How many of you songwriters out there also produce and mix your own songs? If not, why and would you consider learning how to mix songs down the line?

[Talk To Bears Music]

Over time I learned how to mix my music to my liking. Having good monitors helps a good deal as well as knowing when to stop and give your ears a break. You can only do so much critical listening before you hit the point of fatigue and diminishing returns. 

 

As for a recording/mixing DAW, I've been a long-time Cubase user, always been very much at home with it. 

 

I've had things professionally mastered before and it taught me a lot as to what to listen for. Out of desire and necessity, I got some Ozone iZotope mastering software, just perfect for a non-technical person like me. It was well worth the purchase price. It has a ridiculous amount of presets that you can tweak to your liking. So far, I've been very happy with the results, the last ep I did "How Dare You In Front of Public" had the best final mastered sound I've gotten so far. 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Talk To Bears Music

[Glammerocity]

There's certainly nothing wrong with letting somebody else have a bash at mixing your stuff. I was always self-conscious about my voice, which was strong but not a tone that'd sell. Others thought differently and mixed it higher than I would've.

 

The important thing is to retain control if you can (a recording deal might not let you) and don't be intimidated by somebody's professional experience. See Sheryl Crow, who was disappointed with the over-production on her first album and made sure it didn't happen again, to her great benefit.

 

I recently posted a link to an online mastering tool, which was created with the help of Grammy-winning producers. So far I've only used it to see how my mix stacks up with what it's doing. It's an algorithm, not an actual producer, but I find it does a lot of loudness-boosting I don't want. It confirms my chorus loudness is fine (go, me) but it boosts quieter sections, which affect the dynamics. And it means when YouTube normalises an upload, the average loudness is higher, so the adjustment is bigger. However, the person who pointed me to it has little mixing experience so loves the results.