Spent weeks perfecting a track. Then I made something random on a whim and it's the best thing I've done. Music makes no sense sometimes. Does this happen to anyone else?
Nothing like whisper-singing a hook at 1am so I don't wake up my family. Then the neighbor's dog starts barking right on the best line. When do you usually get your recording done?
After enough listens, I completely lose the ability to judge anything about it. Sometimes I have to step away for a few days just to hear it with fresh ears again. How long do you usually wait before trusting your own opinion on a new song?
Feels like everyone starts out chasing the sound of whoever they're into at the time, and then at some point you make something and go, "oh, that's actually just me." That moment felt like a real turning point. When did you feel like you found your own sound?
Half-asleep, no real intention, and somehow that ends up being the version that just works. I don't know what it is about late at night, but the ideas hit different. Has a random late-night idea ever turned into one of your best songs?
If you have a lot of material that you want at a significantly different level from the main vocals (for example, ad libs), put all of that material on the same track or tracks. Do not put main vocal clips on these tracks. Running Auto Mix will set all clips to the same loudness, which isn't what you want — but the fix is easy. After running Auto Mix, adjust the track gain for your quiet or loud material in the Mixer view. That's just one adjustment, and it's quick to make. Now your main vocals are balanced against the backing track, your different-level clips match each other, and they sit at the level you want.
Starting is the fun part; you're just chasing an idea, and everything feels possible. Finishing means making a hundred small decisions and actually committing to them. I have way more "almost done" songs than finished ones. What's usually the last thing holding you back from calling a song done?
"Okay, this is the final version," and then you catch one tiny thing in the last ten seconds, and now you're changing something again. Every time. How many times have you revised the "final" version of a song?
You know the feeling, you've been stuck on something for way too long and then one small change, a chord, a vocal take, a fill, and suddenly the whole thing makes sense. That one moment makes all the frustration before it worth it. What was the last song where that happened for you?
Anyone else notice this? I'll sit down with hours blocked off; nothing happens. Then I step away to make coffee or walk the dog and suddenly the whole arrangement clicks in my head. I think the pressure of "okay now I have to be creative" kills it every time. Does anyone else write better ideas when they're not actually trying to write?
The best way to record in Voloco or any recording app is with a headset, preferably wired. But sometimes inspiration strikes when you don’t have a headset, and the next best thing to do is get your idea down right away, even if that means playing a beat on your phone speaker while you record. Normally, this would produce a terrible vocal take because the beat from the phone speaker bleeds into the mic, and then your vocal take contains a distorted, delayed copy of the beat, which sounds bad when mixed with the actual beat.
Fortunately, Voloco offers a solution to this problem. When you record with no headset while playing a beat from the phone speaker, Voloco uses AI to subtract the bleed from the beat from your vocal recording so you get a clean vocal take. With a clean take you can apply pitch correction (auto vocal tune) and other effects that would otherwise not work on a signal with bleed from the speaker.
- James Patrick Flanagan, Voloco CEO
Kind of a weird mix of proud and slightly embarrassed. The mixing choices, the vocal takes, stuff I would never do now, but also proof I've actually gotten better, even though it never feels that way day to day. Anyone else go back and revisit old stuff every once in a while?
My laundry machine, parking meters, even the noise my car makes when I turn my blinker on, makes my brain just think, “that could be a sample.” I don't think I can turn it off at this point. What's the most random thing you've ever actually turned into a sample?
As CEO, I decided to invest my own time in building Auto Mix for two reasons: First, bad mixing was the main weakness of tracks from new users that I heard on the platform. Many times while scrolling through New Tracks feed, I heard a strong vocal performance that was hurt by a mix that was either too loud or too quiet. Simply fixing the mix level would have turned an amateur track into a banger. Second, when I recorded my own tracks in Voloco, I hated how much time I had to spend on tweaking levels. I’d nudge gain up, listen, decide it was too loud, nudge it back down, listen, over and over again until my ears were fatigued. At that point, you can’t tell what a good mix is and you have to put the project down and re-approach with fresh ears. That’s not what I want to do with my creative time. I want to spend my time getting my ideas down and making music. Auto Mix lets me do that.
- James Patrick Flanagan, Voloco CEO
I heard this from our team and thought it was a good story. Voloco’s CEO was scrolling the New Tracks feed a lot and kept hearing genuinely strong vocal takes that just got wrecked by the mix being too loud or too quiet. His words were, "Simply fixing the mix level would have turned an amateur track into a banger."
He ended up building Auto Mix himself partly because of that. It's a nice reminder that a mediocre mix can hide a track that's actually good.
I hit play and immediately stop hearing the song, and just watch their face for any reaction. They nod at a part I almost cut, go blank during the part I thought was the strongest, and that silence in between feels like an hour.
I can't tell if they're vibing or being polite until it's over.
What do you do while you wait?
Spent 20 minutes dialing in a mix on headphones, thought it was perfect. Got in the car and suddenly the bass is taking over, and the vocals are buried.
Headphones and car speakers each lie in their own way, and somehow neither one's wrong
What's your go-to rotation before you trust a mix is done?
I'll get a track basically finished, and instead of wrapping it up, I'm already halfway into a new idea. The second the hard part's done, so is my interest.
Meanwhile, I've got a pile of tracks sitting at 90% done because starting is way more fun than finishing.
Anyone else stuck in this loop?
Take 1 was actually fine. Take 15 is somehow worse than take 1, but now I can't remember which one I liked, and I've listened to myself say the same line so many times it doesn't sound like words anymore.
When do you guys know it’s time to admit defeat and move on?
There's like a half-second ad-lib buried in the back of the mix that took way longer to get right than the actual hook did. Nobody's ever going to hear it and think "wow," but if it weren't there, I would know
It feels like the most pointless and most necessary thing I did on the whole song
What's the most unnecessary amount of effort you've put into something nobody will clock?