Pro Tips - Advice From Sync Music Professionals About
Producing Your Music

Every style of music and era of music has its own "recipe" from an engineering standpoint. Know how you need to mic the instruments, the way you EQ them, the way you balance them in the mix. There is no one way that works for everything. The way I mic a guitar amp for a heavy metal album is totally different than how I mic the amp for a pop track—which is totally different than how I would mic it for a jazz quartet album, and so on.
—Derek Jones, Director of Creative Services, Megatrax Production Music

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There is a wealth of tutorials and resources online that can be beneficial.
—Brian Thomas Curtin, Composer/Songwriter, Eaglestone Music

Vance, Tracey and Brian Curtin

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The primary goal of every competitive-level production is to maintain the emotional connection of the music with the end listener. And the best way to do that is to focus on the core elements of the music, not on adding more technology to it. With each additional thing we introduce into a production, we actually risk reducing its impact with the end listener, rather than enhancing it. Keeping it simple is the “secret sauce” in most outstanding productions.
—Fett, Producer/Engineer, Author, Teacher & Coach

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In a general sense, if composers/songwriters/artists are trying to record and mix on their own, the biggest piece of advice I could give them is: Acoustics trumps everything else.  It doesn't matter which plug-ins you have. It doesn't matter how fast your computer is. If you do not have a good acoustic space to work in, nothing will ever sound good.
—Derek Jones, Director of Creative Services, Megatrax Production Music

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If you find that you are creating music in certain genres frequently, consider making templates within your DAW software to save time.
—Brian Thomas Curtin, Composer/Songwriter, Eaglestone Music

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