It's been some months since my last blog post. I've missed you guys. I got married. I did some traveling. I moved from one apartment to another, which is always an ordeal with my studio setup. And I've been working.

One of my jobs is writing for a magazine covering the hardware and software of pro audio and high-end consumer audio. And it's been a learning experience writing under an editor; discovering what it means to adapt my writing style to another's publication.

The Parable

This past month, I've…

The Problem

You have huge dreams for your music. You love music. You want it to be your career. And if you're being honest, you're pretty good at it.

But some days, it's just so hard to work! Each day, you start with the ambition of making an amazing song, or some other momentous achievement for your music career. And each day, the time somehow slips away. What happened?

It's okay, you're just human.* You are subject to the productivity traps that threaten all of us. But fortunately, there are things you…

Introduction

One of the most amazing aspects of music production is just how fun it is to start throwing down layer after layer, adding new instruments and melodies and samples, building up a song until it blooms into life. It's one of the reasons production is so compelling: it's entertaining like a great video game, it's engaging like television never can be, you are building real skills as you produce, and you have something to show for your work after each production session.

One of the challenges…

Hey, guys. Another week in the life of a producer. Another week learning to better do what I do, as I'm sure all of you are doing as well.

I recently switched DAWs from Pro Tools to Studio One for a handful of reasons. This may seem a bit silly, but one of the features I was most excited about when I started using Studio One is that (like many DAWs, I'm sure) it allows me to sort plugins however I want. This is really freeing, but also really handy for organization.

Before I begin, let me preface by saying…

Introduction

Anybody who sits down to do creative work knows that time is not an unlimited resource. Which is unfortunate, because time invested is the number one influence on our abilities and our freedom of space to come up with ideas.

This is my very first post in my production blog, and I decided to use it on a tip for getting the most out of our time, because time spent really is king, and our ability to maximize the time we have unlocks both technique and results.


The Problem

I can't speak for most of…