Words to live by here when being a part time producer. If you have any more, please comment and tell me.
#1 Don’t get in to debt for your hobby
There is no reason that you should buy anything you can’t afford. Never get in to debt for anything to do with music. Only do it for the love of it. Don’t thrown money away by buying gear thinking it is going to make your tracks sound better. It isn’t.
#2 You don’t need that plugin
Referring back to point 1, you will probably find you alsready have a plugin to do what you want in your DAW. Don’t spend money on plugins you don’t need – at least if you are going to, trial it first. Any plugin worth it’s salt will let you do a trial run.
#3 Wait for the deals if you do
If you must buy a plugin, make sure you wait for any deals. Shop about, black friday, summer sales etc. There are lots of resources online which I’ll share if I find.
#4 It is good enough, just maybe not yet
Never delete your work. You might not like the track you’ve done today, tomorrow, next week. But next year you might have learnt something in the interim and when you listen back to your old stuff, you will be able to fix it and make it fantastic.
#5 Don’t ignore the basics
Panning, Gain staging, decent recording of samples. They all count so don’t take short cuts thinking it will get you to a finished track sooner. It will just frustrate you. Spend the time you have wisely and it will be worth it at the end of the track.