Hey guys. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but after producing for 2 years I've only finished a few songs. I don't like telling other people that I'm a producer when I don't have much to show for it. Don't get me wrong I'm LIGHTYEARS better than I was when I first started. Producing and mixing music have changed my ears in ways that I would've never imagined.

The catch is, most of those songs that I finished were back when I first started producing. I feel like the reason for that is because I didn't really care if my mixes sounded like crap or not. I was just so excited at the idea of being able to make music whether it sounded bad or not.

Nowadays however I get stuck very often. The reason why I get stuck more often I feel is because I've begun to set my standards much higher than when I first started. A bad mixdown or bad music in general just isn't gonna cut it. If the music isn't unique and doesn't sound good being played on a piano then it doesn't deserve to be produced in the first place. If the chord progression isn't beautiful enough then I won't even bother creating a melody.

I feel like this is a good thing because I'm finally beginning to identify my tastes musically. However because of it I've been having a lot more trouble finishing songs that I'm actually proud of. Often times I'll be halfway through a song and then lose the motivation to finish it because I'm just not proud of it.

At first, I thought this was an arrangement problem but upon further analysis I believe this is much more related to me not being able to get a solid mixdown. I have a hard time getting all the frequencies to be as balanced as I hear in professional tracks.

With that being said the question I have for you guys at this point is should I even be worrying about my songwriting speed? I would rather produce 1 masterpiece than 10 turds but I feel like because of that it takes me a long time to finish my songs. At the same time however I feel like once I'm finally able to habitually get good mixdowns the songwriting speed will eventually catch up to me.

In summary...

Should I be concerned about my producing speed?
Will my producing speed eventually get faster as I get better?
What are some things you do that helped you get past the same situation that I'm in?

Thanks for reading.

I have a few questions related to compression.

Question 1: I often hear that the faster the release time of a compressor the louder the sound will be. I've noticed however that when I have longer release time on my compressor it basically "smooths" the sound out so that the quiet parts of instrument get louder. How is it that a faster release time makes things louder?

Question 2: In regards to multiband compression and normal compression what is the difference between the two? I read that a compressor basically lowers the volume of ALL the frequencies of a sound even if it's only the bass that's triggering the compressors. If that's the case then how does a normal compressor make things louder if the balance between the frequency being compressed are remaining the same?


Question 3: A multiband compressor on the other hand I heard can reduce the volume of only the bass while keeping the mids and highs uncompressed. In this case isn't the multiband compressor a better tool for achieving balance?

Question 3: What elements of a mix usually have multiband compression on them?

Question 4: What the heck is "glue" compression?

Question 5: Let's say I had a kick that was hitting at -6db and a pad that was playing at -12db. If I were to set a compressor with a -12db threshold and a ratio of 6:1 could I essentially get the kick and the pad to be playing at the exact same volume therefore improving the balance of the mix?

Question 6: When should I use a compressor vs just using a normal volume fader to balance the elements of a mix?

Hey guys. I produced this song 1 year and 4 months ago. Not really sure what genre I was going for or whether this is even has a genre but I thought I'd put it up for some constructive criticism.

I think that mixing is a weak point of mine. It'd be cool if I could get some help with that. I really like notes and pretty chord progression as you can tell so don't expect a whole lot of banger type stuff because I haven't learned how to make it yet.