Audio Recording

This is a complete guide on how to become a music producer. Remember that being a music producer is not a simple and straightforward profession. It requires a lot of talents, skills, practice and experience. The job of a music producer (regardless if you are working alone or working with a label) is to produce a fully polished recording version of a specific song. This recording version should be a commercially acceptable product and is often called the official “studio version” of the song. In some other cases; music producers are also hired to produce a demo recording of a specific song. OK, so if you like to become a music producer someday; take a look at these following requirements:

Requirement #1: Lifetime passion for music.
You are a music producer, your job is to produce new music. It make sense that you should love music more than any other forms of entertainment. You will know this if:
a.) You find yourself listening and liking music since childhood and almost in a daily basis.
b.) You are fond of collecting recordings of your favorite bands or artist and willing to save money to pay for it.
c.) You both like new and old types of music.
d.) You love to sing even if you are not a talented singer.
e.) You like to play musical instruments; perhaps a guitar or piano.

If you have more passion in watching great movies than listening music; then you are more inclined to become a movie producer/director than a music producer.

Requirement #2: You have a vision to create an excellent arrangement for that song.
A music producer is not always a songwriter. A music producer is someone that will transform the raw song (in lyrics and melody) into a fully produced recording material. So you should know what instruments, tracks and other effects to be added to further “push” the song to its commercial level.

Think of a music producer like a chef in the restaurant. A chef has all the ingredients inside the kitchen. A chef will decide what ingredients to add as well as the quantity to make a perfect food to serve. A music producer is the same. Instead of dealing with food ingredients, a music producer is dealing with raw songwriting material (coming from a songwriter), instruments in the studio and gears. For example, does this song fits to have a fast tempo or a slow one? Or with a guitar intro or a piano intro? Or with a male or female vocalist? Or with longer or shorter reverb? All these decisions should come from a music producer. All session players, artist and sound engineers in the studio will just follow with what you have in mind.

Requirement #3: You should have in-depth knowledge in audio electronics and music production.
A great producer works in the studio and will have an “edge” over ordinary producers if he/she possess in-depth knowledge in audio engineering and music production. Some producers even started by getting a degree in music production, or audio engineering. As your knowledge about audio increases; so as your ability to experiment in producing great sounds.

Although the music producer may not be the actual person who record, mix and master the recordings (its the job of recording, mixing and mastering engineers) ; a music producer can provide “technical” input to the engineer to make the recordings sounds “good”. These inputs will allow the music producer to communicate with the studio engineers effectively. For example, the music producer can suggest how much reverb level to be added to the music. Or how much will be the panning settings? Or if microphones and amps will be used when recording the guitars?

Requirement #4: You should have strong musical background both in theory and practice.
Sometimes when a music producer is working with a song. A music producer can add new arrangements, melodies or creative hook to further improve the song. This can be hard to do if you do not have strong music theory background. Its why it will be a big help if you want to become a music producer and you have strong songwriting skills. Take a look at Mutt Lange success as a producer. Songwriting plays a big role in Mutt Lange success.

Requirement #5: Understand and master a specific genre
A music producer is further classified either as a rock, country, pop teen, heavy metal or a jazz producer. You should have at least one expert genre. You should know this music genre very well. For example, if you are country music producer; you know that vocals and guitars are extremely important more than other instruments. Another example is that if you are a heavy metal producer, you know that the quality of the drum recordings and the tone of the guitar riff can play a big role in the success of your project. Or if you are a hip-hop producer, you know that the quality of your bass beats can mean success or failure of your album. You can attain mastery by experimentation and listening to your favorite artist in that specific genre.

Requirement #6: You know what sounds good and what sounds bad
When a recording session starts; you will be assessing the artist performance. If the artist performance sounds bad, you should be able to detect and sort it out. Other obvious things is your ability to detect out of tune singers. Of course you should not depend on auto-tune; it is always better to work with great singers. You should be able to criticize “objectively” what’s wrong with the mix and then suggest ways to improve it. You are the music producer, all studio decisions are yours.

Requirement #7: “Third ear” for detecting potential hit songs
Just what third eye can let a human person see extra-ordinary things, a “third ear” is important to a producer. You should have the ability to spot great songs in advance. This can be tough as most of the raw written songs does not often sound very nice. But as a producer, you can easily imagine if this song can sound great if it will be “fully” produced.