Starting out in music production can feel overwhelming. Between learning your DAW, understanding EQ, and just finishing a track, there’s a lot to juggle. The truth is, every music producer, even the pros, runs into challenges along the way. But the difference between giving up and growing? Knowing how to overcome those obstacles when they show up.
Whether you’re battling creative block, getting stuck in the mixing phase, or unsure why your tracks don’t sound “finished”, you’re not alone. The good news? These problems are fixable, and many of them are common among beginners and intermediate producers alike.
In this article, we’ll break down the top 10 music production challenges and give you practical, actionable tips to solve them. From workflow improvements to mindset shifts, these solutions will help you level up your music faster and with a lot less frustration.
Creative Block
The Challenge:
You sit down to make music… and nothing comes out. No ideas, no vibe, no inspiration. Creative block is one of the most frustrating and common issues producers face, especially when starting out or after finishing a big project.
Why It Happens:
Creative block often stems from pressure: the pressure to be original, to finish something great, or to meet expectations (your own or someone else’s). It can also be a result of burnout, lack of direction, or simply overthinking.
How to Overcome It:
- Use Reference Tracks: Start by analysing a song you love. Break it down, mimic the structure, and use it as a jumping-off point. You’re not copying, you’re learning what works.
- Try a New Genre or Instrument: Breaking your routine can spark creativity. If you usually make house, try lo-fi. If you’re always on your laptop, try starting with a guitar riff or vocal sample.
- Limit Your Tools: Too many plugins and sounds can overwhelm. Try producing a full track with just one synth and a drum kit.
- Set a Timer: Give yourself 30 minutes to make something, no matter how rough. Constraints can kickstart flow.
- Take Breaks and Get Inspired Elsewhere: Step away from your setup. Listen to new music, go for a walk or watch a film. Your best ideas often come when you’re not forcing them.
Our instructors often recommend treating creative block like a technical challenge, not a personal flaw. It’s part of the process, and there are tools to get through it.
Mixing Fatigue
The Challenge:
After hours of tweaking EQs, adjusting levels, and chasing the “perfect” sound, everything starts to blur. Your ears get tired, your judgment gets cloudy, and suddenly you’re second-guessing everything, or worse, making your mix worse.
Why It Happens:
Mixing fatigue is both physical and mental. Our ears naturally lose sensitivity after long periods of focused listening, especially at higher volumes. On top of that, endless small decisions can wear you down creatively and emotionally.
How to Overcome It:
- Mix at Lower Volumes: Loud mixing can tire your ears quickly. Keep levels low. If it sounds good quiet, it’ll sound even better loud.
- Take Frequent Breaks: Step away every 30–45 minutes. Even a 5-minute break resets your ears.
- Use Reference Tracks: Compare your mix to a professionally mixed track in the same genre. It helps you recalibrate your ears and spot issues quicker.
- Mix in Short Bursts: Instead of marathon sessions, mix in sprints. Focus on one section at a time (like drums, vocals, etc.).
- Switch Between Speakers and Headphones: Different listening environments reveal different issues. Don’t rely on one setup alone.
At pointblank, we teach students to mix smarter, not longer. Trust your ears but also train them with good habits and reference points.
Lack of Music Theory Knowledge
The Challenge:
You’ve got the software, the samples, and the ideas but when it comes to building chords, melodies, or even a bassline that fits, you’re stuck. Everything sounds off, and you’re not sure why.
Why It Happens:
Many new producers dive into music production before learning the basics of music theory, and that’s totally normal. But without some foundational knowledge, your tracks can feel flat, unstructured, or out of key.
How to Overcome It:
- Learn the Basics: You don’t need a music degree, just an understanding of scales, chords, and how they work together. Major vs. minor, triads, and basic progressions go a long way.
- Use MIDI Packs and Tools as Learning Aids: Tools like Captain Chords, Scaler, or even pre-built MIDI loops can help you understand how professional chord progressions are structured.
- Study Songs You Love: Reverse-engineer your favourite tracks. What chords are they using? What’s the melody doing? Try replicating them by ear or with MIDI.
- Take a Short Music Theory Course: A structured course designed for producers (like the ones at pointblank) can teach you only what you need with no fluff.
- Practice with a Keyboard or MIDI Controller: Theory becomes much easier when you play and hear things in real time. It builds intuition.
We integrate music theory into all of our production and composition courses, not as a separate subject, but as a tool that makes producing faster and more creative.
Clashing Frequencies
The Challenge:
Your mix sounds muddy, crowded, or just plain messy, especially when the kick, bass, synths, and vocals are all fighting for space. No matter how much you adjust the volume, it still doesn’t sound clean.
Why It Happens:
When multiple instruments occupy the same frequency range (especially the low end), they can mask each other and cause your mix to lose clarity. Without proper EQing and sound separation, your elements start clashing instead of complementing each other.
How to Overcome It:
- Use Subtractive EQ: Instead of just boosting what sounds good, try cutting what you don’t need. Carve out space for each sound by reducing overlapping frequencies.
- High-Pass Non-Bass Elements: Cut unnecessary low-end from everything that’s not meant to live there (like vocals, synths, and hi-hats).
- Give Each Instrument Its Zone: Think of your mix as a frequency spectrum. Assign each instrument its own “space”, e.g. kick around 60–100Hz, bass slightly above, vocals in the midrange.
- Use Spectrum Analysers: Tools like Voxengo SPAN or the built-in visualisers in your DAW help you see where things are overlapping.
- Try Sidechain Compression: Especially useful between kick and bass — this ducks the bass slightly when the kick hits, keeping your low end clean and punchy.
We teach hands-on EQ techniques in our Sound Engineering and Mixing modules, so you don’t just hear the difference, you understand it.
Unclear Arrangement
The Challenge:
You’ve got a cool loop or a great 8-bar idea, but when you try to turn it into a full track, it either gets repetitive or falls apart. The energy doesn’t build, transitions feel awkward, and the track just doesn’t go anywhere.
Why It Happens:
Arrangement is one of the most overlooked skills for new producers. It’s not just about adding more sounds, it’s about shaping a journey. Without structure, even great ideas can end up sounding aimless.
How to Overcome It:
- Follow a Proven Structure: Use reference tracks in your genre and map out their arrangement (intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, drop, etc.). It gives you a roadmap to build from.
- Think in Sections: Break your track into manageable parts i.e. intro, build, drop, breakdown, outro. Then focus on building contrast and flow between each one.
- Use Markers in Your DAW: Label each section clearly (e.g., “Build-Up,” “Drop”) to keep track of your progress and structure.
- Introduce and Remove Elements Strategically: Keep things evolving by adding or subtracting instruments, automating filters, and using risers or FX to signal transitions.
- Create Variation, Not Chaos: Small changes in drum patterns, chord voicings, or vocal chops can keep the listener engaged without overwhelming the track.
We teach arrangement using real-world tracks inside the DAW, so students see how structure works and can apply it immediately to their own music.
Overusing Plugins
The Challenge:
You’ve downloaded loads of free VSTs, bought a shiny new synth, and have 12 plugins on every track, but somehow, your mix sounds worse, not better. It’s messy, CPU-heavy, and hard to manage.
Why It Happens:
It’s tempting to think a better sound comes from more tools. But too many plugins especially when used without purpose, can muddy your mix, slow your workflow, and mask the core issues in your track.
How to Overcome It:
- Master Your Stock Plugins First: Most DAWs come with everything you need to make pro-level music. Learn to get great results with built-in EQs, compressors, reverbs, and delays before adding more.
- Use Plugins With Purpose: Before loading a plugin, ask: What am I trying to fix or enhance? If you don’t have a reason, you probably don’t need it.
- Limit Yourself Creatively: Try finishing a track with just one synth or effect chain. These kinds of constraints boost creativity and improve your technical skills.
- Organise Your Plugin Library: Keep your go-to tools easy to find and delete anything you never use. A tidy workspace equals a clearer head.
- Avoid Chasing Presets: Presets can be helpful, but understanding how they’re made will help you create your own sounds and mixes faster.
In our courses, we focus on building solid production foundations first. Plugins are tools, not magic shortcuts. Once you know what you’re doing, the fancy stuff makes a lot more sense.
DAW Workflow Issues
The Challenge:
You spend more time clicking around, searching for samples, or trying to remember where you saved that project than actually making music. Your sessions feel messy, and ideas get lost in the chaos.
Why It Happens:
Every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) has its own learning curve. If your workflow isn’t streamlined, your creativity gets interrupted, and that frustration can kill momentum, especially for new producers still learning the ropes.
How to Overcome It:
- Learn Shortcuts: Every second counts. Master the most-used keyboard shortcuts in your DAW to speed up editing, navigation, and playback.
- Use Templates: Create a default session template with your most-used tracks, effects, and instruments already loaded. It’s a huge time saver.
- Organise Your Projects: Label tracks clearly, use colour coding, and group similar elements (like drums, synths, vocals). It’ll help you move faster and avoid confusion later.
- Keep Your Sample Library Tidy: Create folders for kicks, snares, FX, vocals, etc. Use a tagging system or sample manager if your library is huge.
- Commit to One DAW (for Now): Don’t jump between platforms while learning. Stick with one and get confident before experimenting with others.
Our students don’t just learn the creative side of production. We teach smart workflows using Ableton Live, so you can stay focused on making music, not fighting your software.
Struggling with Mastering
The Challenge:
Your track sounds good in your DAW, but when you bounce it out, it either sounds too quiet, too harsh, or totally different on other speakers. Mastering feels like a mysterious dark art and you’re not sure where to start.
Why It Happens:
Mastering is the final polish that ensures your track sounds professional on all systems. It involves balancing loudness, EQ, stereo width, and compression, but without a clear process, it’s easy to overdo it or miss the mark entirely.
How to Overcome It:
- Use Reference Tracks: Compare your mix to professionally mastered tracks in the same genre. Match loudness and tonal balance using your ears and tools like tonal balance control or a spectrum analyser.
- Don’t Over-Process: One limiter and some gentle EQ might be all you need. Avoid stacking compressors or over-EQing, it often causes more harm than good.
- Check Across Devices: Always test your master on different systems: headphones, car speakers, laptop speakers, etc. This shows how it translates in the real world.
- Use LUFS for Loudness: Aim for around -14 LUFS for streaming platforms (or -9 to -10 LUFS for club tracks). It helps avoid distortion or playback issues.
- Consider Outsourcing for Releases: If it’s your first time releasing music commercially, consider hiring a professional mastering engineer. You’ll learn a lot from seeing what they do with your mix.
We offer mastering workshops as part of our production and engineering courses, so students learn when to DIY, and when to call in the pros.
Imposter Syndrome
The Challenge:
You finish a track, then doubt creeps in. “Is this any good?” “Why doesn’t it sound like my favourite artists?” You start comparing yourself to others, second-guess your work, and sometimes stop creating altogether.
Why It Happens:
Imposter syndrome affects creatives in all fields, but it’s especially common in music. The combination of technical skill, emotional expression, and constant comparison online makes it easy to feel like you’re not good enough, even when you are.
How to Overcome It:
- Focus on Progress, Not Perfection: Look at where you were 3 months ago, not where someone else is today. Every track you make is a step forward, even the ones that don’t turn out how you hoped.
- Celebrate Small Wins: Finished a track? Posted a clip? Learned a new mixing technique? That’s progress. Acknowledge it.
- Limit Social Media Comparisons: Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are highlight reels. You’re comparing someone’s best 10 seconds to your work-in-progress.
- Create for Yourself First: Not every track needs to be a hit. Make music that you enjoy, and the passion will come through naturally.
- Surround Yourself with Support: Share your music with trusted peers or join a creative community (like pointblank’s student network) where feedback is constructive, not crushing.
Many of our students feel this way at some point — and that’s why we foster a supportive, feedback-focused environment where growth is celebrated, not judged.
Not Finishing Tracks
The Challenge:
You’ve got tons of half-finished projects, loops, ideas, and 8-bar bangers that never make it past the drop. Starting a track is easy, but finishing one? That’s where things fall apart.
Why It Happens:
Finishing a track takes a different skill set than starting one. As ideas develop, doubts creep in, or you get bored and move on to something new. Perfectionism, over-editing, or just not knowing the next step can all be roadblocks.
How to Overcome It:
- Set Deadlines: Give yourself a realistic timeline, even if no one’s waiting on it. Treat it like a project with a due date.
- Accept “Done” Over “Perfect”: Perfection can be the enemy of progress. A finished track that’s 90% great is more valuable than an endless work-in-progress.
- Create a Finish Routine: Have a checklist: arrangement locked, mix checked, bounce rendered. Having a repeatable process helps you get into a finishing mindset.
- Limit Your Revisions: Give yourself two or three review sessions, max. After that, call it done and move on.
- Release It (Even Privately): Whether it’s on SoundCloud, sent to friends, or kept as a private playlist — giving your track a “home” makes it feel real and complete.
We push our students to finish tracks regularly, because every finished song is a step closer to developing your unique sound and confidence as a producer.
Every Producer Struggles — But You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
Every great producer started exactly where you are, facing the same frustrations, making the same mistakes, and wondering if they’re really cut out for it. The difference? They kept going… and they learned how to turn those challenges into stepping stones.
The good news is you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.
At pointblank Music School, we’ve helped thousands of students overcome these exact production roadblocks. Whether it’s improving your workflow, learning to mix and master like a pro, or just building the confidence to finish tracks, our hands-on courses are designed to give you the skills and support to succeed.
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