I couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.
It seemed like time slowed down as she said it.
"Why?" my two-year-old asked.
I’d heard stories, but now that the moment was happening, I dreaded every minute of what might come.
And I knew there was no coming back from it.
Now I had to either completely ignore her questions, which probably meant a machine gun fire of "whys" from her mouth.
Or I’d need to explain everything to her from now until college.
Luckily,
I’ve been spending most of my professional career explaining complex audio engineering to hobbyist musicians and producers, so in a way, I’ve prepared for this moment my whole life.
And in all honesty, “why?” is a perfectly acceptable question throughout the production process as well.
- Why am I recording this part for
this song?
- Why am I slapping a compressor on this track?
- Why am I adding a fade-out ending (no, seriously, why are you doing that?)
So take it from a two-year-old and ask yourself why more often.
It just might improve your music.
And if you’d like to know why EQ works the way it works and how you can create better separation between your tracks, check out the
Audio Issues EQ plug-in with the bundled Ultimate Guide to EQ right here.
Cheers,
Bjorgvin