Member-only story
The Melody of the Mind
What is felt can be heard if we learned how to really listen
Music is one of those things that has universal appeal, yet can create controversy when it comes to taste. Like wine, many enjoy it and few are obsessed. Fanatics of either realm propose that there is a hidden kind of depth that only the experienced can grasp. A vintage wine has an exquisite quality just like a vintage album played on vinyl. But the palette has to be trained in order to fully appreciate it. Sounds like a lot of snobby junk, but there’s something to it. At least that’s what I’ve learned from teaching myself music production.
I started by playing around with all the basic effects like compression, EQ, and reverb. At first, I just threw some settings at it and cranked up the echo-y reverb and thought that was it. Safe to say that my early stuff sounded pretty bad, but the thing is, I couldn’t tell. My brain didn’t know what made a professional song sound good, so it sounded good to me at the time. Eventually I figured out it wasn’t so stellar. It was missing something. So, I set out to figure out exactly what that special sauce was.
I watched videos about music production to learn the tricks of the trade. I upgraded to better equipment and software tools. I practiced playing and singing to make better recordings. I spent more time writing…
