iamnomnom

[iamnomnom]

I wish someone told me this...

In the early career of every music producer/mix engineer, it always comes a point where you are not a new-be anymore but you are still trying to find your way to getting better mixes, get more clients; a point where you know your way around things, but still ask yourself “ Do I know anything?”

You might feel like you have a special patent for insecurities, but trust me you are not alone in this slippery slope. How many times have you jumped on youtube searching for a tutorial on how to use a compressor? Have you seen how many views that video has? So then trust me.

Whether this is because you never got particular support while developing your career, or because you are a perfectionist and are never satisfied, or maybe because this is not your main job yet and your impostor syndrome like to peak now and then. The “why” it’s not important. As you can get better at mixing and creating music, you can also get better at giving yourself some credits. Here is something that I kind of wished I knew before I started this thing I call my job, purely because I would have started earlier enjoying it.

  1) USE PRESETS. Using presets it’s not cheating. Presets are a great way to learn how a plugin works, its sound, and its possibilities. Presets are there because someone at some point used that particular combination and it worked.

  Does it mean that presets work miracles every time? Well unless we are talking about Decapitator (which you can apply to anything and it does work great), a particular preset might not be the perfect solution for you, BUT it can be a good starting point for you to adjust.

  Does it feel like an easy way out? Last year I couldn’t open a single video without skipping at least 2/3 adv about The Sauce Plugin.

Everybody was talking about it and many were crying that with these kinds of an all-in-one plugin, ppl would have become less and less creative and especially, less driven to know their gear and tools.

For as much as I don’t know much about “The Sauce”, I’m pretty sure it won't ruin the next generations of aspiring producers. As well as I know for a fact that until you get a certain degree of experience YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW.

So yes, use presets, use samples, use templates. Experiment, see how they work and then make your own decision based on your taste. Because your taste is what eventually will get you clients.

  2) DO NOT POSTPONE If you get frustrated because the guy/girl you had in class at uni looks more successful than you on Instagram 1. that’s Instagram. 2. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO THEM.

It’s not their fault they are having a better game, but it’s your responsibility to do your best to get wherever you set your mind to.

  I used to get extremely frustrated any time I didn’t know how to use my DAW or how to get a certain sound. For a long time, I kept postponing the inevitable, I just had to study more. So every day I try to learn something new.

Non music related example.   Politics. I hate it, every time I hear the news I feel like I cannot retain any information on the subject, which lead to > stress > avoid conversation > more stress. So to fix this, every day I force myself to read the news while I’m having breakfast.

The same thing works for everything else. 80% of the cases, the source of our insecurity is lack of knowledge. So don’t procrastinate, don’t commiserate yourself, just study. I promise it gets better.

3) YOU MIGHT NEED TO START OVER. Starting over an almost ready mix is fine. If you have doubts about how things sound you are entitled to start again. Sometimes that’s more efficient than making adjustments.

  It happened to me last week: I had this mix, it was almost ready I was just missing one vocal and a flute, all the rest (big orchestra kind of thing) was all ready. I went to reopen it, and once I added these two elements, things weren’t working quite the same. Here is where my experience jump in, I know myself, I know I get distracted easily, so I started over. In a day and a half, the mix was ready and delivered.

  Obviously, my experience taught me what kind of sound I was looking for. This might be something you are still figuring out, so I give you this little tip that brought me a long way and to improve my mixes. While you are mixing, make a list of all the changes/ideas you come up with. Our mind is faster than our hands and if you don’t write it down, you might get lost in the process.

4) THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP.

Whenever you don’t feel like making music, just don’t. You’ll see it’s time much better spent do something else, for example redecorate the walls of your studio

🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

[iamnomnom]

Be a music producer in 2021

Do ppl still read blogs? Well, I hope so. Otherwise what’s the point in starting a blog today, 1 May 2021.

Whatever is the answer here we are...⬇️⬇️⬇️

#Whatever that’s the 2020 keyword that has helped me going through last year. You should try it. I mean, I used to be so worried about every single step I was making, that for a very long time I haven’t done anything. It’s a little embarrassing but, hey, it’s the truth and as an ex-compulsive liar I cannot lie anymore. ( It kind of works as AA I guess. For now, you just need to know that it was nasty, very.)

Back to #2020wtf, another thing that I have discovered is that I have more cards to play with than I expected. But let me back up a little and give a little view of the whole picture.

I am a music producer, mix engineer, live sound engineer, human being. Since March 2020 I used to live in London; then Covid19 happened and I had a personal argument with BOJO, he didn’t want to embrace the lockdown style of life, I was having dreams about a zombie apocalypse #London28dayslater So I decided to move back to Italy, in my small village, where there are more sheep than ppl.

  And I’m still here.

Music is what made me move to London for the first time, and music is what is keeping me here in Italy. And my family. And my friends.

Did you know that London is freaking expensive?

  I was watching an interview with Katie Tavini ( if you don’t know her she’s an amazing master engineer, so go check her out) a while ago, and she said that she decided not to move to London because she knew it would have been too expensive to maintain herself and at the same time pursue her dream in the music industry.

  And that’s basically the reason why I’ve managed to get more things done for my musical career this year in Italy, than in 6 years in London. I mean it wasn’t all crap, I don’t mean to say that London is crap. I met my current band, I diplomate in music performance, I got my live sound engineer diploma, I started working as a live sound engineer to a point that I was ready to completely switch and just do that #why2020

But before my last year in London, I used to work smtg like 80 hours a week. Is that possible? Well if you work 4/5 different jobs at the time, yeah that’s possible (even tho I’m terrible at math).

Last year I’ve produced and mixed my very first paid album, now I’m working full-time as a mix engineer and music producer, music production teacher and I’m releasing this month my first single.

And I’ve started this blog, which I have wanted to do since ever. #lifegoals

Obviously, I'm still far from where I want to get, but finally, I wake up in the morning and I'm excited, I'm happy and I'm proud of what I'm doing.

Would it pay the rent in London? No. Does it pay the bills and expenses and help me saving, here in Italy? YES.

We are in an era when technology is at its highest point. We can connect with ppl with a click ( and I don't mean to find your soul mate, maybe it works for someone) to build work relationships, find new clients, and spread the word about what you do.

How do you find new clients and get your business started? You spread the word, just as simple as that. 

But if you want to know more, keep reading🐛

The sky is so blue today.