|
Yes there are some really good things you can do. These are all small activities I have done which have helped me.
Golden Ears CDs -- ear training to identify frequencies, hear dynamic range, distortion, delay / reverb times, etc.
RTFM! Seriously reading manuals on how to use a plug-in or your DAW or a synth or something. It has surprisingly often led me to discover helpful new things or somehow inspire me to start writing a song, because I am forced to develop a little lick to try out some of the features.
Do a ton of listening! Get to know your speakers / room really well. Listen to a ton of commercial stuff of many genres in there.
Speaking of your room -- do some more room treatment. At least spend a few bucks or just experiment with moving your stuff around to see how different placements affect things.
Burn a cd of your mixes combined with some commercial mixes and then go speaker shopping. Go to your local Guitar center or something and play your mixes on all sorts of different sets of studio monitors. I did this recently and it was really enlightening. I got a very different perspective on my mixes. I thought I knew them well because I had listened on my 3 sets of speakers and in my car, but listening on like 10 sets of different monitors was an entirely different perspective.
|