A little bit of EQ here, a little bit of compression there. Add some reverb, delay or saturation. Use some side-chain compression or „opposed EQ‘ing“ (neologism, I guess haha^^). Sure, there are loads of tips & tricks to make your production sound bigger, fatter, tighter, more cleaned up and transparent. But without a good performance you could use any trick you want to ; in the end you might have a good sound, but lack of emotions.
Me personally, I‘m a big fan of a great sounding production. But if it doesn‘t fit the song and the feeling the artist wants to deliver, all the „magical“ production techniques don‘t matter at all.
I know some things now, still learning of course, but enough to have an opinion about „the magic“ that happens in the recording studio. No doubt, there are loads of technical engineering tricks and there‘s a lot more than I know. But I‘m telling you that you only need 2 things to make a great music production: 1) A great performance and 2) a pair of trained ears (and yes let‘s say some good speakers too, I agree). What I want for you, and that‘s the main reason why I‘m doing this whole thing with Sampleloader, is transpareny.
Of course, getting some cash for work you do is also a reason, to be honest with you here. Nothing is for free. And for those who don‘t know, music is art. And art is a craft. And it‘s not for free. Or does a carpenter build a table for nothing just because he loves doing it?
So my main intention really is to provide knowledge about producting music, at least what I got to know so far through my experiences as a music producer. As I am a fan of good sounding records, I would like to share some things I know. You might learn something.
Listen to the stuff I did ► https://benbladdisommer.com/#music
It doesn‘t sound that bad, does it? If I‘m completely wrong here, please let me know your feedback.
So, to get an insight of what you could do to make your music productions sound better, there are entire projects on Sampleloader you can get for a few bucks. It might inspire you and your work.
To sum it up and to come to the point here: There‘s magic in music. The production techniques are just physics. That‘s not „the magic“. The real magic comes from the musician that plays the guitar ; it is the artist that expresses her or his feelings ; it‘s all about a great performance, about emotions. That‘s what you can‘t buy. That‘s something you deliver or you don‘t. Without any emotion, there isn‘t any magic in music production. BEN BLADDI SOMMER