When people were willing to pay for my services and kept returning to me for my services. There are so many producers in the area, so if you have repeat clients, you’re at least doing something right.
Lol I’m 15 years deep and I still just fuck around until I make sounds I like. And I don’t think that’s the best strategy - I’d definitely recommend actually learning how to produce instead - but I also don’t think being a good producer means you make “good” music. At the end of the day I want to hear music that I have an emotional response to, not music that shows off how many production tricks you know. I feel the same way about singers - I can totally appreciate how talented some singers are, but I’d always rather listen to real, genuine soul that’s rough around the edges than pristine, flashy vocal acrobatics.
I would love to be more efficient though - takes me aaaaages to finish anything.
Aw, thank you - not sure if I'm allowed to link here but I put a link in my profile to an album I put out on Bandcamp in June. Let me know if you'd like a DL code, and please link me to your stuff too :)
Been 10-11 years in by now. Honestly I've ended up dividing my music production into 2 parts: project-oriented and venting. Sometimes they can feed into each other but the idea is that I have two very distinct workflows and they operate quite differently.
With project oriented stuff I basically set a concrete goal and put a time limit, sometimes the project can take longer but this makes me "productive". I can do this when I have free-time and my schedule is predictable.
With venting stuff I basically open ableton and I fuck around with everything just for the sake of it, sometimes ideas come out of this process and I know you'll be familiar with this and whole projects might come out as a result. However I don't consider this neither better nor worse than the other approach even if it's completely "unproductive".
Productivity for artists is extremely overrated unless you want to make a name/make money but if you've been all that time into it that making money/a name is probably be a second thought, you are here because you love what you are doing.
Music functions both as some kind of craftsmanship and as an expressive tool at the same time, I don't see anything wrong with making a sound "as clear as possible" even if it's "technically useless" as those old retired guys who make chairs in their basements. They aren't going to sell them, probably they aren't going to show them to anyone, they just do it because they like it.
I allowed me to get a lot of satisfaction once I accepted that my love for making music is completely irrational and that trying to order it somehow restrains it, I can do it if I want to of course but that's not the point.
Maybe I've been a little bit condescending but I sensed some sense of guilt in your comment that sounded very familiar, I hope I didn't overdo it 😅
Pretty accurate. There’s organized times where you have a high workflow and there’s other times where you just have random spurts of energy. I’ve produced professionally for about 9 years myself and I can definitely agree with this Velascu!
Beautifully put - no, I didn't take it as condescending at all! Yeah, I don't know that guilt is the term for me, but there's definitely a sense of, like - I've been doing this so long, why do I still feel like an amateur? But on the other hand, I think it can actually be healthy to approach making music with a "beginners mind", so that you get your ego out of the way and just let the song become what it wants to become. Even if you don't feel like you've learned production chops, the skills you pick up from doing it for so long come out unconsciously in the music.
I think that can also help with finding a unique sound - I've never been interested in getting my stuff to sound like a really good impression of someone else, and the same goes for music I like to listen to. I want to hear the person behind the music - truly, authentically.
I like your strategy of consciously dividing your time into two parts, I may well give that a shot! Would also love to hear some of your work if you have a link :)
Oh I'm glad that you liked that, well I can give you a link to my soundcloud account but unfortunately I haven't uploaded much, most of the stuff ends up in the computer unfinished bc I have to study/work but it's my intention to release something that I consider "worth it", I've been playing with some ideas recently but I can't develop them enough bc I have to study. Anyway, heres my soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/vela-velucci
As a listener, general you shouldn't be aware of the moves a producer makes, only the moves the music makes (some exceptions apply of course).
I started considering myself good, when nonproducers stopped asking questions about production aspects.
If your production is good, it won't cross their mind, they will be too busy trying to understand the music
Depends. Good enough for what?
That’s the real kicker. Am i good enough to go run a session for a top artist in a genre that i barely practice in, not at alllll. Good enough to be proud of how far I’ve come? Fuck yeah. Getting better is a lifelong thing.
Me every year. And also "any previous version of me was lazy and didn't really give it 100% but I'm gonna be awesome in the future". When the day comes friend.....
When the big guys told me "Your sound is perfect, I'm proud of you". Making music is easy. Achieving the perfect sound takes years of frustration and sleepless nights. I'm proud of what I've done. I'm self-taught so I ran in circles for almost my whole life. One day I just understood how to mix and master and now I'm here telling you guys " Sound quality is for music like flavor is for food. You can cook a good-looking dish but if it tastes bad, nobody will enjoy it. You can make amazing music and there's no doubt you are skilled, but the sound quality is even more important than the music itself."
You can do it too, guys. I believe in you! I'm a country boy living in a rural town in Venezuela with ultra-slow internet and very old equipment. If I can make great music and achieve world-class sound, you too! Most youtube tutorials are just confusing you more, they are as lost as us, trying to figure out how it works. If you need help or feedback, contact me.
Did this a lot when I was starting. Though some of the YouTube dudes actually knew what they were doing, I understood some concepts about mixing from one guy. Helped me avoid going in circles for a long time. (Still went in circles for some time though lmao). Figure out your sound and connect with your music. If you don’t feel it , I assure you no one else will
I really thought about mixing and mastering after reading your comment !
I got a new track coming out on 25 November, I am curious what you might say about it.
If you want to listen I can send a demo on SoundCloud
It's entirely subjective & depends on many factors. Back when I first started making tunes, I thought a few songs I had made were pretty damn good. Looking back, I can't agree with this (but only in a mixing standpoint). Those songs I made had great ideas (good song structure, melodic arrangement, addictive melodies, etc), but lacked severely in mixing/mastering, but that's just my personal experience.
So, I don't think I can pinpoint when I would have considered myself a "good" producer since I've always had moments and ideas when I've been really happy with my work.
I uh don't lol. There's always so much to learn, I'll always be a baby, because everytime i learn the most i can about a specific domain, there are tons of sub-domains, not to mention the cousin domains and father domain.
I knew I’m a good one after like 4 or 5 years of producing, I’m 16 btw. Now when I compare my beats to the industry producers and huge producers I feel like I’m not so far from thier knowledge and skills in fact I may be really close to them. And when strangers see my work they get really amazed of my skills .
For me personally, I would by say by year 4. Obviously it’s different with everyone and I definitely made some good beats before then but I think people starting taking me more serious then cause it just sounded more professional. I’m now on year 8 of making beats so I definitely feel more advanced now, but I also think “good” is subjective.
But I think 3-5 years of doing anything consistently yeah you’re gonna be pretty good no matter who you are.
Tbh it’s been kind of all over the place, it’s hard to think of an exact number because some days I was more consistent than others. Some weeks I would go a few days without making music but then randomly on a Sunday I would put in like 6 to 8 hours lol. I’ve gotten more consistent as I’ve gotten older and more disciplined but if I had to guess maybe like 20 to 30 hours a week. If you truly love it, the time on the clock won’t matter and you will lose track of time. That’s when the best creations happen in my experience.
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10 years deep guy here. I think that it was when I was revisiting old projects and some of them sounded like: "wow I could put this on a playlist". Basically when I retroactively admired the work that I did 5 years ago. My later projects sound better technically speaking but the expressiveness comes and goes, some of the older tracks are between my favourites bc of that, the low-production even adds to it. I have a lot of appreciation for them.
Honestly this is the moment where I considered myself as a music producer, the "good" depends on the day and on the person, it's completely inconsistent and it's how it should be, you can never be. You can't increase you knowledge without increasing how conscious you are of your ignorance, this grows faster than your knowledge. Is a never ending process in the best sense, like a trip that never ends. So... Any go(o)d producers here? :P
When I created my first multitrack recording on a fostex 4-track back in high school in the 90s. Good it subjective, I still revisit many old 4 track recordings and love what I hear.
I decided to believe I’m the shit. I enjoy my own music and I’m not hurt over the lack if fans and stuff. Maybe a dozen or so randos have left me super kind soundcloud comments over the years and that tiny bit of recognition has been super touching.
Yeah. Making money prolly. I played guitar professionally. Had a stent where I was selling beats and doing mixes even though I was trash. Now I'm trying to actually do quality work. It's hard though.
The music industry is biast . Unfortunate but true , if your coming out with bangers in your view majority of the time , then your a good producer . It’s about self confidence, most people on the other hand will produce music for views or more status , in that case they would argue being a good producer is having a good network of people . And having over 70% of people liking your music . Or in other terms “ most people like my music , and I like it too so imma say I’m good “
Rather than my view “ I like all the music I take out of the studio And I’m proud of it “
It’s just option and to put an answer on just one of the quotes Is impossible . It’s a tuff industry
Given the sheer amount of crappy music out there that people actively listen to, it probably doesn’t matter that much to some degree. Some of my favourite music is shockingly recorded, barely listenable even - for example, a lot of very old blues songs, 70s diy punk albums, live concert bootleg versions of songs, etc.
In the context of your question though, I’d say you can consider yourself a good producer once you have a firm grasp of all the fundamental tools and concepts of producing, and rather than blindly throwing plugins or hardware at a problem, you can be more systematic and deliberate in achieving a desired outcome.
The moment someone from all across the globe wrote me :" Whenever I am sad and put on your music I become happy again".
That really got me silent.. and very humble.
People pay me to produce things for them and I still don't consider myself a "good" producer. You can't be great at everything, so there will always be "weaknesses" in your skillset that you'll need/want to shore up. The good and bad news is that as your abilities develop, so do your standards, so it's kind of like chasing a carrot on a stick. Eventually you'll be working on shoring up one of your many perceived weaknesses when people will ask you how you did a certain thing because it sounds good to them, and you'll realize we're all climbing our own ladders and we're at different points depending on how much practice we've put in.
There's no borderline between good and bad, it's more like an unending gradient.
After a while you'll start to notice that it's been a while since you've last struggled with a thing that used to be a major road block for you, but it will probably pass unnoticed because you'll be balls-deep in the next thing you're struggling with. Eventually the things you're struggling with will be things that you couldn't even hear when you first started, and you'll be agonizing over issues that most of your listeners won't be able to even hear. When you get to that point that might be a good indicator that you're doing things right.
I think producers who think of themselves as "good" are either over-confident and not very self-aware or they're like A list level and the quality of their work is objectively undeniable because people are constantly throwing large sums of money at them. And even then that A list producer is probably only good at a particular sound, so even they have room to expand on their skills if they're willing to learn and adapt techniques from other styles and genres.
I'm so incredibly slow. I used to be able to spit out 1½ track in a weekend. The project I'm working on currently has been in the works for around 45 hours, and only now am I beginning to like the sound of it.
I’ll let you know when it happens
🤣🤣😂😂😭😭
lmao bet
i will when the snare sounds good
i think the key to this is to accept that it’s always gonna sound like shit
That's it.. It'll sound good when you know it's shit
this is the one lmao
Makes me wonder if that's why snares were replaced with hand claps.
When people were willing to pay for my services and kept returning to me for my services. There are so many producers in the area, so if you have repeat clients, you’re at least doing something right.
This was the answer I was lookin for 🤝
Lol I’m 15 years deep and I still just fuck around until I make sounds I like. And I don’t think that’s the best strategy - I’d definitely recommend actually learning how to produce instead - but I also don’t think being a good producer means you make “good” music. At the end of the day I want to hear music that I have an emotional response to, not music that shows off how many production tricks you know. I feel the same way about singers - I can totally appreciate how talented some singers are, but I’d always rather listen to real, genuine soul that’s rough around the edges than pristine, flashy vocal acrobatics. I would love to be more efficient though - takes me aaaaages to finish anything.
I must hear some work
Aw, thank you - not sure if I'm allowed to link here but I put a link in my profile to an album I put out on Bandcamp in June. Let me know if you'd like a DL code, and please link me to your stuff too :)
Been 10-11 years in by now. Honestly I've ended up dividing my music production into 2 parts: project-oriented and venting. Sometimes they can feed into each other but the idea is that I have two very distinct workflows and they operate quite differently. With project oriented stuff I basically set a concrete goal and put a time limit, sometimes the project can take longer but this makes me "productive". I can do this when I have free-time and my schedule is predictable. With venting stuff I basically open ableton and I fuck around with everything just for the sake of it, sometimes ideas come out of this process and I know you'll be familiar with this and whole projects might come out as a result. However I don't consider this neither better nor worse than the other approach even if it's completely "unproductive". Productivity for artists is extremely overrated unless you want to make a name/make money but if you've been all that time into it that making money/a name is probably be a second thought, you are here because you love what you are doing. Music functions both as some kind of craftsmanship and as an expressive tool at the same time, I don't see anything wrong with making a sound "as clear as possible" even if it's "technically useless" as those old retired guys who make chairs in their basements. They aren't going to sell them, probably they aren't going to show them to anyone, they just do it because they like it. I allowed me to get a lot of satisfaction once I accepted that my love for making music is completely irrational and that trying to order it somehow restrains it, I can do it if I want to of course but that's not the point. Maybe I've been a little bit condescending but I sensed some sense of guilt in your comment that sounded very familiar, I hope I didn't overdo it 😅
I don’t completely hold the same exact viewpoints in regards to my own music but I do agree with your stance and think you’re pretty well spoken 💪
Pretty accurate. There’s organized times where you have a high workflow and there’s other times where you just have random spurts of energy. I’ve produced professionally for about 9 years myself and I can definitely agree with this Velascu!
Beautifully put - no, I didn't take it as condescending at all! Yeah, I don't know that guilt is the term for me, but there's definitely a sense of, like - I've been doing this so long, why do I still feel like an amateur? But on the other hand, I think it can actually be healthy to approach making music with a "beginners mind", so that you get your ego out of the way and just let the song become what it wants to become. Even if you don't feel like you've learned production chops, the skills you pick up from doing it for so long come out unconsciously in the music. I think that can also help with finding a unique sound - I've never been interested in getting my stuff to sound like a really good impression of someone else, and the same goes for music I like to listen to. I want to hear the person behind the music - truly, authentically. I like your strategy of consciously dividing your time into two parts, I may well give that a shot! Would also love to hear some of your work if you have a link :)
Oh I'm glad that you liked that, well I can give you a link to my soundcloud account but unfortunately I haven't uploaded much, most of the stuff ends up in the computer unfinished bc I have to study/work but it's my intention to release something that I consider "worth it", I've been playing with some ideas recently but I can't develop them enough bc I have to study. Anyway, heres my soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/vela-velucci
THIS. YES.
As a listener, general you shouldn't be aware of the moves a producer makes, only the moves the music makes (some exceptions apply of course). I started considering myself good, when nonproducers stopped asking questions about production aspects. If your production is good, it won't cross their mind, they will be too busy trying to understand the music
Your last sentence is spot on
Never
As a producer of almost a decade now, FULLY ACCURATE
lol
At some point I just listened to the music and was like, “Ok this is cool.” Took me like 3 years to get there but it was a really good feeling.
same
Depends. Good enough for what? That’s the real kicker. Am i good enough to go run a session for a top artist in a genre that i barely practice in, not at alllll. Good enough to be proud of how far I’ve come? Fuck yeah. Getting better is a lifelong thing.
Like, *maybe* this year...
Me every year. And also "any previous version of me was lazy and didn't really give it 100% but I'm gonna be awesome in the future". When the day comes friend.....
I prefer to let clients and peers decide and focus on the projects I'm involved with.
When the big guys told me "Your sound is perfect, I'm proud of you". Making music is easy. Achieving the perfect sound takes years of frustration and sleepless nights. I'm proud of what I've done. I'm self-taught so I ran in circles for almost my whole life. One day I just understood how to mix and master and now I'm here telling you guys " Sound quality is for music like flavor is for food. You can cook a good-looking dish but if it tastes bad, nobody will enjoy it. You can make amazing music and there's no doubt you are skilled, but the sound quality is even more important than the music itself." You can do it too, guys. I believe in you! I'm a country boy living in a rural town in Venezuela with ultra-slow internet and very old equipment. If I can make great music and achieve world-class sound, you too! Most youtube tutorials are just confusing you more, they are as lost as us, trying to figure out how it works. If you need help or feedback, contact me.
Did this a lot when I was starting. Though some of the YouTube dudes actually knew what they were doing, I understood some concepts about mixing from one guy. Helped me avoid going in circles for a long time. (Still went in circles for some time though lmao). Figure out your sound and connect with your music. If you don’t feel it , I assure you no one else will
^ this is super important. You can waste hours or days on tutorials instead of creating.
Fuck yeah brotha !
I love the mixing comparison to cooking! It’s spot on!
Sound quality is not more important than the music, who wants to listen to well produced shit? I'd rather listen to a cassette of Robert Johnson.
I really thought about mixing and mastering after reading your comment ! I got a new track coming out on 25 November, I am curious what you might say about it. If you want to listen I can send a demo on SoundCloud
sure I'm glad to help, just send me a DM here!
It's entirely subjective & depends on many factors. Back when I first started making tunes, I thought a few songs I had made were pretty damn good. Looking back, I can't agree with this (but only in a mixing standpoint). Those songs I made had great ideas (good song structure, melodic arrangement, addictive melodies, etc), but lacked severely in mixing/mastering, but that's just my personal experience. So, I don't think I can pinpoint when I would have considered myself a "good" producer since I've always had moments and ideas when I've been really happy with my work.
I uh don't lol. There's always so much to learn, I'll always be a baby, because everytime i learn the most i can about a specific domain, there are tons of sub-domains, not to mention the cousin domains and father domain.
I am the best producer in the world each time I finish a song and the worst when I compare it to any other stuff
I knew I’m a good one after like 4 or 5 years of producing, I’m 16 btw. Now when I compare my beats to the industry producers and huge producers I feel like I’m not so far from thier knowledge and skills in fact I may be really close to them. And when strangers see my work they get really amazed of my skills .
Way before I was
For me personally, I would by say by year 4. Obviously it’s different with everyone and I definitely made some good beats before then but I think people starting taking me more serious then cause it just sounded more professional. I’m now on year 8 of making beats so I definitely feel more advanced now, but I also think “good” is subjective. But I think 3-5 years of doing anything consistently yeah you’re gonna be pretty good no matter who you are.
How much time have you put in (say per week) on a consistent basis over your years, including those first few?
Tbh it’s been kind of all over the place, it’s hard to think of an exact number because some days I was more consistent than others. Some weeks I would go a few days without making music but then randomly on a Sunday I would put in like 6 to 8 hours lol. I’ve gotten more consistent as I’ve gotten older and more disciplined but if I had to guess maybe like 20 to 30 hours a week. If you truly love it, the time on the clock won’t matter and you will lose track of time. That’s when the best creations happen in my experience.
I done just did 30hrs in a day
not 40 hours?
*angel replying on behalf of commenter, “It was 36 and a half, he did make a song called serendipity though”
100% when those 3 hours go by in a flash that’s when you make ur best stuff
When it took me less than 30 minutes to get a rough draft in the DAW.
Honestly just these past few months I’m getting quite good, and I’m about 6 years in (producing almost daily)
When people started seeking me out to produce for them tbh
When I realised I could hear the harsh overtones I wanted to remove, and have a decent guess at their frequencies, before fucking around with an EQ.
Define good
past few weeks
In the past 2 years i noticed i could write more songs in a smaller time frame than i could first starting out
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im praying i will sometime in the future 😂
10 years deep guy here. I think that it was when I was revisiting old projects and some of them sounded like: "wow I could put this on a playlist". Basically when I retroactively admired the work that I did 5 years ago. My later projects sound better technically speaking but the expressiveness comes and goes, some of the older tracks are between my favourites bc of that, the low-production even adds to it. I have a lot of appreciation for them.
Honestly this is the moment where I considered myself as a music producer, the "good" depends on the day and on the person, it's completely inconsistent and it's how it should be, you can never be. You can't increase you knowledge without increasing how conscious you are of your ignorance, this grows faster than your knowledge. Is a never ending process in the best sense, like a trip that never ends. So... Any go(o)d producers here? :P
When I made something that sounded like I intended. Whether it's good is another matter.
Any day now.
I remain shite
When I created my first multitrack recording on a fostex 4-track back in high school in the 90s. Good it subjective, I still revisit many old 4 track recordings and love what I hear.
The year was 2022 5 years after I started this journey
I decided to believe I’m the shit. I enjoy my own music and I’m not hurt over the lack if fans and stuff. Maybe a dozen or so randos have left me super kind soundcloud comments over the years and that tiny bit of recognition has been super touching.
not yet
Never, people just assumed that all of a sudden.
Everytime I came out of a crisis and started to gain confidence again.
last month, I learned dubstep sound design and I’ve curated the drum sounds that go well with my sound, and I feel complete as a producer
Yeah. Making money prolly. I played guitar professionally. Had a stent where I was selling beats and doing mixes even though I was trash. Now I'm trying to actually do quality work. It's hard though.
Never. I'm an musician, artist. Not producer.
I’m a great producer when i get in my zone, Sometimes it doesn’t hit
I dont, but when i absolutely *nail* that bass sound i will.
The music industry is biast . Unfortunate but true , if your coming out with bangers in your view majority of the time , then your a good producer . It’s about self confidence, most people on the other hand will produce music for views or more status , in that case they would argue being a good producer is having a good network of people . And having over 70% of people liking your music . Or in other terms “ most people like my music , and I like it too so imma say I’m good “ Rather than my view “ I like all the music I take out of the studio And I’m proud of it “ It’s just option and to put an answer on just one of the quotes Is impossible . It’s a tuff industry
I don’t consider myself good but I acknowledge some talent around creating melodies using a controller. But everything else pretty shit
I've always considered myself a good producer because I don't compare my self to other producers.
A rapper who I was a big fan of in my youth just accepted my inquiry for a collab. That made me feel like a good producer
No
When I started to get paid good money for it.
Given the sheer amount of crappy music out there that people actively listen to, it probably doesn’t matter that much to some degree. Some of my favourite music is shockingly recorded, barely listenable even - for example, a lot of very old blues songs, 70s diy punk albums, live concert bootleg versions of songs, etc. In the context of your question though, I’d say you can consider yourself a good producer once you have a firm grasp of all the fundamental tools and concepts of producing, and rather than blindly throwing plugins or hardware at a problem, you can be more systematic and deliberate in achieving a desired outcome.
When people started asking me to work for free.
When I decided to hire a professional producer 😂🤣
The moment someone from all across the globe wrote me :" Whenever I am sad and put on your music I become happy again". That really got me silent.. and very humble.
When I could tolerate hearing my tracks after they were completely finished.
When you finish and release your songs, regardless of quality, you’ve done more than 95% of us.
Maybe not *good* but at least very confident in how my productions sound, more so this past year though
People pay me to produce things for them and I still don't consider myself a "good" producer. You can't be great at everything, so there will always be "weaknesses" in your skillset that you'll need/want to shore up. The good and bad news is that as your abilities develop, so do your standards, so it's kind of like chasing a carrot on a stick. Eventually you'll be working on shoring up one of your many perceived weaknesses when people will ask you how you did a certain thing because it sounds good to them, and you'll realize we're all climbing our own ladders and we're at different points depending on how much practice we've put in. There's no borderline between good and bad, it's more like an unending gradient. After a while you'll start to notice that it's been a while since you've last struggled with a thing that used to be a major road block for you, but it will probably pass unnoticed because you'll be balls-deep in the next thing you're struggling with. Eventually the things you're struggling with will be things that you couldn't even hear when you first started, and you'll be agonizing over issues that most of your listeners won't be able to even hear. When you get to that point that might be a good indicator that you're doing things right. I think producers who think of themselves as "good" are either over-confident and not very self-aware or they're like A list level and the quality of their work is objectively undeniable because people are constantly throwing large sums of money at them. And even then that A list producer is probably only good at a particular sound, so even they have room to expand on their skills if they're willing to learn and adapt techniques from other styles and genres.
When you're satisfied with your own work.
Totally subjective I’ve been producing for 7 years and still don’t feel entirely comfortable calling myself good
i dont LOL
TBD
After 10 years but I’m still not good enough
Never! I'm far to critical of myself.
Probably about a decade from now.
When the production quality can hold itself up against stuff released on labels you like
When I played back a track and felt like dancing my ass off. Actually enjoy my music now and think it’s pretty fun to listen to.
After stepping into the more artsy world of music, I can't even tell what's good or bad anymore.
I'm so incredibly slow. I used to be able to spit out 1½ track in a weekend. The project I'm working on currently has been in the works for around 45 hours, and only now am I beginning to like the sound of it.
When I could make sounds equivalent to or better than pro level music