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I figured it'd be a good idea to write all the things I suck at collectively in a thread, and I encourage you to do the same.
The goal of this thread is to identify your weak points in production, whether its related directly or indirectly to music/production. It'd be awesome if we could get a thread going where you list the things you are bad at, and the following poster could give tips on how to overcome or just work on said flaws and post their own. If nothing else, you gain by putting your flaws down on paper(21st century paper that is) and reminding yourself what you need to work on.

My Problems

-Procrastination is my number 1 issue in all regards.

wub wrote:Schedule time for yourself like you would for anything else. For example, tonight I am going to get home around 7, go for a run, have some food, then 8-10 will be production time. Also, turn off/unplug the Internet whenever possible.

-Managing space, reverbs, and frequency clashes to avoid a muddy mix.

wub wrote:Use your ears on the obvious bits, spectral analyers on the less obvious bits. If you're having trouble isolating what is causing an issue, solo the channels one by one until you find the culprit.

-Melodies, mine are painfully simple and relatively boring unless I get lucky when mashing my face on the keyboard.

wub wrote:Download a MIDI file of a melody from a song you know/like and load it into a synth. Analyse the melody and listen to it, watching how the notes affect the sounds you're hearing. 'Remix' the melody by moving bits around and listening to the changes it makes to the sound. Cannibalise some of the bits you've moved, chop them around some more, shift up an octave etc.

-Consistency in mixdowns, it seems my levels are different every time.

wub wrote:Practice practice practice. If possible, try and mixdown and playback on as many different systems as you can.If possible, keep a version of a track you've mixed down and are happy with to hand so you can A/B it against what you're currently working on. Is the standard decent?

-What sounds good and what looks good(spectrum). Ex: what frequency should i cut a midbass? 100hz? Fuck. Why is it that when I use an autofilter often times there is a large amount of sound where it shouldnt be? ie: 10-80hz in a midbass.

wub wrote:Ignore numbers, use your ears. If you're having trouble, put a parametric EQ and spectrum analyser on each track and fuck around with the EQ as you listen to the tune and 'watch' the changes in the spectrum.

-Arrangement. I've convinced myself rusko is the king of arrangement, and thus played a big part in his success. His breaks are just long enough to keep you interested at all times.

wub wrote:Take a Rusko/whoever song you like. Load into an audio editor like Audacity. Slow that bitch right down to about 90/100bpm. Get your pen & paper out and 'count' the number of bars that each element/breakdown happens at and lasts for. Make notes. Transfer those notes over into a tune you've made. Try and 'reconstruct' the arrangement.

Edit:
-Finding similar melodies/synthesizers that "fit" with the rest of the song, this has a bit to do with music theory in regard to unwanted keychange, as well as not knowing what will mesh in regards to synth production.
-How to control energy within a track
-Finding space for each element
-Sample hunting, I rarely ever sample beyond simple one shots and drum hits.


Other's Problems

ljk32 wrote:Lack of creativity.

wub wrote:Watch a film, listen to an old album you love, go for a walk, cook some food, roll around on the grass...basically anything other than music. Carry a notepad with you at all times (or use your phone) to make notes on stuff that inspires you, whenever and whereever you find it.

will work on trying to get these all in on the front post for others to see
Keep giving tips on others flaws! good stuff guys

Mixdown Consistency

-Procrastination, like the OP.
-Lack of creativity.
-Not as much interest/fun as I should have in producing.
-Can't finish tracks.
-Have never produced for over a 3 hour session or something, cause I get bored, but it's usually much less.

-Never finished a tune
-Serious self doubt
-Stuck in a certain way of doing things and find it very difficult to stray
-Arrangement
-Intro's
-Drums
-Basslines



Il definitely add to this list

Main thing for me is sample hunting, i suck at finding good vocals/hits/atmosphere ect and i never have the patience
Making a drum arrangement that doesn't go stale.
Developing a none quantized grove.
Making a cohesive stereo image..

Ok, my suggestions for the issues mentioned so far...

Immerse wrote:Procrastination is my number 1 issue in all regards.

Schedule time for yourself like you would for anything else. For example, tonight I am going to get home around 7, go for a run, have some food, then 8-10 will be production time.

Of that production time, the first hour will be developing drum beat ideas I've had today, whilst after that it'll be sound design for a synth.

Also, turn off/unplug the Internet whenever possible.

Immerse wrote:Managing space, reverbs, and frequency clashes to avoid a muddy mix.

Use your ears on the obvious bits, spectral analyers on the less obvious bits. If you're having trouble isolating what is causing an issue, solo the channels one by one until you find the culprit.

Immerse wrote:Melodies, mine are painfully simple and relatively boring unless I get lucky when mashing my face on the keyboard.

Download a MIDI file of a melody from a song you know/like and load it into a synth. Analyse the melody and listen to it, watching how the notes affect the sounds you're hearing. 'Remix' the melody by moving bits around and listening to the changes it makes to the sound. Cannibalise some of the bits you've moved, chop them around some more, shift up an octave etc.

Immerse wrote:Consistency in mixdowns, it seems my levels are different every time.

Practice practice practice. If possible, try and mixdown and playback on as many different systems as you can. At the moment I've got;

- Studio monitors
- DJing headphones
- Sennheiser earbuds
- Panasonic stereo

Learn the different attributes of each system. Mixing down takes time to get right (unless you're lucky/exceptional) to begin with. If possible, keep a version of a track you've mixed down and are happy with to hand so you can A/B it against what you're currently working on. Is the standard decent? etc etc.

Immerse wrote:What sounds good and what looks good(spectrum). Ex: what frequency should i cut a midbass? 100hz? Fuck. Why is it that when I use an autofilter often times there is a large amount of sound where it shouldnt be? ie: 10-80hz in a midbass.

Ignore numbers, use your ears. If you're having trouble, put a parametric EQ and spectrum analyser on each track and fuck around with the EQ as you listen to the tune and 'watch' the changes in the spectrum. This is a learning curve and a fucking big one

Immerse wrote:Arrangement. I've convinced myself rusko is the king of arrangement, and thus played a big part in his success. His breaks are just long enough to keep you interested at all times.

Take a Rusko/whoever song you like. Load into an audio editor like Audacity. Slow that bitch right down to about 90/100bpm. Get your pen & paper out and 'count' the number of bars that each element/breakdown happens at and lasts for. Make notes. Transfer those notes over into a tune you've made. Try and 'reconstruct' the arrangement.

rockonin wrote:Mixdown Consistency

See above.

ljk32 wrote:Procrastination, like the OP.

Unplug the Internet, work to a schedule like it was homework or real work etc.

ljk32 wrote:Lack of creativity.

Watch a film, listen to an old album you love, go for a walk, cook some food, roll around on the grass...basically anything other than music. Carry a notepad with you at all times (or use your phone) to make notes on stuff that inspires you, whenever and whereever you find it.

ljk32 wrote:Not as much interest/fun as I should have in producing.

Don't think of it as producing. Open up your DAW or whatever and just dick around. Smash keys, make crazy 300bpm 4x4 drum loops with dBGlitch on the Master and laugh at how they sound when turned up. Reverse pitched down vocals with tons of reverb to make Justin Bieber sound like the devil. Laugh some more etc.

ljk32 wrote:Can't finish tracks.

Once you've got a decent 4/8/16/32/whatever bar loop, save it, save a new version of it and on that new version immediately try and turn it into a song as though you had those elements and nothing else to work with. Spread the elements out, have them build in quietly and then fade out. Doesn't have to be the most exciting track ever, but finish it with what you have and step back and look at it. Now focus on the arrangement and ask how you would change it if you could, or what element it needs to make it just a bit better.

See the notes above re; copying arrangement might help with this.

ljk32 wrote:Have never produced for over a 3 hour session or something, cause I get bored, but it's usually much less.

Take regular breaks same as you would for studying. 45mins of producing vs 15mins of not producing per hour. Walk around in the 15mins, have a conversation, channel surf, read a magazine article, have a cup of coffee. Just break it up so you're not thinking about it as 3hrs.

billybuxton wrote:Never finished a tune

billybuxton wrote:Arrangement

See above re; these. They are closely related.

billybuxton wrote:Serious self doubt

Listen back to the earliest tracks you did. Listen to what you're working on now. Is there an improvement? How much?

(FYI - I'm a firm believer that you should bounce EVERYTHING you work on for this purpose, nothing to raise the spirits like listening to a folder of old WAVs from 2006 and thinking "damn, I sucked...")

billybuxton wrote:Stuck in a certain way of doing things and find it very difficult to stray

Make a tune without any beats. Or a tune that is just vocal samples. Try one 'experiment' exercise a week where you force yourself to only use one element, or cannot under any circumstances touch another.

billybuxton wrote:Intro's

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... r#p2954870

billybuxton wrote:Drums

billybuxton wrote:Basslines

If you can't make them, sample them/use a preset. Then deconstruct that sample/preset. For example, say you've got a 4 bar drum loop from a tune you like, do the above mentioned technique of loading into an audio editor, slowing it the fuck down, and then making notes on the hit placement, then try and recreate it.

For a synth, pick a preset you like then backwards engineer it to see how the different parameters affect the sound.

Alternatively, if it's bassline notation you're having trouble with, loop the section of a track you like with a bassline and hum it in time with the playback. Make a note of how many hums you make and when you make them/how long they're held for.

Transpose your 'hums' into your piano roll (or whatever) and get the note placement/duration right. Then move the notes up and down the scale until you think they're roughly in the right place.

See the above notes re; MIDI file melody manipulation.

outdropt wrote:Main thing for me is sample hunting, i suck at finding good vocals/hits/atmosphere ect and i never have the patience

Grab a random CD/record/tape out of your collection when you next get in front of the computer. Listen through each track and try and find at least one usuable sample from each one. A drum hit/vocal/swooshy bit/whatever.

Done that with all the material in your collection? Go into a charity shop with £5/$5/5€/whatever and buy some music at random. Anything and everything (Barbara Streisand aside, but maybe not...?), buy it, take it home, have a cup of coffee/whatever and listen to what you've bought. Grab more samples.

If the stuff is good, keep it for future sampling. If not, go back to the charity shop, donate it back, and buy some more. Try and do at least one 'blind buy' every month or so. Learn about labels/sounds/artists you might not have ever heard of before. Keep an eye out for crazy shit.

You can take this one step further and try and make a song just out of these samples as these guys do;

wub wrote:"This documentary film by the dublab.com creative collective is an experiment in sound recycling. Secondhand Sureshots features four amazing, LA-based beat makers: Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G in a secret mission to create new musical magic from the dusty remains of thrift store vinyl."

Further reading here - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... o#p2865738

outdropt wrote:Making a drum arrangement that doesn't go stale.

See notes above re; arrangement.

outdropt wrote:Developing a none quantized grove.

Turn the snap off and place your hits where you think they should go. Alternatively, place your hits on the grid, turn the swing up to 70/90%, bounce out your percussion lines, then turn swing off for your kick and import the percussion as an audio loop (already swung).

I definitely need to work a lot more on my sound design, and probably read more into music theory.

wub wrote: You can take this one step further and try and make a song just out of these samples as these guys do;

wub wrote:"This documentary film by the dublab.com creative collective is an experiment in sound recycling. Secondhand Sureshots features four amazing, LA-based beat makers: Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G in a secret mission to create new musical magic from the dusty remains of thrift store vinyl."

Interesting stuff, but i can't help thinking it'd be easier to do an internet mp3 search as opposed to walking around stores in pink trousers looking for obscure records. Surely all this stuff is available online?

VirtualMark wrote:

wub wrote: You can take this one step further and try and make a song just out of these samples as these guys do;

wub wrote:"This documentary film by the dublab.com creative collective is an experiment in sound recycling. Secondhand Sureshots features four amazing, LA-based beat makers: Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G in a secret mission to create new musical magic from the dusty remains of thrift store vinyl."

Interesting stuff, but i can't help thinking it'd be easier to do an internet mp3 search as opposed to walking around stores in pink trousers looking for obscure records. Surely all this stuff is available online?

Not all music available on vinyl is available digitally. Also digital digging, whilst possible, is missing the point IMO. Part of buying blind is doing just that - if you can listen to the digital music as soon as you get it, it takes the fun out of it IMO.

I don't want this to turn into another analogue vs. digital discussion between the two of us, however

Cheers Uncle Wub

Wub is the fucking man. God damn, greatly appreciate all you do. I am really thinking of getting into tape/vinyl sampling.. Gonna do some reading and see if i can get myself an early Christmas present or two.

billybuxton wrote:Cheers Uncle Wub

outdropt wrote:Wub is the fucking man. God damn, greatly appreciate all you do. I am really thinking of getting into tape/vinyl sampling.. Gonna do some reading and see if i can get myself an early Christmas present or two.

For vinyl sampling setup this thread covers the basics - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=261806

For tape related stuff, Thinking Out Loud has a chunk of it (but you have to dig a bit) - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=239766

VirtualMark wrote:
Interesting stuff, but i can't help thinking it'd be easier to do an internet mp3 search as opposed to walking around stores in pink trousers looking for obscure records. Surely all this stuff is available online?

1. vinyl sampled to .wav is going to sound better than an .mp3
2. no, lots of music that only got a vinyl press hasnt been ripped and uploaded to the internet yet
3. picking up some random dollar bin records and sampling them (even though they probably wont contain any good samples) is going to make you a better producer than downloading an mp3 of something you heard before and already know what you're going to do with it.

wub wrote:I don't want this to turn into another analogue vs. digital discussion between the two of us, however

fair enough

Finishing stuff. I love the excitement of starting a new piece but lose enthusiasm over time. Rinse and repeat.

swerver wrote:Finishing stuff. I love the excitement of starting a new piece but lose enthusiasm over time. Rinse and repeat.

When you've reached the 'excitement life cycle' with a particular piece, bounce the track out as 4/8 bar stems for each element. That way if, for example, you had a quality percussion line, you have a copy of it saved and ready to drop into a new project if required.

Can also benefit the creative process to go back and 'remix' your own tracks from time to time using this process, for example substituting the percussion line (again using this example) of one track for another etc.

wub wrote:

swerver wrote:Finishing stuff. I love the excitement of starting a new piece but lose enthusiasm over time. Rinse and repeat.

When you've reached the 'excitement life cycle' with a particular piece, bounce the track out as 4/8 bar stems for each element. That way if, for example, you had a quality percussion line, you have a copy of it saved and ready to drop into a new project if required.

Can also benefit the creative process to go back and 'remix' your own tracks from time to time using this process, for example substituting the percussion line (again using this example) of one track for another etc.

Nice tips, thanks. I also need to get into a more professional mind-set, set myself realistic deadlines and approach it more as work (albeit enjoyable work) rather than just messing about

My shortcomings:
- Doubting that I will ever improve beyond the level I'm at
- Getting through a full song, usually I get half way and then stop with arrangement and work on sound design, which in turn stops my creative flow and I have a half done song that sounds pretty good
- Synth lead sound design
- Using reverb, delay, and stereo width to make my tracks sound full

Synthesis. I refuse to use non drum samples and feel like I have to create everything myself. It's rewarding once I get it right, but my skills just are not good enough to always get the sound I'm after.

@ everyone who says they never feel like they are going to get better. I remember reading an article with Marty Friedman (guitar player/ex-Megadeth) saying that its a completely natural as a guitar player to feel that you're skills are never good enough.

I do play guitar and every time I felt shitty about my playing I always thought about that quote. Obviously you don't need to play guitar to take inspiration from that. Basically just stick with whatever you're doing and you'll eventually get better.