.png){kind=small}
tips & tricks
solid advice from talented artists
Keegan Clark:
When picking out instruments to use in your compositions, make sure they complement one another in timbre and frequency. You want to make sure each instrument has enough room to shine in your mix. Using EQing techniques can mitigate this, but it’s always important to choose the right instruments off the bat.
Stereo separation and adding stereo wideness to your mix is also a good idea. Aside from your phasers and flangers that play with minuscule timing differentials and other things, a very common way to achieve stereo separation involves reverb, or other kinds of simulated acoustic and 3D manipulation. TL;DR get yourself some nice VST or live pedal filters that sound “wide”
Also compression. No matter what genre you make, it’s good to have at least some amount of compression to your master. To raise the over all perceived loudness, without clipping or peaking the loudest sounds. Now if you make electronic music, you can crank the compressor up pretty high and play with some side chaining. Meaning the loudest instrument in the mix reduces the volume of the other instruments that would otherwise be as loud as the loudest instrument when it’s not playing. Again, thanks to compression.
Which also takes us to mix leveling. Make sure to level all of your channels buses good relative to each other. For example: if you want the kick to punch through everything else, make that the loudest thing in your mix. And ofc leveling and frequency spectrums go hand in hand since each frequency on the frequency spectrum can have a higher level of high end relative to an otherwise louder instrument with less high end and more low to low mid range. That’s especially important to consider when mixing things like vocals.
Rob Ace Holmes:
Writing/performing
Remain true to yourself- it’s ok to go against the grain
Remain as consistent as possible with your writing
Develop a routine to give you proper time to focus on your craft (ex- work, gym, dinner write)
Read books to increase vocabulary
Minimize all distractions (TV, phone etc) in order to give the craft your undivided attention
It’s ok to throw away what you’re not feeling; writing comes with plenty of trial and error
Performing
Come Up With a set list of reliable music/pieces to perform
Practice often especially days prior to a gig/show (tip- in front of the mirror helps plenty, you can study your mannerisms )
Attend a variety of shows and open mics to see how your material is received with different audiences
Ensure you have time to network and build relationships with fellow creatives; is about far more than the mere performance.
Remixedcat
First and foremot HAVE FUN!! If it gets to the point of agony - stop! Get some help! get a friend to help yah out!
Try a few DAWs but don't bog yourself down. I suggest going with one that matches your music's genre! Bitwig/ableton for EDM/trance, FL studio seems best for hiphop, Pro tools for adult contemporary, Logic for mainstream, etc. I use Bitwig cuz it's The best for experimental stuff because you can make synths in the grid!
Once you find that DAW you vibe with GIT GUD! get a good feel of it and don't be afraid to explore and have fun with it! Also don't feel bad if you need to watch a tutorial either!
Don't overthink your plugins! Using too many will bog down your project and your system resources! Try to minimize the amount of plugins you use and if possible chain them together vs having instances on each track!
Once you've gotten the hang of your DAW you need to optimize your system to get the most out of it, close any BG tasks you don't eed and set your CPU governor/power setting to performance mode. I use Linux so I get cpu-power-gui and it allows me to turn off power saving mode on my CPU so I get more power! In windows it's within the power settings applet on your taskbar. On mac you'll need to google that one because I only have access to hackintosh and my nvme I have for that isn't installed in this computer
6)Sta away from Distrokid, they screw over so many artists and they take music down that is legitly succeeding and they claim you are botting streams and they dodge paying out anyone. Very shady biz. They take 10 evers to pay out too! They are the worst distributor.
I recommend Record Union Because they've been pretty good and deliver quicker and pay quicker than distrokid!
Do not listen to other music influecer's social media tactics, they are trying to eliminate competition (you!) so they intentonally feed misinformation! They will tell you tacitics that are supposedly gonna get you viral but instead those tips get you shadowbanned!
Don't release too much on friday cuz you're competing with the big names
Don't fall for scamers claiing to work at "the source" "BET" "mixmag" "dancing astronaut" ,etc that only have under 1000 followers and they DM you n try to scam you! Also NEVER PAY FOR PLAYLIST PLACEMENT!!!
MixRPD
The accuracy of what you hear when you mix affects every decision you make.
​
Monitoring is the most important thing to get right
You can use headphones or studio monitors, but it's not as simple as just buying the most expensive equipment you can afford.
​
The reality is, even the most expensive speakers and headphones don't sound completely neutral.
​
Headphones of all sorts tend to be a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of frequency response, especially in the low and high end of the spectrum.
​
Headphones DO isolate you from the environment you are in though (your room) which is the main factor with speakers.
​
The specific numbers don't really matter, but when you place speakers in a room, approx 50% of what you hear from them is determined by the acoustics of the room itself.
​
You need to reference A LOT of music that you know really well. Listen on your studio system and really learn how music translates through the headphones.
​
Another tool that can really help flatten out headphone frequency response is headphone correction software.
Several companies make software that evens out headphone response.
Doc Red Eye
Be Organized from the Start – It’s hard to clean up after you’ve been on fire for a year. Create folders, label sounds, and keep your sessions tidy so you can move faster later.
Document and Record Your Process – Capture your progress with notes, screenshots, or behind-the-scenes clips. Not only does it help you reflect and grow, but it also gives you free content to share.
Stay Consistent – Don’t give up when things slow down. I stopped three times over three decades, and every pause cost me momentum. Keep creating — even small steps stack up over time.
Use What You Have – You don’t need a $5,000 studio to make heat. A free program, an old PC, and some downloaded samples can still spark fire if your creativity is real.
Experiment Without Fear – Cut, splice, reverse, stretch — mess things up on purpose. Some of the craziest accidents become your signature sound.
Learn Your Tools Deeply – Whatever DAW you use (FL, Acid, Magix, Suno), push it to its limits. Mastering one setup often beats knowing a little about everything.
Save Everything – Even if a beat feels trash today, you might hear it differently in a year. Old projects can be recycled, flipped, or inspire something brand new.
Trust Your Ear Over Rules – You don’t need music theory to make something that knocks. If it feels good to you and moves your spirit, that’s the only approval you need.
Tap Into Free Resources – There are endless royalty-free kits, plugins, and tutorials online. Use them. Community knowledge is a cheat code.
Have Fun & Let the Inner Child Out – Don’t overthink. The best beats come when you’re curious, playful, and fearless about sounding “weird.” Freedom creates art.
Ears & Tails:
Pick one DAW. Each DAW has its fans. Its pros, its cons. The fact is, the people making great music are using every different DAW out there. The thing they have in common is that they know their DAW very well because they have a lot of experience with it. Don't get caught up in DAW elitism or gatekeeping online. Pick one that feels right to you and stick with it.
Look at your song (and others) in the frequency spectrum. Preferably a 2D frequency spectrum heatmap, with time as the X axis. Notice how "clean-sounding" songs have more empty space. Sharp, "clean" instruments draw bright lines at narrow frequency bands (sometimes with bright harmonics at higher bands). Meanwhile, distortion guitar, cymbals, and other "fuzzy" sounds fill the spectrum. There's nothing inherently better or worse about leaving empty space. It only depends on what kind of sound you like. What kind of sound are you going for? Do your samples paint the spectrum accordingly?
Avoid clipping by subtractive mixing. You might think you want more bass or louder drums, so you turn them up. But then they start clipping and sound awful. Instead of turning the drums up, try turning everything else down (which makes the drums louder, by comparison). Remember, you can't control the volume people listen at. They're going to turn their own master volume knob, anyway.
Sidechaining. If you have drums and bass competing for attention in the low frequency spectrum, learn the sidechaining features of your DAW. Moreover, the concept of sidechaining is worth understanding, because you can apply it to other parts of the spectrum to avoid sounds that clash. For example, when certain vocals and melody might occupy the same midrange frequencies, you now understand to avoid overlapping those sounds. Play those vocals without melody; then play melody without vocals. Let them take turns. Not only is the sound clearer, but also you can create a nice conversation between singer and instrument -- a natural back-and-forth, trading focus, like when two people love each other very much...
Always be learning, but try to learn one thing at a time. Challenge yourself to learn one new feature or plugin of your DAW. Build something that sounds cool using that feature. Combine that with everything else you already know to build a song. Congratulations! You now have a new tool in your toolbox of skills. And a song. Repeat forever.
Make the same thing many different ways. For example, try different instruments on the same sequence of MIDI notes. Or try different filters or envelopes on it. If you find two (or more) variations that sound good, play them simultaneously and experiment with fading back and forth between them for a sensual, organic, evolving sound. This is another way to build a conversion between sounds that share the same part of the frequency spectrum.
Lyrics don't have to be grammatically correct. Sentences with no verb. Acting without subject. It's ok to break all the rules because the only thing that matters is: Does it sound good?
Look up "iamb" and "trochee" on wikipedia. Think about how that might apply to your vocals. Also to your instruments. Play with volume and rhythmic emphasis. Learn the volume automation features of your DAW. Expand from there to learn what else you can automate.
Clean up the frequency spectrum. If your 2D frequency spectrum heatmap shows quiet "noise" in certain places (for example, faint broad-spectrum high frequency hiss in the vocal track), clean that **** up. Good tools for targeting noise in the frequency spectrum are: EQs, notch filters, high and low-pass filters, noise/reverb reduction plugins, noise gates, and your DAW's noise reduction features. You can surgically operate on problematic areas by clipping them out (in time), then dividing the clip into frequency bands using high and low-pass filters. For example, clipping out a 2-second segment, then copying that segment into 2 tracks. High-pass filtering the 1st track at 2kHz (or whatever); low-pass filtering the 2nd track at 2kHz (same). Then surgically operate on the problematic high-pass filtered 2s segment with another EQ, gate, notch filter, or whatever works. You can recombine the tracks and clips when you're done, but you don't necessarily have to.
Hot Take: Nothing is sacred. Everything is a sample once it's in the DAW. Guitar samples don't have to be played like a person playing guitar. The beauty of electronic music production is that you can make "acoustic" instruments do physically impossible things. Do not restrict yourself to the physical limits of reality, to the arbitrary "rules" of a genre, or to anything you've heard before. Hats can't pitch bend, and a human can't play 18 keys on a piano simultaneously -- but you can! Do your own thing. Take advantage of your tools. If you discover something that sounds cool to you, run with it. Have fun!
With love,
Ears & Tails
Chad
Being a dedicated indie artist is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. But it’s also one of the most rewarding. You’ll experience disappointment, criticism, and countless haters. But if you work hard enough, the rewards are a blessing: getting praise for your music, meeting fellow musicians, and of course the pure joy you get from creating. I want you to succeed, and I want to help you with that. Here are my tips:
Give everything you do your all. Being a perfectionist is tough, but making bad music is tougher.
Take all the feedback you get with a grain of salt. Some people are full of love and wisdom, and some people are full of hate and judgmentalism. Choose who you listen to wisely.
I’m not very focused on making beats, so I won’t go over that. But when selecting a beat, make sure it hits you the right way. Thinking about writing to it should give you goosebumps.
When it comes to writing lyrics, be as creative as possible. I like to see it as piecing together a beautiful puzzle. Every word is a little piece you need to find a home for.
Recording should be a fun experience. If you’re not enjoying it, the listener can tell. And you can have just as much fun performing an angry song as a happy one.
If you can, pay someone to mix and/or master. There are AI services that do it, but they’re mediocre at best. You get what you pay for.
When it comes to launch, hype up your music as much as possible without being annoying, This is a really tough thing to balance, but if you make it fun others are going to have fun with it.
After your music comes out, sprinkle promo into your posts. A good rule of thumb is to post about life three times then post about your music and then repeat.
You’re not likely to make much money off your music unless you get tons of streams. And it takes a lot of work to get there. And as I said, prepare to be disappointed. But also prepare to be happy.
Hope that all helps. Have a great day, and let’s go be free!
Tyler Hotep
Don't stress, let it flow... The creativity will come.
​
Let the beat talk to you. It will tell you what to say.
​
Believe in your process.
​
Study others who have done what your trying to do. Learn from there failures so you don't make the same mistakes they did.
​
Get in your zone whatever that may be. Jog, meditate, smoke weed, whatever gets your creative juices flowing.
​
Consistency on social media goes along way. Consistently post new content. Your group will find you and love you.
​
Get around creative people. A wise man once said, If your around 4 rich people you will eventually become the 5th. Birds of a feather flock together.
​
Don't get discouraged or be too hard on yourself. Don't kill your own creativity.
​
Don't be afraid to be used. If you can't be used by someone else you are useless. Learn to network and build with like minded people.
​
Don't give up. The only thing that can stop you is you. Give yourself the opportunity to succeed.
Paulo
​
Be yourself and not fake anything. Speak from the heart
​
Practice practice practice
​
Embrace rejection, learn and grow
Remember that it takes a long time to actually find your voice
​
-Learn from others. Observe, but do not copy or mimic
​
Get out there and perform wherever you can. It’ll boost your confidence
​
When writing, be relatable to the average person. One example could be referencing pop culture
​
Stay up to date on the trends in the industry
spend every minute you can writing and practicing. Get your 10,000 hours
​
Write for you and what you like. That will make you genuine, stand out with your own identity, and people will eventually catch on