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Monday, March 28, 2011

Symptoms of an Amateur Track

Sup guys, sorry for being inactive for two days!

I have been interested in music production for 4 years. To get my songs heard more I often had to review other people tracks. I kind of started to distinguish what makes an amateur track and what takes it other level. So here are main points what I think makes a track amateur:
  1. Lack of mastering quality
    This one is the most common one. New producers just do shitty mastering because they either suck at it or have shitty hardware. You feel that instrument volume and frequency levels sound unbalanced, there is something wrong with compression or compression is not present
  2. Something wrong with song structure
    There are songs that might have "the catch" but it evolves in a weird way. In such cases I believe the person didn't think much about the structure. Music is about repetition and in  most electro genres that repetition should come after the drop. Stick with the same idea through the song
  3. Sounds like the creator didn't try hard enough
    Sounds like a copycat of a million songs out there, simple chord choices, repetition without the change, sounds empty. These kind of tracks won't get anyone anywhere, obviously, you don't feel like listening it again because there is nothing else to discover. A good track needs at least 20 hours of production IMO. Intro and outro are needed too, lol.
  4.  Sounds like the creator tried too hard and failed
    This one is funny and I actually I see it often enough. It's hard to explain what is wrong. Todays music has to be a bit subtle, a bit cool, mashing in a lot of stuff does not always do the trick, you know what I am saying.. :) Trying too hard kills the coolness.

17 comments:

Triper said...

There is no better way to make your underground song 'great' but give it to speciallist from mastering. And i do this for sure.

Anonymous said...

I make songs and mixing is a problem because I don't have the hardware :(

Alphabeta said...

Structure and not overdoing it are definitely really important.

Meghan Moran said...

No doubt about it, these are all queues that the track was made by an amateur.

psyke said...

Could you make a tutorial on how to master tracks?

Unknown said...

no problem and welcome back :)

Jay said...

so many things to think about when breaking into the music industry...

Electric Addict said...

informing post thank you!

Slamcakes said...

Thanks for the tips, I'm gonna have to listen more carefully to tracks next time.

Moobeat said...

very specific yet dead on points. thanks for your post

ed said...

my music isnt amateur, its experimental and underground (not srs)

skinned sheep said...

hehe. funny stuff

Bremsy said...

Number 4 is SO TRUE!

PryON said...

Mastering. You gotta squish that tune up into a BLOCK. You want it so compressed that when people turn off their speakers they can still feel it moving their fringe and even their curls a little too.

Jessica Thompson said...

Totally agree with #4 man. Come check me out, alphabetalife.blogspot.com

Pappa Püllï said...

I make songs and mixing is a problem because I don't have the hardware :(

Marcos said...

#4 all the way lol