Trainwreck is kind of an understatement at this point. OP is either trying to belittle everyone in the thread, or is so wrapped up their Quest for the Holy Grail of Mixing that they are falling prey to the same mistakes as the knights of the Crusades: The Holy Grail is not an object to acquire, but a philosophical ideal to reach for but never fully attain.

There are a lot of kids in my classes who will ask questions about mixing and what to do with certain things, and there is one answer that they received: "It depends on the situation, just add what you think it needs." All the terminology you seem to be hunting for is either nonexistent, nonstandard, or mostly subjective (e.g. "bright" means the same general thing, but can be achieved in multiple different ways so it's hard to lock down what is MEANT by bright at times). Yes, we have terms like SMPTE Time Code and Fletcher-Munson Curve and Formants and all that good stuff, but they are not things that apply to the areas you want them to be applied to. There is no set term for "proper headroom" or whatever.

Going back to your OP, you say that it's obvious that there has to be some sort of "standard procedure", yet it's somehow ONLY obvious to you. Now you have multiple people telling you the opposite, and you seem somehow resistant to accepting that you may be wrong.

Why do you have to be correct about this? Which is more reasonable: One person being unwilling to accept they are taking a flawed stance versus the reality presented to them by others, or every single person in this thread but you being completely ignorant to the truth of the "true mixing theory"?

Grow up and get over yourself, dude.

I'd have to agree with wayfinder here. Music theory helps you understand why the things written in the past sound the way they do, and provides a lexicon for the things that you find yourself grasping at straws to describe. As I've been learning the various scales and how they sound and beginning my training in harmony, I'm starting to hear things that provided a specific emotional context but I until that point could never understand how. A diminished chord FEELS suspenseful or anxious; you don't need theory to understand that, but it sure helps when you are looking for a way to express that feeling. I'm not picking the diminished chord because theory says it feels that way, the theory just says it's the root with a minor third and a flattened fifth. I'm picking the diminished chord because the sound that I wanted just so happened to have been codified by the mathematical laws governing music theory with that label.

I use Ableton, Logic X and Pro Tools 12 - all work fine. Never had any issues with any of the stuff you're concerned about, with the exception of the first couple of months - a bunch of Native Instruments products had an issue with the AU certification, but that's fixed now. Haven't had any more crashes with any product more than previous versions of OS X, and it's never been a major setback.

Just reread over everything you wrote and all the judgements you are making on the character of people you do not personally know, and the condescending implications of a statement like "Now that I've cleared it up for you," then tell me if you're really not being elitist and holier-than-thou.

The "structure" I'm talking about is a class syllabus - if you've ever taken a class at any school or through any educational program ever, I guarantee you know what kind of structure wayfinder and I are talking about with regards to getting a scholastic education in music. If you need textbooks, I suggest amazon or Chegg. I promise you any book on music theory and any book on the technical aspects of audio engineering will have all the same information as the ones assigned by my university. The actual textbook is irrelevant because plenty of universities all across the country get paid to use specific ones and others use textbooks written by the professors - what's important is the content. If you're curious about the content, it's everything that gets talked about on this forum. It's just a matter of doing the legwork yourself.

And you're asking me to reveal a lot of very personal information online without really even knowing who I am at all, so I don't really feel comfortable sharing it. It's not really an appropriate line of questioning to give to a complete stranger.

I disagree. Accredited institutions would not exist if this were true. "The Sound Reinforcement Handbook" by Gary Davis would probably not exist if this were true. Trial and error is not the only way to improve.

As someone attending an accredited institution who is studying music production, I can assure you that it is not true. Engineering/Production schools do not teach you the things that you are asking for - they provide a structure to guide you through the process of learning it yourself, like wayfinder said. I learned a lot from reading the assigned textbooks, but it didn't make sense until I sat down in front of Pro Tools or Logic and started applying the material to my work. I think it should be almost obligatory for people to read the instruction manual even if they are a "trial and error" learner, but the way to read an instruction manual is with the product in front of them for them to fiddle around with while reading.

Sure, I know the difference between cardioid and hypercardioid polar patterns, but I've never used a hypercardioid microphone so I only have a theoretical knowledge of what it works. My DR-CX1, on the other hand, gives me an opportunity to experiment with it and understand how it applies to the real world.

I don't need this school to teach me the stuff that I'm learning. I own books that have all the knowledge my teachers will give over the next couple of years, and I have enough equipment that I can probably putz around until I figure it out. What this school provides is a chance to network with my peers and with professionals in the industry, a chance to focus on building a portfolio of work, and a mentored learning experience.

And the most valuable lesson they've taught me so far is how important it is to shut up and just do the work.

That was mine! It's a little mind map (Central idea, different thoughts extending out, and related points to that thought connected to them, etc., etc. Good for brainstorming and disconnected ways of thinking regarding the same subject!) based on questions asked in the Ableton book Making Music. Here's a link to the post where I attached it.

This thread has a lot of great posts, but I can't help but recoil at some of the elitist and holier-than-thou attitudes that accompany it. Y'all are kinda decrying "Gangsta rap" hip hop and pop music for talking about partying and drugs and sex and alpha male attitudes without even acknowledging the reasons why they would want to talk about that in the first place. Is there similar disdain for the "Have you seen my friend molly?" EDM songs? Why aren't we complaining about Guns N' Roses? Or Cannibal Corpse? They have a song about having sex with a dead baby, which is arguably worse than "On Instagram straight flexin; Popped a molly, I'm sweatin. (Woo!)"

Music is about telling a story. Everyone has a different story they want to tell. Some of those stories are simple, some of those stories are complex. Some of those stories are just titty mags wrapped in black plastic, but sometimes you wanna read about some fantasies and look at some boobies. A lot of that "gangster" stuff came out of the NWA, Biggie, and Tupac eras of hip hop - they related to the life experiences of the artist, as well as a fictional caricature they used to embrace and escape that culture they were a part of. You replace complexity with raw emotion. Sometimes, when you get someone like Kendrick Lamar, you can get both. Even Fetty Wap is displaying a sort of idealized version of the world he lives in.

Sure, you get fakes and posers and all that stuff, but does that mean the writers behind it aren't storytellers too? Different industries approach things different ways. There are pop artists who will pick a songwriter's piece because it really speaks to them, or applies to an emotional state they are going through. They may not have composed the words, but they place their mark on it and use it as a vessel for their own stories and feelings. I mean, watch the music video for Bitch Better Have My Money (warning: violence and nudity) with the knowledge that in 2009, Rihanna sued one of her accountants for giving her bad and misleading advice that caused her to lose millions of dollars.

I agree completely with with AshleysBrother said about context, as well. As producers we spend a lot of time in a room in front of a computer, so the way we digest music is completely foreign to the way most of these other genres are supposed to be consumed. For example, how many of you regularly go to clubs so you can listen to the electronic dance music I'm assuming most of this forum is making? How often are you riding around with a fat subwoofer in your trunk, vibing to some Yeezy? This applies not just to right now, but to how you developed your taste in music in the first place. There are a few videos on SeamlessR's channel where he talks about how you develop your taste in music and in one of his videos he has Savant come on who kind of reiterates the same point:

You like the music you do because it reminds you of all the music that you were subjected to as a kid and all the music that you discovered when you began looking for music on your own - usually the stuff that the people you associate with enjoy or more of the stuff you were subjected to as a kid. That is the sound that you think of as "good". If you don't know what kind of music to make, just go back to the music you listened to when you were younger (13-17 seems to be a primo range) and re-immerse yourself in it. You can get a lot of inspiration from that nostalgia. As a downside, however, the longer you go without exposing yourself to certain kinds of music, the harder it is for you to be able to accept it as "good", because different becomes increasingly bad the older you get thanks to the after-effects of evolutionary adaptation on our brains. In fact, one study says 33 years of age is the cut off point - after that, new music starts to rapidly drop off in popularity. I'm approaching that age really quickly, so I take all forms of music much more openly than I have before - not to mention there is a lot of stuff you can steal from other genres to incorporate into your work.

I actually really enjoy pop music and party rap and all that "ignorant, meaningless" music. I can appreciate the work that has gone into it, I can let myself get lost in the moment and have fun, and I can find a lot of hidden gems. There's nothing wrong with having a lot of intricacies and thought and soul and intent going into your craft, but there's nothing wrong with making music that makes people feel good. There's nothing wrong with someone telling a good story, just because you aren't a fan of the plot.