync correctly with Pro Tools… A problem Mutt had been having for weeks. Kevin also described reading through the Logic manual so he would be able to competently operate the software when necessary. This is an exceptional example of adding value, along the lines of what my boss Ray told me. Kevin understood exactly what his boss needed, and made sure he didn’t have to worry about it.

If you’re wondering if you’re bringing value to your boss, you can ask yourself this question:

“Am I making him money, or am I costing him money?”

Show up

Many people don’t fully grasp this concept (I know when I was younger I didn’t), but you can’t serve people if you don’t show up. Back to the department store, when I thought I worked for myself, I cherished all my time off and was giving it up for nobody, especially my work. If they wanted me there they should have scheduled me.

The other piece of crucial advice my bosses had given me was that if I wanted more hours, I needed to wait by the phone and say “Yes” every time they called me. I thought, “of course I would get more hours, but that would interrupt my plans of playing video games all day. You should be more considerate of my feelings.

One day though, I got real tired of being broke, desperate and stupid, and I resolved to do just that. I showed up absolutely every time they called, every time I went in I did my best to deliver for them…

And within a year I was running the crew almost every evening.

If you’re going to be successful, it will have to be the same for you. If you want to make an impression on your employer or your clients, you have to answer that call… at least at first… even if it means altering your own plans or cancelling them outright.

Keep at it

Most of all, don’t get discouraged. Make small advances every day by chipping away at the tasks you’re wanting

These concepts don’t just apply in a department store or to a career in audio…

They apply to every aspect of life.

The more you apply them, the more those parts of your life will be more fruitful.

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!