Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
If you're searching for answers on topics such as: what is mixing in music, how I can learn to mix music, how to start music production, how can I get better at music production, what is music production, or maybe how to get into the music industry or even just how to release music. Either way, you’re my kind of person and there's something in this podcast for you!
I'm Marc Matthews and I host the Inside The Mix Podcast. It's the ultimate serial podcast for music production and mixing enthusiasts. Say goodbye to generic interviews and tutorials, because I'm taking things to the next level. Join me as I feature listeners in round table music critiques and offer exclusive one-to-one coaching sessions to kickstart your music production and mixing journey. Get ready for cutting-edge music production tutorials and insightful interviews with Grammy Award-winning audio professionals like Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath). If you're passionate about music production and mixing like me, Inside The Mix is the podcast you can't afford to miss!
Start with this audience-favourite episode: #175: What's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving Clarity and Dynamics in a Mix
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Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
#93: Levelling Up Your Mix: Mastering Techniques and Songwriting Tips (PRODUCER KICKSTART: Eric Junge)
If you are looking for mixing tips on topics like *Where do I start with mastering? *What do I need to start mixing? *What makes a good mix? Then check out EP 93 of the Inside The Mix podcast where I do a PRODUCER KICKSTART audit of Eric June (Dream Commander).
******* Get your FREE copy of my Producer Growth Scorecard: https://www.synthmusicmastering.com/free
CLICK HERE, to book a Producer Kickstart Strategy Session: https://tidycal.com/inside-the-mix-podcast/producer-kickstart
Ever wondered how to properly level-match your mix and make sure it's not too loud? Join me in a special producer kickstart strategy session with producer artist Eric Jung, aka Dream Commander, as we discuss his musical journey and share valuable tips for aspiring music producers. Together, we'll cover the importance of using gain plugins and adjusting the volume on your reference track to avoid over-compensating.
Not only that, but we'll also dive into the world of mastering, revealing the benefits of using a mastering service like Cloud Bounce and how to get the most out of your mix bus limiter. Gain insights on keeping your songs at a consistent volume level and avoiding stray peaks that may affect your mix's loudness. Plus, learn how to write music for yourself that keeps listeners engaged, with honest feedback and songwriting techniques to elevate your craft. Don't miss this opportunity to level up your music production skills with Dream Commander!
CLICK HERE, to follow Dream Commander: https://linktr.ee/dreamcommander
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Hello, inside the Mix podcast fans, it's Jake Major from Well, what Can I Say? I'm a one man band and can be found on all streaming platforms. That does include YouTube, where there is bonus content as well as my music. And if you head to my Instagram at JakeMajor1, you can click the link in my bio. You can pre save my new single. Then, just through Space and Time, as Jean-Michel Jor asks you, to orchestral synth anthem, which releases everywhere on the 8th of July.
Speaker 1:As well as that, if you're in the Newcastle area, come on down to HMV Eldon Square at 3pm, on release date, to hear me play the single live for the very first time among some of my other tunes. You are listening to the Inside the Mix podcast, and here's the main man, your host, mark Matthews.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favourite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learnt with you. Hey, folks, and welcome back to the Inside the Mix podcast. If you are a new listener, welcome, and don't forget to hit that subscribe button. And if you are a returning listener, as always, a big welcome. Back. Now in this episode, i'm very excited to welcome my guest I say this every time, i'm excited, i am excited my friend Eric Eric Jung, also known as the producer artist, dream commander, and he's here for a producer kickstart strategy session. Hi Eric, how are you? how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Hey, mark, i'm doing really well and thanks for having me today.
Speaker 3:No, it's my pleasure. I know we've been back and forth a lot in the Facebook community group and on Instagram and various other platforms as well, so it's cool to finally talk to you as well. I really do enjoy these chats because you sort of build up a relationship with people on social media and it's an image, it's an avatar, as it were, so it's always nice to actually start to talk to people. That's what a podcast is, essentially. That's what we're trying to do here. So you're here today for a producer kickstart session, so you've got in contact with me. With regards to music production, which is quite an overarching term, can you just tell our audience a little bit about your journey so far? So you're alias, as it were. Your artist's name is Dream Commander. Where are you at in your music production journey?
Speaker 2:Good question. I often wonder myself where I'm at. But yeah, basically I've kind of put out a couple releases, a couple EPs, and I've been playing live a little bit, just trying to kind of explore that whole thing, because I've always been a live playing musician I guess my whole life. So I feel like, even if I'm making electronic music, i want to be trying to do that as well as far as playing live goes. But yeah, you know, i'm just kind of in that little. I still feel like I'm in the beginning phases of, i guess, my quote career, if you would call it that, and I'm just always looking for ways to improve and any kind of honest feedback I can get is kind of hard. It's kind of rare to find honest feedback these days. So, you know, that's why I thought I'd sign up for this and give you a chat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fantastic, and I do agree it's when you send your material off for people to feedback on, because I've done this and I know when I've fed back on material and work in the past, then you kind of you can be quite reserved sometimes with feedback, but that's not really helping anyone. So I totally understand what you're saying here. So, with regards to your journey, where do you think you would like to be in six months time with your sort of music production journey?
Speaker 2:Well, the way I envision that, i would say, in six months time I'm definitely going to be releasing some more music. I'm already kind of booking some stuff for like a live performance or two in that time frame. So I'll definitely be probably releasing a couple, at least one or two new songs and kind of promoting them with some live performances and obviously other avenues of promotion involving social media and that kind of stuff. So you know, just kind of I call it the slow grind as far as you know, kind of putting stuff out getting a little bit better every time hopefully. And I've seen some trend in that in my like music I put out a couple years ago, obviously the stuff I'm doing now sounding a little bit better and I'm pretty happy about that. So I just want to keep that trend kind of moving forward, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%, and I know you're using the producer growth scorecard that I put together and there's actually going to be or the retrospect. now there is an episode dedicated to that which would have come out probably previous to this one. So I know you're using that and you are right. The more you do it it's with anything, isn't it? The more hours you invest into it, the more you do, the more you'll improve. But in the same breath, you kind of it goes back to that feedback, what you mentioned just now, and you need to know that what you're doing is pointing you in the right direction, and there is a wealth of material online in terms, in particular, sort of tool format, content whereby everybody's throwing ideas and tips and tricks at you on social media now and it's knowing which ones to follow and which ones not to. you know, because I think everybody is not everybody, but there is a lot of that content out there at the moment. So, with that in mind, what is your sort of biggest pain point with regards to music production at the moment?
Speaker 2:Well, i have to admit that, and I've heard other people say the same thing but it's kind of like when you're making the music and you're mixing it, mixing down and you know, doing the proper steps that you're supposed to do to get like a final product, it feels like sometimes, when you hear it out in the world, it doesn't really hold up the way you envisioned it in your head or maybe on your all the different systems you tried it out on, etc. Etc. And so I don't know why that is or why I feel that way, or if it's just like a personal insecurity. But yeah, i just definitely feel like my stuff kind of compared to, like you know, the general stuff you hear could just use a little bit more or something.
Speaker 2:I'm not quite sure what that is. I don't know if you know it's because I'm kind of coming at it from a DIY angle that maybe I need to hire more personnel to kind of help me get over that hump. But you know, obviously financial obstacles are a thing and those are real. So you know I'm kind of trying to cut corners in that regard. But yeah, i guess basically just like trying to get my stuff up to that level of quality that you kind of like. When you hear it you're like, wow, that sounds like a really nice produced song or whatever you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i mean, there's a few things to unpack there And I think I mentioned this in a previous Producer Kicks that episode that a lot of the time. I say a lot of the time, but sometimes, when you do listen to your release, compared to others you are at the detriment of your recording environment, sorry, your mixing environment as well. So, do you mix with headphones? Are you mixing on loudspeakers? Is it a combination of the two?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have like some studio monitors in the subwoofer that I'm using you know when I'm mixing as well as cross referencing in like a decent pair of studio headphones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and when you're mixing, are you referencing your mix against other tracks at the same time, or at least one other song? Do you have that sort of a reference in the DAW on?
Speaker 2:the top or the bottom. Yeah, no, i definitely probably need to do some more of that. Maybe I'm not doing quite enough of that, and that's a really good suggestion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because one thing that I do with every even when I'm I say when I'm songwriting, if I find that the tracks influence me. But certainly with mixing I'll get a reference and it will sit along the top in my DAW and I'll just call it reference for argument's sake. And then I will get a gain plugin or, depending what DAW you're using, like Pro Tools and Reaper. You can just do clip gain and bring it down And then I'll level match it. I'll sort of set a balance with my mix and then I'll level match it with the reference, because obviously if you play the reference at its mastered volume, it's going to sound different And our ears, i mean it's kind of a bad in a way, but our ears are attuned that when we hear something loud we're automatically like, oh, that sounds way better just because it's loud, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is. You want to put that reference in there and then use clip gain or a gain plugin, bring it down to a level similar to your balanced mix not the finished mix, but the balanced one And then you can start to A, b in terms of frequency, content, a really good thing to do actually, and this is I'm going to shout out to R9 for this one, because he's a big advocate of this is actually monitoring at low volume as well.
Speaker 3:So get it down to a point where you can hear it. You can just about hear it and that's a really good thing to do. So you can reference in that respect as well. So pull the volume down on your monitor Your monitor is your headphones And then listen to the reference compared to your ear And see what in the reference in particular, see what's poking through Is it the snare, is it the vocal? What's most dominant, and then A, b, that against yours and see what's happening with yours. And then you'll start to see sort of commonalities with with released music. So that's a really good thing to do. The key is is to make sure that you do pull that output down on that reference track so you're not flicking AB and it's suddenly like ridiculously loud you know That's a really good thing to do, because then what you can do is you can look at the frequency content, for example.
Speaker 3:if your songs, when you release them, you think actually there's a bit of a lack of low end there or there's a lack of presence, you know around between sort of 500 to 4k, then you can see what other artists or engineers rather have done with other mixes and you can start to. I mean, it's not an exact science. What you don't want to do is get like an EQ match, plugin, record or type or stamp the reference and then apply it directly to your own because the timbres of the instruments are different. but that's a really good place to start. I think if you're not using a reference, it's certainly use a reference. I mean, how does that sound?
Speaker 2:No, that sounds interesting. I need to do that more and that's like something you you pull into your DAW, like when you're kind of in the mixing process. Is that right?
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, and I do sometimes pull it into the songwriting process.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of the time I'll hear a song I'm like, actually I really like that beat, i really like that bass, that vocal, that lead line, and then I'll pull that song into my DAW and I've got a template for all my songwriting, depending on what genre I'm working with, and then I'll chuck it in there and then I use that as a reference.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking, okay, so this is structured that particular way. I won't copy it verbatim, but it gives me a really good place to start in terms of songwriting, because I'm like, actually I really like that beat, so I'm going to try and reverse engineer that beat and then from that I then spark a whole song in itself, and a lot of the time it goes in a totally different direction to the reference, but it gives me somewhere to start. So, yeah, sometimes I don't do it all the time when I'm writing, but I do when I'm mixing, definitely and most certainly when I'm mastering as well. When it comes to mastering, i have a reference and then I'll also have like a mix reference as well if it's somebody else's master that I'm mastering or mix I'm mastering. Which kind of leads me on to the next question Do you do your own mastering, or do you upload it to Lander or Yeah?
Speaker 2:the thing I've been using lately is called cloud bounce, and yes, yeah mastering service online. You can just use it to do it. Yeah, I guess they call it AI based or generated mastering, Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's a good place to start, i think, with regards to getting an idea of how your master finished song will sound when it's mastered. Another good thing you could do as well is during the mixing process. Now, don't mix into I'm not saying mix into a limiter, but you could have it on the on the master or the mix bus, mix bus Yes, stick it on the mix bus and then you could quickly flick it on to see how your mix would sound when it's at that sort of competitive level. So whether that's sort of sat between sort of minus eight to minus eleven loves, but it really depends on the music. That's a good thing to do as well. You could just have that sat there Now, don't leave it on when you're mixing, but you can quickly flick it on to see what it would sound like. It's an approximate. It's not an exact science. Again, it just gives you an idea of what it might sound like when it's at that sort of competitive ish level.
Speaker 3:Now, one thing I would say is, having listened to your stuff on Spotify because I listened to, listened to so much music the Sentinel, and you've got Savannah. Savannah's a wonderful piece of music, by the way, really nice and chilled and ambient, and then you've got sent the Sentinels very much the same as well. So audience listening, do go check it out and I'm going to put a link to it in the show notes for this episode as well. But the sort of overall it sounded quite quiet in terms of Master, because when the next song came in there was sudden spike and I had to turn it down. And now purists might say that that's what you should do. I mean, that's why the volume control is there, so you can control the output of the song that you're listening to. But I think one of the things you might be experiencing is why your song isn't sort of standing up against the other release songs. Is that it's that final stage? Is that mastering Is getting into that competitive level? I mean, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty much nailed it on the head And that's kind of what I'm hearing too, as far as my biggest pain point, if you will, is just getting that final like boost of volume, and I guess I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong to get that to solve that issue. But yeah, i pretty much agree with what you're saying as far as how you just described it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's tricky without seeing the mix as to know where it's sort of falling short in the mastering. It could be the tonal balance of the mix. It might be that you've got stray peaks which are creating this incredibly varied crest factor which, in terms, if you've got these stray peaks throughout your composition, it then means your sort of peak level is. then your potential for loudness is brought down because you've got these stray peaks. And that can a lot of the time be where the issues rise, because if you smooth out those peaks in the mix it then gives you that extra little bit of headroom so you can then push it that tiny, that little bit louder again. But it's like I said, it's hard to say without seeing the mix.
Speaker 3:So my bit of advice would be I know it all comes down to sort of money. I'm not going to go out and hire a mastering engineer, but I do know I'll send you a link to this there's a really, really good course on mastering. It's reasonably priced as well and you can do it in installments over three months I think it is. But it's a really, really good course to check out for mastering if you're doing it yourself, because then it will highlight all the little bits and pieces I've just said there. I don't have a course per se that does a similar thing, but I know of one that's really, really good. I can certainly send you that way and it's really reasonably priced, and I think in doing so, in doing that, i reckon that will take your final products to that level, or approaching that level, that you want. I mean, how does that sound?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, i'm definitely interested in doing something like that and I totally appreciate the feedback and the suggestion, for sure, 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i think the only. I mean moving on slightly again. I say slightly again maybe a segue, maybe it is, and I'm not sure, but with the Sentinel. One thing I was going to mention about production wise with the Sentinel is when you're songwriting and producing so this is moving away from mixing. Now, how are you writing it to keep the listener engaged in the song itself?
Speaker 2:No, i think at the time I'm writing, i'm the listener and so I'm thinking how can I engage myself?
Speaker 3:maybe That's a selfish way to come at it, but No, i think that's a good way to come at it because ultimately, i think when we're writing music you are writing, i know I do, i write it for myself. Now, more often than not, i'm thinking I like the sound of that. I'm going to continue on that way because it's what I like. But another bit of feedback I was going to have. Savannah sounds great. I really liked it, and Sentinel is a really good track as well.
Speaker 3:But what I felt was it kind of needed a bit of variety in the production to keep me engaged until the end. Really nice piece of music. But it's hard to pinpoint what it could be. I mean it could be in terms of adding more or making more space. I mean it's quite an open mix. Anyway, it's an open production.
Speaker 3:So maybe taking instruments away wouldn't work, but maybe adding a bit of ear candy here and there. Some risers may work, but just little flourishes here and there, maybe switching up the chord progression slightly if you're using a minor, maybe you go to major, major, minor and do the relative minor thing, just little bits and pieces like that I think. I think when it comes to songwriting, you may know this already, but you kind of want to do it like in eight bars and like every eight bars just have something different happening within the songwriting. So that was my other little bit of feedback for the Sentinel, which just maybe it could do with a bit more just to keep knocking. I've rearranged the studio here so I'm not used to having everything on my right and I keep knocking it because it's usually on my left. But yeah, adding a bit more variety there just to keep the listener engaged.
Speaker 2:That's a really good suggestion as well, and I think, for whatever reason, with that particular track I was somehow sucked into some more of like a meditative kind of vibe or state which it kind of made me want to just keep it on one, like a one or two track, like creative lanes, so to speak. But yeah, i don't know, maybe, maybe that could have been good to know at that time. It could have maybe made it even better. So, thanks so much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:No, you're welcome. Just to add a bit more to that, the the example I gave you earlier of how I would bring in a song as a reference in the songwriting and I do that a lot when I want to. For that reason, if I think the songs struggling to go somewhere or I'm hit a bit of a road bump or some speed bump, or however we call it, that's sometimes when I'll bring in that song and just listen to what other artists are doing. Okay, so they've got to this point. What are they doing to keep me engaged in listening, what have they added? and then, once again, reverse engineer.
Speaker 3:I think reverse engineering is is not referenced enough when it comes to mixing and songwriting and just listening to what other people have done successfully. And then reverse engineering and then and where I think I had the conversation with Dan Furr for productions a while back and he does the same with regards to sound design reverse engineering a sound and then trying to recreate it. You create something totally new. But in this you're you're learning and creating something at the same time. So that would be my other thing, i think to help you come up with ideas to keep the listener engaged. Maybe consider bringing in a reference track of a song similar to the one that you're writing okay yeah thanks so much.
Speaker 2:That's really good to know. Definitely, no, you're welcome. Definitely taking notes fantastic.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's gonna be an episode as well, so you can go back in and listen to all again. And what I will do is I've got a notes file, so everything that we've gone through today I'll send over to you in a notes file as well, with the links that I've mentioned. So the link to that, that course I mentioned I should get an affiliate for that, really. But there you go and I'll send that over to you as well. And even if actually, to be fair, even if you don't go for the course, his YouTube channel has so much great information, free information on mastering and you could probably be just consume that and it will give you a really really good start and kickstart you want from there. So I'll send that to you as well. And I've realized we're for the producer kickstart. We're at 20 minutes now. So, yeah, fantastic. Eric, do you want to give the audience an idea of whether they can find you online? where can they find your music and yourself as well?
Speaker 2:yeah, i know. So the project I'm doing is called dream commander and I'm on Spotify, instagram and all the major social media platforms, so you can just type me up and look me up in there and give it a listen if you'd like to check out my music.
Speaker 3:I will put all that in the show notes as well. Fantastic, eric. Thank you very much. So okay, folks, if you want to be like my friend here, eric, and become a producer kickstart strategy session participant, go to the website wwwinsidemixpodcastpodiacom. Or if that has changed, which it will do at some point, it's probably easy just to click on the link in the episode description for this episode and get signed up and come and join me on the show. Eric, it's been a pleasure and, yeah, same deal. Catch up with you soon. Awesome thanks for having me.
