Share your beginners mistakes.

[slatepipe]

using a crack of Live 3 which stopped working a day after i dd my first ever gig in 2004. it could have been worse i guess. but it gave me the kick i needed to buy the full version

i still have no idea what that blue hand is

[timday]

When I first started mixing I had no real idea what compressors did so I just didn't use them, and barely used EQ. I just worked with the levels and volume automation. It took ages to get anything right and then I wondered why everything was so super quiet.

The thing is, I came back to those mixes a year or so back, and the actual mix quality is pretty good because, I think, I was taking so much time getting the levels right not just slapping compression on things. I've kind of gone back to using compressors as little as possible (helps that a lot of synth sounds don't actually need compression) and I think my mixes sound better for it.

[doghouse]

Not understanding how record arming interacts with the monitoring switch.

Not understanding how to get a track to record in arrangement mode.

[login]

1.- Start learning production before Music theory
2.- Not learning to play an instrument
3.- Not engaging with a single instrument and go deep with it.
4.- Trying the never ending flow of plug ins. Limits are important.

For any beginner interested in synthesis today it would be a mistake not to get Syntorial.

[lapieuvre]

Back then I used Sonar, and all my projects were in the same folder, and all the audio files in 1 Audio folder. One day I discovered the "Clean Audio files" function. So I deleted all the unused audio files... Lost all my projects! (except the one I was working on)

[Stromkraft]

• Not understanding the importance of gain staging to get better clearer mixes.
• Thinking all the native synths in Live Suite surely would give me the possibilities I crave.
• Not initially trusting my own judgement about what devices I like and don't like.
• Not reading the manual (Seriously, it's great even if not complete)
• Not fully understanding the differences between Session and Arrangement, nor what the latter could mean for my creativity.

[Warmonger]

1. Think you're smarter than you really are.
2. Be not open to new ideas, techniques or styles.

I can say that now since my 20th track if finally going to be released.

[mekanism1200]

Getting too excited after making a song and posting it to soundcloud thinking its great, then listening to it the next day and realizing its shit!

Learn to EQ! Learn to compress, but not over compress!

The biggest thing I learned recently was using metering to see when sounds were occupying the same frequencies, and being able to see the results of Eq and compression on a clipped signal. Sometimes using the visual tools can help a lot for less trained ears.

[Tarekith]

Many times the visual tools are exactly HOW you train your ears too.

[evon]

I think my best tracks were done when I just started using Live. Probably, I depended more on my inherent musical abilities and less on all the plugins or the DAW itself. So I am probably making more mistakes now than then.

[CheekoStick]

Consolidating the midi clip after I make a change to it. It's very overwhelming with the loop marker start/end point after you on a midi loop over 8 bars.

[BoddAH]

When I first started out I thought the “Init" option(Init: short for Initialize) was a designer patch that came with the synthesizer. I always thought the patch sounded like crap but that didn´t deter me from trying it on one of my songs.

You could have invented an entirely new genre.

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