What I've learned so far from self-producing my upcoming EP..

[Mahesh]

Hey everyone, I’ve been producing my upcoming EP in my home studio, and as someone who’s really learning to produce, I’ve had some revelations along the way! Sooo, I thought I’d share a few key things I’ve picked up while working on this project  Most of these might be things that have been already stated or known, but these are some things that have directly influenced my current creative process. Maybe it will prompt you to think differently (or reinforces your choices!) with whatever you are working on right now...

 

1. Don’t get lost in the rabbit hole of “perfect sound.”

 

It’s so easy to get stuck in the endless search for the right EQ trick or production hack, especially when you’re in the middle of arranging or writing. I found myself deep-diving into YouTube tutorials and getting carried away for so many hours, only to realize I wasn’t actually coming up with new ideas.  Which is why it’s so important to step back and avoid over-focusing on minor details that distract from the creative process.

 

 

2. Stock & free plugins for the win!

I’ve learned that it’s not about having fancy gear but understanding what each plugin is actually doing to your audio signal and what YOU want to do to your sound with that knowledge. Once I grasped that, I realised I didn’t need to look beyond stock and free plugins. They get the job done just fine. (Thanks Finneas O'Connell and Bon Iver, your interviews did help see this better)

 

 

3. Combining sounds to create something new..

I’ve found that sometimes layering two or even three different instruments together can result in something unique—almost like you’ve created a new instrument entirely. It’s a fun way to experiment and discover unexpected textures in your production.

 

 

4. To be or not to be a traditional band setup...

Early on, I thought every production needed to follow the typical band arrangement—drums, bass, guitar, etc. But I’ve learned that sometimes using sounds as their own instruments or arrangement choices can work just as good. You can create rhythmic elements and textures without sticking to a full band setup. It’s really about using the sounds themselves to drive the arrangement and mood of the song!

 

 

5. Vocals can be tricky!

Vocals have been one of the more frustrating parts of production for me. I’ve found that layering and doubling tracks (DTs) really help, but stereo widening, which I thought would add more depth, has been a bit of a pain. (And this holds true regardless of the instruments) I’ve run into phase issues, which made me realize that stereo widening isn’t always the best solution. But width & body can surely be had! I've been keeping things simple - 3 lead vocal takes that are panned hard left, hard right and center - adds so much depth and body to the lead vocals. Any harmonies are also DT'd to go left and right. I'm choosing to keep my center lead vocal track dry while the quieter DTs on both sides to be the one that is being used for reverb bus sends. 

 

 

Those are just a few things I’ve been grappling with, but I’d love to hear from you all!  Any tips or tricks you’ve found to keep yourself grounded and creative while producing? I'll keep adding as I progress with the EP production. 

[john]

6 hours ago, Mahesh said:

It’s so easy to get stuck in the endless search for the right EQ trick or production hack, especially when you’re in the middle of arranging or writing. I found myself deep-diving into YouTube tutorials and getting carried away for so many hours, only to realize I wasn’t actually coming up with new ideas.  Which is why it’s so important to step back and avoid over-focusing on minor details that distract from the creative process.

 

Absolutely. One of several reasons why I split my time into experimentation/learning time and applied learning time, where I try as best I can to avoid free experimenting, but instead focus on maintaining a flow of creative ideas realised using the knowledge and skills I have already accumulated at that point.

 

6 hours ago, Mahesh said:

I’ve learned that it’s not about having fancy gear but understanding what each plugin is actually doing to your audio signal and what YOU want to do to your sound with that knowledge. Once I grasped that, I realised I didn’t need to look beyond stock and free plugins. They get the job done just fine. (Thanks Finneas O'Connell and Bon Iver, your interviews did help see this better)

 

There are times when you need to buy new gear or a new library, but in general working with what you have and making it work is far more engaging creatively and can see you coming up with unique, original solutions. Shiny paper syndrome is a perfect example of what you describe, where music makers never learn to get the most out of their set up, never really learn how to overcome problems. Instead they seek to shortcut the process and buy their way forwards. Need a new sound, buy a library. Need an effect and there’s no preset in your existing set up… buy a new effect with new presets. You end up knowledge limited and a slave to buying new purchases that you never really learn how to get the most out of.

 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not “Don’t buy new gear” It’s “Be more considered”.

 

7 hours ago, Mahesh said:

I’ve found that sometimes layering two or even three different instruments together can result in something unique—almost like you’ve created a new instrument entirely. It’s a fun way to experiment and discover unexpected textures in your production.

 

Absolutely. See my response above.

 

8 hours ago, Mahesh said:

Early on, I thought every production needed to follow the typical band arrangement—drums, bass, guitar, etc. But I’ve learned that sometimes using sounds as their own instruments or arrangement choices can work just as good. You can create rhythmic elements and textures without sticking to a full band setup. It’s really about using the sounds themselves to drive the arrangement and mood of the song!

 

Ah, the blinkers come off and a whole new world awaits! Soon you’ll start making percussion from body noises and other instrumentation from other found sounds! I not even kidding, that’s one of the destinations that my experimentation took me! Lol

 

More seriously, that’s the same mentality that using beat boxing comes from.

 

That last line is a key learning moment, though I’d reverse that to have the mood/emotion of the song drives the search for sounds with the openness of using a “found sound” mentality. It frees you up to look in unusual places. In reality you spend time outside sessions noting interesting sounds that you might use, if not now, then some day on another track. You build a personal library of interesting sounds, much like your notepad of interesting phrases or your notes recorder on your phone with melody ideas. To me it just rounds out the process and completes the circle.

 

8 hours ago, Mahesh said:

Vocals have been one of the more frustrating parts of production for me. I’ve found that layering and doubling tracks (DTs) really help, but stereo widening, which I thought would add more depth, has been a bit of a pain. (And this holds true regardless of the instruments) I’ve run into phase issues, which made me realize that stereo widening isn’t always the best solution. But width & body can surely be had! I've been keeping things simple - 3 lead vocal takes that are panned hard left, hard right and center - adds so much depth and body to the lead vocals. Any harmonies are also DT'd to go left and right. I'm choosing to keep my center lead vocal track dry while the quieter DTs on both sides to be the one that is being used for reverb bus sends. 

 

Here’s a trick I like to use:

 

You can create this with 2 or 3 takes. Explained here for acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies  when using slapback delay to create a 2nd take but using high and low pass filters to give you high frequencies panned left and right with low frequencies in the center:

 

 

But absolutely works for lead vox and for DTs (without the need for a slap back)

 

Use a high pass on each of the DT vox and pan left and right Use a copy of one of the vox via a low pass in the center. Low frequencies are harder to place within the stereo spectrum, but much easier to cause phase cancellation than high frequencies. This way you have something like:

 

Vox 1 (HF) hard left

Vox 2 (HF) hard right

Vox 2 (LF) (or Vox 1 LF or Vox 3 LF) center

 

also here:

 

As you can see here i mentioned setting the HF/LF split point between 400Hz and 800Hz, but worth experimenting up to 2K. As above this works for simulated DT using slapback or genuine recorded DTs.