Harvey Goldfinch
patreon
Tutorial - How To Avoid Audio Misinformation
🕑 Added 2025-04-12 00:42:27 +0000 UTCThis is a BIG one and apologies for the delay on it - I had MANY issues with recording it.
There’s so much information about audio being thrown about that it can feel impossible sometimes to figure out who’s telling the truth, who’s lying just to seem like they know what they’re talking about and who to trust in general before you start applying some of this stuff in your own music. This video is intended to help you separate the bullshit from the actually useful advice AND gauge what partial truths may be important or not at the stage you’re at with your own music.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro + my brief Huddersfield University story
00:03:32 - Gear & Perception
00:07:24 - Gear & Perception - quality vs price
00:08:56 - Gear & Perception - what I use
00:12:01 - Gear & Perception - why familiarity with gear is important
00:14:52 - Headphones vs Monitors
00:21:01 - The Art of Bullshit Dodging
00:25:18 - The Art of Bullshit Dodging - EDM is different to studio-recorded music
00:27:19 - The Art of Bullshit Dodging - The Preamp Saga™
00:38:17 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions
00:38:43 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “NEVER boost in EQs / NEVER use the stock EQ”
00:40:10 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “NEVER have any channels run into the red”
00:41:48 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “NEVER use a stereo sub”
00:42:34 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “NEVER mix into a master chain”
00:44:33 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “You MUST high-pass every track”
00:45:47 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “You MUST hit __ LUFS when mastering”
00:48:31 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “You MUST use busses and sends”
00:50:40 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “You MUST go to college / university for music production”
00:58:45 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “You MUST use expensive equipment to sound good”
00:59:36 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “Different DAWs output a certain ‘sound’”
01:02:24 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “Digital audio is WORSE than analog audio”
01:04:21 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “mp3 and wav sound WILDLY different from each other”
01:07:52 - Audio Myths / Misconceptions - “Compressors are IMPOSSIBLY important”
01:09:18 - Important Points To Remember
Comments
Echogecko
Sounds like we've had similarly frustrating experiences with education systems for music production.
Harvey Goldfinch
Yeah good timing haha I’ve actually had the presentation for this thing made up for months already, just finally got round to recording it
Harvey Goldfinch
Appreciate it! Haha I was worried I rambled about preamps for far too long but I just think it’s the ultimate example of what I’d like to warn folks about
Harvey Goldfinch
Not the case - if you’ve seen my mastering tutorial you’ll see that mastering is wildly simpler than mastering engineers make it out to be and most of mastering is actually just clipping after doing a good mixdown
Echogecko
I could right an essay on this video. It's definitely a good watch for your Patreon subscribers. Although there are a few key points that I would iterate on, particularly regarding your advice on £1000+ pre-amps. Dubstep producers don't need any pre-amps generally...but if they're getting into real mastering engineering then different story. The part about taking engineering advice for people with a grain of salt based on the quality of their work is understandable, however, some of us are learners through and through, so we don't really spend a lot of time making our work presentable just to get people to take our advice seriously. If anything, I believe people should just learn to discuss these things in order to get a sense of how trustworthy a source of information is. Something crazy I've come to see is that a lot of people do know what they're talking about, but they seek technical advice (LUFs target instructions etc.) when they should just be /listening/ to the balance of the mix. So my tip: If you really like the way something sounds, SAVE IT. That's a reference track right there.
Fractale
Many thanks for this tutorial, I subscribed not too long ago and I'm taking back all the tutorials from beginning to end, I was looking forward to this one! 🙌 Very informative regarding your experience at uni, the parts with the preamps, the bypassed comp and the sound design teacher just killed me 👌😭 you're able to be both insightful and entertaining at the same time, here's your crown 👑
narilea
i literally asked you about this last week no way theres a full on video up now 🙏😭 thanks a lot 🤍 (part of me likes to think I was behind this video idea)
