Music Production Techniques: A Quick Guide for Beginners

beginner music production

female music producer recording a keyboard part into a DAW while a singer sings his parts in the background

The goal of music production is to create great songs. Production first requires finding a great song idea and then transforming that idea into a full song with an interesting arrangement. It’s also about having an ear for different types of sounds and how they can be sequentially introduced in a song. Music producers should also be aware of trends in songs, genres, and music production techniques to stay on top of how things are currently done. In this article we’ll take a quick look at songs and music production techniques.

What Is Music Production?

Music production is the process by which a song is created from the inception of the idea to the final product that can be listened to by the fans. It’s about songs and sounds and how they can be designed to create an artist’s vision. The person behind the creation of the track is called a producer, who is responsible for everything that goes into the final song. The role of a producer varies depending on what type of musical genre they are working with. Music production typically starts with a musician or beat maker coming up with an idea for their song. They then use this idea to write lyrics, come up with melodies and harmonies, record everything into a DAW and then overdub more instruments until the song sounds complete.

10 Elements of a Song

Songs can be broken down into a basic list of 10 elements. These are: - the song's key, - the song's tempo, - the song's groove or feel - melody, - harmony, - lyrics, - vocals, - instruments, and ambience. Most great songs have a strong showing in most or all of these areas.

5 Sound Types in Music Production

Part of producing great music is knowing how to identify different sounds that you can use in your songs. That’s where the elements of music production techniques come into play. Here are five types of sound that are found in a vast majority of songs: - Vocals - Sounds like a human voice - Noise - Unintelligible noise or tinkling sounds - Distortion - Distorted noises - Envelopes - The shape of the slope or amplitude at which a sound increases and decreases over time - Loops - Beats repeated over and over again for a certain period of time These five types of sound have been used in many songs over the years, and most major artists will incorporate them into their tracks.

Sound Processing Ideas

Music production techniques involve a range of different elements that you can use to make your songs sound good. They have everything from series sound processing like EQ and compression to parallel sound processing with reverb and delay. These techniques are used in so many different ways that it would take a lot of time to list them all out. However, here is a short list of some of the most common uses for these techniques: - To enhance the tonal quality - To add excitement to tracks - To manipulate the dynamic volume of tracks.

8 Essential Items for Music Production

A decent computer 2. DAW (digital audio workstation) software 3. A microphone 4. Instruments (analog, digital or virtual) 5. Headphones 6. Speakers 7. A MIDI keyboard 8. An audio interface

Conclusion: Getting started with music production requires a general understanding of how songs and recording gear works as well as an understanding of the most important elements of songs and production techniques.