Think Piece | "I Would Like To Thank Myself"

I’ve had this thought for a while now and figured this would be a great opportunity to expound on it. Maybe it’s an opportunity for myself to fully flesh out what it is I’m thinking and what has led me to this think piece. Earlier today I sent the following tweet (excuse the typo):

I knew prior to posting that this would cause some controversy. How could I discredit every up and coming artist who might be working night and day to bring their creativity into the world? I founded my entire website’s blog section to featuring such artists. I was met with such comments as “Well, maybe they’re just that good.” or “Maybe they’re trying to save money.” or “Hey, at least they’re trying to learn everything.” or my favorite: “Man, how many clients has this guy lost because an artist decided to produce themselves?” And boy. I hurried to reply to these concerned parties in explaining what message my tweet was trying to get across. Eventually, I was over trying to keep up with everything and repeating myself. I know this is a topic for deeper conversation and decided to bring this over to my own platform. Away from the “holier than thou” artists who are trying to stick up for the little guy when I’m not coming for those artists at all. So let’s start with my own train of thought that led me to post this and I will address some of the comments I mentioned earlier.

First, my intention, while non-malicious, is also advocating for those artists who do produced, engineer, and mix and master the works of others. I gained a foothold in the music scene as a producer. I understand the struggles of those in that circle. There are countless stories of these artists being left unpaid and uncredited. Their work being ripped by mp3 converters. I will always champion these creatives. But pushing for equal credits for those individuals is not to take away from artists who also want to produce their own soundscapes. If an artist wants to create their own sound and they have the means to do so, I say go for it. I work with plenty of artists who produce the same track they recorded over. There really is no issue here. If you produce the sound that you want to croon over, then you have every right to do so. It’s about the music and getting that creativity off your chest; by any means necessary.

Second, engineering one’s self. This has become more common, especially now with the pandemic and everyone working from home. It has now become more accessible for artists to record themselves at home. I’ve had mixed experiences with this approach. Sometimes these recordings are really good and sometimes they aren’t. It doesn’t take a ton of technical knowhow to have your own setup in your bedroom. It can really be as simple as plugging in a USB mic into your computer and your ready to go.

So let’s take a look at where we’re at in the creative process: You’ve now produced your beat. Check. You’ve successfully written, structured, and recorded your song. Check. Everything should be (*chef’s kiss) at this point.

Third, now you have to take your production and your recorded vocals and now you have to mix these elements together to make them, at the very least, enjoyable. At the basic level, you can turn some things up and some things down, pan some things left and pan some things right, slap on some reverb for taste and you’ve got your mix together. I will go a little deeper into detail with this point later.

Fourth, you have your mix and now you have to make it “loud” with mastering. There are great online services for this because it’s a lot more than just turning up the fader.

Let’s take another look at our process: You’ve mixed your song and you’ve mastered it. The snares aren’t too loud, your bass is treated correctly, and it matches the loudness of the songs you listen to on a regular basis. If you’re able to do all of these things, why would you ever pay someone else to do it? This is a completely valid point and I’m not upset with anyone who feels like they can wear all of these different hats. Save your money, build your brand.

This is a great layout for artists starting out. I started out doing work for free like a lot of my creative family. We just wanted to get the work out or we were doing it “for the culture” and the love of the music. But as things progressed and everyone got busier, certain tasks had to be delegated. I noticed that a lot of the artists I was working with started to get lost in the producing side of things or maybe they didn’t know how to work Pro Tools and this took away from their craft in songwriting, which was their focus to begin with. If these artists started focusing on the compression on their snares, they were slipping with recording any new vocals. Or if they produced a great track, they couldn’t get the mix to translate in their car. My point is that 100% cannot be given to 100% of all things. You’re songwriting might be 100% with a particular song but now the music suffers because you can only afford to give 40% to the mastering process. I do believe this is where the core of my tweet lies. I’m advocating for the music. The music deserves the best chance of reaching its potential. And if you’re not able to accomplish certain things on your own, outsource that work. A lot of artists want to “learn” these things as a roundabout way of shorting those who they could easily reach out to. Sometimes the lack of resources necessitates that we learn things on our own. But at a certain point, your focus cannot be on everything all the time.

“Well, maybe they’re just that good.”

Yes, maybe they are just that good. These are rare cases. Everyone is “just that good” these days. Because it’s completely intuitive to be a great songwriter, producer, and engineer wrapped up in one. Spoiler: It’s not. I’ve seen way more cases of the contrary to believe that there is a broad enough population to sustain the idea that this is the case.

“Well, maybe they’re trying to save money.”

This is a point that I see frequently. It is a valid point, especially in this point in time when people are out of work because of the pandemic and time are hard. Learning these skills in quarantine is not such a bad thing. But there are the expressions of getting what you pay for, getting out what you put in, and investing in yourself, your future as an artist, and in the music that you are creating. You owe it to everyone listening to your music and supporting you that you put out the best possible quality of your sound even if that means having someone touch it up for you. You can have a great song but if those hi hats are bleeding out your voice, it won’t matter. Yes, save money when and where you can and yes, don’t go into debt trying to finance these services but don’t hold out when these resources are available to you. I’ve worked with talent quid pro quo because I liked their music. Producers are dying to have artists record to their beats. That doesn’t mean exploit these artists but there are ways for both parties to financially benefit in the longterm if it’s not feasible in the short term.

“Hey, at least they’re trying to learn everything.”

Yes, become knowledgeable in your field. Soak up as much knowledge as you can about whatever interests you. You can go to YouTube right now and search for production, mixing, and mastering tutorials. You can go through all of these and read every article and interview and have a pretty good understanding of how everything works. Some of us have been lucky enough to go to school for these things: two-year degrees, four-year degrees, etc. The point of this is that these things take years and most often, take years separately. So trying to squeeze honing these skills into a timeframe of what? You’re looking at a few years at the very least. It took my nearly three years of producing and learning the DAW before I sold my first beat. Then I was learning Pro Tools for another six years. Yes, you can learn everything and maybe even be good at it, but you need to understand that doing so will take years. So if you have the time to develop these things, go for it.

And last but certainly not least:

“Man, how many clients has this guy lost because an artist decided to produce themselves?”

I have lost a total of 0 clients because they chose to produce for themselves. Producing is the least of my music business. I think people see ‘NOAHTheProducer’ and think I’m a beat maker. I do make beats. I’ve been making beats for over twelve years. It’s what made me fall deeper in love with music. But over the last few years it’s become more of a passion outlet. Yes, I am able to get placements from some here and there but I don’t solely rely on that. Most of my business these days is mixing and mastering for artists. I’m able to record them if I need to but that’s not my focus either. I am fully degreed. I love mixing more than I do anything else. I created this blog on my website to share underground talent that I happen to come across. And the fact that this comment came from a producer, makes this exchange all the more cringe-worthy.

Reminder: Pay your friends and collaborators.