The Music Production Process

Every music producer you'll meet will have their own particular music production process for making music. You will however find certain similar processes or stages all producers must go through to create viable tracks.

You will in time develop your own process as you practice your art. You'll discover the core stages of the basic production process below so you'll have a big picture idea of what you'll be doing
when you make your own music.

You will also find that making music has a creative and technical side and each requires a different mind set from you. You will in time learn to be able to move between the creative and technical mind sets with ease as you will need both throughout the process of making your music.

The Basic Music Production Process...

You can divide the process of making your music up in to five basic parts of which you will only do the first four yourself.

1 - Conception/Germination

You will first come up with a basic idea or theme. You then try as be as clear as possible in your own head as to what you want to create with your song.

You want to imagine what it will sound like once you have completed it and which instruments you'll use to create the sound you want.

2 - Recording/Tracking/Arranging

This is the stage where you "get it down". Dance music producers will build the track up from samples, loops and MIDI. Music producers who work with bands and musicians will record the different parts of the track to disk.

3 - Editing

You will in this stage drag, drop, cut, trim, copy, paste and nudge the various programmed or recorded parts to fit together well and produce the completed raw song.

4 - Mixing

Mixing or mixing down is the final stage in which you use volume, EQ, panning and effects to create the stereo image and final sound you want.

5 - Mastering

A good mastering engineer will take your final mix and finalize it into a master ready for public use.

You will find many tools available for DIY mastering though you'd be better off sending your tracks off to a good mastering house because this gives you a second set of fresh ears.

Mastering houses will also carry equipment for mastering which you won't find in normal studios. This is one place where it's best to leave it to those in the know! ;-)

So, there you have the basic music production process!

I will now give you a little secret to how you can create momentum to get through the music production process and complete your tracks...

You will experience a burst of energy when you're inspired with a new musical idea (stage 1) for a track. You should use this energy to drive you through the work you have to do while recording, tracking and editing (stages 2 and 3).

You will then be ready to mix (stage 4) which means completion is in sight. This creates a new burst of energy which drives you towards the completion of your track.

The final trick is to know when to stop and avoid the dreaded overkill. You want to be clear in your mind about the result you aim for so you know when the track is completed.

All the best,
Marius van Dyk

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