10 Things No One Tells You About Music Production - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

hello everybody hope you're doing marvelously well today we have the 10 things that no one tells you about music production hello everybody thank you ever so much for joining me these are the 10 things that no one tells you about music production I really wanna get stuck into these of course as ever subscribe but you can download the cheat sheet so I'll be around here or down there or both even so download the cheat sheet number one your first attempts I'm using production will not be good it's ok it is ok when I first started Oh my production stuff was absolutely atrocious and the biggest mistake I made was thinking I could make it great I needed to learn I needed to be creative I needed to try things out and instead I got stuck on one song for absolutely ages you need to move quickly try ideas keep being creative keep writing keep recording keep trying out new ideas getting stuck on one thing for enormous amount of time will just hold you back plus as your skill set grows you can always go back to those original songs you can open them up again and start muting all of those crazy overdubs that you did trust me I have been there so many times your first productions will always not be that good there is no magic bullet it's all about working on it and keeping the creative juices flowing spending hours on minutia will drive you absolutely nuts keep creative it's ok to suck I did and I still do number two no one creates at the highest level all the time it's acquired knowledge that gets me by most of the time what happens is I'll have a session for sometimes for only 3 or 4 hours and I have to do guitar overdubs maybe recorder a vocal and Tweaker mix in three hours before moving to another client and do something else we are usually multitasking three or four different things a day in order for me to do that I had to have a lot of acquired knowledge the idea that I have to wait to be creative it's just a fallacy it's one of those things as myths that are propagated that you sort of sit there and wait for the creative juices to flow the reality is is that this is a career choice so therefore it's a job and I love it I love it but I have to work hard at it and believing that the only time I can work is when I feel creative will mean I'll get nothing done it is definitely acquired knowledge so create regardless always create work through those times when you feel like you're not at your most creative I know what it's like to be sitting in a room and like working on a great groove and like putting down a bass line and really into it and you've got this funky idea that you want to put down and boom somebody walks in the room happens to me a lot happens to me when I'm working with artists and I'm trying to work on stuff I probably have done it to them and taken them out of the zone and it will destroy your focus you'll lose that focus and it might take you 10 15 20 25 minutes to get back to that place however that's life its life on life's terms you have to get used to that and the more you get through it the more you experience it the quicker you will bounce back to that place but none of us work at our most creative peak all the time we don't just turn it on like that so we have to work up to it you have to get to that zone the focus comes from being focused I know that sounds silly but if you've got lots of distractions going at all times then you're not really going to just concentrate on the guitar part if I can I'll have somebody run the Pro Tools for me because I want to just play guitar the setbacks are always going to come they're never gonna go away however the way you deal with it is just to focus on what you're doing and you'll get through it three you don't need to know everything in order to do music I know what it feels like when you go into a forum and I've see so many of those forums by so many quote-unquote experts that know how to do everything perfectly as hopefully you have seen when you watch me I make mistakes all of the time as George Bernard Shaw said a life making mistakes is not only a more honorable one but more useful than a life spent doing nothing the reality is is that when you do things when you create things you will make mistakes it is okay and the way that you learn is to make those mistakes you should be spending 80 percent of your time everybody talks about the 8020 rule well this use 8020 for this one spend 80% of your time making music spend 80% of your time producing writing playing whatever it is spend at that time and then spend the maximum of 20 percent of your time going online finding tutorials seeking out information and stuff and when you do seek out those tutorials seek them out for a purpose if you're working on something and you having an issue with drum mixing or recording acoustic guitar or something like that find video specifically for that find information for that don't get caught into that trap of just watching endless amounts of everybody's opinion on I don't know you know how to record a Peruvian sphincter flute that's a joke of something the point is it's like we cannot retain all this stuff the best way to retain information is for it to be purpose-driven you have a problem you go to solve it you find a tutorial you find Warren going I'll plug it in like this well me somebody else it doesn't really matter the point is you search out the information you need then you will retain it spend 80% of your time making music and when you make mistakes in doing that you will learn you will learn faster than anything else so you don't need to know everything in order to make music you just need enough to get started don't let yourself be held back because you're in a forum and an expert is telling you unless you're using this piece of equipment or that whatever then you can't make music that's absolute baloney NE da w worth of salt open it up you can make music to add further to that number for most of the tools that you think you need you don't need at all you just don't need them these days almost all of them have got some virtual instruments built in already they've got some kind of basic drum programming in there as well already plus EQ compression delays reverbs limiters you name it everything is built into your da w there's nothing stopping you from making great music once you get familiar with those tools then maybe you'll see some limitations of one or two things maybe you'll see something else maybe you're watching video somebody some somebody like me and go oh I like that that plug-in I think I'll try that out but the reality is is get to know the da W you have learn that inside out be familiar with it and then add to that a lot of the time I'm using a lot of stock things but when I'm not using stock things I'm using plugins that I have used for ages people come to me all the time ago why don't you use the latest this or the latest there and I'm like well there's fifteen different types of that and they're new ones coming out next week and I do love new plugins I do and I swap them out if I've got a specific sound for one I might find somebody else that makes a plug-in that does it a little differently however I've been doing this a long time and have a lot of acquired knowledge and I know when I want to improve on something because I've got used to using a lot of other equipment so get yourself into that situation a word I used earlier a phrase I used earlier was acquired knowledge you need to acquire the knowledge and the reality is is that you can make great music on your da W with stock plugins I've done mixes with stock plugins live streaming ones and many of my friends use 50 percent stock plugins and then just cherry-pick I know some guys that use a hundred percent stop plugins in there do W you don't have to have all the latest and greatest to make great music just get started number five knowledge is fantastic course it's fantastic but getting into the habit of working every day working on your music and your music production is the most important thing you can do it's great to search out all this information love it absolutely fantastic but like I was saying earlier you should be searching it out for a reason to improve skills focus your time and your energy on creating the habit of making music you're not going to get better unless you're actually working doing a lot of songs working a lot on a lot of different genres a lot of different styles within your honor will help you grow so much you gain knowledge by making music if you make music and you find you have a shortcoming then you go and search out a way of solving that particular issue something that's arisen that's how you get better so get into the habit of making music of producing music put that first that is the most important thing the knowledge will come as a result of doing that number six people are the most important thing create great relationships I cannot over stress this and do the things that you don't want to do they get you those relationships it's really difficult I know I'm this guy who's got this YouTube channel and I've made all lots of lovely wonderful records but the reality is is like I was super shy as child I had just a couple of friends and spent my life sitting in my parents bedroom playing the guitar and then when I left home super young I went and played in a band and sat in my bedroom practicing guitar in order to go and play the show and then went back to the bedroom and play guitar for I i wasn't mr. personality i did not hold up my hand i wasn't that guy and it took me a long time to get past that but what really improved my life was building relationships with people and further to that was embracing this embracing youtube embracing social media and getting myself out there having good relationships with people is really important if you're one of those guys or girls that leaves comments on just how superior you are and how you know best and you know you're one of those are you know the kids should be doing it this way and that's not right and blah blah blah you're not going to ingratiate yourself you know you want to be building relationships with people because there are many many people that can do what I do there are many many great guitar players there are many great bass players drummers programmers producers engineers mixers songwriters there's so many of them and when you're sitting there a person sitting there with their arms crossed complaining that John Fred or whatever their friend is doing so much better well I'll tell you why we work with the people we like there's 10,000 people running around at the moment that can do the job who do you work with you work with the one that understands you relate to you can communicate with you you can share ideas with who respects you and you respect them that is who you work with you work with the people you like so build relationships the great thing about what we do is you don't have to be mr. and mrs. personality you don't have to be absolutely woo all this kind of stuff you just have to be somebody that is able to communicate its humble and that is a really really really important trait to have so people are the most important thing in this business if you make music with a band you're gonna have to work with all the artists if you get signed to a record deal you got to deal with an A&R guy label manager you know you can have a publisher you're gonna have shows you can have torment the point is promoters you're going to meet a lot of people you need to be able to interact well with them so work on your relationships with people it is the most important thing and collaboration as a producer is huge if you don't sing who's gonna sing those songs you wrote so collaborate people are the most important part of what we do number seven you don't have to be unhappy to make great music you do not have to be unhappy to make music I think I used to believe and this goes on follows on from what we were just talking about I used to believe that I would have to sit in my bedroom like depressed playing songs in isolation writing from my heart feelings that nobody else would understand well you know what we all understand we all want to be loved we all love validation we all love it when people compliment us on what we do we are human beings we love to interact with each other we love the feeling of relating to each other and that doesn't come in isolation so yes there's a romanticism with people that are drug addicts or alcoholics and all this kind of stuff there's a lot of romanticism but if you look at the facts you look at guys like Dylan Thomas who wrote Under Milk Wood talk about writing now he became very famous after Under Milk Wood barely wrote another thing hardly wrote anything after that got into alcoholism and of course the rest is history he's one of my favorite writers I've read Under Milk Wood countless times I'm sure many of you loved his work so and that's true of artists and the list is so long of musicians that have died from drug addiction and alcoholism it's a horrible list but the reality is us over romanticizing this is not healthy just because you've read that some artists or producer you admire has gone through some kind of addiction doesn't mean you need to do it as well and happiness is not the cure for making great music you can enjoy us it's okay to love and enjoy what we do and trust me there are plenty of days where I walk into the studio and I'm battling with my artist to get something great and I don't have the best day but you know what I'm still blessed and I still made a dollar for my family and I still fed my family because what I do each and every day is do music for a living I do YouTube to help show you what it's like to actually do music but I'm not a professional or youtuber this is what I do I do music I'm here to tell you it's not a clinical perfect world with like a perfect YouTube thing here and my hair as we all know is not absolutely perfectly done and I'm not reading a script and I haven't spent all week making my youtube video I am just doing this to show you and talk to you about what it's like to actually be in the trenches and make music every day and I'm telling you it's okay to be happy it's okay to enjoy this and it's okay look it's all about before to build relationships and find other like-minded people what I love about our community the produce like a pro community is it's super super positive and we're all here to help each other there are you know occasionally people coming along and telling us they know best but you know what I don't know best I just know that each day I get up every morning I get up and I want to do this and I want to give back to you and I want you to learn from this experience number eight get good at your instrument but you don't have to be a virtuoso the reality is is like I love playing guitar if you watch my videos I play guitar all the time it's absolutely fantastic I love it it's wonderful and I play every day in each and every day and I play on all the stuff I produce I co-write all this kind of stuff Wow fantastic however I have so many friends that are great producers engineers and mixers and even songwriters guys and girls that are really really talented at their job and they play guitar like foon they can barely play four or five chords they're not virtuosos but they make amazing music so it's kind of a catch-22 because I do believe that being good an instrument will help you but don't think that you have to be good at an instrument to make music you don't you know I think of all of my favorite songwriters all of my favorite songwriters with only a handful of exceptions were just average musicians if I think of I don't call anybody out but you think of Dylan you know is Dylan a virtuoso guitar player is he note tapping we no I don't think so is no young Neron is a great guitar player don't get me wrong but is he like shredding is he like playing like weird jazz inversions no he's just writing great songs there are a couple of exceptions of course Tom Petty Tom Petty's famous quote was if I'd been a great guitar player I would have been a bad songwriter so I think it's important to grow all of your talents but don't let one talent or lack thereof one particular area hold you back into thinking you can't do another I do believe very strongly and being able to play an instrument however I know because I have so many great friends that are good at their jobs you don't have to be a virtuoso musician to be an amazing producer so get started if you don't yet play an instrument but you've got a da W and you can get a keyboard out and you can do some programming and start and you've got an ear just do it get started number nine work for your goals don't buy into this idea that your heroes just woke up one morning all geniuses I absolutely love Queen I talk about it all the time I like the Beatles I like Pink Floyd I like the WHO I like a lot of music I like a lot of mod mats I love Muse Muse are amazing do I believe that any of those guys or girls Joni Mitchell huge fan do I think that any of them woke up and just wrote the Queen right Bohemian Rhapsody when they were nine years old no they grew into that was 1975 that they made that album and those guys were in their late 20s they weren't 14 15 years old and they had been making records for a few years they had struggled to get a record deal together the Beatles great songwriters but if any of you read Malcolm Gladwell you'll know there's a great quote where he says the Beatles by the time they made their first album because of all of those long 12-hour shifts six seven days a week they were in Hamburg for months at a time he said the Beatles have played more shows up until that point when they made the first album then you too have done in their whole career the point is is like if you're playing 12 hours a day for three seven days a week and not only are they playing on those hours they're doing covers of some of the greatest songs ever written they're gonna be really great at their craft they didn't just wake up as genius as I go I'm gonna write Hey Jude that's not how it worked they worked really really hard so doesn't separate any of these artists into this s lon it just says one thing that you can be these people you can be that great at your job if you also do all of that work and not only doing the work but focusing the work like we were talking about earlier so do the work and focus it and you can do it I did not have a naturally good ear when I wanted to play music I loved music but I wasn't one of these kids that just picked up when I were just gonna tune the guitar oh that's perfect it wasn't me there was other kids around me that were just like far more quicker at picking stuff up that I were far quicker and so for me I had to work harder at it but of course within six months I was a lot better because I put hours and hours and hours into it those first six months my fingertips were bleeding every day but I wanted that it's I wanted it the drive the focus and pushing myself to get better was a bigger part of my development than anything else so this whole idea that there's all these geniuses running around and you'll never be one is just a myth it's a huge myth you can do this and you want you can do it whether you're 5 or 95 you can get better at what you do and to be honest if you're older you may also have that ability to be able to focus because you've trained yourself and you've learned so many things they say that when you're young you're a sponge of course you are when you're young and you don't have a huge amount of knowledge and you want to focus in it of course you're picking up super quickly but when you get older you also have the ability to be able to get to the point and focus because you've done so many of those things in your life so don't let age be an issue doesn't matter if you're super young or super old just get stuck in there and remember it's all about the work number 10 last but no means least number 10 good artists borrow great artists steal Oh case so this will start off a war of words here now I'm sure it well because there's all the obvious things in the late sixties bands like Led Zeppelin etc very famously took really really famous blues licks and blues lyrics and all kinds of things and rewrote the songs and we all know that bands before that blues british R&B bands were taking the blues from america they were taking folk songs people were taking all kinds of stuff but there's some even more obvious things than that for instance I was thinking the other day about John Lennon I'll be back and I'll be back is that a minor G F II and then he modulates and takes it to a major key and goes to a major and it bears a remarkable resemblance to Dell Shannon's run away so I went online type to delenn and John Lennon is talking about how he took the runaway chord sequence how he loved that idea of that descending a minor GF e Widow Sharon I think it was b-flat minor I was a semitone higher but he took that chord sequence where it then resolves to the major and rewrote another song over both the great songs Runaways of masterpiece I'll be back is a really great song but that is the point if something like that is going to spark off your creativity I'm not talking about taking somebody's record and literally stealing a piece of their song and putting it in your song but if you pick up an acoustic guitar and you hear something that inspires you then right away I mean so many great songs that are sparked from other ideas and also just think about how much better music it is when you listen to one genre and pull it into your own if you listen to metal and you do country you get one you get a new genre if you listen to hip-hop and you put it in the country you get something else if you listen to jazz metal you know Hawaiian folk music you name it the point is is like that blend taking ideas from different places and pulling together will the most amount of creativity so don't be afraid to try new stuff out don't get held back with people saying although it sounds like because by the time you've finished you'll have a new song and a new production it's an old phrase good artists borrow great artists steal alright thank you ever so much for watching have a marvelous time recording a mixing of course you can download the cheap seat around here and get a recap on all of this stuff thank you everybody here for being such an incredible community please leave a bunch of comments and questions below and I'll see you all again very soon [Music] [Music]

Channel: Produce Like A Pro

Views: 114,535

Keywords: Warren Huart, Produce Like A Pro, Home studio, Home recording, Recording Audio, Music Production, Record Producer, Recording Studio, 10 Things No One Tells You About Music Production, Music Cheat Sheet

Id: d3WYA7lk6G8

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018