Zero Crossing Point

Over the years I have met a lot of different people and did a lot of talking about music production and art.

With time, I came to realise there is much less real-world correlation between technical understanding and quality music output.
I would even go as far as saying they should be treated as two separate things.

I met artists who made music that sounded inherently complex to my ear, yet told me they had only a limited understanding of what they were doing.

Also had discussions with people about very niche and geeky topics related to how synthesisers, effects, programs were made, only to find out they were not aspiring to make any music themselves.

On the other hand, too much technical knowledge and you might over focus on particular elements and spend hours refining them using all your “pro techniques”.

Through my work, I have learnt about a looot of ways to tweak sounds, and there is always a part of me that wants to make all that knowledge “profitable”.

That often makes me over-complicating things and failing to focus on a single and clear musical idea.

Rather than automatically think you should learn more techniques, the kind of questions you could ask yourself are:

- Am I someone that needs to understand the specifics of the tools I use, or am I ok knowing the big picture, then figure out things on my own?

- Do I enjoy diving in technical questions, and the struggle that come with it?

- In my practice, do I feel like I lack technical skills everyday, or do I know enough workarounds to keep going?

Thankfully, none of the answers will make it impossible for you to make music.

Everyone has a different way of approaching knowledge in general, and that is perfectly ok!

All that being said, I would still recommend to get a little bit of technical vocabulary, by watching mixing tutorials, check out books you can find on sound in general.

But don’t worry about understanding every single thing at first. It is more important to be frequently exposed to the vocabulary rather than to master every aspect of it.

Don’t let the technical jargon block you, it might be less important than you think!

#musicproduction #musicproducers #overthinking