Music production workflow - beginner

[Aero10]

Hello everyone!

Well, this question will be as newbie-ish as it gets and fortunately for me, I have found this awesome community and sub-forum for beginners.

I have only just started with music production. At this stage, I am still overwhelmed with all the terms and even just opening and filling up my DAW (Reaper) with tracks and effects. In this BF season, I have gotten two basic Thinkspace Education courses (How to write music, Music theory) and Orchestration recipes.

I know we mostly learn by doing, and there are usually multiple ways to achieve a goal. But I am pretty sure that, with all the music producers who went and are going trough the process, certain approaches have turned out to be better suited.
I get puzzled by how to organize a track? Where do I put EQ and effects? To each instrument, or all of them routed to one effect? If effects are chained, what order is best to put them in? How to do mixing, artifacts cleaning and vocals editing?

I have as many questions as there can be with starting music production. I am hoping you can offer me some basic guidance. Existing threads, articles, youtube videos, online courses etc. are all welcome answers as well.
I tried to elaborate, but I'm afraid that currently I can't form the question much better than it is, so I hope you can bear with me.
Oh and the sound I'm after is cinematic/hybrid, orchestral and rock/metal music. With a bit of mixing of these genres at times as well.

Thank you very much for your help, any kind of guidance will be much appreciated!
AM

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[Roland-Music]

Some starting points:

EPICOMPOSER

All about epic, cinematic & trailer music

epicomposer.com

https://youtube.com/c/ThinkSpaceEducation

CInematic Composing

Learn and Grow as a COMPOSER and Get Composing Opportunities. Free resources, courses, community, and mentoring from Hollywood composers.

cinematiccomposing.com

Cinematic Music: From Idea To Finished Recording

Learn how to compose, orchestrate and produce cinematic tracks effortlessly. Go from idea to exported audio file, and master the basics.

evenant.com

 

[jcrosby]

Everyone gets bogged down by the technical side of production when starting out... Mixing is not nearly as effortless (or natural at 1st) as some artists you might follow might suggest. (I'm also not suggesting composition, arrangement, etc are a walk in the park either when new) but I do see the same pattern time and again, people still getting comfortable wearing multiple hats tend to get hung up on the technical end...

That said, when it comes to mixing less is often more... Good levels are going to do you way more favors than overcompensating with heaps of processing... So 'step one' is to listen to a lot of mixes and learn when your levels feel right - (which WILL take time)...

Dan Worrall's a great general resource. He's insanely good at distilling ideas, and often has great answers to questions like this, question which seem simple on the surface, but often have more than one answer, and typically take some discipline to put into practice..

So long story short - 'lesson one' - might be something like the video linked below... Focus on the basics and the bigger picture. And, never underestimate just how powerful good levels are. (Arrangement plays a role in this too, but in the short term focus on balances - at least from a technical perspective... As a bonus he goes into dynamics as well...)

And for that matter, never forget that there's technically no right or wrong level, only what feels right; be it personally; be it for a genre, etc. That doesn't mean there aren't best practices - which there are - but don't get trapped by the mindset of right vs wrong... The best cure for avoiding the trap of thinking in black and white terms like 'right vs wrong' are to compare your mix to a similar reference...

 

[Aero10]

@jcrosby thank you very much for your kind explanation! It has definitely saved me from a large chunk of concerns regarding mixing. I will certainly worry less about doing it "right" from the get go.

This still leaves me with a lot of question regarding workflow, use of effects and so.
Any further tips on that matter are more than welcome.
That said, I can give the resources posted by @Roland-Music a go and see where it gets me

 

[Tralen]

@jcrosby thank you very much for your kind explanation! It has definitely saved me from a large chunk of concerns regarding mixing. I will certainly worry less about doing it "right" from the get go.

This still leaves me with a lot of question regarding workflow, use of effects and so.
Any further tips on that matter are more than welcome.
That said, I can give the resources posted by @Roland-Music a go and see where it gets me

Adding to what jcrosby said, Dan Worrall's also does videos for other companies. Check his "Beginner Guides" videos for FabFilter where he covers the basic types of effects.

About organizing your tracks, I recommend organizing by sections, if we are talking orchestral music.

 

[Tralen]

I hit the submit button by mistake, so I will continue here:

Since you are using Reaper, create folders for Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, etc.

About where to add effects, the answer is quite simple: add the effect just to what you want to affect. If you want to affect all Brass, add to the Brass folder, if you want to affect just the Trumpet, add to the Trumpet track.

The same logic goes for using a single reverb for everything. If you want all instruments to share the same feeling of space, you will want to affect all of them in the same way. One way to do this is to add the reverb to all of them through a send.

Edit: removed confusing info.