Music production basics summarized
I got tired of going around the internet witnessing crowds of gullible dolts asking to be taught how to think about sound. So I made this article to do just that.
I'm assuming you know/can record clean sources by either a) clearing ground loops at their inception or b) using post-processing to remove unwanted noise and 3) deal with phase cancellation on spatial/live recording settings using the "rule of three" and such and such. That is, if you can afford the sound treatment of the rooms. I don't care about your converters.
Of course you're gonna place that High Pass Filter on every non-bass instrument to keep the bass mix crispy clear, you freak! Unless you're one of those avant-garde types or an "outsider music" musician, like Tonetta, who is mad cool.
I'd much rather have you record EVERYTHING on a digital level and then simulating space through panning, reverbs, Haas effect and the likes.
DYNAMICS
Well yeah. There's only a couple things to that: Just compress that shit until you can't tell it apart and it's nice and thick OR automate volume levels. Not everything in life is sidechaining, duh.
It all depends on how much you care for an instrument/mix's dynamics. If you want it "organic and spacey" don't compress like an asshole. If you want it meaty like a leather gay club in the eighties, hardknee that shit and add makeup.
General volume: KEEP EVERYTHING UNDER -12 DB AND THEN INCREASE LITTLE BY LITTLE.
Unless, of course, you're one of those "loudness wars" freaks: Then you just place a limiter on the master, squish everything until it sounds like a tinfoil suppository and go to town.
EQUALIZATION
Do you know your Fletcher-Munson? Good.
If you don't, well, google it, ya dum dum.
Also: you know that each string, each pitched instrument, has harmonic series (partials/overtones) in geometrical progressions which are cute, right? Right. So if your note is playing at 440 hz and you want it shiny without interfering with the rest of the mix mids, increase volume at the upper harmonic series (lessay 1/6, 1/7, 1/8) and lower the middle, lower (1/3, 1/4, 1/5).
Don't expect me to do your math for you. I can barely into arithmetic.
Bear in mind this is for METICULOUS, CONTROL-FREAKY mixes which will have you calculating harmonic series over every GODDAMN pitch change
GIMMICKRY
You remember "Redbone"? Around the 7th bar, when the bass goes "bu-DUH"? The producer guy made it so a little reverb dipped "¡AH!" sounded at the same time, ornamenting the bass's delicious gummy texture. Go watch his stupid Youtube vid, 4:31.
Or "Breezeblocks", when Joe is going "Muscle to muscle, and toe to toe...". Well yeah, the producer guy placed a little toy synth underneath it all: A middle-high melody of slow attack notes, so the sound would seem to swell. Sadly, they deleted the thingy from their SC, so no link for you this time.
When describing their great musical achievement, Justice, humbly said something like "We just kinda, like, popped the Distortion on"
Just be crazy! People will like that. Pan the high frequeny content of an instrument to the left and the low to the right. Play a compressed and uncompressed track in parallel. Insert weird sounds at the attack, decay or release of an instrument to get people hooked on that thing they thought they heard. Record sex with your grandma and put it at the bottom of the mix dipped in pink noise (a.k.a. the "blue waffle pink fuzz inharmonicity cancellation effect").
If I keep this series I might tell you a bit of advice on how to spend your money, you alienated consumerist freaks.