Been saying this for years: we are living in a time where there are perfectly produced perfectly forgettable tracks.

You’re making a lot of sense. I’m about 3 years to my producer/engineering journey and I’m literally on KZfaq everyday when the truth is. I know how to compress,saturate,eq, etc. I’ve been thinking that enough is enough. A lot of the guys we know and love as artist,producers, and engineers didn’t even have KZfaq when they were starting! And that’s the mindset I’m going into. I appreciate you. Sometimes the overload of info can make you feel inadequate.

I think for those who want to become music PRODUCERS or ENGINEERS, but every now and then also want to make their own music: You should try to really put the engineering skills behind when actually making the music. Then after the creative process you can go into the details of engineering and re-record stuff if it wasn't "perfect" during the creative process.

As a producer, it's great to learn all aspects of music especially how to mix and master however, don't let the mix and master distract you from finishing your song. Spending too much time on a mix can really become tiring, demotivating and at times it makes you think that your song isn't good enough. Stay disciplined to the creative process.

Sums up perfectly what I think... all of this stuff around is killing ART, and overstressing artists and composers, because you "need" to be up to date with all of these complicated mixing and master chains. These are strange times for anything... music included. 🤷‍♂️

I find my head becoming clearer and clearer about creativity. I’ve got a wealth of fundamental knowledge now to get me there - and I know it so well now that it’s like it’s inherent. It just happens. It’s like I’m entering a new phase of my journey where I’m free to create and simplify. I’m excited snd motivated. I’ve watched your Metic - Neon Hour vid a dozen times. Love the production, both vid and music. Keep preaching, please. We need this guidance.

In all those years of mindlessly watching a tutorial after the other, this was the most helpful video I've ever seen...thank you very much :)

The KZfaq algorithm pushes those kinds of videos down my throat and they frustrate me beyond words! They're also usually not based on any kind of technical reality. Thanks! I enjoyed listening to your thoughts about it all 🙂

I started to make live improvs with my Push 2 daily, focusing solely on creative ideas & process (on live stream), instead of dwelling in the details in a DAW, and I'm way more happier in this way. My personal goal was to master the Push 2 and see what is possible, and it's a wonderful journey. You're absolutely right, focus to the music first.

Fucking insane you read my mind. You really hit the point of “fast food music”. Less time composing and more programming is the shithole of the industry 🔥🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

True, and its tough, so many distractions. Over the last 3-5 years I've moved towards presets for my work. People will diss you for this. But presets allow me to get close to a great sound whilst allowing me to focus on the song writing. Sure I've mixed my bands albums and that is a fun side as well. But the song writing is the difficult part. That most people, can't do well. Nice rant 😎

I’m barely half way of this vid i do gotta say you’re right about the stuff that’s out there sending us down a rabbit hole. I get caught up trying to mix and master everything I start to lose my magic, my best songs don’t have a lot of technical stuff in them for an example

I love this video! It absolutely hits the nail on the head which is that the music production community feels more like technology promotion as opposed teaching the process of making music.

I've been talking about this for so long and have been so happy to see other KZfaq creators talking about this. Literally the timing of this video is at the same time as one of my own talking about this exact thing. Well done.

A breath of fresh air indeed, spending so much time stressing over mechanical stuff and new plugins takes the creative process to shambles and the actual enjoyment.. You got yourself a sub man!

I came to this conclusion on my own, after switching to instrument-based actually performed music. A well written and played song is gonna sound good even with shit production (the essence of the song exists without production). Good production elevates it further.

Gosh, thank you SO MUCH for making this video. I've been struggling with finishing my songs for the past 4 years just because I get this tremendous anxiety that I don't know all the effects, knobs, etc. and I'm not yet "professional enough" to even start producing. Such a weight off my mind, so much so that I actually added your arguments to my CBT coping card. Take care 🌸

so true, i stoped concuming that kind of content couple years ago and started focusing on learning the piano and fundementals of sound physics and sound design and it was the best thing i'v ever decided to do Thank you for shring your thoughts on that, im really happy i found this channel couple months ago

Yup, I had to learn this the hard way. The "producer" way of thinking stifled my creativity. I'm finally back in music making mode.

It’s all about balance, certain gear or software or technical knowledge can transform your whole music making process

At first i was like: hmm lets see what this video is about. But man your words are on point! I started 2 years ago and found myself sometimes getting lost in the advice. Just as you said: its about music making and your own unique creativity! Thank you

I am currently 16 so I'm still in the "Cracked Plugins" phase and after just acquiring another one, I've stumbled upon this video and you're entirely right. I get cracked plugins and barely even use them but I feel myself stuck into this loop. Hours wasted trying to get the "sounds that I think are cool". Thanks, you've gotten me out of this loop.

This is important for more than just music production. Any hobby or interest, youtube is filled with a plethora of advice, reasons to do and not do things, advertisements, close minded beliefs, products to sell, etc. We can really get so lost and end up feeling like we're failing if we're not listening/consuming every clickbaity video title or following every youtubers advice. Thanks for this!

The whole , “ you have to be an amazing engineer to be a good musician”, craze is killing me also. Even competitions are judging entries on the engineering of the song instead of the content. Almost ALL of our favorite artist were horrible engineers. If you don’t believe me, listen to their songs before they got polished up by a professional. It’s like night and day. Those artist spent time creating, they didn’t spend hours on using a transient mastering eq for example. But now it’s expected for every bedroom producer to be as good of an engineering as they are a song writer?????

Thank you so much for bringing clarity to our music making journey .. you are saying out loud what many of us start realizing after so many years .. hopefully there are some younger artists out there watching your reflections, who will save themselves a lot money and many years of frustration … keep it coming ! Jex Plore

The KZfaq algorithm showed me your video and I had to watch it. I'm a musician first, then producer and engineer and I really enjoy the last two a lot. I've been training myself as a producer and engineer for the past 4-5 years and it has been a rollercoaster. I couldn't agree more with your rant. In fact, I once experienced lack of creativity because, production needed to happen when in reality I had to focus my attention on getting better at songwriting. That's something I'm currently focusing more on, specially because it will give me the needed experience so I can produce for others or a project of my own that I'm making. The same applied when I started mixing, which it was the first thing I started prior to recording and producing. I was always asking myself why my mixes didn't sound right, why my productions didn't sound as the ones on streaming platforms. Turned out that once again, thanks to the plethora of "music production, mixing and tips" contents out there I was working on the wrong aspect of the music creation process. I needed to learn how to record better, how to improve my performances with my guitar, which is my first instrument. Once I actually did that, I started seeing results in the work I was doing. This video actually was amazing to watch and, I'm subscribing! Thank you for sharing your rant, it is necessary to communicate what you communicated in this video. There are already too many producers and not so many songwriters. Who's gonna write the music then? That's maybe a subject for a different video? I don't know! Cheers from Spain!

This is by far one of the most important videos I’ve seen in a long time regarding “producing”. This is the kind of information more music producers / artists need to hear. Great work my friend, love the rant! 💪🏻💯

I felt that as I sometimes find myself collecting more music making tools and resources than making actual music. Watching those producers on KZfaq is really fun and educational to see, but making and finishing music is a real skill

Thank you. I am a musician first and foremost. That’s all I want to be. You hit it right on the head. Once I started recording my own music I ran into video after video on how to mix, master, compression, etc. You already know. I ,too, was getting too absorbed on perfectly mastering a song. Thanks to your video though. I didn’t like not practicing and enjoying playing my instruments. I was watching more and more videos on how to mix this or EQ that. I began to ask myself- Am I a musician or a producer? Because it seems that I’m spending more time producing as of late instead of doing what I really like doing which is to play and perform. Then your video popped up.

If only i could pin this video on my wall and look at it everyday!!! Amen brother... very powerfull stuff

Fantastic video, super happy I stumbled across it. Great advice.

i really needed to hear this. been stuck in a rut for a minute and this mindset is a big reason why. sometimes you just need a little reminder. cheers~

Thx so much! This is exactly what I needed to hear. I was stressing too much over the little things. Gonna stop producing and start making music!

Your right and I actually get really fed up of the mastering aspect of My music because I cant (or struggle to) get My music to be loud and mastered like POP artists but then if you actually listen to most pop music there is little to no dynamics and I cant actually, make My music like that and I dont want to.

THANK YOU for your no b.s. talk!!! You are spot on, my friend!

Dude. You, and your message, just rocked.💪🔥

You’re definitely right about the new gear videos that have had a negative effect on myself. I keep thinking this new hardware is gonna change how I make music then use it a few times, buy another etc etc but all I’m really doing is scratching the surface of these and not actually using them for the intended purposes of making good music. I’ve completely gone back to square one now with a Launchpad pro and a guitar. Gonna focus on my writing skills first and not just focus on new hardware. All that other mastering stuff can be learnt once I’ve got some credible tracks that warrant time spent on them.

It always makes me sad when i hear young kids saying "i am a producer, i am making beats" ... when i was a teenager my dream was to be a "composer" and "write music" .... there's a huge difference between the two ..... thank you for a really nice video.

This video hit the spot. Thankyou 🙌

Right on point! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic.

This is so so true! I've sort of just realized lately that songwriting is the most important thing in all of this! Do you have some insight to share in how your songwriting skills improved over the years?

These are some really key points here and these “labels” being used so liberally are one thing that kept me away from making music for many years, a sense that I had too much to learn before I could even start and no real understanding of what I actually needed to learn… just making music is how to learn it all, learning by doing. Theory can help explain why music sounds how it does and offer guidance, production helps turn music into a product, none of those things are actually about making music.

This is such a great topic, you are the only channel I've found that's talking about it! Just got your self a new subscriber, would love to see more music youtubers talk about this subject matter.

Brrooooo😭💪🏽🙏🏽 I needed to hear this! And I need to hear it more thank you sooo much for the advice boss man !!

Great vid Ed. A guy warned me about this when I started using Ableton. He said "Watch out you don't ending up collecting Gigs of samples and hundreds of Plug-Ins, and never making music.

I think if you are planning releasing music, then you do need to know about production. You do need to know about eq and compression, otherwise however good your songwriting, your music will sound like amateur hour and no one will listen to it. If you’re only planning on performing then to a degree, you can maybe just focus on the music. The problem is that if you are performing then you still need to understand eq and compression to some degree, otherwise same problem. Your music will sound terrible in the bar, club, festival. I agree that there is a lot of BS around how you MUST have third party plugins when stock will do just fine in 99 cases out of 100. When Disclosure talked about their breakthrough song with Sam Smith, they said everyone was saying how “analog” it sounded and how did they do it. They were like “Dude, it’s all stock Logic synths and plugins “

Spot on, your humor on the topic is greatly appreciated as well!! 7 part series on EQing haha!

I love this video. Love it. Thank you for saying it!!!

I needed to hear this, thank you. You’ve made me realize it’s past time for me to get started actually publishing songs, even though my production skills are far from perfect. Like you said, I’ll learn as I go. ❤

This is exactly what I needed to hear thank you. I get so caught up in the "sound quality" and how to "make the mix as good as possible" and end up not even making music for a week at a time...the exact thing I got into this to begin with.

Legend! You deserve a follow for this video alone! Cheers brother

Thank you for this. It helped me!

Finally a breath of fresh air! A lot of people got consumed with 'making beats/loops' and forgot about the music as a whole, altogether.

Man Thanks for this! I feel like this is exactly what I needed to hear! I love your transparency. Subscribing now!

Loved it! That was exactly what I need to hear. Thank you :)

Awesome advice. Thanks bro🤟 Music is life

Absolutely perfect point of view!

Thank you, your “rant” makes a lot of sense and serves as a good reminder. I’m gonna go make some music now.

This WAS helpful - thank you - great simple sentiment. Great work.

Thank you ! Needed this reminder. Didn't know I did but I did !

SO TRUE!! Just loved this video.

Love the honesty and no BS, thank you!🙏

I definitely needed to hear this. Thank you

I was about to lose myself, this video put me back on the right track. Thanks :)

Thank You for such a eye opening video!!!! Wow this is awesome 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾!!!!!!!

Thanks for this!

This is one of the best videos I’ve seen!! Well said man! You’ve helped me out, thanks!!!

Subbed because you provided something that I never thought about but needed to hear it. Thanks Mredrollo!

My instantly love this guy. Thanks for separating us for the noise with some clarity instantly subscribed cheers mate!

Very nice video. This opened my eyes to a lot. Thank you!

Definitely needed this video. I finally have the motivation to finish a song and out of all 20+ plugins I've downloaded only 3-4 I always use. Thanks for the vid! 👍

Hardly ever do I comment on videos, but I stumbled across your channel a week ago, binged all of it and I just want to say; thank you so much!

Thanks! Needed to hear that, badly. Subscribed

Thanks man, I needed that lol I did get caught up in all the VSTs and EQs.

thank you, i really did need this.

Really important video! I had no idea that how I’d got lost - thank you so much!

Your video is 100% spot on! I really needed to be reminded about this. It happens all the time. You start working on some musical idea, but before you know it you start fiddling with some cool ear candy or try finding the right plugins to insert. And then you go shopping for yet another compressor plugin since the 50 you already have probably doesn't have that new killer feature that everybody is so hyped about and that will finally make your music sound PRO...

Sooooo many people need to hear this! Including myself! Brilliantly said!

Great! Well said and very important

Congratulations! how many true words, you have hit the nail on the head. I think the same as you, I just try to do something that I like with the different DAWs, but without losing my goal, which is to learn over time to create some music.

This was the wake up call I needed. Thank you.

Thank you. After 8 years, I needed to hear this.

Wow I gotta say I’m touched by this message. I put all my focus on trying to make things sound better, for a while I was digging deep I was trying to learn everything and overthink, worried of not sounding good enough to the point where I got so use to just trying different techniques getting the latest things and was hooked on the results I was getting then I’d do it all over again with a new tool unaware that I was chasing that moment of satisfaction and accomplishment. Recently I realized I forgot the reason why I picked up an instrument in the first place. It wasn’t to do techniques or adding on more things to make it sound amazing It was just a simple thought to play and create, it was something that made me feel good about my self. I don’t feel any regret I’m happy I acquired some knowledge but I’m not a engineer/producer I just love making music. This video inspired me even more to focus on creating. Thank you 🙏🏽 hope this video inspires a lot more to create.

Major respect. I remember that I focused on my effect chains over my compositions and it would always leave me feeling unfulfilled. Definitely agree that production is an important skill, but it's similar to how it can be easier to focus on camera specks while forgetting about the underlying content.

Thank you for straightening this all out! I gave you a thumbs up for sure! This music production mania stuff with all these plug-ins that was to be bought and paid for with my debit card was driving me crazy!

This is one of the best advices, I heard the last 10 Years. That reminds me, why I started to make my own music. Thank You!!! 🙌🙌🙌

Totally true. I’m overwhelmed with so many plugins. I spend more time checking a plug-in than making music. Great video brother.

Love it! A reminder I just needed.

This is such a great idea and take on things. Gear obsession and companies trying their best to sell you things constantly. Great video and I love your sarcasm and take on it. Never seen one of your videos before but now I'm a subscriber 👍👍

Thank you for making this video. I’m a new music maker looking into the world of digital music production, and the massive wave of information about this “producer life” is really draining to sift through to figure out what I really need to make good music. This video definitely helped me put things into perspective

I have started playing this every time I sit down to try and make something musical and honestly it's a great focussing technique - thanks for making it

Such a wake-up call for me. Thank man!

Wow so tru🔥 appreciate you for this just subscribed! Bless up

YES!! Spot on man

Thank you for this thoughts, it helped me to look at my self from side

Wise words. Easy to get lost down the rabbit hole. ⭐️

I didn't know that I needed this video so bad. Thanks! I'm Subscribing.

Good points. Thanks!

this is actually quite helpful. ive been wondering where my creativity has gone recently. i recognize that my older pieces that arent officially released sound rly fun and intricate, but the production quality is ass. ive been spending a lot of time lately trying to find the right tools and the right way to do certain things and i feel like i havent been doing a whole lot in terms of spice and creativity. thank you. this gives me new gumption to try to finally get something published, released, and uploaded.

TQ for the post. This helps me!!!❤️