How To Go 0
Hopefully you realize all you need is a good DAW and a good attitude to get started. Both are totally free and one is probably already installed on your phone. There are really two ways to learn music production:
Whats The Best Daw Software
No questions, beginners should use GarageBand starting out. Why?
For those two reasons, it makes the most sense to recommend GarageBand to starters. But dont get confused: GarageBand software is super powerful, completely capable of professional-level music.
When it comes to music production, its not so much about what is used, its more about the engineer and how well they know their program.
Getting The Right Gear
Don’t Miss: How Do You Add Music To Snapchat
How To Make A Music Video: 17 Steps To Make A Great Music Video
Despite the ever-changing ways music and technology have evolved, music videos continue to play a significant role in promoting an artists career whether on YouTube or elsewhere online . Because of this, its important to know how to make a music video that adequately portrays their artistic power.
How Do You Make Music At Home For Free
So, youre sitting at home, thinking: What do I need? What are the costs? Where do I start? Fortunately, there are many free tools and resources you can take full advantage of in your quest to make music at home.
Start with Google and YouTube . Experiment with some queries and spend some time studying the results. There are excellent blogs and video tutorials that are free and offer sound advice. If you are the kind of person that learns by watching, spend more time with the videos. If you like to read, access the blogs and written resources. I like to do both when I need to learn something.
Its just amazing how much you can learn online for free. With YouTube tutorials, take note that sometimes additional useful tips might be found in the comments section, when those are enabled.
Besides blogs and video tutorials, there is some free software available to help you create and record your music. For example, GarageBand is Apples free music creation software that comes preloaded on Apple Macs, iPads, and iPhones. GarageBand is like a fully equipped music studio loaded with instrument and vocal sounds, and also includes a library of lessons on how to use it.
You will also find many free plugins and VSTs which emulate the sounds from instruments such as piano, drums, guitar, strings, and synthesizers. These free resources are widely in use by musicians today at all levels of expertise and ability.
Read Also: How To Add Music To Multiple Instagram Stories
Key Discipline : Gathering Feedback And Building Relationships
At this stage, many producers start thinking about how they should brand and market themselves, how to gain more Soundcloud followers, and so forth.
This is nothing more than a distraction, and if youre currently stuck in stage 2 then trying to make a name for yourself is a futile effort.
While you shouldnt be spamming forums and the comments section on YouTube videos telling everyone youre the next Martin Garrix, there are certain things worth doing outside of your DAW that will set you up for future success and also allow you to learn and progress faster.
The first thing you should be doing having finished a few tracks is gathering feedback from people. Its important to get a second set of ears on your music so you can learn what your weak points are and if there are any ongoing problems with your music .
The second thing you should be doing is building relationships with other producers and people in the industry. You should do this irrespective of whether you want to build a career in music, mainly because the opportunities that come from simply knowing people are invaluable.
New to music production?
Watch our free masterclass on how to learn electronic music production the smart way
Time: 6-18 months
Stage 3 is the most difficult part in an electronic music producers journey.
Production starts to become difficult and seems more time-consuming. You sit down to work on something and end up procrastinatingdoing something else thats easier.
That’s How To Start Producing Music
That’s it. You take the methods above and repeat them again and again and never stop. That’s the path as a beginner and even as an expert. The studying and practice never stops if you want to keep improving and gaining fans.
A few things you will start doing is improving your home studio. You’ll need to know how to setup a home recording studio as well as pick up some more and better gear. Don’t just buy gear willy nilly, wait until you have an actual need and then research which is the best and why. The same goes for plugins and sound fonts, too.
Ultimately you can start collaborating with other artists. You’ll produce tracks for artists’ albums, you’ll work with other producers, and begin to pick up tricks of the trade from them. This will start your networking process and help you climb the ladder.
And if you don’t want to be the independent artist or behind-the-scenes producer, you can look into other career options, though what’s the fun in that as a musician? You don’t learn how to start producing music to take a salaried job, you do it to be a rock star!
You May Like: How To Sync Apple Music Library
Color Coding And Labeling Tracks
Once I have my multi-track session laid out, I like to begin the process of color coding and labeling all the tracks in the session.
Color Coding and Labeling is the simplest thing anyone can do to prepare a song for mixing but it boggles my mind why people dont do it. Often times I see tracks labeled like 05Gtbk_03_20.
What does that even mean?
I like to visually see things in the mixer as groups AND individuals. I think there is a psychological reason behind this but I just am to lazy to find out a source.
The reason for this is it makes finding things SUPER easy.
Think of it like folders on your computer. If you are looking for Picture#3from Spring 2014, it might make your life easy to have a folder called Spring 2014 with Picture#3inside that folder.
Same thing applies to finding tracks in your mixer. The coloring coding is like your folders and the labeling is like the file inside the folder.
_______
Look at the 2 pictures below. Which one do you think would be easier to find the track you are looking for? Be honest!
Writing And Selecting The Songs
Writing the songs for an album can happen in many different ways.
Some songwriters set out to say something intentional with an album. Then they write the songs with that in mind.
Ive heard of artists who only write songs when theyre planning to do an album.
As for me, when I notice a topical pattern in the types of songs Im writing, I realize something. Oh, I guess Im going to make an album with this batch of songs.
However you go about it, the main question to ask yourself is Do these songs belong together?
The point of creating an album is about more than just making great songs. Its about what they say as a whole, thematically and musically.
As for how many songs, albums usually have 1013 songs.
But many albums have 9 songs . While others have 20 or more .
Once youve got your songs, its time to make a plan
Also Check: How To Start Apple Music
Option : Samplers And Synths
Samplers and synths are pretty similar in design.
They all have filters, envelope controls, and LFOs .
They also all have some effects, just like the effects plugins youre familiar with. Theyre just built into the synth or sampler.
But they differ in one major way. Samplers use audio samples. Synthesizers, on the other hand, use oscillators .
Dont let the egghead names intimidate you!
Heres a quick crash course with video examples. Youll have it down in no time. ?
If you want to learn more about some of the terms, Ive put together a glossary here.
Synthesizer Oscillators:
Samplers:
Filter Controls:
LFO:
Built-in Effects:
NOTE: We just released a great guide to the 9 fundamentals of sound design:
Time To Crush It And Make It Loud
No, Im only kidding but essentially thats what everyone wants. If you got excited when reading that title, then shame on you.
But seriously we do need to try and squeeze out some loudness in the mastering stage without making it sound too squashed. This is no easy task and thats why I always recommend going to a pro mastering engineer whenever possible.
But there are times when a client will specifically state that they have no plans on going to a mastering engineer but they want their track to sound competitive.;; At this point I have no choice but do both the mixing and mastering.
That being said, I dont do a whole lot of processing on my Mix Buss because I feel like I dont really need to. I actually prefer the sound of a mix thats more dynamic.
Don’t Miss: How To Play Music On Android Phone
Learn How To Overcome Creative Problems
The third thing you must learn in this stage is how to overcome creative problems. You will encounter themeveryone does.
Theres too much material on the topic of creativity and creative block to include in this post, so here are some links to books and articles on it:
Also, if you want to shout me a few coffees, then my book might be helpful too.
Here Are Some Important Points To Mention That Will Help You In Your Quest To Learn How To Mix Music
Monitoring Levels Always monitor at low levels or at least for the majority of your mixes. This will save your ears and also allow you to make better mixing decisions gaurenteed or your money back!! I do break this rule but only to check the low end in my mixes on occasion. Most of my time is spent at low monitoring levels.
Use References Reference mixes are not anything new but they are pivotal in the learning to mix stage because they allows you to compare and contrast.; One important thing to do is to not to over think when using reference during the mixing process.; Simply use them as a guide to help make sure youre in the ball park.
Dont Obsess About Perfection Remember mixing is a cumulative process that TAKES TIME. It takes most engineers anywhere from 4 hours to an entire day to finish a record. If you obsess to early on about perfection you are getting lost in the weeds. Enjoy the process as you go along and everything tends to come together.
Trust Your Feelings All successful mixing engineers trust their feelings and emotions when mixing a record. Of course in the learning stages, its much easier said than done. But what Im saying is try not to question your decisions so much just do it. The more practice you get in trusting yourself, the better you will get and the better your mixes will sound.
Don’t Miss: How Do You Add Music To Your Insta Story
Want To Become More Musical
We can help!
Whether you want to sing in tune, play by ear, improvise, write your own songs, perform more confidently or just make faster progress, first you need to know where you’re starting from.
The Musicality Checklist will quickly reveal your personal musicality profile and how you can improve your natural musicianship.
Available FREE today!
How To Create Your Own Beats For Beginners Conclusion
So, there you have it; how to get started and creating your own beats for beginners. You should now know that you need software to start producing music, and have a better idea of which software you’re going to go with. You should also know what things you should look at when analyzing a song, and why looking at other songs in your genre can help you become a better producer much faster.
Finally, you should know the importance of producing original music, and bucking a trend or two here and there.
I hope this guide has been useful for you. If so, please share it via the social networking buttons below, and with anyone you feel may find it useful. Thanks.
P.S. Remember though, none of what you’ve learned will matter if you don’t know how to get your music out there and earn from it. Want to learn how to do that? Then get our free â5 Steps To Profitable Youtube Music Career’ ebook emailed directly to you!
Read Also: How To Make An Animated Music Video
Shot Sizes When Creating A Video For Musicians
One of the many things you need to think about before recording your video is what type of shots you will be recording. Will there be a lot of full-length shots with a lot of activity in the background, or will it be more personal with a lot of closeups on the main character or characters?
I’ve found that a lot of the most powerful music videos have a lot of closeup shots, keeping focus on the person who’s responsible for singing the song. Having said that, here are a list of shot sizes that you could use in your music video. Feel free to experiment and see which effects you like the most:
Closeup
Long Shot
You will want to vary things up by using a few of these shot sizes, not just one. This will keep things interesting, and not just the same old looking scene over and over again.
Get To Work On Your First Beat
We’ve talked about finding the right software for the job. We’ve talked about learning how to structure your songs . We’ve talked about putting your own spin on the music you create .
What’s next?
The only thing left to do now is gain experience as a music producer. The more you experiment and try different things, the better you will become over time.
I can’t tell you step-by-step how to do this , as it will vary depending on the software you’re using, but I can give you a solid overview of how it works. Here we go:
Don’t Miss: How To Add Music To Your Video On Imovie
They Dont Want To Do It
Theyd rather be pushing faders and EQing guitars than labeling tracks. But since they understand how important the organization is, they pay someone else to do it.
You probably arent in a position to pay someone so you have to be your own intern and do it yourself.
The next few sections will cover some organizational things you can do to make your life a lot easier.
Congratulations You Made It
If you stuck around until the very end, I commend you. You are certainly a trooper. There is technically one last and final step that you need to know if you want to learn how to mix music.
It is, Practise!
Yup thats right, and its a lot hard work.
If you are seriously new, I will warn you that you are going to go through some major growing pains as an engineer but thats why Modern Mixing was created, to alleviate those growing pains.
For more information on mixing music you can check out some more of my premium products like my hip hop mixing tutorial and my trap beat mixing tutorial .
Read Also: Does Music Affect Plant Growth