{"id":2118,"date":"2021-05-26T19:34:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T19:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:48:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:48:22","slug":"song-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/song-finished\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Know When A Song Is Finished (Downloadable Checklist)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As Leonardo da Vinci once said, &#8220;Art is never finished, only abandoned,&#8221; and I couldn&#8217;t agree more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As both a novelist and a music artist, the struggle is real when it comes to finally deciding that your creation is &#8220;done&#8221;, and releasing it into the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to music, you can always add or re-do a section, or tweak your EQ and compression settings until you can&#8217;t even hear what you&#8217;re changing (or did you accidentally hit bypass?)<\/p>\n<p>That said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>A song is finished when there are no cringe-inducing distractions, the track is well balanced, and enjoyable to listen to. If you hear any annoying clicks, pops, spikes, or certain instruments are getting lost in the mix, that&#8217;s a sign you still have some work to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Or, perhaps a more honest answer to this question was provided by Reddit user, JockMctavishtheDog, who said, &#8220;I know the song is done once I&#8217;ve totally ruined it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2131\" width=\"661\" data-init-width=\"818\" height=\"152\" data-init-height=\"188\" title=\"Screen Shot 2021-05-26 at 3.09.58 PM\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Screen-Shot-2021-05-26-at-3.09.58-PM.png\" data-width=\"661\" data-height=\"152\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, that hits a little too close to home, doesn&#8217;t it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But let&#8217;s see if we can avoid ruining our songs to the point where we just want to go home and rethink our lives by creating simple mixing and song-finishing checklist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2128\" width=\"661\" data-init-width=\"344\" height=\"281\" data-init-height=\"146\" title=\"rethink life\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rethink-life.jpeg\" data-width=\"661\" data-height=\"281\" style=\"\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144405\">1. Free From Cringe-Inducing Distractions<\/h2>\n<p>Distractions are going to be the biggest sign that you need to keep working.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The biggest culprits are:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Harsh sibilance (ssss sounds)&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Popping plosives (&#8220;P&#8221; and &#8220;B&#8221; sounds where the vocalist is blowing air into the mic)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Digital clipping <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Breaths <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Wrong notes<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Incorrect timing<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&#8217;re basically just looking to eliminate anything that causes pain. This is the &#8220;cringe test&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"\">The cringe test is when you listen to every second of your song and every time you cringe, you fix it until you stop cringing and start smiling.<\/p>\n<p style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.adgmastering.com\/how-to-know-when-a-song-is-done\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color: rgb(34, 34, 34);\">adgmastering.com<\/span><\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This requires being a critical listener and listening to a lot of music in general so that you know what sounds good, and what doesn&#8217;t.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But if nothing is hurting or annoying you, then you can move on to the next test&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144406\">2. Well Balanced<\/h2>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2126\" width=\"661\" data-init-width=\"1200\" height=\"441\" data-init-height=\"800\" title=\"balance\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/balance.jpg\" data-width=\"661\" data-height=\"441\" style=\"\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Is your song well balanced?<\/p>\n<p>You also want to listen for balance. How do all of your sounds compare to each other and to other songs in your genre?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Does every instrument have a place in the spectrum?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Can you hear every instrument, or are certain sounds getting lost?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Are your bass and treble levels comparable to other songs in your genre?&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If everything sounds good together, no instrument is poking out too much or getting lost, then you can comfortably say you have a good balance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The next step is a big one&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144407\">3. Enjoyable To Listen To<\/h2>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2127\" width=\"661\" data-init-width=\"1200\" height=\"572\" data-init-height=\"1038\" title=\"happy man\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/happy-man.jpg\" data-width=\"661\" data-height=\"572\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Is your song enjoyable to listen to?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Do you find yourself head-bobbing along to the track?&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Does the song make you feel the way it was intended to make you feel?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Music is a fascinating communication medium in that it&#8217;s designed to communicate emotions, and influence how people feel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If your song makes you feel something, then that&#8217;s a good sign it will do the same for others.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144408\">4. Feedback Is Good<\/h2>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2125\" width=\"661\" data-init-width=\"1200\" height=\"441\" data-init-height=\"800\" title=\"fans\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fans.jpg\" data-width=\"661\" data-height=\"441\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You also might want to get some outsider opinions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a small group of people whom you can send your track to for feedback?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Do they hear any distractions, or do they lose a certain instrument in the mix when they listen?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;ve been working on a song for so long, it can be easy to lose perspective, so getting feedback from others can be helpful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If the feedback is good, that&#8217;s the final box checked!<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144410\">5. The Deadline Has Arrived<\/h2>\n<p>One other thing to consider is deadlines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the professional recording world, often a song is sone simply when the deadline for its completion arrives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sure, you could rewrite and tweak your mix forever, but any improvement is marginal at best.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So I recommend setting deadlines for yourself and sticking to those deadlines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This will help you to improve much faster, and you&#8217;ll also get more songs finished and releases as a result.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t-1622045144409\">Mixdown Checklist<\/h2>\n<p>Finishing more songs, faster, is vital for success in this new music industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>People&#8217;s attention spans are short, and they are constantly on the hunt for &#8220;what&#8217;s next&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Releasing regularly is therefore one of the best things you can do to grow your indie artist career, whether that be original music, collaborations, covers, or all of the above.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why I put together my Rapid Song-Finishing Checklist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This not only includes what I talked about in this article boiled down into a simple checklist, but it also contains a handy mixing and mastering checklist so you can make sure you&#8217;ve got everything covered as you go about finishing your tracks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can download the checklist for free by clicking below.<\/p>\n<p>__CONFIG_group_edit__{}__CONFIG_group_edit____CONFIG_local_colors__{&#8220;colors&#8221;:{&#8220;cd497&#8221;:&#8221;Background &#8220;,&#8221;144cd&#8221;:&#8221;Button &#8220;},&#8221;gradients&#8221;:{}}__CONFIG_local_colors__  <span style=\"width: 100%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"144\" height=\"230\" title=\"Rapid Song-Finishing Checklist (1)\" data-id=\"825\" src=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Rapid-Song-Finishing-Checklist-1-3-scaled.jpg\" style=\"\" data-width=\"144\" data-height=\"230\" data-init-width=\"1283\" data-init-height=\"2048\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"t-1598014058179\" style=\"\">Create Better Songs, Faster<\/h4>\n<p>Click below to download my free song-finishing checklist to help you create radio-ready songs without taking months to complete them.<\/p>\n<p>__CONFIG_colors_palette__{&#8220;active_palette&#8221;:0,&#8221;config&#8221;:{&#8220;colors&#8221;:{&#8220;4b114&#8221;:{&#8220;name&#8221;:&#8221;Main Accent&#8221;,&#8221;parent&#8221;:-1}},&#8221;gradients&#8221;:[]},&#8221;palettes&#8221;:[{&#8220;name&#8221;:&#8221;Default Palette&#8221;,&#8221;value&#8221;:{&#8220;colors&#8221;:{&#8220;4b114&#8221;:{&#8220;val&#8221;:&#8221;rgb(250, 194, 45)&#8221;,&#8221;hsl&#8221;:{&#8220;h&#8221;:43,&#8221;s&#8221;:0.95,&#8221;l&#8221;:0.58}}},&#8221;gradients&#8221;:[]},&#8221;original&#8221;:{&#8220;colors&#8221;:{&#8220;4b114&#8221;:{&#8220;val&#8221;:&#8221;rgb(19, 114, 211)&#8221;,&#8221;hsl&#8221;:{&#8220;h&#8221;:210,&#8221;s&#8221;:0.83,&#8221;l&#8221;:0.45}}},&#8221;gradients&#8221;:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ <a href=\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/MixingChecklist\" style=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <span><span>I Want To Finish Songs Faster!<\/span><\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<p>This checklist will ensure that you always have a starting point, and you&#8217;ll never wonder what to do next ever again while mixing or mastering.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I hope you got value from this post on how to know when your song is done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If so, I&#8217;d love for you to share and let me know in the comments below&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\" id=\"t-1622045144411\"><em>How Many Songs Do You Plan On Finishing In The Next 3 Months?<\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Leonardo da Vinci once said, &#8220;Art is never finished, only abandoned,&#8221; and I couldn&#8217;t agree more.&nbsp; As both a novelist and a music artist, the struggle is real when it comes to finally deciding that your creation is &#8220;done&#8221;, and releasing it into the world.&nbsp; When it comes to music, you can always add [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[177,108],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-production","tag-checklist","tag-mastering","post_format-post-format-video","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2487,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/2487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}