It seems like every month a new plugin or piece of technology comes out that makes producing music easier. The tools that are available, not to even the most amateur of producers, are capable of producing a great-sounding mix and master.
It’s not often, however, that a tool comes out that can help you write better music in the first place. Hooktheory can do just that. It’s a free, crowdsourced online tool that allows you to build harmonic progressions for your song and then see how other popular artists have used those same chords. And, it’s a lot of fun.
You can search by artist or song or chord progression. We were able to see, for example, that Regina Specktor’s “Samson” uses A, the same cadential 6/4 chord as Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and Hans Zimmer’s film score theme for The Rock .
Using the “Trends” feature, we quickly found 52 songs in the key of A that used the chord progression A - F#m - D - A (I - vi - IV - I), including Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change,” and U2’s “One.”
Hooktheory takes the mystery out of how certain songs or artists are able to attain their feel, harmonically speaking. Whether you have formal music theory training or not, the simple interface mixed with the ability to see chords and compare similar songs, makes learning the harmonic theory behind many popular songs easy. It’s also pretty fun to see how Red Hot Chili Peppers borrowed from Pachelbel’s Canon.
Even more important than creating an excellent mix and master is having a great song to start with. One of the most important things for producers to do is to listen to a lot of great music and attune their ears and their taste to what makes fans feel moved.
If you’re serious about creating great music, study it. With tools like Hooktheory, it’s never been easier.
Make Pro Songs
There are 6 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 20 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 20 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
2. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can quickly improve your mixes fast.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide you with feedback about what you can improve first before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
3. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
4. Sage Audio Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers that can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, discussions, mix competitions, networking, collaborations, and more.
5. 700+ In-depth Sage Audio Mixing and Mastering Videos
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 58 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.