The Stereo Bus Blog - Daily Music Production Tips

This post is a quicky focusing on ways to develop the habit of documenting your first impressions and gut-instinct while listening to music for production.

There’s only one time in your life when you’ll be able to hear a song or a performance for the first time. This is a unique moment and it should be treated with a whole lot of respect. Fresh ears are a very important ingredient in the production process. People who are particularly talented at production or who have been doing it for some time will automatically hear production ideas and constructive criticism when they listen to a performance of a song. If you will be in a position to produce the song or artist, taking the time to document your thoughts on the essential qualities of the material and the feelings they cause as they arise is a vital step to understanding where you should go with it.

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This post focuses on ideas for choosing the track order of an album.

You’ve completed your songs, all the details are done, the mixes are smashing, and you’re ready for mastering. But wait… we need to arrange these things somehow! An often overlooked and often very arbitrary step in the production process, track order can literally make or break a release. Countless albums simply run out of steam by having either too little variety or too many of the strongest tracks in the first half of the album. It’s very important to have a good variety of moods, keys, and tempos throughout. I’m going to organize this post by philosophy and general practices.

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