Music Production Zen

Unsolicited life advice for music makers.

“The key is learning to describe the gap – or difference – between your story and the other person’s story.”— Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen, Difficult Conversations In music production, the singer can walk back into the control room sure that the last take was the one. The produc...

by Futch — Oct 26, 2026 third story

Be a Helpful Parasite

“Be so good they can't ignore you.”— Steve Martin In music production, the studio we want to work in usually isn't hiring. So we weasel our way in for free, as the intern, and make ourselves useful. Then we keep being useful until nobody there can picture the place without us. The Starting P...

by Futch — Oct 19, 2026 helpful parasite

This Too Shall Pass

“This too shall pass.”— Persian adage, īn nīz bogzarad (این نیز بگذرد) A long time ago, a Persian king asked his wise men for a ring. He wanted a ring that would make him happy when he was sad, and sad when he was happy. The wise men gave him a ring with four words engraved on it: “This too sh...

by Futch — Oct 12, 2026 this too shall pass

Your Three Guiding Principles

“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”— Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music In music production, we have more choices than any producer in history has ever had. We have unlimited tracks, thousands of plugins, and every sound we've...

by Futch — Oct 05, 2026 guiding principles

First Principles

“For we do not think that we know a thing until we are acquainted with its primary conditions or first principles, and have carried our analysis as far as its simplest elements.”— Aristotle, Physics In music production, most of our ideas are copied from somebody else's ideas. We buy a sample ...

by Futch — Sep 28, 2026 first principles

Four Quadrants of Awesome

“Our ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning.”— Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, Ikigai In music production, four things are supposed to line up: what we love, what we are good at, what people need, and what pays. Where a...

Sep 21, 2026 ikigai purpose

Living Next Door to the Dream

“Do not wait; the time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command.”— Napoleon Hill In music production, the dream studio is always the one down the street, and ours is the one we keep apologizing for. So the project waits until ...

by Futch — Sep 14, 2026 finishing mixing music production

Review the Tape

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."— Aldous Huxley Capture the results. Then go back and watch what you actually did. Fighter squadrons don't go home after a flight. They sit down and walk through what happened until everybody in the room ...

by Futch — Sep 07, 2026 debrief

Words, Thoughts, Feelings

“Thoughts are the language of the brain. Feelings are the language of the body.”— Dr. Joe Dispenza Words have power. Thoughts have more power. Feelings have the most power. The Starting Point We can hear the state each take was recorded in. Same singer, same mic, same words, and take fourteen ...

by Futch — Aug 31, 2026 feeling power

Power vs. Force

“Force always creates counter-force; its effect is to polarize rather than unify.”— David R. Hawkins David Hawkins says that force always creates counter-force. In music production, that's the four hours we spend making a vocal louder before we notice the whole mix eventually came up with it. ...

by Futch — Aug 25, 2026 dynamics

Be Clear

“If you confuse, you'll lose.”— Donald Miller Donald Miller says that if you confuse, you lose. In music production, if a track gets boring eleven seconds in, people will simply move on to the next one. If we can't figure out what we are supposed to be listening to, we are outta here...fast! T...

by Futch — Aug 10, 2026 clarity

Simple Not Easy

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."— Leonardo da Vinci Here's an idea that I come back to often: Simple and easy are not the same thing. They're typically mistaken for each other. They shouldn't be. Because the simplest solution is sometimes the hardest one to uncover. The Starting...

by Futch — Aug 09, 2026 simplicity

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