I visit a few Youtube channels on a regular basis. Some for practical reasons but at least one for reasons beyond that, which is the first in this list :)
So first and foremost these channels are about production, recording, mixing techniques or interviews with people of the industry. In interviews you will also find bits and pieces of business advice or stories of amazing success and failures, which both can be quite instructive and inspiring. I also enjoy the occasional studio tours.
...hosted by Warren Huart
The Produce Like A Pro Podcast has already been mentioned by me in my favorite podcast list, it is a podcast and a Youtube channel. It's even more than that, it is also a community with an academy (a premium service), that is sharing jobs, feedback, ideas and it's built to give upcoming or professional engineers material to play or train with. (courses, multitrack recordings, a feedback community)
To me - and I understand that this has to do with me and how I'm wired, but maybe you would enjoy it as much as I do - this Youtube channel is so inviting to me, it almost offers a feeling of "coming home to a good hot cup of jo and a cookie" when I tune in. Most definitely it invites me to listen to a wonderfully passionate person, talking about music and reocording/mixing techniques and sometimes gear, while relating to "bedroom studio" and home studio owners (which I'm not by the way, but I wish I was). Another highly enjoyable part of this channel are the studio tours and interviews that Warren Huart does with other studio owners, engineers and musicians.
There is something to learn from his philosophy, let alone from his career of course. Warren Huart is a multiple platinum producer, studio owner, educator (Produce Like A Pro Academy) and successful Youtuber/content creator.
...hosted by different people
Amongst other Software, I'm working with Studio One (version 4 is their latest in 2019) for the vast majority of mastering and mixing projects. I settled on S1 for a few key reasons:
It became more popular in professional studios, which legitimized it a little more for me
It's at least as capable of recording and mixing as the competition
It is more affordable then part of the competition
There are more reasons and I can also find arguments against it, but that's not what this is about. I like the Studio One Expert Youtube channel, because it helped me a lot to get into the program and understand its features and functionality. Especially when we are doing professional work for others, we have to be efficient in our work environment and I learned a lot of features and also techniques from Studio One Expert.
...hosted by Ableton of course
Ableton Live is the production environment for my own solo projects. I used to produce a lot of electronic music under several project names and all in Ableton Live. I have never been a real wizzard with any particular tool or audio software for my productions, non the less I think it's crucial for producers to learn a lot about the software wich they are using. Otherwise they might be missing out on their full creative potential. Ableton's Youtube channel is not only showing us the depths of Live (version 10 is their latest in 2019) but it is also very inspiring to me, seeing how other artists/producer/performers use it. It seems there is always something to learn.
...hosted by Izotope of course
I specifically like the series "Are you listening" with Jonathan Wyner (M-Worx Mastering), who is a mastering engineer, Education Director over at Izotope and a well of knowledge. (Award winning and Grammy nominated...just sayin').
This series goes in depth about the right setup, setting/settings and mindset for mastering and it is absolutely useful for anybody who wants to master their own music or wants to seriously get into professional mastering. In the videos, Jonathan is covering basics and as he progresses into compression, EQing and limiting, he hints at details to understand better the effects of the processing. For example, the often very subtle changes introduced by mastering compression are hard to notice, if you don't know exactly where you are supposed to listen? If you're truly interested and not willing to jump into a paid course (or online course) right away or ever, then I strongly recommend to check this out. Johnathan also wrote the book Audio Mastering – Essential Practices.
(Season 2 of Are You Listening has just droped a few weeks ago)
I'm also following the RX7 series on their channel. RX (version 7 is their latest in 2019) is Izotope's highly capable audio editor, which is much better described as an audio restauration suite. I use it for mastering tasks, sometimes mixing taks. It has amazing spectral analysis and repair features. From removing clicks, all kinds of noises, "plosives", to removing ambience and reverbs and whole sounds out of a spectrum, to re-balancing music, to gain & phase changes and "simpler" audio editor tasks.
Whatever tools you're using, it is very likely that you will find a website or blog or Youtube channel/playlist for it. I follow these things because I like to stay on top of what I'm using.
Other Youtube channels which I subcribe to:
Rick Beato / Everything Music
(Another well of musical, as well as recording and mixing knowledge. I like his song breakdowns called "What makes this song great?")
(Ken is talking about recording and mixing,but often referencing experiences with his band Failure)
(same as for Ableton's channel, I like the inspirational aspect and the news)
(I check out their interviews when somebody is on who I find interesting, I admit, it's not all for me)
Any questions ? Hit me up at anti.logic@gmx.de or use the contact form.
Until next time
Yours truly
Author: Robert Hundt // Date: March 2nd, 2020