Music Production, 2020 Edition: The Advanced Guide On How to Produce for Music Producers

Music Production, 2020 Edition

The Advanced Guide on How to Produce for Music Producers (Music Business, Electronic Dance Music, EDM, Producing Music)

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By Tommy Swindali

© Copyright 2020 by Tommy Swindali - All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

What does Professional Music Production Entail?

Chapter One: The Professional Recording Studio

Project Recording Studio

Semi-Pro Recording Studio

Pro Recording Studio

Home Recording Studio

Working with Others

Types of Collaboration

Advantages of Collaboration

Chapter Two: Studio Design

Acoustic Treatment Versus Soundproofing

The Rudiments of Acoustic Treatment

Chapter Three: Setting up your Workstation and Record Station

For your Workstation

Chapter Four: Equipment

Chapter Five: Professional Roles in Music Production

Music Producer

Sound Engineer

Composer

Songwriter

Disc Jockey (DJ)

Chapter Six: Making a Hit

Structure and Arrangement of Recent Songs

Sounds and Moods that will Trend in 2020

The Production Process

Chapter Seven: Production Technique

Techniques in Music Production

Chapter Eight: Recording

Three Basic Types of Recording Systems

Chapter Nine: Mixing

Characteristics of a Good Mix

Chapter Ten: Mastering

Advanced Techniques for Mastering

Chapter Eleven: Manufacture and Distribution/Format

The Digital World in Music

Chapter Twelve: Predictions

Conclusion

Introduction

Everyone strives to be an authority or an expert in any or every one of their chosen careers or endeavors as the case may be. For this reason, nobody should be criticized but rather encouraged to be the best or one of the best in all their pursuits.

This scenario is not different in the music production scene. As a beginner strives to become a pro, a pro also strives to either retain that status or work harder to improve until he/she attains expert status. Before we delve into the intricacies of what it takes to excel in the music industry like a pro, we must establish exactly what professional music production entails.

What Does Professional Music Production Entail?

Professional music production encompasses all the aspects, tangible and intangible tools needed to make great and hit worthy music. A pro music producer is tasked with either doing all the work or employing the services of professionals to do it while making sure a kind of synergy is established to produce the best results. Let us run through the various aspects of music production;

● The studio establishment aspects: getting a studio space, which may be at home or a rented space downtown, filling the space with the best budget-friendly equipment available, arranging the pieces of equipment in a way that will facilitate the optimal recording of songs, getting the best software, plug-ins and the likes. 

● The creative aspects; talent hunt (budding music talents), music composition, songwriting, creating great music content, or employing the services of great music content creators. 

● The engineering aspects; audio editing, analyzing sound recording, mixing, mastering, and exporting. 

● The entrepreneurial aspects; publishing the recorded songs, marketing, and eventually selling the tracks to make a profit. This aspect also encompasses the legal and budgetary aspects of music production. 

As a professional or aspiring professional music producer, your hands must be in all the cookie jars. This means that you must have an iota of knowledge about the above-outlined music production aspects. The fact that music production is a gradual process means you cannot be a jack of all trade just like that. This is where you have to precisely clarify what you want to achieve with your music production journey. A lot of people go into music production for various reasons; some go into it purely for the love of music, to make money, for fame and popularity, while others produce music just for fun. Regardless of your reasons, attaining pro status is not a child's play. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, talent, creativity, and the ability to employ a few tricks (the tested and trusted by seasoned professionals).

Furthermore, professional music production entails recording a plethora of music types/styles for different purposes. It ranges from classical, jazz, hip pop, rock, country, pop to movie soundtracks, remixing, etc.

In the professional music and sound production scene, the major operational weapon is creativity and dedication. It is creativity and the ability to polish and fine-tune that differentiates an amateur music producer from a professional one. There is a need to go the extra mile with regards to equipment type, software type, studio space, studio time, and all other tools to achieve pro status.

Objectives of the Book

The moment you have clarified and affirmed your music production end game, you need to work on maneuvering around present obstacles or downright eradicating them so you can achieve your goal as a pro music producer. One fact you should have at the back of your mind is that, if there is no synergy between your chosen music production strategy/technique and your music production end game, your career will be like a feather in a tornado.

One of the major obstacles faced by aspiring pro music producers in the rapidly and continually changing technology and applicable techniques. Another trending obstacle is the unwillingness to delegate the most technical aspects to the professionals. In this game, trying to be a jack of all trade will only lead to a substandard result, which is not your aim, right? For instance, the audio/sound engineering aspects require a lot of skill and experience, which you may not have at that time. What a professional does is to delegate, then supervise and push until you get that clean, clear, and rich sound you want.

Furthermore, we are in the digital era, the fast era. Making that killer music will definitely take a lot of time, patience, and dedication, which very few people have these days. At the end of the day, most upcoming independent music producers commence work on producing a track but end up giving up or not concluding well when things do not go their way, or the whole process starts to seem too slow. This is also an obstacle, albeit created by music producers' lack of discipline and commitment.

Therefore, the book seeks to teach you how to utilize your creativity and inborn talent in conjunction with textbook music production strategies and producer proven techniques in order to produce kick-ass music. Furthermore, the book promises to outline the best available software, music studio props, and equipment that are budget-friendly and, at the same time, facilitate efficiency. The main goal here is to show you how you can ramp up your skill level as much as possible so that you can make a place for your music in today's global music industry with emphasis on 2020 and beyond, help you make great mixes that sound cleaner and richer (marketable), and at the end of the day make great music.

Additionally, you will be provided with music production techniques that have been proven and vouched for by trending and reining authorities in pro music production with relevance to 2019 and the 2020s. Let us have a look at a number of these personalities that have made a name for themselves and their work in the music