Music Production 101: Tips And Tricks For Beginner Music Producers

• Part I: Setting up your studio
• What do you need to start producing music?
• Part II: Taking your first steps into music production
• Conclusion

Part I: Setting up your studio

First and foremost, you’ll need some essential gear to actually start making music. From software where you can record vocals, beats and instruments up to monitors where you can listen to your work, here’s an outline of what makes for a great home studio, both for a beginner or a seasoned producer.

Choosing a DAW

The fundamental tool required to kickstart your music production journey is a DAW, which stands for digital audio workstation. This is going to be the place where all of your music is created, recorded, mixed, mastered and much more! Each DAW has its own unique workflow, so it might be a good choice to try them out via a free trial that all major brands offer to beginner music producers. Most of the software is available in different versions, from Intro to Suite, tailored to your level of ability.

Most DAWs are compatible with major operating systems. As far as your laptop or computer RAM is concerned, 8GB is a great starting point to manage all of your audio tasks without your laptop starting to smoke after a few hours. If you’re planning to use higher sample rates (see our glossary below), lots of external instruments (and hence heavy audio tracks) consider upgrading to 16 or 32GB.

Here’s an overview of the major DAWs you can find at Andertons!

• Ableton Live: Ableton set the standard for both composition and arrangement with Live. Offering two intuitive interfaces, Session view for live performance and Arrangement view for production, it gives you the best of both worlds. You can switch seamlessly between the two views to jot down ideas and set them up as a proper song in real-time. If you like a hands-on approach, this is probably the best software for you, as it’s designed to interact with external MIDI controllers. It’s also ideal if you like playing around with samples thanks to its Simpler, Sampler and Drum Rack customisable instruments. Ableton comes in 3 different variants – intro, Standard and Suite – to adapt to your skills.
• Avid Pro Tools: Pro Tools was introduced in 2000 and has been a staple in world-class recording studios, for the music, film and TV industry. It’s the best software for sound recording and audio editing. The main interface is the Timeline, where you can see the chronological development of your recordings. A variety of actions, including time-stretching, equalizing and dynamics processing can be applied to your tracks non-destructively and in real-time. It’s also ideal to craft layered sound design for video, thanks to its integrated video engine that allows you to sync up your effects to match the action happening on screen.
• Cubase: The origins of Cubase date back to 1989 when it appeared as a MIDI sequencer in an Atari computer. MIDI is still the strong point of this DAW, which is renowned as one of the best softwares for composition. It features an easy and smooth MIDI editor and advanced export features that come in handy when working with track-dense projects like the ones for videogames, TV, and films.
• Reason: Reason can be used both as a standalone DAW or plugin. It’s designed as a rack where you can build your own sound, choosing from Reason’s extensive built-in library of instruments and effects (that can easily turn into a modular synth for the more advanced producers). You can record vocals and instruments, play with built-in samples or your own, and mix your songs with a digital mixer reproducing the SSL 9000K mixing desk. Reason can also be rewired to your DAW of choice and become a powerful plugin, so you don’t have to choose between the two.

BONUS:

• Logic Pro: Logic Pro is a music production software specially designed for Mac. It features an intuitive workflow that suits beginners and advanced music producers equally well. The key features of Logic are quick and easy audio and MIDI editing tools, an extensive library of first-class plugins, VSTs and Apple loops.

What do you need to start producing music?

Studio Essentials for Success

Once you’ve sorted out which DAW is best for you, you need to get some essential tools to set up your studio! Let’s have a look at the most important ones:

Audio Interface

Audio interfaces convert audio signals from vocals and instruments into digital signals that a computer, and hence your DAW, can recognize. The interface also sends audio to your headphones and studio monitors. The first thing you should take into consideration is the type of connection you need, whether it’s USB, Thunderbolt or USB-C. Secondly, you need to think about how many inputs and outputs you want to have, based on your current gear and how you want to expand your setup. Ideally, you should start with at least 2 inputs, one for your mic and one for your guitar or synthesizer, and 2 outputs to use for your monitors.

If you’re just starting and want a professional interface without breaking the bank, Arturia MiniFuse line and Focusrite’s Scarlett line are some of the best options on the market. More advanced options include Universal Audio and Antelope interfaces, which feature first-class preamps for amazing recording quality and DSP to alleviate pressure from your CPU when using plugins.

Best Audio Interfaces under £200