You’re a teenager. You want to learn how to create and mix your own music. Music education in your school was cut because it’s considered unimportant, you don’t have the bucks to go to a college like Berklee (you’re too young anyway), and the days of being an intern at a big studio and soaking up knowledge from world-class professionals are long gone.
So, you go to YouTube, seeking advice from videos like “You Suck at Mixing: The Ultimate Guide.” Great idea—start by insulting your viewers! But to be fair, it fits right in with “This Is Why Your Reverb Sucks,” “Top 10 Reasons Your Mix Sucks,” “Why Your Vocal Mixes SUCK!”, “Why Your Beat Mixes ‘SUCK,’” “Why Your Mixes Suck,” and, of course, “Why Your DJ Mixes Suck Fried D*ck.” Granted, I haven’t sucked fried d*ck, so I’ll just assume he knows what he’s talking about. (Those are all real titles.)
Sure, I understand these people are excited about music. And some feel they’ve discovered something amazing, even if I was doing it in 1970…and learned it from someone who was doing it in 1960. As NBC proclaims, “If you haven’t seen it before, it’s new to you.” Some tips need to resurface for newer generations.
However, one video I found particularly helpful: “Stop Watching Mixing Tutorials” by Nathan Larsen. It presented the heretical idea that tracking and songwriting are what really matter. Imagine that! As to the others, my mixes don’t suck, so you just lost a click.
But I have other problems with YouTube-based self-education. YouTube monetization rewards swill generators content creators for quantity, not quality. Posting more videos makes YouTube happy, as do long videos because they rack up more time (this is why 20-minute videos often present 5 minutes of information). You can have enough subscribers to monetize, but not be able to monetize unless you also churn out a constant stream of content—whether you have anything worth posting or not. And slavery to the algorithm is behind those desperate pleas to “click like and subscribe!”
Also, nothing’s vetted. Clicks or “likes” have no correlation with quality. Apparently, clickbait YouTube thumbnails work best with an arrogant or horrified look by the creator, large breasts, or both. And to keep up click counts, people don’t remove videos—which explains “Your Music Sucks!!” videos with tips for Cool Edit Pro. There’s so much misinformation on YouTube that it’s hard to know where to begin.
So, let’s loop back to the beginning.
AN EDUCATION REFRESH
Consider books. They become outdated so fast that conventional publishers won’t touch them. I won’t name names so that this doesn’t turn into self-promotion, but I decided to re-evaluate technical publishing and now treat all my books as downloadable software. Regular “point” updates are free to owners, a PDF download often includes presets and audio examples, and all are the same price. This approach has been very successful. If more companies steal are inspired by this concept, books might just make a comeback.
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Likewise, manufacturers need to re-evaluate how they do documentation. Start with using language that makes sense to engineers, not salespeople. How will beginners know that Polyphonic Pressure, Polyphonic Aftertouch, Poly AT, Poly Aftertouch, Poly Pressure and Key Aftertouch are the same thing? Or that phase and polarity aren’t the same thing? I once pitched a company on writing a manual for a product that customers had a hard time understanding. Their response was, “No thanks…by the time they open the box, they’ve already bought it.” Okay, marketing made a sale. But would disappointed customers buy what the engineers made next?
Schools and courses also need to be re-evaluated. There is no longer a monolithic recording industry. There are three music industries: enthusiasts, professional musicians and business ventures. I think we’d benefit from schools with separate, clearly delineated orientations for each.
Most importantly, music is more satisfying when it’s art. Sure, you can move canned loops around and think you’re making music, but if you move lyrics, ideas and emotions around—not just notes and sounds—it creates something people want to hear, regardless of the mixing and production.
FEEDBACK IS YOUR FRIEND
Which brings us to the biggest problem with today’s DIY approach to education: There’s no feedback. That’s the part of education that concentrates on “the painting, not the brush.” The art is what matters. A teacher or mentor gives feedback; so does an audience when you perform live. Thankfully, there are some forums where people can upload songs and receive informed feedback from other musicians (not just inarticulate YouTube comments), but these are scattered randomly throughout the web.
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Hopefully, those who want to learn recording will ignore the people who tell them their mixes suck. Instead, they’ll seek out feedback and listen to their music as critically as possible…and realize that it’s more important to be concerned with the music, the tracks and the story that’s being told than with mixing minutiae.
It’s up to the generation of engineers who came up in the studio world before 2000—which was a very different world—to pass the torch. Go to the forums where people post their music, and offer constructive criticism. Be a guest for a few hours at a local school. Counter YouTube misinformation with informed comments, and ignore the haters.
But please pass the torch quickly—before the flame goes out.
