It's always a good thing to get critiques.....especially the hard hitting gloves off no holds barred kind that get to the heart of the matter and solve problems that we want to try to rationalize away. Both when it comes to our gear, techniques, and writing.

As a song writer home recording enthusiast, I set out with 2 similar but different goals.

1. Get the music coming out of my studio up to the quality needed to stand side by side with professionally recorded and engineered studio quality stuff.....in other words, produce Broadcast Ready material. I accomplished this by being focused on that aspect... the technical side of things and learning what was needed to accomplish it. I participated and still do, in the forum sites where folks much better than I (production skills and chops and the ears to hear things I totally missed) are posting music and commenting on the music of others. I asked specific questions about what they heard in my tunes, and made course corrections and started to hear those things on my own. How to determine the need for EQ, compression, etc and when not to use it, and of course how much to use. It's an on going process but I feel I'm a good ways along on that journey but still have miles ahead.

2. Write better songs. Songs that would spark interest with publishers and libraries. That's one area where the Nashville Songwriters Association International has been a huge help to me. The NSAI evaluators have really helped, probably more than anything in working towards that goal with their honest, direct to the point song evaluations. You can send your songs in (as a member) and get folks who have actually written hits, and who are still active in the Nashville music scene today as writers and performers, to sit down and listen and then to comment in depth on your song. It can be a "take it easy on me" review or a hard hitting "I can take it .... tell me the truth" review. Your choice. I always ask for the most brutal, hard hitting, tell it like it is, kind of review. Don't sugar coat it....be honest. Sometimes it hurts when I have spent hours on a song and the review comes back saying I should seriously consider a major rewrite and shorten the song, and do this or that..... but once I set and ponder the words they said...... I realize they are correct. I've scrapped and stated over a few times based on their reports or refined and edited and reworked a song until it does shine and pass muster.

Beyond that....

As far as dealing with studio gear needed to get the recording done..... Simple is best. And spend a few bucks to get decent quality interfaces and microphones..... buy a few mastering plugs, and from that point..... digital is digital and the quality is there..... all you need to learn is how to get the best quality from the gear you have in the space you use. Changes are good when they are well thought out and move you back to the direction you really wanted to go.... because we all tend to get distracted and complacent, and that's not necessarily a good thing. That nice hard kick in the butt is often a needed thing.

I'm curious myself about what revelations you have had due to this experience of 2 hours.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.