June 17, 2025 • 37 mins
Ever wondered why your mixes don’t sound professional, even with decent gear and endless YouTube tutorials? In this episode, Marc Matthews and Tim Benson, AKA Aisle9, reveal the overlooked production habits that separate amateur mixes from polished tracks.
Discover how using reference tracks, including your own successful work, can instantly level up your sound. The duo also expose their most cringeworthy recording mistakes, from misaligned mics to monitor mishaps, underscoring why getting things right at the source is critical.
You'll also learn the workflow most producers ignore: poor project organisation. Marc and Tim share practical tips on track naming, grouping, and DAW session structure that boost efficiency, and no new gear is required.
Whether on your first track or your fiftieth, this candid, tip-packed conversation will help you overcome common mixing hurdles, avoid overprocessing, and finally achieve that clean, professional sound you’ve been chasing.
Tune in to transform your studio sessions and start producing music that truly translates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marc Matthews (00:00):
And this is also an argument for AI as well.
If you're using any sort ofassisted mastering, something
along those lines is todeconstruct it why have they
done that?
And then try and emulate it.
Or, like you mentioned thereabout if you've got a favorite
producer, a mix engineer, amastering engineer, and they've
said they've done this to getthis result, then you could
(00:22):
follow similar steps with yourown mix or production, because
you want that particular sound,but you're not copying verbatim
their settings.
You're just following theprocess, which I think is a
great way of doing it.
Tim Benson (00:36):
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with
your host, Mark Matthews.
Marc Matthews (00:40):
Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for
music creation and production.
Whether you're crafting yourfirst track or refining your
mixing skills, join me each weekfor expert interviews,
practical tutorials and insightsto help you level up your music
and smash it in the musicindustry.
Let's dive in.
Hey folks, welcome to Insidethe Mix.
(01:04):
Hey folks, welcome to Insidethe Mix Again.
Today, or rather in thisepisode, I'm joined by Tim
Benson, aka Aisle9.
And we are answering yourquestions again, or a question,
rather, and this particularquestion was submitted by a
listener and I've paraphrased itdown to what are the common
mistakes to avoid in musicproduction?
(01:28):
If you do have a question thatyou would like us to hash out on
the podcast, click thespeakpipe link in the episode
description and leave us amessage.
Hey, marketing, my question isxyz.
You can find me, and it's alsoan opportunity for you to give
yourself a shout out.
You don't need a speakpipeaccount.
All you need is your mobilephone.
(01:50):
Uh, really easy to do is justleaving an audio message, and
one lucky person each month willwin a coffee voucher.
So welcome back, tim.
How are you?
I'm, I'm good thanks.
Tim Benson (02:04):
Yeah, yeah, we're busy releasing stuff and busy
doing all my normal sort ofmixing and mastering.
Yeah, all good.
Marc Matthews (02:15):
Indeed busy times , so if you've ever felt stuck,
overwhelmed or unsure why yourtracks aren't quite hitting the
way you want, then this episodecould well be for you.
Folks, we're going to betalking about some common traps
that music producers, frombeginners to experienced, might
fall into, stuff that we'veexperienced as well, and I think
(02:37):
I'll start off with mine, and Ithink this goes back to when I
started music production inparticular and it's something
that I've probably bleated onabout on the podcast numerous
times and that is the use ofreference tracks.
And I say this to artists Iwork with, particularly in
coaching as well a lot is to usereference tracks, not only in
(03:00):
mixing, I find, and essentiallyin mastering well, but also in
the actual production side ofthings as well, and I do this a
lot, and I wish I started doingthis when I first started
creating music, rather than sortof create it in a vacuum.
I now have a Spotify playlistwhich has a list of playlist,
(03:21):
funnily enough, of songs thatI've heard, and I think you know
I quite like the sound of ofthat.
I'd like to do something in thatparticular style.
Then when I move on to that anda new project, I then use that
as a reference, whether that'sin terms of the actual structure
of the track, maybe thearrangement, the sound design,
whatever it may be, and that hashelped me no end in terms of
(03:42):
production.
But it's something I wish thatsomebody had stressed to me the
importance of way back in thebeginning, and that is using
references and reference tracksand not trying to do things in a
vacuum, and I think that'sparticularly important from a
home studio perspective, whereyour monitoring environment
might not be the best, might notbe perfect, so you can have
(04:05):
that reference track that youknow is of a high quality and
you know sort of what the soundis that you're aiming for.
You can replicate that usingyour particular setup, but
that's my one would bereferences, something that I
wish somebody had again stressedto me when I was starting out.
Tim Benson (04:24):
I think that's a really good one.
Actually it's one, bizarrelyenough that I think I, you know,
I think there was a time whereI used reference tracks a lot.
I sort of got out the habit ofit, um, probably because I'm
sort of used to doing this, doit so much, but but I've been
using it a bit again recently,and so I think the skill is also
(04:47):
trying to find a referencetrack that's a really good match
for your style or track.
Sometimes that can be quitetricky, actually, you know, but
if you can find a good referencetrack or maybe even sometimes
you can even use your own track,say, you do a track and it
comes out really well and youfind that it goes down well with
(05:08):
other people.
It comes out well, soundingbalanced in nice, you know all
the different places, you listento it and you think like yeah,
that, I got that right that timethere's no harm in using that
as a bit of a referencesometimes, because it you know
you can reference how loud thebass is or how bright it is or
whatever, to that track, if, if,if you know, if you can't find
(05:32):
another track that's more sortof you know better, uh, sort of
representative of what you'redoing, so you know that could be
useful yeah, I think, usingyour own references.
Marc Matthews (05:41):
I'm glad you mentioned that because it's it's
something that I do and I thinkit's particularly important
when you are releasing or atleast using it.
I have like references and thencompare tracks, um, and then
the I often use well, inmastering the compare track is
me comparing it to the originalmix, but with the reference.
In particular, if I'm releasinganother song and it's part of a
(06:02):
collection of songs, I mighthave more than one reference in
terms of and do what you saidthere as well.
I'm using my original song as areference as well, so you've
got some continuity in sound.
It's not just two songs that,although well-produced,
well-mixed, well-mastered, theymay not sound like they've come
(06:24):
from the same collection.
And if you're doing an album inparticular, you want some
consistency in sound acrossthose songs.
I think also to add to that aswell is, if you are using
references, to make sure they'rehigh fidelity as well, don't
just grab.
Don't use a dodgy MP3.
Yeah, some dodgy MP3 that'shissing at you throughout the
(06:44):
entire session like a snake, anasp, hissing at you throughout
the whole thing.
But, yes, references.
Tim Benson (06:51):
Yeah, if I was to chip in another one then.
So if we do a different one,common mistakes I would say a
common mistake is to sort of notpay enough attention to the
recording.
Say, particularly if you'redoing a performance, you're
(07:14):
recording your vocal or yourguitar or something like that.
I mean even if you're playingthe keyboard.
But I know that a lot of thetime now, if we're playing in
MIDI or something, we cancorrect it inside the DAW.
But either way, whatever you'redoing, get the performance of
(07:34):
it right.
Don't just go oh, that'll do,I'll fix it later.
There's a sort of horrible bitwhere it clips here and sounds
nasty.
But that'll be fine, no onewill hear it, I'll put lots of
reverb on it or something.
You know, those are not in fact, that might be a real mistake.
(07:55):
I'll put lots of reverb on it,but you know, um, don't, don't
feel you will fix things in thatkind of way.
Obviously, obviously, sometimesyou end up with a project where
you have got something and it isa mistake and it's not easy to
fix and you've got to find a wayaround it.
But, like, ideally, you justwant to make sure that that
(08:18):
isn't happening If you've gotcontrol and you're recording it.
Make sure it's recorded welland take the time to go back
over it, you know, if it isn'twell well done.
So, um, yeah, the commonmistake is just thinking that
you'll fix it later and it'sokay, even if it.
Particularly things likeclipping, where you you just
(08:41):
record something at the wronglevel and it actually goes into
the red and distorts, that isjust never really what you want
and you know.
Um, that is sort of a commonmistake to think that clipping
or distorting and you've got toreally check on both the input,
um sort of you know and, uh, youknow the input into your, your
(09:03):
sort of audio interface, andsometimes not normally, but it
depends what you're doing withyour DAW, but make sure it's not
clipping internally in the DAWas well.
But, like you know, just makesure that you recorded in a nice
clean version of whatever it isso that you can mix it properly
(09:23):
later.
Marc Matthews (09:24):
That's what I'd say'd say yeah, get it right at
source get it right at sourceyeah, yeah most definitely.
I think that that is pivotal.
Well, you mentioned there maybelove about the reverb and I've
often found that in particularwith vocals it's it can be a
common thing to think, oh the,the vocal's not quite hitting,
it's not quite there.
(09:44):
I'll drown it in reverb, butyou probably don't want to go
down that route.
I would say Get it right to thesource.
Tim Benson (09:52):
I've made these things.
I've done it myself and sort ofrecorded a vocal and somehow
not really realised that myheadphone was a bit off and I've
got the click really blaring inmy ear or something.
And then afterwards I've gotlike the click really blaring in
my ear or something, and thenafterwards I've gone listen back
and I spent ages doing all thevocals but not really paid
attention to it and then gone.
Oh, no.
(10:13):
I've got click all over thevocals and then I've got like a
bit of bass.
And how did that happen?
Well, my headphones weren't onproperly, or I had the level up
too loud or something.
Or, even worse, I had thespeakers on while I was doing it
and I didn't realise these kindof common mistakes.
Like you can leave the speakerson while you're recording and
wonder why you've got spilleverywhere.
(10:34):
So just make sure that you getit right like that.
Marc Matthews (10:39):
But if you haven't got it right, you might
have to just face redoing ityeah, what you mentioned there
about the speakers is, I thinkit's one mistake you will make
once and you won't do it again.
And I did that when I startedthe podcast.
I did a podcast interview and Ileft the.
I left the uh, the speakers onwhen I was doing the interview.
And then I was I don't think Iwas using riverside when I was
(11:02):
doing this and I was listeningto it back and I was like what
is going on here?
Why have I got this weird sortof chorusy effect going on?
And then I was like uh, andthey're like, oh, okay, yeah,
I've left the speakers on whileI was doing it.
Tim Benson (11:14):
So, yeah, it's a it's a mistake you'll make once,
I find, but you probably won'tdo it again um, it's like if
you're hearing this podcast nowand you can faintly hear birds
in the distance, that would bebecause R9 was stupid enough to
make the mistake of leaving thewindow open here, so I haven't
shut that yet, but the window isslightly open to my left and
you might hear the beautifulbirds of Somerset in the
(11:35):
background.
Marc Matthews (11:36):
It's very nice If you're listening to this on
headphones.
If I did a binaural mix, itmight be quite nice.
You could also.
If I did a binaural mix, itmight be quite nice, yeah uh, I
just uh make it very immersive,like you're in the room with
with tim as he's talking.
Tim Benson (11:52):
Oh, there we are, what you mentioned there.
Marc Matthews (11:54):
Yeah, about the, the um, the speakers being on
reminds me.
This is another key one,actually, and I didn't think of
this until you mentioned it andthis goes to.
This is in the realm ofrecording now, and I did this.
I recorded a big band and I wasusing a 414 and I was recording
a flute if I remember rightly,a flautist I believe that's what
(12:17):
they are flautist flautist aflautist might be someone who's
flouting something selling herway, yeah, yeah it was.
It was a big band with someonejust selling something casually
at the front of the band and Iwas recording this band and I
didn't check which way themicrophone was facing because
they're very similar both sides.
I think one side has the yeah,one side has the.
(12:41):
Does that have the pickuppattern?
I cannot remember if you canselect the pickup pattern, but
it certainly has the roll-off.
And I recorded the room ratherthan the actual instrument.
And that was an interesting mixBecause, again, I had the
console in front of me, I waspushing up the faders, just
bringing the flute, and I waslike I'm just hearing room, I
can hear the flute, but I'm alsohearing a lot of room and I was
(13:02):
bringing it in and then Irealized that I had the
microphone around the wrong way.
So I mean, this is a reallyquick one, but I think it
touches on the idea of thespeakers.
If you are positioningmicrophones it's a bit going
outside the topic of bedroomproduction, but make sure your
microphone is facing the rightway.
Double check, just go in there,double check again before you
(13:24):
start recording.
Tim Benson (13:24):
Um, yeah, it's even like this, on a mic like this
where, like you know, one sideis this side is picking up, but
the other side looks almostidentical and you know, um,
apart from the fact that myother side's got a dent in it.
Yeah, um, like you know, butexactly so, yeah, you have to be
careful and I think we've alldone it yeah, yeah, that was I
tell.
Marc Matthews (13:44):
It was so long.
I cannot remember how Iovercame it.
I think I might not haveovercame it, to be fair, but I
think, if I remember rightlywhile we're on the topic of
immersive audio, I think Icreated an immersive mix wrap
with using.
I can't remember what it wasnow, but it's slightly off way
off topic now but it was yeah,yeah, I remember having you know
(14:06):
you can get those heads, thebinaural head.
Yeah, the binaural heads, yeah Ihad one of those in the middle
of the room with the in-ears andI think I created a binaural
mix, if I remember rightly.
Tim Benson (14:30):
It was good fun.
There probably is a pathway interms of career going down that
route, but I don't know if I wasfully invested in it to to
pursue it, um, as a, as adirection for my music as the
head.
Marc Matthews (14:34):
You know what?
They are super expensive.
Those heads are massivelyexpensive, man.
They are super expensive.
I can kind of see why.
Because I mean with headrelated transfer functions and
all that.
Tim Benson (14:43):
But hey, if you're a bedroom producer listening to
this this will be useless.
Marc Matthews (14:51):
Now, yeah, exactly, exactly that yeah.
You might buy a binaural headand start recording things
Genuinely.
It is really interesting.
However, I think for me now, ifI were to start doing it again,
it would be more of like avanity project and just creating
binaural.
I had a tutor, great guy, whenI was doing my master's degree
(15:13):
and he would just go to like theunderground and just record the
sound using and have thesein-ears, these binaural in-ears
Really interesting, but I'm notentirely sure what you do with
it, um, but anyway, moving on tothe, the next one and this is
yeah, yeah, the.
The next one I have is labeling,and this is particularly
(15:35):
important because this thiscomes to labeling tracks, and
I've experienced audio one.
Tim Benson (15:39):
Audio two.
Marc Matthews (15:40):
Audio three yeah, yeah, exactly that.
And I've had um artists join mein the studio and they bring
their projects in and theybecause I've got the facility
here where they can just plumbthemselves into into my setup
and they'll open up their, theirdevice, whatever it may be.
And then I'm like, okay, well,walk me through what you have
here.
And it's just audio one, audiotwo, audio three.
(16:00):
It's all one solid block ofcolor and there are tracks just
dotted, there's audio regionsjust dotted around.
I'm like, well, what's thatdoing there?
And we end up spending asession just deciphering what
they have, whether they need itand then labeling.
So this, if anything, is a costsaving measure for you
(16:22):
listening for the audience,listening to label.
It will save you time If youare intending to work with a
producer, an engineer, whoeverit may be.
Just label your tracks andlabel them with a concise,
meaningful name that anybody canlook at that track and know
what it is.
That's the key and it sounds sosimple but so many people don't
(16:46):
do it.
Tim Benson (16:47):
And I would add to that, you know, maybe it is a
common audio mistake.
I think, really it's like, youknow, you'll go and look at
someone's project and then it'dbe like, right, kick drum is
here.
And then it'd be like I've gotmy bass and I've got a guitar
and I've got two synths and thenI've got the snare drum down
here.
I'd be like what?
Like no, no, get an organizedmind and kind of think, right,
(17:12):
my drum tracks, they're going tobe at the beginning.
For me, for instance, I alwaysput my drum tracks at the
beginning.
I will literally always havethe kick drum on channel one, um
, snare drum on channel two,overheads.
You know, and I will keep thisyou could look at a project of
mine from 10 years ago and itwill basically have the same
thing on um.
So, like, you start to getsomething.
(17:33):
It doesn't have to be the sameas someone else's, but you just
like, organize your drums andsort of get a way that you
organize them, organize yourmaybe it's logical to have bass
next, you know, then guitars,then keyboards, then vocals or
whatever like, but kind of get astructure to it and stick to it
and so then eat it straightaway, when you're mixing and
(17:54):
when you're coming up withsomething, you know where those
tracks are.
You can go and look at thedrums and I mean nowadays you
can put them in a folder andjust, for instance, in cubase,
you just put all your drumtracks in a folder, I can just
play it back and then I can justsolo that folder and I'm just
listening to the drums orwhatever.
You don't want to go, oh yeah,I'll go and find the snare drum,
(18:15):
because I've got to solo thatas well and find out where this
is and like somewhere I put somemaracas and I don't know where
they are.
So you know, you want to kindof that organisation.
So label your tracks andorganise your tracks and yeah,
do that.
Marc Matthews (18:32):
Most definitely.
It's going to sound clichéd,but it's kind of like that
organisation.
A clean organisation for meresults in like a clean mix and
a clean project, because there'ssomething psychological about
it.
Like you said, I do the exactsame drums first, then bass and
then synths, guitar, whatever itis, and the vocals are
generally at the bottom, theneffects and they're grouped
(18:53):
together and it's just making itthat streamlined mixing process
because, as you say, what youdon't want to do is like someone
says, oh, can you just solo thedrums.
Like you say say, oh, there'smy kick, there's my snare, got
some tops around here somewhereNot sure where they are, but
there is somewhere and it turnsout they're hidden and then you
have to get them back orsomething along those lines.
(19:13):
But yeah, labeling, that washuge.
That I just yeah.
Maybe it's I don't know, maybeit's that sort of coach-mentor
thing that if you have workedwith someone in a studio or
you've gone down the academiaroute and somebody has said to
you, no, you need to label, andit might just be that it's one
(19:34):
of those things that's justforgotten.
People just immediately getinto the creative flow and just
forget to label things.
But don't folks Label, labelthings.
Tim Benson (19:45):
Yeah, really, it does really help.
It helps you create, I think,and it helps you.
It helps you massively when yougo back to projects as well.
Marc Matthews (19:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Benson (19:53):
Open something up from ages ago and you can't
remember it.
Well, you don't have toremember it.
It's going to be in the orderthat you normally use and you
will be able to find things,whereas otherwise you go like,
oh, where's that sound comingfrom?
I don't know what that is, andyou're going to have a lot.
You're going to find that a loteasier to come back to
different projects that you'vedone and and have consistency
between them all.
(20:14):
So, yeah, but I have been there.
I was terrible at labelingthings.
I mean, I anyone who knows meI'm disorganized in many ways,
like naturally, so I have to putthese things onto myself and
it's quite hard to do, but Ihave done it yeah, I think the
more, the more you do it likeyou could.
Marc Matthews (20:33):
You could even create a template, couldn't?
You could have a template withand then drag and drop onto it
or something along those linesand then just use that that way,
you know.
But I think for the most partdrums, bass there is a logical
flow to how people set up theirprojects, but there's no hard
and fast as long as.
As long as it makes sense, likeas long as you're grouping
instruments together that shouldbe grouped in there next to
(20:56):
each other.
You know it makes sense.
Um a fourth, do Fourth.
Do you have another faux pas?
Tim Benson (21:03):
let's say Another faux pas.
Yeah, I think it would be toover well, to sort of
overcomplicate the sort of wholesort of you know sort of
processing of all your things tosort of.
You know, I've come across thisloads of times.
(21:27):
You know, I'll look atsomething and go like hold on,
why is that sort of like four eqplugins on that thing?
And then there's like numeroussort of compression and
saturation and all this sort ofstuff.
Like you know.
I've literally come to a channel, somebody's snare drum and it's
got like nine processors on it,and then you'll listen to it
(21:48):
and you'll go like this soundshorrible.
Why is all of this on there?
Did your snare sound thathorrible in the first place?
And often you strip thesethings back and come to a much
simpler thing.
That is like we need an EQplug-in maybe.
Maybe we need a little bit ofcompression, we need a little
bit of reverb or whatever.
(22:10):
And yeah, I I think overprocessing is big mistake when
you start.
But part of that and I thinkyou touched on this when we were
talking about this before wewere going is is kind of
choosing the right sounds andrecording the right sounds and
arranging with the right stuffin the first place, because if
you use the right kick drum,snare drum, bass sound, whatever
(22:33):
you will need to eq it, lessyou will need to compress it,
less you'll need to do less toit to make it work in the track.
If you write the right patternfor instance, if you've got a
bass guitar make sure that thepattern you know the rhythmical
pattern is relating to the kickdrum or the.
You know that sort of thing inyour mix, sort of.
(22:54):
If you've got parts thatinterlock and relate and give
space for other things, they'regonna you're not going to need
to do nearly as much to thembecause you they will just sit
with each other and so naturallyyour project ought to sit
fairly well without a load of EQand processing going on.
And yeah, it's over-processingthings and a lot of the time
(23:17):
you're over-processing thingsbecause underneath it you didn't
choose the right snare drum inthe first place because it just
doesn't fit with everything, oryou've written in a part that
doesn't really sit witheverything else.
You know it's too busy orsomething.
So yeah, but over processing,but that leads into sound choice
and arrangement, I guess agreedover processing, I think is
(23:40):
easily done.
Marc Matthews (23:41):
and, um, what you mentioned there about sound
choice is important.
Like you say, spend that extratime choosing the right sounds,
or choosing or even designingthe right sound.
If you're using a bass presetin a particular synth and
choosing and sculpting the rightsound for what it is you're
trying to do, it's like a plane.
Tim Benson (24:03):
I might shut the window, guys yeah, um, yeah.
Marc Matthews (24:07):
So choosing the right sound, sculpting the right
sound, if you're sounddesigning, and getting that
correct, because I've seenexactly what you've, what you've
mentioned there, and I rememberseeing a vocal track I think I
mentioned this on the podcastbefore of a particular project
of someone and, um, they neededhelp with this particular vocal
because it wasn't sittingcorrectly, just wasn't sitting
(24:28):
in the mix, and I was like, okay, well, show me your project.
Before this we had to gothrough and label everything, um
, and then they, uh, showed methe actual vocal chain and then
I, doing the classic teacherthing, being an ex-teacher, I
was like, well, explain to mewhat's what's going on?
And they were like, I don'tknow, it was just somebody said
this was a really good vocalchain, uh, andacher.
I was like, well, explain to mewhat's going on?
And they were like, oh, I don'tknow, it was just somebody said
this was a really good vocalchain.
And then I was like, okay, andthen it was just EQ on EQ, the
(24:52):
compression, some saturation,some reverb, some de-essing and
other bits and pieces, multipleversions, and I'm thinking, get
rid of all that, disable it all.
And then we'll start from thetop and then we'll go through
and, like you mentioned, itturns out eq compression, maybe
a touch of saturation on thereas well, but I think there is
(25:14):
potential and I remember seeingthis on on social media.
A few days ago was and or itmight have been, on another
podcast.
Actually, I think I waslistening to another podcast and
they were talking about howdon't just adopt if you see
something online that says thisis the vocal chain that will do
xyz or this, this will make yourdrums huge don't just take it
(25:36):
and slap it in your mix and thenleave it at that, because
that's great for them and itworks for them, but that works
for them in their particularsession, in their project and
their sound design, theirchoices, their recordings.
Doesn't mean it's going totranslate.
It might, you might get luckyand it does, but don't, yeah, I
think I think there is anelement of that.
I think, in particular, whenyou first start out, is to think
(25:58):
, okay, well, that individualhas status and says I should do
this, so I'm then going to do it.
I mean you might then turnaround to me and say well, mark,
you're saying X, y, z, now whyshould I listen to you?
But I think it's true in thatdon't just assume that because
somebody else says thisparticular vocal chain or
whatever it may be works forthem doesn't necessarily mean
it's going to translate.
Tim Benson (26:18):
No, I would completely agree with that.
I think sort of, yeah, justassuming that like somebody
who's got a different drummerwith a different drum kit in a
different studio or, you know,like different sounds that
they've chosen in their projectand slapping the same presets or
(26:41):
same mix bus or whatever it isover the top is not going to
work, but like, at the same time, it's easy.
What you need to take fromthose things is perhaps to look
at what the different processesthey're using.
If you hear a great producerand I love his drum sound, and
then he goes through the drumsound on some youtube thing,
(27:03):
you're going like so what arethe processes doing?
What are the and why does thatmake that sound better and or
sound interesting?
And then you can sort of applythose rules and ideas to your
mix.
You know you can.
You can say, ah right, I needto make my kick drum sound
fatter and fuller in my mix.
This guy had a really good wayof doing that.
(27:23):
I'll try something similar andand so you can definitely pick
up things from these things.
But yeah, just don't assumeit's just going to copy straight
over.
Marc Matthews (27:31):
I think the key there is and this is also an
argument for AI as well ifyou're using any sort of
assisted mastering, somethingalong those lines is to
deconstruct it why have theydone that?
And then try and emulate it.
Or, like you mentioned thereabout if you've got a favorite
producer, mix engineer,mastering engineer and they've
(27:52):
said they've done this to getthis result, then you could
follow similar steps with yourown mix or production, because
you want that particular sound,but you're not.
You're not copying verbatimtheir settings, you're just
following the process, which Ithink is a great, a great way of
doing it.
I think moving on sorry, go tomistake.
Tim Benson (28:10):
That just came into my head.
Go tune your guitar.
There we go.
New strings, yeah, new strings,yeah, that's a good one.
Preferably before the session sothat they're not like literally
going out of tune yeah, yeah,let them bed in, yeah yeah, but
like no, those kind of thingsthat you just like, yeah, pay
(28:32):
attention to tuning and timingand stuff and like, but it's a
classic is to sort of.
And the number of guitars Irecorded where, like, I'd be
like sort of, you know, we'regonna have to redo that again
because, like it was, basicallythe guitar wasn't in tune.
And like someone just, oh well,I just put my distortion pedal
on and play my guitar, and likeit was, basically the guitar
wasn't in tune.
And like someone just said,well, I'll just put my
distortion pedal on and play myguitar, and like it was like,
(28:52):
yeah, it sounds even worse nowit's got the distortion pedal on
.
But you know, get it in tunefirst and and yeah, you just
have to be quite disciplinedabout that sort of thing.
Um, because it will reallyannoy you later when you know
you've just got a load ofslightly out of tune guitars
everywhere.
Marc Matthews (29:09):
That comes to session prep, doesn't it?
If you're turning up for arecording session, I remember
when I was in the band and wewere really good for this we
would make sure we went in, thedrummer would have new skins.
Make sure they obviously tuneit in the studio, tune in the
kit in the studio as well, priorto recording and stuff.
New sticks, make sure they weresticks that you'd used before,
like make sure the pedalsbecause he was a double pedal
(29:32):
drummer make sure that's alllike greased up or whatever it
was for that.
And then with guitars as well,it's restringing guitars I got
floyd rose making sure that'ssitting right, intonation,
checking the intonation on theguitar as well and making that
so good, because ultimately, ifit's not, you're really the one
that's going to lose out becauseyou're paying for that studio
(29:54):
time and if you're spending thatstudio time restringing and
waiting for your guitar stringsto bed in or you're having to
reskin a tom or something alongthose lines ultimately or ask
what chords that happen in themiddle eight.
Tim Benson (30:10):
That's a long one, ultimately.
Or ask what chords that happenin the middle eight.
Yeah, you say that happens inthis bridge bit, mate, and it's
like okay, you guys sort thatout.
I'll come back after I've hadmy tea break.
You know I've done that?
Marc Matthews (30:18):
I've done that.
I remember we were recording analbum and I think it was like
10 tracks and we were prettygood with the prep.
But we got in there and therewere bits I was just like, yeah,
I haven't learned this bit yet.
So while one gets, while theother guitarist is doing his his
bit, I've got the, the scratchtrack headphones, sat there with
a laptop just learning thisother bit, like ready to go in
to record it.
Uh, yeah, but it wasn't.
Tim Benson (30:38):
You've been there, we've all done that.
But yeah, I mean and obviouslyif you're working on your own
that you might think thatdoesn't apply so much but it's
very easy to just pick up yourguitar and think, oh, that's
pretty much in tune, I don'tneed to tune that, and then it
starts to work.
You later, when you realise itreally wasn't that good, and
then you know so, yeah, justtake the time to sort of tune
(31:02):
things up and that kind of thing.
You know.
Even like though I crazy stufflike where people, like somebody
sends them a project this is abit of a nerdy one but like they
send them a project at 44.1kilohertz and the other person's
working at 48 and they don't.
When they import them, theydon't change the sample rate and
(31:24):
so everything's just a bit outof tune with each other because
like they record all their partsat 48 next to the stuff that
they're playing back in a 48project which was recorded at
44.1 or something ridiculouslike that, and you get.
So it's crazy things where youget tuning anomalies, because
yeah, obviously in a projecteverything should be running at
(31:46):
the same sample rate.
So always convert whatevertracks you have to the same
sample rate and then it'd befine.
But like most DAWs, you do thatfor you as you import them, but
like you know, but just sort ofthose kind of things getting
the sample rate consistentacross your project and making
sure that everything is in tune.
You know, it's surprising thenumber of tuning things you do
(32:09):
get, and they can sound prettybad I think with the go.
Marc Matthews (32:14):
With regards to sample rate, I'm with you there.
I think you just have just setout early doors to say, okay, no
matter what the project, we'realways going to operate at this
sample rate.
So whenever you recordsomething, just assume, set it
as default, because I I try tolimit as much as possible sample
rate conversion.
I just like to bring it in andthat's why I was asked like,
(32:34):
what was this recording at?
If you're exporting it, exportit at the sample rate that it
was recorded at, and then I'llmatch that in the session that
I'm going to be using, just justto negate anything like that,
because you never know.
You never know, I mean, thelikelihood of anything competing
is going wrong.
But it's just another thing youdon't have to worry about.
But yeah, it's just, I think,as bands and when you're, when
(32:57):
you're, when you're an artist ina band and stuff like that,
maybe it's just little thingslike that you you just forget
and you think I'll just recordit and then it's all good, but
then engineers are tearing theirhair out we used to have this
problem which I don't think somuch of a problem now, but like
of like clocking things.
Tim Benson (33:13):
So you'd have different conversers in the
studio and if they weren'tclocked properly to the, to the
audio card and weren't in sync,then of course they would
produce digital clicks and stuff.
And I, I knew this and I'dalways have them synced up.
But, like, I'd sometimes getengineers in and they're working
.
I like one guy who used to dostuff for me and he was a he was
(33:36):
a really groovy sort ofproducer, but he was very lazy
and he just came back fromsomething and he was like oh
yeah, it sounds mint.
Mate, I've done this great,great session with these guys,
but, yeah, there's a bit ofclicking on it, but you can sort
that out can't you?
and he just like recorded all ofthis without any of these
converters being actuallyclocked to the thing, and there
(34:00):
was just clicks all over it andI was like, well, great, I've
now got to sort this out in someway, which I sort of did, but,
like you know, it was just like.
It's just one of those examplesof sort of not get not going.
Oh well, that will be all right.
No, it probably won't be allright.
Will it sort it now, fix it nowand don't just continue?
Marc Matthews (34:21):
you know, but that's one of those things I've
got to say I I don't think I'veexperienced that, and it was
when I was in a larger studioand I was using tools.
I can't remember the exactsituation, but I remember having
clocking issues sometimes whenI was using tools, um, and that
might, because I think I hadthis, this bastardized sort of
studio, um, and something wasn'tquite right.
(34:43):
Anyway, it was all very um, um,yeah, it found pieces of gear
that I cobbled together tocreate a studio many, many years
ago.
And, yeah, I remember clockingissues, an absolute, especially
when you've got a band andthey're ready to record and
you're like I have no idea whythis is still happening.
And then I'm going through thesignal flow trying to work it
all out.
So that again comes down topreparation do it before the
(35:05):
band arrives.
So there we go, folks.
Those are five.
I think we've banged on enoughnow about sort of things to be
aware of mistakes to avoid,let's say, but rather than
things to be aware of.
That's pretty vague in itself.
So reference tracks, getting itright at sourceelling, don't
(35:27):
over complicate and over processthings, and preparation
specifically if you're going inthe studio, because it's only
going to save you time andheadache as well and money in
particular because, as artists,obviously where we can save
money, it is a good thing to do,because going in the studio
sometimes can be exactly 0.003%.
Tim Benson (35:47):
It's a good thing to do because you're only in the
studio, sometimes Because theydon't pay us enough.
Marc Matthews (35:51):
Exactly, exactly 0.003%, and that's only when you
get over 1,000 streams as well.
Tim Benson (35:55):
Isn't that correct, isn't that?
Marc Matthews (35:56):
right, yeah, but yeah, I mean that's one you can
jump on your soapbox for thereisn't it in particular and
discuss that.
But there we go.
So, folks, if you've got aquestion you'd like us to hash
out on the podcast again, clickthat speak pipe link in the
episode description to submityour question again.
You don't need an account or aspecific microphone.
(36:19):
You can.
If you want, you could just useyour mobile phone.
Hey, mark tim, this is myquestion.
You can find me at xyz or maybeyou've got a release coming up
and again, one lucky person eachmonth will win a coffee voucher
.
Tim, it's been an absolutepleasure again speaking with you
and having you on the podcastand chatting about all things
mistakes, which is always goodfun.
(36:42):
There are many, but I'm probablynot going to go into because
some of them happened in studiopremises that I didn't own, so
I'm not going to go into thoseon the podcast.
Uh, I'll catch up with you soon.
And this is also an argument for AI as well.
If you're using any sort ofassisted mastering, something
along those lines is todeconstruct it why have they
done that?
And then try and emulate it.
Or, like you mentioned thereabout if you've got a favorite
producer, a mix engineer, amastering engineer, and they've
said they've done this to getthis result, then you could
(00:22):
follow similar steps with yourown mix or production, because
you want that particular sound,but you're not copying verbatim
their settings.
You're just following theprocess, which I think is a
great way of doing it.
Tim Benson (00:36):
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with
your host, Mark Matthews.
Marc Matthews (00:40):
Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for
music creation and production.
Whether you're crafting yourfirst track or refining your
mixing skills, join me each weekfor expert interviews,
practical tutorials and insightsto help you level up your music
and smash it in the musicindustry.
Let's dive in.
Hey folks, welcome to Insidethe Mix.
(01:04):
Hey folks, welcome to Insidethe Mix Again.
Today, or rather in thisepisode, I'm joined by Tim
Benson, aka Aisle9.
And we are answering yourquestions again, or a question,
rather, and this particularquestion was submitted by a
listener and I've paraphrased itdown to what are the common
mistakes to avoid in musicproduction?
(01:28):
If you do have a question thatyou would like us to hash out on
the podcast, click thespeakpipe link in the episode
description and leave us amessage.
Hey, marketing, my question isxyz.
You can find me, and it's alsoan opportunity for you to give
yourself a shout out.
You don't need a speakpipeaccount.
All you need is your mobilephone.
(01:50):
Uh, really easy to do is justleaving an audio message, and
one lucky person each month willwin a coffee voucher.
So welcome back, tim.
How are you?
I'm, I'm good thanks.
Tim Benson (02:04):
Yeah, yeah, we're busy releasing stuff and busy
doing all my normal sort ofmixing and mastering.
Yeah, all good.
Marc Matthews (02:15):
Indeed busy times , so if you've ever felt stuck,
overwhelmed or unsure why yourtracks aren't quite hitting the
way you want, then this episodecould well be for you.
Folks, we're going to betalking about some common traps
that music producers, frombeginners to experienced, might
fall into, stuff that we'veexperienced as well, and I think
(02:37):
I'll start off with mine, and Ithink this goes back to when I
started music production inparticular and it's something
that I've probably bleated onabout on the podcast numerous
times and that is the use ofreference tracks.
And I say this to artists Iwork with, particularly in
coaching as well a lot is to usereference tracks, not only in
(03:00):
mixing, I find, and essentiallyin mastering well, but also in
the actual production side ofthings as well, and I do this a
lot, and I wish I started doingthis when I first started
creating music, rather than sortof create it in a vacuum.
I now have a Spotify playlistwhich has a list of playlist,
(03:21):
funnily enough, of songs thatI've heard, and I think you know
I quite like the sound of ofthat.
I'd like to do something in thatparticular style.
Then when I move on to that anda new project, I then use that
as a reference, whether that'sin terms of the actual structure
of the track, maybe thearrangement, the sound design,
whatever it may be, and that hashelped me no end in terms of
(03:42):
production.
But it's something I wish thatsomebody had stressed to me the
importance of way back in thebeginning, and that is using
references and reference tracksand not trying to do things in a
vacuum, and I think that'sparticularly important from a
home studio perspective, whereyour monitoring environment
might not be the best, might notbe perfect, so you can have
(04:05):
that reference track that youknow is of a high quality and
you know sort of what the soundis that you're aiming for.
You can replicate that usingyour particular setup, but
that's my one would bereferences, something that I
wish somebody had again stressedto me when I was starting out.
Tim Benson (04:24):
I think that's a really good one.
Actually it's one, bizarrelyenough that I think I, you know,
I think there was a time whereI used reference tracks a lot.
I sort of got out the habit ofit, um, probably because I'm
sort of used to doing this, doit so much, but but I've been
using it a bit again recently,and so I think the skill is also
(04:47):
trying to find a referencetrack that's a really good match
for your style or track.
Sometimes that can be quitetricky, actually, you know, but
if you can find a good referencetrack or maybe even sometimes
you can even use your own track,say, you do a track and it
comes out really well and youfind that it goes down well with
(05:08):
other people.
It comes out well, soundingbalanced in nice, you know all
the different places, you listento it and you think like yeah,
that, I got that right that timethere's no harm in using that
as a bit of a referencesometimes, because it you know
you can reference how loud thebass is or how bright it is or
whatever, to that track, if, if,if you know, if you can't find
(05:32):
another track that's more sortof you know better, uh, sort of
representative of what you'redoing, so you know that could be
useful yeah, I think, usingyour own references.
Marc Matthews (05:41):
I'm glad you mentioned that because it's it's
something that I do and I thinkit's particularly important
when you are releasing or atleast using it.
I have like references and thencompare tracks, um, and then
the I often use well, inmastering the compare track is
me comparing it to the originalmix, but with the reference.
In particular, if I'm releasinganother song and it's part of a
(06:02):
collection of songs, I mighthave more than one reference in
terms of and do what you saidthere as well.
I'm using my original song as areference as well, so you've
got some continuity in sound.
It's not just two songs that,although well-produced,
well-mixed, well-mastered, theymay not sound like they've come
(06:24):
from the same collection.
And if you're doing an album inparticular, you want some
consistency in sound acrossthose songs.
I think also to add to that aswell is, if you are using
references, to make sure they'rehigh fidelity as well, don't
just grab.
Don't use a dodgy MP3.
Yeah, some dodgy MP3 that'shissing at you throughout the
(06:44):
entire session like a snake, anasp, hissing at you throughout
the whole thing.
But, yes, references.
Tim Benson (06:51):
Yeah, if I was to chip in another one then.
So if we do a different one,common mistakes I would say a
common mistake is to sort of notpay enough attention to the
recording.
Say, particularly if you'redoing a performance, you're
(07:14):
recording your vocal or yourguitar or something like that.
I mean even if you're playingthe keyboard.
But I know that a lot of thetime now, if we're playing in
MIDI or something, we cancorrect it inside the DAW.
But either way, whatever you'redoing, get the performance of
(07:34):
it right.
Don't just go oh, that'll do,I'll fix it later.
There's a sort of horrible bitwhere it clips here and sounds
nasty.
But that'll be fine, no onewill hear it, I'll put lots of
reverb on it or something.
You know, those are not in fact, that might be a real mistake.
(07:55):
I'll put lots of reverb on it,but you know, um, don't, don't
feel you will fix things in thatkind of way.
Obviously, obviously, sometimesyou end up with a project where
you have got something and it isa mistake and it's not easy to
fix and you've got to find a wayaround it.
But, like, ideally, you justwant to make sure that that
(08:18):
isn't happening If you've gotcontrol and you're recording it.
Make sure it's recorded welland take the time to go back
over it, you know, if it isn'twell well done.
So, um, yeah, the commonmistake is just thinking that
you'll fix it later and it'sokay, even if it.
Particularly things likeclipping, where you you just
(08:41):
record something at the wronglevel and it actually goes into
the red and distorts, that isjust never really what you want
and you know.
Um, that is sort of a commonmistake to think that clipping
or distorting and you've got toreally check on both the input,
um sort of you know and, uh, youknow the input into your, your
(09:03):
sort of audio interface, andsometimes not normally, but it
depends what you're doing withyour DAW, but make sure it's not
clipping internally in the DAWas well.
But, like you know, just makesure that you recorded in a nice
clean version of whatever it isso that you can mix it properly
(09:23):
later.
Marc Matthews (09:24):
That's what I'd say'd say yeah, get it right at
source get it right at sourceyeah, yeah most definitely.
I think that that is pivotal.
Well, you mentioned there maybelove about the reverb and I've
often found that in particularwith vocals it's it can be a
common thing to think, oh the,the vocal's not quite hitting,
it's not quite there.
(09:44):
I'll drown it in reverb, butyou probably don't want to go
down that route.
I would say Get it right to thesource.
Tim Benson (09:52):
I've made these things.
I've done it myself and sort ofrecorded a vocal and somehow
not really realised that myheadphone was a bit off and I've
got the click really blaring inmy ear or something.
And then afterwards I've gotlike the click really blaring in
my ear or something, and thenafterwards I've gone listen back
and I spent ages doing all thevocals but not really paid
attention to it and then gone.
Oh, no.
(10:13):
I've got click all over thevocals and then I've got like a
bit of bass.
And how did that happen?
Well, my headphones weren't onproperly, or I had the level up
too loud or something.
Or, even worse, I had thespeakers on while I was doing it
and I didn't realise these kindof common mistakes.
Like you can leave the speakerson while you're recording and
wonder why you've got spilleverywhere.
(10:34):
So just make sure that you getit right like that.
Marc Matthews (10:39):
But if you haven't got it right, you might
have to just face redoing ityeah, what you mentioned there
about the speakers is, I thinkit's one mistake you will make
once and you won't do it again.
And I did that when I startedthe podcast.
I did a podcast interview and Ileft the.
I left the uh, the speakers onwhen I was doing the interview.
And then I was I don't think Iwas using riverside when I was
(11:02):
doing this and I was listeningto it back and I was like what
is going on here?
Why have I got this weird sortof chorusy effect going on?
And then I was like uh, andthey're like, oh, okay, yeah,
I've left the speakers on whileI was doing it.
Tim Benson (11:14):
So, yeah, it's a it's a mistake you'll make once,
I find, but you probably won'tdo it again um, it's like if
you're hearing this podcast nowand you can faintly hear birds
in the distance, that would bebecause R9 was stupid enough to
make the mistake of leaving thewindow open here, so I haven't
shut that yet, but the window isslightly open to my left and
you might hear the beautifulbirds of Somerset in the
(11:35):
background.
Marc Matthews (11:36):
It's very nice If you're listening to this on
headphones.
If I did a binaural mix, itmight be quite nice.
You could also.
If I did a binaural mix, itmight be quite nice, yeah uh, I
just uh make it very immersive,like you're in the room with
with tim as he's talking.
Tim Benson (11:52):
Oh, there we are, what you mentioned there.
Marc Matthews (11:54):
Yeah, about the, the um, the speakers being on
reminds me.
This is another key one,actually, and I didn't think of
this until you mentioned it andthis goes to.
This is in the realm ofrecording now, and I did this.
I recorded a big band and I wasusing a 414 and I was recording
a flute if I remember rightly,a flautist I believe that's what
(12:17):
they are flautist flautist aflautist might be someone who's
flouting something selling herway, yeah, yeah it was.
It was a big band with someonejust selling something casually
at the front of the band and Iwas recording this band and I
didn't check which way themicrophone was facing because
they're very similar both sides.
I think one side has the yeah,one side has the.
(12:41):
Does that have the pickuppattern?
I cannot remember if you canselect the pickup pattern, but
it certainly has the roll-off.
And I recorded the room ratherthan the actual instrument.
And that was an interesting mixBecause, again, I had the
console in front of me, I waspushing up the faders, just
bringing the flute, and I waslike I'm just hearing room, I
can hear the flute, but I'm alsohearing a lot of room and I was
(13:02):
bringing it in and then Irealized that I had the
microphone around the wrong way.
So I mean, this is a reallyquick one, but I think it
touches on the idea of thespeakers.
If you are positioningmicrophones it's a bit going
outside the topic of bedroomproduction, but make sure your
microphone is facing the rightway.
Double check, just go in there,double check again before you
(13:24):
start recording.
Tim Benson (13:24):
Um, yeah, it's even like this, on a mic like this
where, like you know, one sideis this side is picking up, but
the other side looks almostidentical and you know, um,
apart from the fact that myother side's got a dent in it.
Yeah, um, like you know, butexactly so, yeah, you have to be
careful and I think we've alldone it yeah, yeah, that was I
tell.
Marc Matthews (13:44):
It was so long.
I cannot remember how Iovercame it.
I think I might not haveovercame it, to be fair, but I
think, if I remember rightlywhile we're on the topic of
immersive audio, I think Icreated an immersive mix wrap
with using.
I can't remember what it wasnow, but it's slightly off way
off topic now but it was yeah,yeah, I remember having you know
(14:06):
you can get those heads, thebinaural head.
Yeah, the binaural heads, yeah Ihad one of those in the middle
of the room with the in-ears andI think I created a binaural
mix, if I remember rightly.
Tim Benson (14:30):
It was good fun.
There probably is a pathway interms of career going down that
route, but I don't know if I wasfully invested in it to to
pursue it, um, as a, as adirection for my music as the
head.
Marc Matthews (14:34):
You know what?
They are super expensive.
Those heads are massivelyexpensive, man.
They are super expensive.
I can kind of see why.
Because I mean with headrelated transfer functions and
all that.
Tim Benson (14:43):
But hey, if you're a bedroom producer listening to
this this will be useless.
Marc Matthews (14:51):
Now, yeah, exactly, exactly that yeah.
You might buy a binaural headand start recording things
Genuinely.
It is really interesting.
However, I think for me now, ifI were to start doing it again,
it would be more of like avanity project and just creating
binaural.
I had a tutor, great guy, whenI was doing my master's degree
(15:13):
and he would just go to like theunderground and just record the
sound using and have thesein-ears, these binaural in-ears
Really interesting, but I'm notentirely sure what you do with
it, um, but anyway, moving on tothe, the next one and this is
yeah, yeah, the.
The next one I have is labeling,and this is particularly
(15:35):
important because this thiscomes to labeling tracks, and
I've experienced audio one.
Tim Benson (15:39):
Audio two.
Marc Matthews (15:40):
Audio three yeah, yeah, exactly that.
And I've had um artists join mein the studio and they bring
their projects in and theybecause I've got the facility
here where they can just plumbthemselves into into my setup
and they'll open up their, theirdevice, whatever it may be.
And then I'm like, okay, well,walk me through what you have
here.
And it's just audio one, audiotwo, audio three.
(16:00):
It's all one solid block ofcolor and there are tracks just
dotted, there's audio regionsjust dotted around.
I'm like, well, what's thatdoing there?
And we end up spending asession just deciphering what
they have, whether they need itand then labeling.
So this, if anything, is a costsaving measure for you
(16:22):
listening for the audience,listening to label.
It will save you time If youare intending to work with a
producer, an engineer, whoeverit may be.
Just label your tracks andlabel them with a concise,
meaningful name that anybody canlook at that track and know
what it is.
That's the key and it sounds sosimple but so many people don't
(16:46):
do it.
Tim Benson (16:47):
And I would add to that, you know, maybe it is a
common audio mistake.
I think, really it's like, youknow, you'll go and look at
someone's project and then it'dbe like, right, kick drum is
here.
And then it'd be like I've gotmy bass and I've got a guitar
and I've got two synths and thenI've got the snare drum down
here.
I'd be like what?
Like no, no, get an organizedmind and kind of think, right,
(17:12):
my drum tracks, they're going tobe at the beginning.
For me, for instance, I alwaysput my drum tracks at the
beginning.
I will literally always havethe kick drum on channel one, um
, snare drum on channel two,overheads.
You know, and I will keep thisyou could look at a project of
mine from 10 years ago and itwill basically have the same
thing on um.
So, like, you start to getsomething.
(17:33):
It doesn't have to be the sameas someone else's, but you just
like, organize your drums andsort of get a way that you
organize them, organize yourmaybe it's logical to have bass
next, you know, then guitars,then keyboards, then vocals or
whatever like, but kind of get astructure to it and stick to it
and so then eat it straightaway, when you're mixing and
(17:54):
when you're coming up withsomething, you know where those
tracks are.
You can go and look at thedrums and I mean nowadays you
can put them in a folder andjust, for instance, in cubase,
you just put all your drumtracks in a folder, I can just
play it back and then I can justsolo that folder and I'm just
listening to the drums orwhatever.
You don't want to go, oh yeah,I'll go and find the snare drum,
(18:15):
because I've got to solo thatas well and find out where this
is and like somewhere I put somemaracas and I don't know where
they are.
So you know, you want to kindof that organisation.
So label your tracks andorganise your tracks and yeah,
do that.
Marc Matthews (18:32):
Most definitely.
It's going to sound clichéd,but it's kind of like that
organisation.
A clean organisation for meresults in like a clean mix and
a clean project, because there'ssomething psychological about
it.
Like you said, I do the exactsame drums first, then bass and
then synths, guitar, whatever itis, and the vocals are
generally at the bottom, theneffects and they're grouped
(18:53):
together and it's just making itthat streamlined mixing process
because, as you say, what youdon't want to do is like someone
says, oh, can you just solo thedrums.
Like you say say, oh, there'smy kick, there's my snare, got
some tops around here somewhereNot sure where they are, but
there is somewhere and it turnsout they're hidden and then you
have to get them back orsomething along those lines.
(19:13):
But yeah, labeling, that washuge.
That I just yeah.
Maybe it's I don't know, maybeit's that sort of coach-mentor
thing that if you have workedwith someone in a studio or
you've gone down the academiaroute and somebody has said to
you, no, you need to label, andit might just be that it's one
(19:34):
of those things that's justforgotten.
People just immediately getinto the creative flow and just
forget to label things.
But don't folks Label, labelthings.
Tim Benson (19:45):
Yeah, really, it does really help.
It helps you create, I think,and it helps you.
It helps you massively when yougo back to projects as well.
Marc Matthews (19:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Benson (19:53):
Open something up from ages ago and you can't
remember it.
Well, you don't have toremember it.
It's going to be in the orderthat you normally use and you
will be able to find things,whereas otherwise you go like,
oh, where's that sound comingfrom?
I don't know what that is, andyou're going to have a lot.
You're going to find that a loteasier to come back to
different projects that you'vedone and and have consistency
between them all.
(20:14):
So, yeah, but I have been there.
I was terrible at labelingthings.
I mean, I anyone who knows meI'm disorganized in many ways,
like naturally, so I have to putthese things onto myself and
it's quite hard to do, but Ihave done it yeah, I think the
more, the more you do it likeyou could.
Marc Matthews (20:33):
You could even create a template, couldn't?
You could have a template withand then drag and drop onto it
or something along those linesand then just use that that way,
you know.
But I think for the most partdrums, bass there is a logical
flow to how people set up theirprojects, but there's no hard
and fast as long as.
As long as it makes sense, likeas long as you're grouping
instruments together that shouldbe grouped in there next to
(20:56):
each other.
You know it makes sense.
Um a fourth, do Fourth.
Do you have another faux pas?
Tim Benson (21:03):
let's say Another faux pas.
Yeah, I think it would be toover well, to sort of
overcomplicate the sort of wholesort of you know sort of
processing of all your things tosort of.
You know, I've come across thisloads of times.
(21:27):
You know, I'll look atsomething and go like hold on,
why is that sort of like four eqplugins on that thing?
And then there's like numeroussort of compression and
saturation and all this sort ofstuff.
Like you know.
I've literally come to a channel, somebody's snare drum and it's
got like nine processors on it,and then you'll listen to it
(21:48):
and you'll go like this soundshorrible.
Why is all of this on there?
Did your snare sound thathorrible in the first place?
And often you strip thesethings back and come to a much
simpler thing.
That is like we need an EQplug-in maybe.
Maybe we need a little bit ofcompression, we need a little
bit of reverb or whatever.
(22:10):
And yeah, I I think overprocessing is big mistake when
you start.
But part of that and I thinkyou touched on this when we were
talking about this before wewere going is is kind of
choosing the right sounds andrecording the right sounds and
arranging with the right stuffin the first place, because if
you use the right kick drum,snare drum, bass sound, whatever
(22:33):
you will need to eq it, lessyou will need to compress it,
less you'll need to do less toit to make it work in the track.
If you write the right patternfor instance, if you've got a
bass guitar make sure that thepattern you know the rhythmical
pattern is relating to the kickdrum or the.
You know that sort of thing inyour mix, sort of.
(22:54):
If you've got parts thatinterlock and relate and give
space for other things, they'regonna you're not going to need
to do nearly as much to thembecause you they will just sit
with each other and so naturallyyour project ought to sit
fairly well without a load of EQand processing going on.
And yeah, it's over-processingthings and a lot of the time
(23:17):
you're over-processing thingsbecause underneath it you didn't
choose the right snare drum inthe first place because it just
doesn't fit with everything, oryou've written in a part that
doesn't really sit witheverything else.
You know it's too busy orsomething.
So yeah, but over processing,but that leads into sound choice
and arrangement, I guess agreedover processing, I think is
(23:40):
easily done.
Marc Matthews (23:41):
and, um, what you mentioned there about sound
choice is important.
Like you say, spend that extratime choosing the right sounds,
or choosing or even designingthe right sound.
If you're using a bass presetin a particular synth and
choosing and sculpting the rightsound for what it is you're
trying to do, it's like a plane.
Tim Benson (24:03):
I might shut the window, guys yeah, um, yeah.
Marc Matthews (24:07):
So choosing the right sound, sculpting the right
sound, if you're sounddesigning, and getting that
correct, because I've seenexactly what you've, what you've
mentioned there, and I rememberseeing a vocal track I think I
mentioned this on the podcastbefore of a particular project
of someone and, um, they neededhelp with this particular vocal
because it wasn't sittingcorrectly, just wasn't sitting
(24:28):
in the mix, and I was like, okay, well, show me your project.
Before this we had to gothrough and label everything, um
, and then they, uh, showed methe actual vocal chain and then
I, doing the classic teacherthing, being an ex-teacher, I
was like, well, explain to mewhat's what's going on?
And they were like, I don'tknow, it was just somebody said
this was a really good vocalchain, uh, andacher.
I was like, well, explain to mewhat's going on?
And they were like, oh, I don'tknow, it was just somebody said
this was a really good vocalchain.
And then I was like, okay, andthen it was just EQ on EQ, the
(24:52):
compression, some saturation,some reverb, some de-essing and
other bits and pieces, multipleversions, and I'm thinking, get
rid of all that, disable it all.
And then we'll start from thetop and then we'll go through
and, like you mentioned, itturns out eq compression, maybe
a touch of saturation on thereas well, but I think there is
(25:14):
potential and I remember seeingthis on on social media.
A few days ago was and or itmight have been, on another
podcast.
Actually, I think I waslistening to another podcast and
they were talking about howdon't just adopt if you see
something online that says thisis the vocal chain that will do
xyz or this, this will make yourdrums huge don't just take it
(25:36):
and slap it in your mix and thenleave it at that, because
that's great for them and itworks for them, but that works
for them in their particularsession, in their project and
their sound design, theirchoices, their recordings.
Doesn't mean it's going totranslate.
It might, you might get luckyand it does, but don't, yeah, I
think I think there is anelement of that.
I think, in particular, whenyou first start out, is to think
(25:58):
, okay, well, that individualhas status and says I should do
this, so I'm then going to do it.
I mean you might then turnaround to me and say well, mark,
you're saying X, y, z, now whyshould I listen to you?
But I think it's true in thatdon't just assume that because
somebody else says thisparticular vocal chain or
whatever it may be works forthem doesn't necessarily mean
it's going to translate.
Tim Benson (26:18):
No, I would completely agree with that.
I think sort of, yeah, justassuming that like somebody
who's got a different drummerwith a different drum kit in a
different studio or, you know,like different sounds that
they've chosen in their projectand slapping the same presets or
(26:41):
same mix bus or whatever it isover the top is not going to
work, but like, at the same time, it's easy.
What you need to take fromthose things is perhaps to look
at what the different processesthey're using.
If you hear a great producerand I love his drum sound, and
then he goes through the drumsound on some youtube thing,
(27:03):
you're going like so what arethe processes doing?
What are the and why does thatmake that sound better and or
sound interesting?
And then you can sort of applythose rules and ideas to your
mix.
You know you can.
You can say, ah right, I needto make my kick drum sound
fatter and fuller in my mix.
This guy had a really good wayof doing that.
(27:23):
I'll try something similar andand so you can definitely pick
up things from these things.
But yeah, just don't assumeit's just going to copy straight
over.
Marc Matthews (27:31):
I think the key there is and this is also an
argument for AI as well ifyou're using any sort of
assisted mastering, somethingalong those lines is to
deconstruct it why have theydone that?
And then try and emulate it.
Or, like you mentioned thereabout if you've got a favorite
producer, mix engineer,mastering engineer and they've
(27:52):
said they've done this to getthis result, then you could
follow similar steps with yourown mix or production, because
you want that particular sound,but you're not.
You're not copying verbatimtheir settings, you're just
following the process, which Ithink is a great, a great way of
doing it.
I think moving on sorry, go tomistake.
Tim Benson (28:10):
That just came into my head.
Go tune your guitar.
There we go.
New strings, yeah, new strings,yeah, that's a good one.
Preferably before the session sothat they're not like literally
going out of tune yeah, yeah,let them bed in, yeah yeah, but
like no, those kind of thingsthat you just like, yeah, pay
(28:32):
attention to tuning and timingand stuff and like, but it's a
classic is to sort of.
And the number of guitars Irecorded where, like, I'd be
like sort of, you know, we'regonna have to redo that again
because, like it was, basicallythe guitar wasn't in tune.
And like someone just, oh well,I just put my distortion pedal
on and play my guitar, and likeit was, basically the guitar
wasn't in tune.
And like someone just said,well, I'll just put my
distortion pedal on and play myguitar, and like it was like,
(28:52):
yeah, it sounds even worse nowit's got the distortion pedal on
.
But you know, get it in tunefirst and and yeah, you just
have to be quite disciplinedabout that sort of thing.
Um, because it will reallyannoy you later when you know
you've just got a load ofslightly out of tune guitars
everywhere.
Marc Matthews (29:09):
That comes to session prep, doesn't it?
If you're turning up for arecording session, I remember
when I was in the band and wewere really good for this we
would make sure we went in, thedrummer would have new skins.
Make sure they obviously tuneit in the studio, tune in the
kit in the studio as well, priorto recording and stuff.
New sticks, make sure they weresticks that you'd used before,
like make sure the pedalsbecause he was a double pedal
(29:32):
drummer make sure that's alllike greased up or whatever it
was for that.
And then with guitars as well,it's restringing guitars I got
floyd rose making sure that'ssitting right, intonation,
checking the intonation on theguitar as well and making that
so good, because ultimately, ifit's not, you're really the one
that's going to lose out becauseyou're paying for that studio
(29:54):
time and if you're spending thatstudio time restringing and
waiting for your guitar stringsto bed in or you're having to
reskin a tom or something alongthose lines ultimately or ask
what chords that happen in themiddle eight.
Tim Benson (30:10):
That's a long one, ultimately.
Or ask what chords that happenin the middle eight.
Yeah, you say that happens inthis bridge bit, mate, and it's
like okay, you guys sort thatout.
I'll come back after I've hadmy tea break.
You know I've done that?
Marc Matthews (30:18):
I've done that.
I remember we were recording analbum and I think it was like
10 tracks and we were prettygood with the prep.
But we got in there and therewere bits I was just like, yeah,
I haven't learned this bit yet.
So while one gets, while theother guitarist is doing his his
bit, I've got the, the scratchtrack headphones, sat there with
a laptop just learning thisother bit, like ready to go in
to record it.
Uh, yeah, but it wasn't.
Tim Benson (30:38):
You've been there, we've all done that.
But yeah, I mean and obviouslyif you're working on your own
that you might think thatdoesn't apply so much but it's
very easy to just pick up yourguitar and think, oh, that's
pretty much in tune, I don'tneed to tune that, and then it
starts to work.
You later, when you realise itreally wasn't that good, and
then you know so, yeah, justtake the time to sort of tune
(31:02):
things up and that kind of thing.
You know.
Even like though I crazy stufflike where people, like somebody
sends them a project this is abit of a nerdy one but like they
send them a project at 44.1kilohertz and the other person's
working at 48 and they don't.
When they import them, theydon't change the sample rate and
(31:24):
so everything's just a bit outof tune with each other because
like they record all their partsat 48 next to the stuff that
they're playing back in a 48project which was recorded at
44.1 or something ridiculouslike that, and you get.
So it's crazy things where youget tuning anomalies, because
yeah, obviously in a projecteverything should be running at
(31:46):
the same sample rate.
So always convert whatevertracks you have to the same
sample rate and then it'd befine.
But like most DAWs, you do thatfor you as you import them, but
like you know, but just sort ofthose kind of things getting
the sample rate consistentacross your project and making
sure that everything is in tune.
You know, it's surprising thenumber of tuning things you do
(32:09):
get, and they can sound prettybad I think with the go.
Marc Matthews (32:14):
With regards to sample rate, I'm with you there.
I think you just have just setout early doors to say, okay, no
matter what the project, we'realways going to operate at this
sample rate.
So whenever you recordsomething, just assume, set it
as default, because I I try tolimit as much as possible sample
rate conversion.
I just like to bring it in andthat's why I was asked like,
(32:34):
what was this recording at?
If you're exporting it, exportit at the sample rate that it
was recorded at, and then I'llmatch that in the session that
I'm going to be using, just justto negate anything like that,
because you never know.
You never know, I mean, thelikelihood of anything competing
is going wrong.
But it's just another thing youdon't have to worry about.
But yeah, it's just, I think,as bands and when you're, when
(32:57):
you're, when you're an artist ina band and stuff like that,
maybe it's just little thingslike that you you just forget
and you think I'll just recordit and then it's all good, but
then engineers are tearing theirhair out we used to have this
problem which I don't think somuch of a problem now, but like
of like clocking things.
Tim Benson (33:13):
So you'd have different conversers in the
studio and if they weren'tclocked properly to the, to the
audio card and weren't in sync,then of course they would
produce digital clicks and stuff.
And I, I knew this and I'dalways have them synced up.
But, like, I'd sometimes getengineers in and they're working
.
I like one guy who used to dostuff for me and he was a he was
(33:36):
a really groovy sort ofproducer, but he was very lazy
and he just came back fromsomething and he was like oh
yeah, it sounds mint.
Mate, I've done this great,great session with these guys,
but, yeah, there's a bit ofclicking on it, but you can sort
that out can't you?
and he just like recorded all ofthis without any of these
converters being actuallyclocked to the thing, and there
(34:00):
was just clicks all over it andI was like, well, great, I've
now got to sort this out in someway, which I sort of did, but,
like you know, it was just like.
It's just one of those examplesof sort of not get not going.
Oh well, that will be all right.
No, it probably won't be allright.
Will it sort it now, fix it nowand don't just continue?
Marc Matthews (34:21):
you know, but that's one of those things I've
got to say I I don't think I'veexperienced that, and it was
when I was in a larger studioand I was using tools.
I can't remember the exactsituation, but I remember having
clocking issues sometimes whenI was using tools, um, and that
might, because I think I hadthis, this bastardized sort of
studio, um, and something wasn'tquite right.
(34:43):
Anyway, it was all very um, um,yeah, it found pieces of gear
that I cobbled together tocreate a studio many, many years
ago.
And, yeah, I remember clockingissues, an absolute, especially
when you've got a band andthey're ready to record and
you're like I have no idea whythis is still happening.
And then I'm going through thesignal flow trying to work it
all out.
So that again comes down topreparation do it before the
(35:05):
band arrives.
So there we go, folks.
Those are five.
I think we've banged on enoughnow about sort of things to be
aware of mistakes to avoid,let's say, but rather than
things to be aware of.
That's pretty vague in itself.
So reference tracks, getting itright at sourceelling, don't
(35:27):
over complicate and over processthings, and preparation
specifically if you're going inthe studio, because it's only
going to save you time andheadache as well and money in
particular because, as artists,obviously where we can save
money, it is a good thing to do,because going in the studio
sometimes can be exactly 0.003%.
Tim Benson (35:47):
It's a good thing to do because you're only in the
studio, sometimes Because theydon't pay us enough.
Marc Matthews (35:51):
Exactly, exactly 0.003%, and that's only when you
get over 1,000 streams as well.
Tim Benson (35:55):
Isn't that correct, isn't that?
Marc Matthews (35:56):
right, yeah, but yeah, I mean that's one you can
jump on your soapbox for thereisn't it in particular and
discuss that.
But there we go.
So, folks, if you've got aquestion you'd like us to hash
out on the podcast again, clickthat speak pipe link in the
episode description to submityour question again.
You don't need an account or aspecific microphone.
(36:19):
You can.
If you want, you could just useyour mobile phone.
Hey, mark tim, this is myquestion.
You can find me at xyz or maybeyou've got a release coming up
and again, one lucky person eachmonth will win a coffee voucher
.
Tim, it's been an absolutepleasure again speaking with you
and having you on the podcastand chatting about all things
mistakes, which is always goodfun.
(36:42):
There are many, but I'm probablynot going to go into because
some of them happened in studiopremises that I didn't own, so
I'm not going to go into thoseon the podcast.
Uh, I'll catch up with you soon.
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