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S1E14 – Patience and Comparison to Others

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This episode is inspired by my own mistake, while also noticing on-going trends within the social industry.

It’s really easy to compare yourself to others, but this will burn you out so fast, and make you quickly forget why you started creating music in the first place!

My blunder was recording a whole course, and the audio wasn’t salvageable!

I tried recording with a lavalier microphone (like discussed in Episode #013), and even did a test recording prior to committing to record the whole course.

I have now learned, a lavalier microphone (those small microphones you see clipped onto people’s shirts in videos), require much LESS phantom power voltage than the regular +48V on our audio interfaces.. Typically lavalier microphones take 5V!!!! That’s why it was distorted.. I fried the microphone lol (Good thing it was a cheap one!)

When I went to go edit the course, I was sad 🙁

However, as you’ll hear in the podcast, this made me search for new solutions to achieve high quality audio, but not see my microphone, since I’m now using a green screen in my courses to allow for a more personal feeling to the courses!

This just reminded me to have patience, and silly mistakes can be made, even after being in an industry for many years!

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S1E14 – Patience and Comparison to Others

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses, which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's up, everybody?
  10. Welcome to episode number 14. the title of this episode is gonna be called Patience
  11. and Comparison to Others. the reason this title has stemmed is
  12. simply because of a blunder from myself, okay.
  13. So I told you that I was gonna be releasing the 10 steps to become an FL Studio Pro
  14. course. but here's what happened.
  15. So the audio I recorded it poorly, and I didn't really feel that it was
  16. salvageable, so you know, I wasn't able to really make use of the course.
  17. And like, you know, I actually went through and did a test recording, you know.
  18. I tried to make sure that you know the audio was good, and you know, it turned out
  19. that it was not usable. Just, you know, in when I was brought into Sony Vegas or I
  20. guess it's Magic's Vegas now, to edit it up.
  21. I was not happy, you know. I was just like, oh like I can't use this.
  22. So there's gonna be a delay on that, so I'm sorry for that for those of you who are
  23. members, but you know, I just gotta communicate that with you, okay?
  24. So that's really like the main reason why the title has stemmed from this.
  25. I just want to talk about some you know important things that you can't forget about
  26. and you know things for you to reflect on as well because you know even if you are
  27. in an industry for however long, mistakes still happen and you know you still have
  28. to, you know, dot your I's cross your T's, make sure everything is good to go before
  29. you commit. I did try a different recording technique, like I told you in the last
  30. episode. Since now I have a green screen.
  31. I tried to do record it with like a lavalier microphone.,
  32. because you know, I didn't want like you know, like a big microphone on my face with
  33. a green screen. It kind of looks weird.
  34. so I tried the lavalier so you know I can you know talk to you personally without
  35. you know having to always have this microphone on my face.
  36. so the lavalier approach didn't work great, which made me now research how to get
  37. you know high quality audio without the actual microphone.
  38. I already knew about shotgun microphones, and that's where I'm gonna be going, like
  39. that's what we're gonna keep talking about.
  40. but you know, so a shotgun microphone they use very often in movies and stuff like
  41. that. That's many times, like where you see the person hang they're holding like the
  42. boom pole you know above the actors out of screen.
  43. it just allows you to hone in on audio and it rejects audio from like the sides and
  44. stuff like that. So I think that's what I I'm going to do going forward.
  45. That way I can still use the green screen and still get high quality audio.
  46. I'm gonna talk about this a little bit more.
  47. I have it all kind of written out in like point form here.
  48. I've just been kind of been talking just about you know what's kind of happened.
  49. in addition, I just recently got back into the electrical game, so I was off work
  50. there for you know, I think it was a good six months, and in that time I was able to
  51. build my membership website. I already had some courses I already created, but in
  52. that time off, you know, I think I banged off maybe seven or eight courses in that
  53. time as well. I also worked with you know a lot of distributors signing contracts,
  54. trying to get my courses in into you know these distributors.
  55. but now it's gotten to that point where you know now I need to start making some you
  56. know real money. You know, this provides some income, but by no means is it enough
  57. to live off of, right? So just to let you guys know, you know, where I'm at in life
  58. and stuff like that. so you know, with a full-time job now, I'm gonna have to start
  59. juggling stuff around in terms of time, but at the same time i do feel that i will
  60. be able to accomplish what i want to you know even finishing this course the 10
  61. steps to become an full studio pro I do want to eventually finish that but it might
  62. get delayed here by like a month and again the reason for that is first of all the
  63. the actual course the audio was not good and then I also have ordered these shotgun
  64. microphones so I bought two I want to test them out I'll talk about that more in a
  65. moment so I want to test them and get an idea of which one I like the one I don't
  66. like I'm gonna return before I actually start recording the course again.
  67. Okay. So let me just kind of go through step by step in the text here this way I'll
  68. cover everything I want to say and then we'll kind of get into more of like what I
  69. really want to say in this episode in terms of like your patience and comparing
  70. yourself to others within this industry okay so like I was already saying so you
  71. know some bad news the audio from the course was poorly recorded I tried the
  72. lavalier microphone and again you know I really don't know what happened I plugged
  73. it into an H4N so I went from a lavalier microphone into an H4N and then I put that
  74. into a preamp just like a channel strip that way I can kind of like compress my
  75. audio a little bit get a little bit little bit better sounding before it went into
  76. my audio interface to record. and you know like I was saying like my first take my
  77. test run it seemed fine. I even brought it into like Vegas.
  78. I heard the audio and I was happy with it.
  79. but what happened was the audio sounded really like tinny and almost like distorted
  80. in certain words and stuff like that and it it's just again I don't really know what
  81. happened and it sucks, but again, that's like you know, that's life, mistakes still
  82. happen, and that's the reason why I'm going, you know, the route of like the shotgun
  83. microphone. now I thought I could maybe try and like restore the audio, like you
  84. know, like with like software and stuff like that., but once I kind of got into it,
  85. I just figured it'd be like way too much work, and really I'd probably only get like
  86. minimal audio improvement So I just kind of thought that you know I could just redo
  87. the course, and this time, you know, the second time around, I've already done the
  88. course, right? So I'll be able to kind of remember what I want to say, and it might
  89. be a little bit more a little bit more fluid and a little bit more personal, even
  90. this time because you know, I've already done the course once, I can do it again.
  91. Okay. So now I like I was saying, so I did some research on you know, how to achieve
  92. good audio quality without you guys seeing my microphone, okay?
  93. Because again, I have this green screen, I want to be able to see you guys without
  94. you guys seeing my background.
  95. That way, if we're you know, if we're talking about FL Studio, I'm just in the
  96. corner, there's no background, that's just me, super clean, you know, still get the
  97. high quality audio, right? I already knew about shotgun microphones, but now you
  98. know I realize that maybe I actually have like a need for one.
  99. And through my research, it seems that a lot of people were actually recommending a
  100. hyper cardioid microphone, okay.
  101. So, you know, when we talk about microphones, microphones have different pickup
  102. patterns, okay. This is something for you to read on, it's really important just to
  103. kind of know you know what's out there.
  104. your most common one is just a cardioid, okay?
  105. It's kind of like that little like heart-shaped.
  106. So, like you can actually look at like the picture and it shows you like where the
  107. microphone picks up, okay. And when you get into like a super cardioid or like a
  108. hyper cardioid pickup pattern, they're just more focused.
  109. So instead of it being wider, it's more just like kind of laser focused at a certain
  110. area. So if you can imagine me holding like a pencil and like wherever like the
  111. pencil's pointing, it picks up that audio, and from anywhere else, you know, as soon
  112. as it kind of goes off axis, that audio, you know, it really turns down in volume,
  113. like you can actually hear it rejecting, and then especially when you go to the
  114. sides. but the reason why people were recommending a hypercardioid is because a
  115. shotgun microphone, even though, like I'm saying, it rejects the frequencies.
  116. supposedly in the low frequencies, a shotgun microphone kind of struggles with
  117. rejection. Okay. So what so what can happen is your shotgun microphone is rejecting
  118. like the mids and highs, but it's not rejecting like the lows.
  119. So you can kind of be getting like audio in with kind of cancelled audio, and
  120. they're just saying that indoors shotgun microphones shouldn't really be used, and a
  121. hypercardioid would be like a better approach.
  122. But when I was looking at you know these microphones in terms of prices and stuff
  123. like that, so a decent shotgun microphone was about 400 Canadian, that's kind of
  124. like an entry level, and then a hypercardioid, kind of more entry level again, was
  125. around like 800. Those are the prices that I kind of saw, and I was just like, okay,
  126. well, eight hundred dollars, you know, that was kind of pushing it for me.
  127. Even 400, I really didn't want to spend, but you know, I am starting to make a
  128. little bit of money through these courses and stuff like that.
  129. and you know, that money will allow me to pay for you know higher quality gear.
  130. And you guys can do some research on it.
  131. I was looking at like the Rode NTG4.
  132. There's like the four and the four plus.
  133. The plus just allows you to put in like a battery so that you can do phantom power,
  134. or if you were like in the field, you know, because again, these are typically used
  135. for like video and stuff, right?
  136. So if they put a battery in to the actual microphone, they can turn it on, and then
  137. it's not going to like drain like their field recorder or anything like that.
  138. Another microphone, you know, shotgun microphone I was looking at was an Audio
  139. Technica AT 897, and then I was also looking at the Sennheiser MKE
  140. 600. Okay., So I was unsure of you know like what kind of microphone that I wanted.
  141. I was So, like saying, I bought two.
  142. I'm gonna compare the one I like, you know, the one that I feel that suits my voice,
  143. that isn't super, you know, that doesn't like pick up like background noise very
  144. well and stuff like that. that way, you know, I can get laser focused on my audio,
  145. get a high quality. I'm gonna test them out and you know, see which one I like.
  146. Again, I've purchased the Audio Technica AT 897 and the Sennheiser
  147. MKE 600. I'm gonna test those out and see which one I like best.
  148. I will report back to you guys once I you know figure out the one I like.
  149. But that's just kind of a little overview of you know what's been happening on like
  150. the outside world of music production for me.
  151. You know, these things happen, mistakes happen and it sucks, but you learn from it,
  152. right? So let's get into the episode, just some kind of points that I wanted to talk
  153. about, okay. So I want to talk about patience, right?
  154. So, because of this air, it still reminds even myself after creating 18, you know,
  155. courses on FL Studio that mistakes still happen, you still have to slow things down,
  156. make sure you've actually covered like your checklist.
  157. So, this point about patience, you know, also goes closely with like the next point
  158. I want to talk about, which is comparing yourself to others, but I'd like to address
  159. some you know things a little bit further, okay.
  160. So if you feel that you know you are getting burnt out from what you you know
  161. initially wanted to do, you gotta kind of figure this out like is this even really
  162. what you wanted to do in the first place?
  163. Like, did you even really want to create music?
  164. Did you just kind of you know find it interesting for a little bit, but it's really
  165. not something that you want to do, or maybe this is something that you want to do,
  166. but along the way, your goals have been like misaligned, okay?
  167. So maybe you know, you started to kind of compare yourself to others.
  168. I'm gonna cover that a little bit more in a second.
  169. and you kind of see what they are bringing, bringing to the table., but then you
  170. kind of second guess your skills, your crafts, and like what you have to offer
  171. Now, here's the thing, right? Now, money, money can be a huge deceiver of success,
  172. okay. And again, this is all to do with like your patience and your goals and what
  173. you want, right? Because the thing with money is like what money is really good at
  174. doing, in my opinion, is it's it's good at buying time, okay.
  175. So it allows you to free up your time so that you can do what you want, right?
  176. Like, if if you had money, then you wouldn't have to work like a nine to five, like
  177. you could do what you want, right?
  178. But one thing that money is also really good at is making someone believe that
  179. someone is more successful than like they really are.
  180. Okay, you know, just because someone is making you know some money and stuff like
  181. that, it doesn't mean that you know their life is good or like you know, everything
  182. is in order, right? Maybe like their finances are good, but you know, maybe like
  183. their family life, or maybe like their friendships, or maybe you know, themselves
  184. they have like mental mental health stuff going on, or whatever, right?
  185. So it's really deceiving to look and compare and stuff like that.
  186. That's why when you make your music, you know, you have your goal.
  187. It's like you like do you just enjoy making music, and that's totally cool.
  188. So let's kind of more talk about now comparing yourself to others a little bit more,
  189. okay? So it's important to be aware of how deceiving platforms, like for example,
  190. Instagram are okay. So in this life, really for the most part, there's only a few
  191. people who who like who will actually make it big in certain industries, and you
  192. know, these people who have made it big, like, yes, they're doing super well for
  193. themselves, right? But not everyone can be successful in an industry.
  194. And if you look at it, you know, for example, like electrical where I live, it's
  195. like, yeah, there's like you know, a good handful of electrical companies which are
  196. doing amazing, but there's some other electrical companies which are maybe always
  197. trying, you know, it's always maybe hard for them to find work.
  198. So let me just repeat this line one more time for you, okay?
  199. Not everyone can be successful in an industry, okay?
  200. Just remember that, okay. Now, again, to compare yourself to others, here's some
  201. points which I want to get across to you.
  202. These are things which you know, just for you to reflect on and for you to you know
  203. take take what you want out of it, okay.
  204. So when you're comparing yourself to others, think you got to think this way.
  205. So, what are your goals? Why did you start creating music in the first place?
  206. If you're feeling burnt out, why, right?
  207. Look back to when you started.
  208. What inspired you? Why did you keep watching videos and reading to learn more and
  209. more, right? Like you were probably, you know, really excited to learn music
  210. production and stuff like that, right?
  211. And so now, if you want success, you know, you do have to work for it in this
  212. industry, and that means not just making music, but learning all corners of the
  213. industry, you know, whether this means actually hiring out certain tasks or handling
  214. it yourself. So just listen to those points which I said to you, okay.
  215. Just kind of go over them in your mind, and you know, at the end of the day, this is
  216. you, right? What you want to do with your music and how you want to approach it.
  217. If you want to, you know, try and sell your music, that's totally cool.
  218. But you have to learn the industry, like you want to sell your music.
  219. Well, then you actually have to learn how to sell your music.
  220. Like, you know, maybe you have to go with that approach of getting an agent or
  221. trying to find someone who can be that middleman for you, someone who has the
  222. connections because you only have so much time in this world, too, right?
  223. Like, you know, you might be good at making the beats, and you know, let's say you
  224. you're not able to sell your music, but you want to, so you know, even if you give a
  225. cut of your money money to somebody, at least now maybe you're bringing some in..
  226. Okay So, anyways, that was just kind of this this episode about first of all.
  227. I wanted to share with you that I I screwed up on on the audio.
  228. I'm so sad with that. You know, even right now I still have the recordings in the
  229. folder and I still look at them sometimes, and it's just like, oh, like because I I
  230. personally think that the course turned out pretty good.
  231. I said what I wanted to say, and you know, everything was just kind of fluid.
  232. but now maybe I can take a different stab at it, maybe break it down, you know, add
  233. some more videos. One thing I was really happy with with the course is because
  234. again, the title is 10 steps become an FL Studio Pro.
  235. So I had 10 steps, right? And I actually created 10 videos, and I was like, I was
  236. happy. It was actually kind of like you know, 10 steps, 10 videos, good to go.
  237. but kind of looking back at it, some of the videos were a little bit long, like,
  238. even though that all the content was there that I wanted, maybe I could break it
  239. into you know, kind of smaller sections, make it a little bit easier to digest.
  240. But we'll see when we get there.
  241. I will report back once I get these microphones.
  242. they're currently being shipped.
  243. they said they'll be here, you know, by September 4th or 5th or something like that.
  244. But you know, Amazon's actually pretty good, usually faster than what they say.
  245. Always put it's a smile on my face when when you get an Amazon package.
  246. so yeah, so thanks for tuning in.
  247. and I'll check in with you guys next week.
  248. I do try to release these every week, just but just you know, depending on my
  249. schedule, sometimes I might shift it a day forward just because you know, maybe I
  250. got tied up. But I am trying to release these every Thursday, okay?
  251. So again, if you guys have questions, you know, come to my website or contact me at
  252. high. So it's hi at it's gratuitous.com.
  253. Thanks for tuning in. I'll talk to you guys in the next one.ing
  254. Thanks for check out the episode..
  255. If you had any questions, visit it'sgratuitouscom slash podcast, select an episode
  256. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  257. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  258. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons, visit the link it'sgratuitous.com
  259. slash learning. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  260. I hope the best with your productions.
  261. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  262. episode.
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