#199: The Hidden Production Habits You’re Probably Ignoring (At Your Own Risk)

Ever wondered why your mixes don’t sound professional, even with decent gear and endless YouTube tutorials? In this episode, Marc Matthews and Tim Benson, AKA Aisle9, reveal the overlooked production habits that separate amateur mixes from polished tracks.

Discover how using reference tracks, including your own successful work, can instantly level up your sound. The duo also expose their most cringeworthy recording mistakes, from misaligned mics to monitor mishaps, underscoring why getting things right at the source is critical.

You'll also learn the workflow most producers ignore: poor project organisation. Marc and Tim share practical tips on track naming, grouping, and DAW session structure that boost efficiency, and no new gear is required.

Whether on your first track or your fiftieth, this candid, tip-packed conversation will help you overcome common mixing hurdles, avoid overprocessing, and finally achieve that clean, professional sound you’ve been chasing.

Tune in to transform your studio sessions and start producing music that truly translates.

Links mentioned in this episode: 

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you! Submit a question, share your social media handles or website, and get featured in a future episode. Plus, one lucky person will win a Starbucks voucher each month!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Inside the Mix Podcast (Music Production Tips for Beginners)
• 2:26 5 Common Music Production Mistakes to Avoid in Your Home Studio
• 5:09 How to Use Reference Tracks for Better Mixing Results
• 7:48 Why Recording at the Source Matters in Music Production
• 11:47 Track Labelling & Session Organisation: Boost Your DAW Workflow
• 22:29 How to Avoid Over-Processing in Mixing and Mastering
• 29:11 Studio Setup Checklist: Technical Tips for Smooth Recording Sessions
• 36:09 Final Takeaways: Music Production Best Practices You Can Apply Today

Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:35

And this is also an argument for AI as well. If you're using any sort of assisted mastering, something along those lines is to deconstruct it why have they done that? And then try and emulate it. Or, like you mentioned there about if you've got a favorite producer, a mix engineer, a mastering engineer, and they've said they've done this to get this result, then you could follow similar steps with your own mix or production, because you want that particular sound, but you're not copying verbatim their settings. You're just following the process, which I think is a great way of doing it.

Tim Benson: 1:10

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews.

Marc Matthews: 1:15

Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix Again. Today, or rather in this episode, I'm joined by Tim Benson, aka Aisle9. And we are answering your questions again, or a question, rather, and this particular question was submitted by a listener and I've paraphrased it down to what are the common mistakes to avoid in music production?

Marc Matthews: 2:03

If you do have a question that you would like us to hash out on the podcast, click the speakpipe link in the episode description and leave us a message. Hey, marketing, my question is xyz. You can find me, and it's also an opportunity for you to give yourself a shout out. You don't need a speakpipe account. All you need is your mobile phone. Uh, really easy to do is just leaving an audio message, and one lucky person each month will win a coffee voucher. So welcome back, tim. How are you? I'm, I'm good thanks.

Tim Benson: 2:39

Yeah, yeah, we're busy releasing stuff and busy doing all my normal sort of mixing and mastering. Yeah, all good.

Marc Matthews: 2:50

Indeed busy times, so if you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed or unsure why your tracks aren't quite hitting the way you want, then this episode could well be for you. Folks, we're going to be talking about some common traps that music producers, from beginners to experienced, might fall into, stuff that we've experienced as well, and I think I'll start off with mine, and I think this goes back to when I started music production in particular and it's something that I've probably bleated on about on the podcast numerous times and that is the use of reference tracks. And I say this to artists I work with, particularly in coaching as well a lot is to use reference tracks, not only in mixing, I find, and essentially in mastering well, but also in the actual production side of things as well, and I do this a lot, and I wish I started doing this when I first started creating music, rather than sort of create it in a vacuum. I now have a Spotify playlist which has a list of playlist, funnily enough, of songs that I've heard, and I think you know I quite like the sound of of that.

Marc Matthews: 3:59

I'd like to do something in that particular style. Then when I move on to that and a new project, I then use that as a reference, whether that's in terms of the actual structure of the track, maybe the arrangement, the sound design, whatever it may be, and that has helped me no end in terms of production. But it's something I wish that somebody had stressed to me the importance of way back in the beginning, and that is using references and reference tracks and not trying to do things in a vacuum, and I think that's particularly important from a home studio perspective, where your monitoring environment might not be the best, might not be perfect, so you can have that reference track that you know is of a high quality and you know sort of what the sound is that you're aiming for. You can replicate that using your particular setup, but that's my one would be references, something that I wish somebody had again stressed to me when I was starting out.

Tim Benson: 4:58

I think that's a really good one. Actually it's one, bizarrely enough that I think I, you know, I think there was a time where I used reference tracks a lot. I sort of got out the habit of it, um, probably because I'm sort of used to doing this, do it so much, but but I've been using it a bit again recently, and so I think the skill is also trying to find a reference track that's a really good match for your style or track. Sometimes that can be quite tricky, actually, you know, but if you can find a good reference track or maybe even sometimes you can even use your own track, say, you do a track and it comes out really well and you find that it goes down well with other people.

Tim Benson: 5:43

It comes out well, sounding balanced in nice, you know all the different places, you listen to it and you think like yeah, that, I got that right that time there's no harm in using that as a bit of a reference sometimes, because it you know you can reference how loud the bass is or how bright it is or whatever, to that track, if, if, if you know, if you can't find another track that's more sort of you know better, uh, sort of representative of what you're doing, so you know that could be useful yeah, I think, using your own references.

Marc Matthews: 6:16

I'm glad you mentioned that because it's it's something that I do and I think it's particularly important when you are releasing or at least using it. I have like references and then compare tracks, um, and then the I often use well, in mastering the compare track is me comparing it to the original mix, but with the reference. In particular, if I'm releasing another song and it's part of a collection of songs, I might have more than one reference in terms of and do what you said there as well. I'm using my original song as a reference as well, so you've got some continuity in sound. It's not just two songs that, although well-produced, well-mixed, well-mastered, they may not sound like they've come from the same collection. And if you're doing an album in particular, you want some consistency in sound across those songs. I think also to add to that as well is, if you are using references, to make sure they're high fidelity as well, don't just grab.

Marc Matthews: 7:12

Don't use a dodgy MP3. Yeah, some dodgy MP3 that's hissing at you throughout the entire session like a snake, an asp, hissing at you throughout the whole thing. But, yes, references.

Tim Benson: 7:26

Yeah, if I was to chip in another one then. So if we do a different one, common mistakes I would say a common mistake is to sort of not pay enough attention to the recording. Say, particularly if you're doing a performance, you're recording your vocal or your guitar or something like that. I mean even if you're playing the keyboard. But I know that a lot of the time now, if we're playing in MIDI or something, we can correct it inside the DAW. But either way, whatever you're doing, get the performance of it right.

Tim Benson: 8:11

Don't just go oh, that'll do, I'll fix it later. There's a sort of horrible bit where it clips here and sounds nasty. But that'll be fine, no one will hear it, I'll put lots of reverb on it or something. You know, those are not in fact, that might be a real mistake. I'll put lots of reverb on it, but you know, um, don't, don't feel you will fix things in that kind of way.

Tim Benson: 8:37

Obviously, obviously, sometimes you end up with a project where you have got something and it is a mistake and it's not easy to fix and you've got to find a way around it.

Tim Benson: 8:48

But, like, ideally, you just want to make sure that that isn't happening If you've got control and you're recording it. Make sure it's recorded well and take the time to go back over it, you know, if it isn't well well done. So, um, yeah, the common mistake is just thinking that you'll fix it later and it's okay, even if it. Particularly things like clipping, where you you just record something at the wrong level and it actually goes into the red and distorts, that is just never really what you want and you know. Um, that is sort of a common mistake to think that clipping or distorting and you've got to really check on both the input, um sort of you know and, uh, you know the input into your, your sort of audio interface, and sometimes not normally, but it depends what you're doing with your DAW, but make sure it's not clipping internally in the DAW as well. But, like you know, just make sure that you recorded in a nice clean version of whatever it is so that you can mix it properly later.

Marc Matthews: 9:59

That's what I'd say'd say yeah, get it right at source get it right at source yeah, yeah most definitely. I think that that is pivotal. Well, you mentioned there maybe love about the reverb and I've often found that in particular with vocals it's it can be a common thing to think, oh the, the vocal's not quite hitting, it's not quite there. I'll drown it in reverb, but you probably don't want to go down that route. I would say Get it right to the source.

Tim Benson: 10:27

I've made these things. I've done it myself and sort of recorded a vocal and somehow not really realised that my headphone was a bit off and I've got the click really blaring in my ear or something. And then afterwards I've got like the click really blaring in my ear or something, and then afterwards I've gone listen back and I spent ages doing all the vocals but not really paid attention to it and then gone. Oh, no.

Tim Benson: 10:47

I've got click all over the vocals and then I've got like a bit of bass. And how did that happen? Well, my headphones weren't on properly, or I had the level up too loud or something. Or, even worse, I had the speakers on while I was doing it and I didn't realise these kind of common mistakes. Like you can leave the speakers on while you're recording and wonder why you've got spill everywhere. So just make sure that you get it right like that.

Marc Matthews: 11:14

But if you haven't got it right, you might have to just face redoing it yeah, what you mentioned there about the speakers is, I think it's one mistake you will make once and you won't do it again. And I did that when I started the podcast. I did a podcast interview and I left the. I left the uh, the speakers on when I was doing the interview. And then I was I don't think I was using riverside when I was doing this and I was listening to it back and I was like what is going on here? Why have I got this weird sort of chorusy effect going on? And then I was like uh, and they're like, oh, okay, yeah, I've left the speakers on while I was doing it.

Tim Benson: 11:48

So, yeah, it's a it's a mistake you'll make once, I find, but you probably won't do it again um, it's like if you're hearing this podcast now and you can faintly hear birds in the distance, that would be because R9 was stupid enough to make the mistake of leaving the window open here, so I haven't shut that yet, but the window is slightly open to my left and you might hear the beautiful birds of Somerset in the background.

Marc Matthews: 12:11

It's very nice If you're listening to this on headphones. If I did a binaural mix, it might be quite nice. You could also. If I did a binaural mix, it might be quite nice, yeah uh, I just uh make it very immersive, like you're in the room with with tim as he's talking.

Tim Benson: 12:27

Oh, there we are, what you mentioned there.

Marc Matthews: 12:29

Yeah, about the, the um, the speakers being on reminds me. This is another key one, actually, and I didn't think of this until you mentioned it and this goes to. This is in the realm of recording now, and I did this. I recorded a big band and I was using a 414 and I was recording a flute if I remember rightly, a flautist I believe that's what they are flautist flautist a flautist might be someone who's flouting something selling her way, yeah, yeah it was.

Marc Matthews: 13:00

It was a big band with someone just selling something casually at the front of the band and I was recording this band and I didn't check which way the microphone was facing because they're very similar both sides. I think one side has the yeah, one side has the.

Marc Matthews: 13:16

Does that have the pickup pattern? I cannot remember if you can select the pickup pattern, but it certainly has the roll-off. And I recorded the room rather than the actual instrument. And that was an interesting mix Because, again, I had the console in front of me, I was pushing up the faders, just bringing the flute, and I was like I'm just hearing room, I can hear the flute, but I'm also hearing a lot of room and I was bringing it in and then I realized that I had the microphone around the wrong way. So I mean, this is a really quick one, but I think it touches on the idea of the speakers. If you are positioning microphones it's a bit going outside the topic of bedroom production, but make sure your microphone is facing the right way. Double check, just go in there, double check again before you start recording.

Tim Benson: 13:59

Um, yeah, it's even like this, on a mic like this where, like you know, one side is this side is picking up, but the other side looks almost identical and you know, um, apart from the fact that my other side's got a dent in it. Yeah, um, like you know, but exactly so, yeah, you have to be careful and I think we've all done it yeah, yeah, that was I tell.

Marc Matthews: 14:18

It was so long. I cannot remember how I overcame it. I think I might not have overcame it, to be fair, but I think, if I remember rightly while we're on the topic of immersive audio, I think I created an immersive mix wrap with using. I can't remember what it was now, but it's slightly off way off topic now but it was yeah, yeah, I remember having you know you can get those heads, the binaural head.

Marc Matthews: 14:43

Yeah, the binaural heads, yeah I had one of those in the middle of the room with the in-ears and I think I created a binaural mix, if I remember rightly.

Tim Benson: 15:04

It was good fun. There probably is a pathway in terms of career going down that route, but I don't know if I was fully invested in it to to pursue it, um, as a, as a direction for my music as the head.

Marc Matthews: 15:09

You know what? They are super expensive. Those heads are massively expensive, man. They are super expensive. I can kind of see why. Because I mean with head related transfer functions and all that.

Tim Benson: 15:18

But hey, if you're a bedroom producer listening to this this will be useless.

Marc Matthews: 15:25

Now, yeah, exactly, exactly that yeah. You might buy a binaural head and start recording things Genuinely.

Marc Matthews: 15:34

It is really interesting. However, I think for me now, if I were to start doing it again, it would be more of like a vanity project and just creating binaural. I had a tutor, great guy, when I was doing my master's degree and he would just go to like the underground and just record the sound using and have these in-ears, these binaural in-ears Really interesting, but I'm not entirely sure what you do with it, um, but anyway, moving on to the, the next one and this is yeah, yeah, the.

Marc Matthews: 16:05

The next one I have is labeling, and this is particularly important because this this comes to labeling tracks, and I've experienced audio one.

Tim Benson: 16:14

Audio two.

Marc Matthews: 16:15

Audio three yeah, yeah, exactly that. And I've had um artists join me in the studio and they bring their projects in and they because I've got the facility here where they can just plumb themselves into into my setup and they'll open up their, their device, whatever it may be. And then I'm like, okay, well, walk me through what you have here. And it's just audio one, audio two, audio three. It's all one solid block of color and there are tracks just dotted, there's audio regions just dotted around. I'm like, well, what's that doing there? And we end up spending a session just deciphering what they have, whether they need it and then labeling. So this, if anything, is a cost saving measure for you listening for the audience, listening to label. It will save you time If you are intending to work with a producer, an engineer, whoever it may be. Just label your tracks and label them with a concise, meaningful name that anybody can look at that track and know what it is. That's the key and it sounds so simple but so many people don't do it.

Tim Benson: 17:22

And I would add to that, you know, maybe it is a common audio mistake. I think, really it's like, you know, you'll go and look at someone's project and then it'd be like, right, kick drum is here. And then it'd be like I've got my bass and I've got a guitar and I've got two synths and then I've got the snare drum down here. I'd be like what? Like no, no, get an organized mind and kind of think, right, my drum tracks, they're going to be at the beginning. For me, for instance, I always put my drum tracks at the beginning. I will literally always have the kick drum on channel one, um, snare drum on channel two, overheads. You know, and I will keep this you could look at a project of mine from 10 years ago and it will basically have the same thing on um. So, like, you start to get something.

Tim Benson: 18:08

It doesn't have to be the same as someone else's, but you just like, organize your drums and sort of get a way that you organize them, organize your maybe it's logical to have bass next, you know, then guitars, then keyboards, then vocals or whatever like, but kind of get a structure to it and stick to it and so then eat it straight away, when you're mixing and when you're coming up with something, you know where those tracks are. You can go and look at the drums and I mean nowadays you can put them in a folder and just, for instance, in cubase, you just put all your drum tracks in a folder, I can just play it back and then I can just solo that folder and I'm just listening to the drums or whatever. You don't want to go, oh yeah, I'll go and find the snare drum, because I've got to solo that as well and find out where this is and like somewhere I put some maracas and I don't know where they are. So you know, you want to kind of that organisation. So label your tracks and organise your tracks and yeah, do that.

Marc Matthews: 19:06

Most definitely. It's going to sound clichéd, but it's kind of like that organisation. A clean organisation for me results in like a clean mix and a clean project, because there's something psychological about it. Like you said, I do the exact same drums first, then bass and then synths, guitar, whatever it is, and the vocals are generally at the bottom, then effects and they're grouped together and it's just making it that streamlined mixing process because, as you say, what you don't want to do is like someone says, oh, can you just solo the drums. Like you say say, oh, there's my kick, there's my snare, got some tops around here somewhere Not sure where they are, but there is somewhere and it turns out they're hidden and then you have to get them back or something along those lines.

Marc Matthews: 19:48

But yeah, labeling, that was huge. That I just yeah. Maybe it's I don't know, maybe it's that sort of coach-mentor thing that if you have worked with someone in a studio or you've gone down the academia route and somebody has said to you, no, you need to label, and it might just be that it's one of those things that's just forgotten. People just immediately get into the creative flow and just forget to label things. But don't folks Label, label things.

Tim Benson: 20:19

Yeah, really, it does really help. It helps you create, I think, and it helps you. It helps you massively when you go back to projects as well.

Marc Matthews: 20:27

Yeah, yeah.

Tim Benson: 20:28

Open something up from ages ago and you can't remember it. Well, you don't have to remember it. It's going to be in the order that you normally use and you will be able to find things, whereas otherwise you go like, oh, where's that sound coming from? I don't know what that is, and you're going to have a lot. You're going to find that a lot easier to come back to different projects that you've done and and have consistency between them all. So, yeah, but I have been there. I was terrible at labeling things. I mean, I anyone who knows me I'm disorganized in many ways, like naturally, so I have to put these things onto myself and it's quite hard to do, but I have done it yeah, I think the more, the more you do it like you could.

Marc Matthews: 21:08

You could even create a template, couldn't? You could have a template with and then drag and drop onto it or something along those lines and then just use that that way, you know. But I think for the most part drums, bass there is a logical flow to how people set up their projects, but there's no hard and fast as long as. As long as it makes sense, like as long as you're grouping instruments together that should be grouped in there next to each other.

Marc Matthews: 21:31

You know it makes sense. Um a fourth, do Fourth. Do you have another faux pas?

Tim Benson: 21:37

let's say Another faux pas. Yeah, I think it would be to over well, to sort of overcomplicate the sort of whole sort of you know sort of processing of all your things to sort of. You know, I've come across this loads of times. You know, I'll look at something and go like hold on, why is that sort of like four eq plugins on that thing? And then there's like numerous sort of compression and saturation and all this sort of stuff. Like you know.

Tim Benson: 22:14

I've literally come to a channel, somebody's snare drum and it's got like nine processors on it, and then you'll listen to it and you'll go like this sounds horrible. Why is all of this on there? Did your snare sound that horrible in the first place? And often you strip these things back and come to a much simpler thing. That is like we need an EQ plug-in maybe. Maybe we need a little bit of compression, we need a little bit of reverb or whatever.

Tim Benson: 22:44

And yeah, I I think over processing is big mistake when you start. But part of that and I think you touched on this when we were talking about this before we were going is is kind of choosing the right sounds and recording the right sounds and arranging with the right stuff in the first place, because if you use the right kick drum, snare drum, bass sound, whatever you will need to eq it, less you will need to compress it, less you'll need to do less to it to make it work in the track. If you write the right pattern for instance, if you've got a bass guitar make sure that the pattern you know the rhythmical pattern is relating to the kick drum or the. You know that sort of thing in your mix, sort of.

Tim Benson: 23:28

If you've got parts that interlock and relate and give space for other things, they're gonna you're not going to need to do nearly as much to them because you they will just sit with each other and so naturally your project ought to sit fairly well without a load of EQ and processing going on. And yeah, it's over-processing things and a lot of the time you're over-processing things because underneath it you didn't choose the right snare drum in the first place because it just doesn't fit with everything, or you've written in a part that doesn't really sit with everything else. You know it's too busy or something. So yeah, but over processing, but that leads into sound choice and arrangement, I guess agreed over processing, I think is easily done.

Marc Matthews: 24:16

and, um, what you mentioned there about sound choice is important. Like you say, spend that extra time choosing the right sounds, or choosing or even designing the right sound. If you're using a bass preset in a particular synth and choosing and sculpting the right sound for what it is you're trying to do, it's like a plane.

Tim Benson: 24:38

I might shut the window, guys yeah, um, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 24:42

So choosing the right sound, sculpting the right sound, if you're sound designing, and getting that correct, because I've seen exactly what you've, what you've mentioned there, and I remember seeing a vocal track I think I mentioned this on the podcast before of a particular project of someone and, um, they needed help with this particular vocal because it wasn't sitting correctly, just wasn't sitting in the mix, and I was like, okay, well, show me your project. Before this we had to go through and label everything, um, and then they, uh, showed me the actual vocal chain and then I, doing the classic teacher thing, being an ex-teacher, I was like, well, explain to me what's what's going on? And they were like, I don't know, it was just somebody said this was a really good vocal chain, uh, andacher. I was like, well, explain to me what's going on? And they were like, oh, I don't know, it was just somebody said this was a really good vocal chain. And then I was like, okay, and then it was just EQ on EQ, the compression, some saturation, some reverb, some de-essing and other bits and pieces, multiple versions, and I'm thinking, get rid of all that, disable it all. And then we'll start from the top and then we'll go through and, like you mentioned, it turns out eq compression, maybe a touch of saturation on there as well, but I think there is potential and I remember seeing this on on social media.

Marc Matthews: 25:53

A few days ago was and or it might have been, on another podcast.

Marc Matthews: 25:56

Actually, I think I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about how don't just adopt if you see something online that says this is the vocal chain that will do xyz or this, this will make your drums huge don't just take it and slap it in your mix and then leave it at that, because that's great for them and it works for them, but that works for them in their particular session, in their project and their sound design, their choices, their recordings.

Marc Matthews: 26:22

Doesn't mean it's going to translate. It might, you might get lucky and it does, but don't, yeah, I think I think there is an element of that. I think, in particular, when you first start out, is to think, okay, well, that individual has status and says I should do this, so I'm then going to do it. I mean you might then turn around to me and say well, mark, you're saying X, y, z, now why should I listen to you? But I think it's true in that don't just assume that because somebody else says this particular vocal chain or whatever it may be works for them doesn't necessarily mean it's going to translate.

Tim Benson: 26:53

No, I would completely agree with that. I think sort of, yeah, just assuming that like somebody who's got a different drummer with a different drum kit in a different studio or, you know, like different sounds that they've chosen in their project and slapping the same presets or same mix bus or whatever it is over the top is not going to work, but like, at the same time, it's easy. What you need to take from those things is perhaps to look at what the different processes they're using. If you hear a great producer and I love his drum sound, and then he goes through the drum sound on some youtube thing, you're going like so what are the processes doing? What are the and why does that make that sound better and or sound interesting?

Tim Benson: 27:45

And then you can sort of apply those rules and ideas to your mix. You know you can. You can say, ah right, I need to make my kick drum sound fatter and fuller in my mix. This guy had a really good way of doing that. I'll try something similar and and so you can definitely pick up things from these things. But yeah, just don't assume it's just going to copy straight over.

Marc Matthews: 28:06

I think the key there is and this is also an argument for AI as well if you're using any sort of assisted mastering, something along those lines is to deconstruct it why have they done that? And then try and emulate it. Or, like you mentioned there about if you've got a favorite producer, mix engineer, mastering engineer and they've said they've done this to get this result, then you could follow similar steps with your own mix or production, because you want that particular sound, but you're not. You're not copying verbatim their settings, you're just following the process, which I think is a great, a great way of doing it. I think moving on sorry, go to mistake.

Tim Benson: 28:45

That just came into my head. Go tune your guitar. There we go. New strings, yeah, new strings, yeah, that's a good one.

Tim Benson: 28:55

Preferably before the session so that they're not like literally going out of tune yeah, yeah, let them bed in, yeah yeah, but like no, those kind of things that you just like, yeah, pay attention to tuning and timing and stuff and like, but it's a classic is to sort of. And the number of guitars I recorded where, like, I'd be like sort of, you know, we're gonna have to redo that again because, like it was, basically the guitar wasn't in tune. And like someone just, oh well, I just put my distortion pedal on and play my guitar, and like it was, basically the guitar wasn't in tune. And like someone just said, well, I'll just put my distortion pedal on and play my guitar, and like it was like, yeah, it sounds even worse now it's got the distortion pedal on. But you know, get it in tune first and and yeah, you just have to be quite disciplined about that sort of thing. Um, because it will really annoy you later when you know you've just got a load of slightly out of tune guitars everywhere.

Marc Matthews: 29:44

That comes to session prep, doesn't it? If you're turning up for a recording session, I remember when I was in the band and we were really good for this we would make sure we went in, the drummer would have new skins. Make sure they obviously tune it in the studio, tune in the kit in the studio as well, prior to recording and stuff. New sticks, make sure they were sticks that you'd used before, like make sure the pedals because he was a double pedal drummer make sure that's all like greased up or whatever it was for that. And then with guitars as well, it's restringing guitars I got floyd rose making sure that's sitting right, intonation, checking the intonation on the guitar as well and making that so good, because ultimately, if it's not, you're really the one that's going to lose out because you're paying for that studio time and if you're spending that studio time restringing and waiting for your guitar strings to bed in or you're having to reskin a tom or something along those lines ultimately or ask what chords that happen in the middle eight.

Tim Benson: 30:45

That's a long one, ultimately. Or ask what chords that happen in the middle eight. Yeah, you say that happens in this bridge bit, mate, and it's like okay, you guys sort that out. I'll come back after I've had my tea break. You know I've done that?

Marc Matthews: 30:53

I've done that. I remember we were recording an album and I think it was like 10 tracks and we were pretty good with the prep. But we got in there and there were bits I was just like, yeah, I haven't learned this bit yet. So while one gets, while the other guitarist is doing his his bit, I've got the, the scratch track headphones, sat there with a laptop just learning this other bit, like ready to go in to record it. Uh, yeah, but it wasn't.

Tim Benson: 31:13

You've been there, we've all done that. But yeah, I mean and obviously if you're working on your own that you might think that doesn't apply so much but it's very easy to just pick up your guitar and think, oh, that's pretty much in tune, I don't need to tune that, and then it starts to work. You later, when you realise it really wasn't that good, and then you know so, yeah, just take the time to sort of tune things up and that kind of thing. You know. Even like though I crazy stuff like where people, like somebody sends them a project this is a bit of a nerdy one but like they send them a project at 44.1 kilohertz and the other person's working at 48 and they don't.

Tim Benson: 31:55

When they import them, they don't change the sample rate and so everything's just a bit out of tune with each other because like they record all their parts at 48 next to the stuff that they're playing back in a 48 project which was recorded at 44.1 or something ridiculous like that, and you get. So it's crazy things where you get tuning anomalies, because yeah, obviously in a project everything should be running at the same sample rate. So always convert whatever tracks you have to the same sample rate and then it'd be fine. But like most DAWs, you do that for you as you import them, but like you know, but just sort of those kind of things getting the sample rate consistent across your project and making sure that everything is in tune. You know, it's surprising the number of tuning things you do get, and they can sound pretty bad I think with the go.

Marc Matthews: 32:48

With regards to sample rate, I'm with you there. I think you just have just set out early doors to say, okay, no matter what the project, we're always going to operate at this sample rate. So whenever you record something, just assume, set it as default, because I I try to limit as much as possible sample rate conversion. I just like to bring it in and that's why I was asked like, what was this recording at?

Marc Matthews: 33:10

If you're exporting it, export it at the sample rate that it was recorded at, and then I'll match that in the session that I'm going to be using, just just to negate anything like that, because you never know. You never know, I mean, the likelihood of anything competing is going wrong. But it's just another thing you don't have to worry about. But yeah, it's just, I think, as bands and when you're, when you're, when you're an artist in a band and stuff like that, maybe it's just little things like that you you just forget and you think I'll just record it and then it's all good, but then engineers are tearing their hair out we used to have this problem which I don't think so much of a problem now, but like of like clocking things.

Tim Benson: 33:48

So you'd have different conversers in the studio and if they weren't clocked properly to the, to the audio card and weren't in sync, then of course they would produce digital clicks and stuff. And I, I knew this and I'd always have them synced up. But, like, I'd sometimes get engineers in and they're working. I like one guy who used to do stuff for me and he was a he was a really groovy sort of producer, but he was very lazy and he just came back from something and he was like oh yeah, it sounds mint. Mate, I've done this great, great session with these guys, but, yeah, there's a bit of clicking on it, but you can sort that out can't you?

Tim Benson: 34:27

and he just like recorded all of this without any of these converters being actually clocked to the thing, and there was just clicks all over it and I was like, well, great, I've now got to sort this out in some way, which I sort of did, but, like you know, it was just like. It's just one of those examples of sort of not get not going. Oh well, that will be all right. No, it probably won't be all right. Will it sort it now, fix it now and don't just continue?

Marc Matthews: 34:56

you know, but that's one of those things I've got to say I I don't think I've experienced that, and it was when I was in a larger studio and I was using tools. I can't remember the exact situation, but I remember having clocking issues sometimes when I was using tools, um, and that might, because I think I had this, this bastardized sort of studio, um, and something wasn't quite right. Anyway, it was all very um, um, yeah, it found pieces of gear that I cobbled together to create a studio many, many years ago. And, yeah, I remember clocking issues, an absolute, especially when you've got a band and they're ready to record and you're like I have no idea why this is still happening. And then I'm going through the signal flow trying to work it all out. So that again comes down to preparation do it before the band arrives.

Marc Matthews: 35:44

So there we go, folks. Those are five. I think we've banged on enough now about sort of things to be aware of mistakes to avoid, let's say, but rather than things to be aware of. That's pretty vague in itself. So reference tracks, getting it right at sourceelling, don't over complicate and over process things, and preparation specifically if you're going in the studio, because it's only going to save you time and headache as well and money in particular because, as artists, obviously where we can save money, it is a good thing to do, because going in the studio sometimes can be exactly 0.003%.

Tim Benson: 36:22

It's a good thing to do because you're only in the studio, sometimes Because they don't pay us enough.

Marc Matthews: 36:26

Exactly, exactly 0.003%, and that's only when you get over 1,000 streams as well.

Tim Benson: 36:30

Isn't that correct, isn't that?

Marc Matthews: 36:31

right, yeah, but yeah, I mean that's one you can jump on your soapbox for there isn't it in particular and discuss that. But there we go. So, folks, if you've got a question you'd like us to hash out on the podcast again, click that speak pipe link in the episode description to submit your question again. You don't need an account or a specific microphone. You can. If you want, you could just use your mobile phone. Hey, mark tim, this is my question. You can find me at xyz or maybe you've got a release coming up and again, one lucky person each month will win a coffee voucher. Tim, it's been an absolute pleasure again speaking with you and having you on the podcast and chatting about all things mistakes, which is always good fun.

Marc Matthews: 37:16

There are many, but I'm probably not going to go into because some of them happened in studio premises that I didn't own, so I'm not going to go into those on the podcast. Uh, I'll catch up with you soon.