Ableton Forum

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.

nice idea for a topic


things that spring to mind which i guess i dont see as mistakes anymore but part of the process — and in no particular order

- volume faders on live’s mixer down low and volume on audio interface up high

- not using send and returns for reverbs (i was using god knows how many reverb effects with different settings on various tracks which created mud)


- not defining a workflow - a structure - i don;t believe in doing tonnes of courses etc - but i’ve done only one course to see what it would be like, the quantize course with keith mills and it totally changed things in this area and made a massive difference in my ability to finish tracks

- being to perfectionistic with songs and never feeling that tracks were good enough to be considered the finished article - finishing a track is very good practise - for me it meant being go into the next track with the mentality that i was capable of finishing a track - the quantize course also helped with this

- not knowing how gain staging works -again i learnt this on the quantize course

- watching too many “how to” video’s instead of doing …

BUYING TOO MANY THIRD PARTY PLUG INS BELIEVING THEY WERE GONNA HELP ME MAKE BETTER TRACKS !! i ‘ve got quite a collecting of ones that i don’t use

- christ .. i ll stop here - once you start listing these it’s hard to stop

I used to compress and multi-band compress everything even though I barely understood how they worked. Things got 10x better when I stopped doing that

haha - yes me too

everything had to have an eq on it - and eq-ing things without listening to how it sounded with the rest of track

in fact maybe the biggest mistake or lesson - for me anyways

NOT SPENDING TIME MIXING WITH MY EYES CLOSED !! -

again something i got from the quantize course

buzby wrote:- watching too many “how to” video’s instead of doing …

OMG This x1000. Actually, I would expand it to "having the internet available when making music." Most commercial web sites are specifically designed to capture your attention and give you little hits of dopamine to keep you coming back. This is not something you want to try to fight when making music. Pull the plug and just play. Make your own mistakes. Watch videos or visit forums and web sites later.

--
Moose

the irony is moose - im now making some of these vids ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbAC5x1wgL0

buzby wrote:the irony is moose - im now making some of these vids ....

HA! Yes, some well done videos, I might add. Even more ironic: "the internet is a trap"

Tracking out too loud was a big one for me.

I was always so close to no headroom I ended up making bad compromises and often had pretty bad mixes (Not to say my current mixes are that great but they are a lot better than my old stuff).

buzby wrote: HA! Yes, some well done videos, I might add. Even more ironic: "the internet is a trap"

thanks moose .... really appreciate the feedback

haha - i spend less and less time on the world wide web

I enjoyed being a beginner, so I can't really say I regret anything. Here are some things I'd say to other beginners though:



1. Feeling overwhelmed by your lack of skill? Make something silly or intentionally bad. It's fun and you'll learn something. Record friends' voices and play them at a lower pitch - always a good laugh at parties.

2. There's usually more good ideas and fun in 20 one hour sessions than in one 20 hour session. Perfectionism is alluring, but the truth is that you'll get way more out of just messing around.

3. Open your mind to all kinds of music. Country, metal, waltz, noisecore, reggeaton, "Die Woodys - Fichtl's Lied", etc. There's something (good and bad) to learn from every genre.

4. Make music to get inspired, don't wait to be inspired to make music.

ObtuseMoose wrote:

buzby wrote:- watching too many “how to” video’s instead of doing …

OMG This x1000. Actually, I would expand it to "having the internet available when making music."

I start sometimes watching some "how to" video and 1 hour later find myself ended up watching an alligator eating peacock.
Internet is a trap and youtube is a bigger trap inside trap.

not collaboratin with other producers -i was stuck in my square meter. With the years I learnt the benefits of having other people in my studio, learning from each other.

It took me a relatively long time to fully understand the way arrange and session views communicate with each other, how to use one track's arrange view while looping a clip from session, etc. Or more so, trying to figure out why something was still playing from session view even though I was in arrange view now

and also the way the orange re-enable automation button works.

Oh this made me remember:
when recording things into A. wiev from S. wiev i used to think actual audiofiles is being written..
Like conventional DAW.. Because it looks like this when you record.
So i avoided this use long time (to save HD space )

Always boosting EQ to shape a sound rather than ever trying to subtract to make a sound better. When I tried "addition by subtraction" my sound improved.