How To Produce Music - 9 Steps to Get Started in Music Production
Find out what it takes to become a music producer and what you need to produce professional songs in any genre. In this article, we give you 9 tips from Soundtrap's in-house producer team on how to get started.
A male beat maker in the studio
Music production is the art of taking a musical idea and turning it into a finished song. And because it is an art form, there is really no right or wrong way to produce music, what matters is the outcome.
Music production does typically, however, require some sense of creativity, an understanding of recording equipment and instruments, and knowledge of digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Soundtrap.
So, to make your journey into music production easier, we have collected the best tips from Soundtrap’s in-house producer team on how to get started as a music producer, what production tools you need to be successful, and what it means to work professionally with music production. Let’s dive in!
What does it mean to produce music?
The art of producing music isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. There are many different ways to produce music. Some are purely technical, like writing the actual music and recording it in a DAW. Other production tasks are more strategic, like creating a vision for a musical project, connecting different musicians to collaborate on a song, or simply financing and marketing the production of an album, single, or music video.
Highly esteemed music producers like Rick Ross and DJ Khaled rarely touch any instruments or program any notes in any software. They are however great at coming up with concepts, sounds, and visions for other artists, and that’s what makes them great music producers.
The technical aspect of music production typically involves coming up with melodies, writing lyrics, recording and editing, and mixing and mastering. A common process for a music producer is to create the background music, write the lyrics to a song, and then bring in an artist to perform the track while recording it. Ebony “WondaGurl” Oshunrinde is both a songwriter and producer who produces music in this way and has worked with artists like Rihanna, Travis Scott, Drake, and Masego, to name a few.
So it’s important to understand that “music producer” is a broad term and can mean different things in today’s music industry. Some producers make beats, some write songs and engineer recording sessions, and some just oversee the project at hand and assist the artist with financial, collaborative, and visionary support.
Below, we will mainly focus on the technical aspects of the music producer role. How to actually create music, what tools to use, and how to distribute it for the world to hear.
Producer on bed creating MIDI files in Soundtrap
What does a music producer do?
Music producers are responsible for creating the sonic landscape for artists. A producer might build the foundation of a song in their DAW, with the beat, chord progressions, and top melodies, and then bring in other musicians to record instruments or other parts of the song. Once the music has been finalized, the artist who will perform the track is brought into the studio to record vocals. This is just one possible workflow out of many.
It is important that producers have a deep understanding of the recording process and how different instruments interact with one another. They should also possess great communication skills in order to foster positive relationships between artists and other musicians throughout the creative process.
In addition, successful music producers must be up-to-date on industry trends in order to stay current on evolving genres and production techniques. Swedish music producer Max Martin is a great example of someone who has evolved their sound over decades and managed to stay in high demand because of it. That’s why he’s gone from producing 90s artists like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears to today’s biggest superstars like The Weeknd.
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