Everything sound & ear training related

SoundGym

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Raymond RUTJES
Sep 12, 2021
Hello there,

I'm new on SoundGym and was wondering
1. how fast one can become better at some of the essentials (EQ & Compression mainly). I obviously still make a lot of mistakes, how far can you really get? Can you know at 200hz precision what the boosts and cuts are?
2. Do you think SoundGym on its own is enough if done on a daily basis, or would you complement with something else?
3. Can someone relate from his SoundGym experience whether he improved drastically? On my end I've had a lot of fun on a lot of exercises. I've even realised thanks to the panning game that my audio interface was unbalanced so I had to send it back (just for this SoundGym was worth it). I feel like I've improved in hearing compression already, but regarding EQ, I fear that I know the Acoustic Guitar very well know but the others are harder, which makes me wonder how useful the training is, isn't it to specific to the tracks being suggested?
4. Are we rewarded for switching tracks on games? Like do you earn more points doing drums then Guitar then kick etc?

Thanks a lot for your feedback, pretty excited about this new habit & journey.
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Kovács Károly
Sep 12, 2021
Hey Raymond,

1. Its a slowburn, dont rush it. The more you rush, the more you will burn out. From my point of view if you can head 1/3 octave differences (example: you can make a difference between 1000 Hz, 1300 hz, 1600hz, and 2000hz) in the next 2.3 month, that is more than enough! The rest depends on your abilities, but the rule of diminishing returns will apply! :)
200hz precision depends on the context (in low ranges that is a huge part, in higher ranges that is very tiny!)

2. Its far more than enough if you are looking for a daily workout, but you should do mixes as well to get experience. There are forums here that will give you multitracks, and even help you with feedbacks about your mix(es).

3. I have started my recording / mixing carrer by soundgym alone, and I already own a great studio in hungary with a lot of happy bands around it. Soundgym really does worth it, and equips you with a lot of practical experience that otherwise would be hard to achieve alone (or it would take a loooot of time - years or decades)

4. Yes, you are awarded with experience. Dont forget: its not about the points you receive, but the experience itself. Dont care about the points you get, and they will come to you fast.

Keep going, and practice as much as you are comfortable with!
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Joey Sabat
Sep 12, 2021
Don't forget that we listen to music with our brains, not our ears! This is why progress is a little slower than with other skills. I personally think SoundGym is essential to anyone willing to mix or master professionally. It made a big difference in the quality of my mixes.
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infaust _
Sep 12, 2021
What Kovács said is gold: don't obsess on the scores and mix actual songs. I think doing the daily routine without skipping too much is enough. You can participate on the weekly mixes in the Mixdown Training Room, organized by Magghy.
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Raymond RUTJES
Sep 12, 2021
Thank you so much for your answers, that helps a ton.

I'm going to stick to at least the daily workouts, and do a little more whenever possible.

I'll keep this thread up to date in the future, so that I get a feel of progress.

Current status:
8.2k SPI
8 workouts
198 games

I start to manage to hear the difference between 8:1 and 2:1 compression ratios with more consistency. I'm rarely making mistakes on the attach times.
I've made huge progress with hearing panning.

I still struggle a lot with bass frequencies.

I struggle as well with hearing the proper EQ cuts, hearing boosts sounds simpler 😅, maybe because I trained that more already.

With the guitar track, on EQ I'm easily hearing 100-250hz and 6khz+. I still have troubles with 1.5k to 6k. Sometimes confusing 600 with high end for whatever reason.

I'll try to report to myself every week 🤘
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Raymond RUTJES
Sep 18, 2021
Time for the weekly update.

Current status:
20k SPI
11 workouts
303 games

The EQ cuts in the kick cut starts to make a lot of sense. I'm not locking in on the thing I hear and isn't there and tweak until I get there and have had 100% success this day, even though I hadn't encountered some of the multi band cut patterns, very cool.

On the distortion game, I had to redo level 6 4-5 times to get it passed. I struggled at the last 2 stages of it, I couldn't hear the difference, and even the one time I passed, I basically had luck.
Sometimes I focus on low frequencies, sometimes on overall volume, but stage 11-12 I couldn't hear much, curious to hear what your tricks are to better hear distortion.

The EQ games start to be really cool as I'm not starting recognize things pretty quickly, especially 100-800.
I still struggle a lot with 1-8k depending on tracks.

Balance memory game seems a bit easy for now, not trying to max it out given it's nice to have a relaxing game in the workouts.

Reverb for now is pretty audible in general so made a bit of progress there.

I feel the progress :)

See you next week.
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Alexander Strohmaier
Sep 18, 2021
Watch this Video on YouTube. It really helps u hearing certain frequencies.

Video:


Much Love
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Miguel Almeida
Sep 18, 2021
and honestly, it's not important to know if the frequency you're after is exactly 254,7 Hz. It's more important to know what range are you in. Ok it's around 200, now you can swipe 50 left or 50 right to get the one you're after.
I think what's cool about SoundGym is all the other games. Frequency guessing you can find anywhere.
By the way, you do feel improvement. Maybe a little fast improvement on the first couple of weeks, then VERY SLOW improvement.

Let me put it this way: It's easier to notice what you've lost (if you stop for a month, for example) than to notice what you're gaining.
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Raymond RUTJES
Sep 25, 2021
The week is over already!

Current status:
71k SPI
19 workouts
452 games

Regarding EQ I start to better be able to hear difference between 300hz - 800hz, same goes for 1-5khz. I'm trying to go for whatever instrument SoundGym suggests because I realized some instruments like the kick have a very different feel when EQuing, I'm always aiming way to high when EQuing kick.

Panning games are now way to hard, I struggle to reach the next level. I see there is a training with pink noise, but I'm not sure to see yet how that really helps with panning. I have a mono button on my audio interface and use that to always start from the center so that I'm not biased by previous answer, but sometimes previous answer helps to figure out if the sound is even further on the same side so I'm not sure about that strategy but at least it puts my in a fresh setup every round.

Low end precision still isn't up to the level I would like, making frequent mistakes there, even struggle passing to the next levels right now.

On compression, I'm not sure what to listen for to hear the release time. I feel like I should focus on the "punch" most of the time, but even then I'm making mistakes over and over. Otherwise I realized that I should listen for overall compression to compare ratios and that is a great step forward now I only have to worry about release time.

Some reverbs are close to identical, need to crack those :)

Distortion difference sometimes isn't audible at all, especially on some instruments.
Using tracks with low end helps a lot.

See you next week, and let me know if you have any advice on the above, especially hearing compression release & distortion & low end EQ (or panning tricks).
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 02, 2021
One more week! Only missed one day because I was not at home.

Current status:
219k SPI
25 workouts
647 games

It becomes easier and easier to hear compression on attack and I often don't even need to hear alternative attacks to pick submit the valid choice. I started to realise release affected somehow the "punch" of the snare so that helped me pass the release settings levels.

EQ games start to be real interesting as I know need to be more and more precise.
I know need to properly make the difference between 1.5k and 5k, it's still a bit fuzzy inside this range.

Low end is still painful.

The swing game is also very hard, I've got no clue of where to start to learn this actually. I'm used to adjust the swing of my midi by ear until it grooves but never really tried to reverse engineer the feel of each setting.

Made quite some progress on a lot of games, even panning!

See you next week!
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Syndice _
Oct 04, 2021
That ear training video is amazing, I love this community
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 09, 2021
🌅 Week 5 done!

📈 Current status:
485k SPI
31 workouts
879 games

EQ:
Cutting EQ is now way easier as I hear easily frequencies that are disappearing.
EQ in general has become real fun as it's getting down to 300hz ranges most of the time. For now I struggle the most with 3k-7k.
I still need to be better at low end EQ, I'm having a hard time with 70-180hz.

Compression:
Compression is getting easier and easier to hear.

Panning:
No way to progress more on Panning games, the bands are just too narrow now.

Distortion:
On distortion game, I feel like the game is playing tricks on me as it's sometimes boosting volume. But still making progress there.

Misc:
Made some gentle progress on reverb & delay as well. Delay is very hard when down under 40ms, and differences lets say between 110 - 150.

Overall feeling:
I'm still feeling like I progressed a ton this week 🤓

Objective for next week, grind the low end EQing.

🍹See you all, have a great weekend!

🎸 For those who haven't seen it yet, enjoy our last cover, made with love from our humble home studio setup:
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 16, 2021
🌅 Week 6 done!

📈 Current status:
644k SPI
39 workouts
1072 games

EQ: Not much progress on EQ this week. Low end is still gambling between 90 and 200hz.

Compression: Gained a few more levels on compressionist, and it was kinda easy so I think I'm becoming better at this. Currently level 35. I'll try to focus on Dr compressor a bit more in the coming weeks, it's way harder IMO.

Distortion: I finally cracked distortion. I no longer focus on volume but more on the sonics. Using the drums track I was easily able to progress. I'm listening for clarity of the sound, the clearer the sound the less distorted. If washed out then it is distorted. Sometimes the game seems to increase one side in volume, but it doesn't mean it is more distorted, I no longer focus on the volume too much. I went from 140k to 3M on the distortion game.

Reverb & Delay are now quite challenging, still making little progress there once in a while.

Overall feeling:
😀 The progress seems to have slowed down a bit. Happy to have cracked the distortion game which was far behind until now. Next thing to be better at are the low end EQ and DR compressor.
🤺 I also started playing some duels, it's great because it forces you onto other songs than the ones you usually pick. However my duelist was @Vlad Po and he's clearly better than me especially on EQ games, so I plan to do more of those!

I will also submit my first training mix for the song suggest by @MAGGHY JI here: https://www.soundgym.co/space/talk?id=GD2LI6086CM&t=ZRUAEAO77BB

🍹See you all, have a great weekend!
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Ziggy Shpakovsky
Oct 16, 2021
Hi, it is extremely interesting to observe the process).
Let me express an opinion on this.
I repeat already said above, but it is important in my opinion. Perhaps this is the most important thing in the topic under discussion.
You need to place priorities. What is more important to you? Figures in ratings or hearing development?
This is not the same thing.
You can quickly take off in the standings. Quickly achieve its level of incompetence and get stuck at that level very and very long (perhaps forever).
Or you can not rush to pass each level, do not hurry to jump as soon as possible to the next one.
Rumor (more precisely, the brain in relation to hearing) does not develop very quickly. And on this, if you quickly understand the lungs (and sometimes boring) for him, he (at the brain) will not have time for development.
He will immediately get complex tasks with which it will not be able to cope.
It is for this that it is not worth a hurry with the transition to new levels.
It is for the sake of this that one should not rush to the transition to new levels. Even when the level is easy and easy to do, you need to deliberately linger on it for a while.
you can periodically use the option to change the level to lower

If you want to accelerate (it is in the progress of the development of hearing, and not in a set of glasses), then you have to help well-known and long-established rules for the development of any skills:
Exercises are not long, but regularly.
those. If you have 1.5 hours a week on classes, it will be much more efficient if you are engaged in 10 minutes a day, rather than all 1.5 hours immediately, once a week.
If you have enough time every day for training, then do not one long training, but two per day. those. Not 40 minutes to a row, and 20 minutes in the morning, and 20 minutes in the evening. This is more effective, especially if you have Daytime Nap
If you are on Pro account, then do not only Daily Work, but also choose the exercises for an additional workout. Especially those that cause difficulties.

Exercise on the recognition of the carved frequency, and should be given with great difficulty. So it works the brain. It easier learns reinforced frequencies than cut out.
It is for this reason that I strongly recommend that it does not switch between the processed and unqualized sound. For this happens like cheating (and we do not put the goal to deceive yourself?).
It is that when switching there here, we turn an exercise with cutting to add. those. We learn not cut out frequency, and the frequency of the rising (from a minus to 0), and this is not what we want to train.

the question is whether any outside training is needed. the brain loves variety, even if it is slipped the same candy in different wrappers - it will love it. and he won't get bored so quickly.
and when he gets bored - he sabotages tasks

I hope any of the written can be useful

PS Your songs are good)
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Kovács Károly
Oct 16, 2021
Hey @Raymond RUTJES ,
Your progress is amazing!
However, it will get slower and slower overtime.
Will you be able to bear the pressure of the slowing progress?
This is a very important thing to keep in mind!

Keep going but keep it easy at the same time, Do not burn out! 😎
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 16, 2021
@Ziggy Shpakovsky thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.

I completely agree with your statements.

I'm trying to stay with the daily routine and let the system pick the track for me so that I get variety.

Now it is true that some days, when I feel like it, I would attempt to crack a given game.
I found that focusing deeply on some games would really help me to understand some basics that were really fuzzy at first. For example, I was way behind on the distortion game compared to other games because I wasn't really listening for the correct things at first. Doing only very small sessions wouldn't have helped me that much to make such break throughs.

However once some of the basics are acquired, I indeed feel only time will help me really drill in some of the mechanics. At first I really worked hard on EQ and was able to be very good at the EQ cheetah, then this week I worked on other things and became less precise on EQ, so in that regard I really agree with the idea of going slow. On EQ I can kinda easily hear from 100-1.5k and tell when it's above or around 9k. In the middle however I wish there was the ability to have games focused just on the 1.5-9k for example.

> It is for this reason that I strongly recommend that it does not switch between the processed and unqualized sound

That is some great piece of insight, so far I was indeed turning on & off to isolate the frequency and now that I think of it it makes little sense as it would be more useful to hear what's missing so that in a real world mix scenario I could boost whatever is missing for instance. From now on I'll definitely stop turning on & off the carved out frequency to really learn to hear what's missing, thank you so much for sharing.

> You need to place priorities. What is more important to you? Figures in ratings or hearing development?

My main objective is to become more efficient at mixing, but also make better mixing decisions.
I've been mixing for less than a year, and I've watched hundreds of hours of content online and read books. I've reached a point where online content doesn't help me anymore, what I really need and can't acquire easily is experience. That is why finding SoundGym was so exciting because it could help me speed up a bit the process of learning, and focus on some keys aspects such as EQ & compression. I feel already way more confident in EQ decisions in real mix scenarios and want to continue improving on that.
I'm a firm believer that anything can be learned as long as you're able to work on it regularly and for a long period of time. This thread is obviously a way for me to keep myself accountable, but also to remember where I came from which comes in handy when time are more difficult and doubts lead to procrastination and lose of focus.
What I also like here is the community, it seems to be very supportive and also very helpful. For example what you shared regarding the EQ cuts is going to help me tremendously, I would have otherwise continued to perform at the game but not really get the most out of it.

IMO the most interesting games are definitely the ones around EQ and compression, and I really see myself keeping those in my daily habits for the long run. Even though it's always great to trigger the brain's reward system with the points badges and everything else, I can tell that I'm even more satisfied when I'm recording a sound I hear and properly guess exactly the frequency that was dominating. This is very funny to do by the way, listen to sounds around you like or dislike, record them and guess the frequencies 🤓 I'm even carving out frequencies with a small EQ chrome plugin of some youtubers having great content but annoying voices 😬

Regarding variety I agree, what would be great at some point is be able to pick any song or even why not ongoing mixes and be able to play the games with those.

On top of SoundGym I'm also doing the following:
- Mixing the songs for Manon the Moon (5 ongoing songs & one ready to be published)
- Doing live covers like the one shared previously
- Mixing music for small unknown artists for free on Reddit
- And from now on I'll also try to regularly participate to the mixdown training on SoundGym (I'll be submitting my first 3h mix I did for Fool tomorrow).

Again thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts, it will definitely help me.
Thanks for the nice words about our songs, always heartwarming 🤗.
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 16, 2021
Hey @Kovács Károlyác thank you for your comment!

Indeed I do expect it to becomes slower overtime indeed, I've started to feel it this week especially since all games are now pretty challenging, so it's hard to grind 3-4 levels quickly or pick up a game way behind and focus on it.

Obviously I will have to adapt the content I share in this thread as progress will be slower yet I think it will help me still regularly share the mood I'm in so I can understand later on the stages I went through.

> Will you be able to bear the pressure of the slowing progress?

I think I'll have to keep working on mixes and diversifying what I'm doing. I think I would be at huge risk if I were doing only SoundGym, but today I get the feeling of reward more from doing actual mixes than from leveling up in games. I think combining both is perfect as it would have taken me 10 years of mixing to learn to hear what I'm hearing today without focused exercises.

> Keep going but keep it easy at the same time, Do not burn out! 😎

Yes, completely agree. Thanks for pointing that out.
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Ziggy Shpakovsky
Oct 16, 2021
Raymond RUTJES I'm glad of the coincidence of thoughts)
*- Mixing music for small unknown artists for free on Reddit
it's very interesting, I also think about it from time to time ... but I still won't start ... maybe there is not enough confidence
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Kovács Károly
Oct 19, 2021
Its always great to see that others are this enthusiastic about learning & mixing in general - besides me! 😇
Keep going my friend 😎
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 23, 2021
🌅 Week 7 done!

📈 Current status:
702k SPI
46 workouts
1126 games

Slow week, I've sticked with the daily routines without pushing any games.
I don't feel like I've made any break throughs which is fine.

I've spent some time listening to most of the mixes of SoundGymers for the last week's training mixdown song and tried to evaluate and learn from the different approaches.

And this week, I'm thrilled because we've shared our song Rise for the weekly mixdown training , and I can't wait to hear all the great mixes! https://www.soundgym.co/space/talk?id=GD2LI6086CM&t=TIKTB0BG0VX

🍿Enjoy your weekend!
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Raymond RUTJES
Oct 30, 2021
🌅 Week 8 done!

📈 Current status:
765k SPI
52 workouts
1157 games

I was mostly sick this week so it was hard finding the time & motivation to do longer training sessions.

I think when I'll be better I need to start training more on EQ to really drill in the 1.5k-8k range.
I seem to make less mistakes on the low end game which is great.

It was also very cool to listen to all the mixes that were done on our song Rise in the mixdown training room.

🎛 Have a great week!
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Raymond RUTJES
Nov 06, 2021
🌅 Week 9 done!

📈 Current status:
778k SPI
56 workouts
1179 games

Back to the gym! I missed a couple of daily workouts as I had to catch up on many topics this week.

🍿 I've been prepping the release of our new song Down Sometimes which will come out on November 19th: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/manonthemoon2/down-sometimes

🎛 Wish you all great weeks!
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Don't expect your ears/listening will change in just 3 months.

It's a marathon.

After 10 weeks I just begin to really dissociate the high mid low range. More comfortable with the distortion, compression and reverb.
These daily workout really help to improve.
For be able to distinct exactly the Hz we will need a few years. Unless you're a prodigy lol.
Engineers say it takes 5 years to unblock your ears...

Enjoy your journey and take your time.

Have fun while you learn, this the most important.

Peace
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Raymond RUTJES
Nov 13, 2021
Thanks @Alexis "Riker94" Leroy Ducardonnoy for your comment. Always great to get some perspective. I'm OK to continue training my ears during 5 years, saying this especially since I'm currently seing a lot of progress. Obviously like everyone mentions it's a marathon, and I start to adapt my pace.

This week I stayed to the daily workouts and did a few extras when I felt in the mood.
I was pleased by my EQ abilities from 100 - 1.5khz. I also start to recognize 4khz which is great!
I think it has to do with the metal song I'm working on, I tried to find some nice guitar tones and realized the 4k was important to sound I was looking for.

🌅 Week 10 done!

📈 Current status:
853k SPI
61 workouts
1233 games

Smooth workout week with some extras. I didn't do any compression games in a while and it was really tough to get back to it!

I'm still struggling so much at the Groove game. I'm like at level 2 😱I'd like to unlock that as I'm not a huge fan of the beatmaker game, so all I enjoy in the rhythm workout is the BPM game. I'd be happy to have your insights & tips on all the rhythm games.

For the BPM, I try to associate danceability feelings to each BPM.
I easily detect from 110 to 130.
For the resit I get it in the ballpark but not enough to succeed at my current level.

On the good news side I'm excited about our next release "Down Sometimes" that will see the light next Friday. The song has already been pre-approved to be listed on some big playlists which is awesome!

Down Sometimes is a song dear to my heart as I composed it more than 10 years ago, and it only comes to life now!

The song tries to capture those hard moments in life where everything seems to drag you down and nothing seems to matter anymore.

If you're in that mood, want to give feedback or simply want to show support, you can presave the song on Spotify: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/manonthemoon2/down-sometimes

🍹Cheers to all of you!

PS: I really need to factor in those mixdown training sessions in my workout. I feel like 1 mix a month is a lot to handle but when you start skipping one you skip the next one as well :/
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Reggie Yang
Nov 13, 2021
@Raymond RUTJES Great progress!! Keep it up! I am gonna do more practice!!
@Alexander Strohmaier thank you so much for the video!! very helpful!
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Raymond RUTJES
Nov 20, 2021
🌅 Week 11 done!

📈 Current status:
889k SPI
66 workouts
1266 games

This week was a bit special as we were preparing the release of our last single Down Sometimes: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/manonthemoon2/down-sometimes

Nevertheless it was cool to make a little progress here and there.
I managed to connect with compression games again, it really becomes easier & easier to hear differences in sound, really exciting.

On the EQ, I made huge progress on knowing the shape of the bands to draw especially below 2khz.

The swing game is still impossible, I don't get it! But I'm happy to progress on the BPM detection side.

🍸I wish you all to have a great weekend.

If you're alone tonight or feeling down, I can only recommend you listen to our latest song Down Sometimes.
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Pierre Collins
Nov 21, 2021
Hey Raymond, great moody track, really like the overall atmosphere and the voice of Manon, thumbs up! 😀
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Raymond RUTJES
Nov 24, 2021
Thanks @Pierre Collins appreciate it!
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Raymond RUTJES
Nov 27, 2021
🌅 Week 12 done!

📈 Current status:
904k SPI
69 workouts
1281 games

Entered into a lighter routine, especially with the marketing of our latest song Down Sometimes.

Not much else to share!

Have a great week!
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Raymond RUTJES
Dec 12, 2021
2021-12-12

⭐️Special update!

From now on I'll be stating the date only so I can skip reports when there isn't much to say!

📈 Current status:
950k SPI
72 workouts
1307 games

For the last 2 weeks I've been focusing on a new song, trying to mix it until I was able to fix what I didn't like.
It was a very hard exercise but I learned a lot in the process!

🔑 Here are a few key learnings:
1. Don't listen too loud for long periods of time. I knew this, yet I found myself having ear problems and it is very scary.
2. Go in EQ mode with an intention, like "make room for this instrument" etc. I found myself trying to shape the sound of instruments instead of mixing them, ending up with crazy EQ's but a mix overall that wouldn't work.
3. When composing, think about how easy it will be to mix. In my case I had a bass very present at 200 but also composed 2 synths occupying that region + the vocal + snare. Well I now understand why it was impossible to get a proper balance. Less is more, I'm now working on a new song from scratch, and only trying to limit myself to using wide cuts to make room, it's crazy how good it sounds compared to my completely crazy previous EQ's have 4+ bands with tiny Q's
4. Compose with structure in mind. I often start my songs with just a part, let's say the verse, and the build from there but always end up procrastinating. I ended up with long verses, sometimes a chorus, but there is not enough release & tension etc. In one hour, adopting a given structure for example Intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, solo, chorus. Laying out this structure from the get go, forces you to compose something that will serve the song instead of staying too long on certain sections.
5. When composing, forget about details like drum fills etc, because when reordering sections, copy pasting and so on, it becomes a pain to adjust transitions etc. Just get a beat going, lay done the chords, and a simple basse and loop that. Do it for every section of the song and you're well underway.
6. Arrange after having layed down the main idea. Once the chord progressions are in place and you've some humming vocal lines the song needs to feel good already I think. If it's not the case I guess the song needs better harmonies / vocal lines and so on.
7. EQ for what you hear not what you've learned on youtube... I know, easy, yet I always ended up boosting 80 on bass for whatever reason, it would eat the low end and not actually make the bass more present. I found out that the problem is that I wanted a bass more present in the 200 region and that I actually didn't want that much low end, well guess what that works way better for the song and allows me to leave room to the kick + bring up the level of the song overall, everything sounds cleaner. It took me a lot of time to figure this out. Big learning.
8. Use damn reference mixes. I know, this is said here and there, yet I thought if it sounds good it got to be. When I would switch over to some of the bands I inspire from, I would always think "wow this sounds so much smoother, so much more controlled" and whatever. And then I would think that mastering or something specific could fix the problems. Well the answer is very simple, the EQ curve overall and the balance of the instruments is completely different. Sometimes I would cut with a shelve of -8db on the drums and be like "wow it sounds so smooth now". The big learning here listening to my older songs is, don't expect anyone else to get you closer to what you want. If your mix doesn't sound like you want, no one will fix it because everything is subjective so you can't expect a mastering engineer to get you closer. They will just fix the problems (harshness, make sure low end is controlled, limit better, add a bit of compression blabla), but they will not change the sonics, well because it's not their job. So if you hear something you want to fix compared to a reference mix, try to get there to understand what was going on. This way I've managed to understand how to tame harshness in guitars, control 200 more, better position the bass, control the punch & low and of snare, put correct levels on synths (sometimes I thought it sounded great 8dbs louder than what actually the sound need).
9. mono mono mono mono mono, get the shit working in mono, compose in mono, make room for instruments in mono (large cuts). Not only will this make sure you don't cluter the composition too much, but it will also avoid damaging only one ear if say you're a dumbass like myself and put a synth 8db too loud in one ear and listen for that 2 hours. That feeling when you press the mono button and everything sounds like shifted 10% to one side is VERY scary, don't do that.
10. Mix at very low volume. When you mix at very low volume, when I mean low I really mean low, like you can barely hear it, then you start to realize what is too loud. If the synth are poking out or you don't hear the vocals etc, you know the volumes aren't good. This technique is very cool, turn the thing down to a level where you can barely hear, does your thing still sound good? Or do you now miss this thing that you thing is great in your song?

There are soo many other subtle things I've learned in the past 2 weeks but the 10 points listed above are definitely the ones that come to mind at first.

I've also launched myself into the journey of learning music theory because when you hear a lot of things but are unable to play them right away it's quite frustrating :)

Hope my experience above will help others and maybe avoid someone to go through the same health issues.
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Raymond RUTJES
May 05, 2023
Long time no see! The good news is, I've never stopped learning and being obsessed with getting better, even though I have to confess that I focused more and more on actual recording/composing & mixing that training here.

I got to a point where I start to be happy with my mixes and even masters.

I'll soon be starting to release all the songs I've been working on (30ish so far) under my own artist name Raylixir.
I've decided to share my progress in the music industry in on my brand new website.

I'll be sharing Mixing tips, stories around my discoveries, my workflow & Reaper presets, how, when and where to publish the songs and so on.

If you are also on this music producing journey, or are interested in some of the topics around music production, you can now read my first article on how why I started. I'll reserve a dedicated post about SoundGym in the future to give back to this community!

https://raylixir.com/music-producer-journey/
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Darth Fader
May 05, 2023
hi raymond
be patient, try to exercise at least a bit every day, close your eyes as often as you can (feeling more than watching) and take as many references to get a strong fondation !
keep pushing !
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Pierre James
Feb 29
This was awesome to read. Thanks Raymond. Are you still at it?