When we listen to music, many of us do not think about or understand how much work goes into production. We tend to give a lot of credit to certain musicians, such as the lead singer or the guitarist, when we listen to music and talk about it. However, making music isn’t just about the singer and the instruments; it is about putting everything together in such a way where the music can be played out of speakers and sound its best.
There are people who dedicate their careers to music production. These people add, delete and change things in songs so that the songs sound better. They adjust the volume levels of different parts so that some things are not louder than others. For example, if a vocal part is a bit too loud and overrides the other parts, a music producer may make the volume of that vocal part lower. If there is a certain quality that a voice or an instrument should have to sound better, such as a reverb, then such a quality will be applied by the music producer.
Music production is usually done on computers with software that are specifically made for music production. Pro-tools are considered to be standard in the music industry, though other brands of music software can do just as good of a job with music production. Ableton is another well-known music production software. A lot of people say that Ableton is especially good for writing and producing music—specifically edm music. There are other brands of software, such as FL Studio, Reaper and Logix. GarageBand comes with Apple computers. Audacity is a free software that many people claim can make pretty good productions. They say that how good a song made in Audacity is based on how skilled a person is at the program.
Many times, people who are into music production buy instrument loops from various websites. People who are interested in edm will find an endless selection of edm drum loops on the internet. There are also loop packages that are marketed toward people who are specifically interested in certain genres of music. For example, people can find loops for everything from rock and jazz to classical and medieval. What is interesting to know is that loops meant for one genre can easily be used for another genre. The sky is the limit, and it really matters on the creativity of the music producer.
In music production, it really helps to know a thing or two about how sound works and different key words. For example, you should understand the basic concepts behind compression and EQ. These are very basic, crucial things to know about for those who want to start with it and go forward. Also, it helps to know what other things are in music production, like reverb.
Some knowledge of music theory, keys and what is “supposed to sound good” is important when getting into music production. It will allow you to understand some of the most basic functions on music production programs.
