The creation of a song or instrumental track usually starts with a spark of inspiration. Music production can be defined as the process of converting such a spark into a fully-fledged and industry-ready piece of music. Every producer and creative will have their own unique take on this process, but there is an underlying framework that all generally follow.
We’ll go through each step of the music production process, so you don’t get lost in the industry-specific vocabulary, and have a clear idea of what goes on under the hood.
Composition
The composition stage is where the creative gives birth to musical ideas. Songwriters will come up with the lyrics to songs in this stage, and melodies, harmonies, and rhythmic ideas are molded into reality. While some may prefer sheet music applications or paper to write out ideas, composition can comfortably take place in your DAW.
In your DAW, you can make the most of MIDI instruments and MIDI controllers/typing keyboards to map out your chords once you’ve chosen a key. You can even use MIDI tocreate an instrumental track quickly in Logic Prowithout any prior music theory knowledge or training.
The process of composition can be described as laying the foundations for your song or track’s structure and melodic content. This includes writing out the chord progressions you want in each section, e.g. intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, and outro in lyrical tracks. By the end of this stage, you should have a clear idea of the core elements of your track.
This step should not involve technical engineering, only permitting the most minimal of edits. Free-flowing creation and experimentation should be the aim for the first few stages.
Arranging, like composition, maintains a focus on creative ideas rather than technical practices. This stage builds off and fleshes out the compositional foundations. Typically, arranging involves the selection of instruments for a given track.
Producers may be asked to make an acoustic or orchestral arrangement. In such instances, acoustic or orchestral instruments are selected to fill out the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content of those works.
An effective practice at this stage is to start building up layers, such as percussion, harmonies, and counter-melodies using placeholder instruments. This will stop you from losing your flow by browsing sound libraries and presets. Later on, you can refine your choice of sound.
Arranging also involves the development of the core structure of your track and attempts to avoid clutter and multiple instruments competing for the same space. In your DAW, this could lead you to include variations every 4, 8, or 16 bars, and evolve certain musical motifs.
At the end of this stage, most if not all of your melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas should be in place, ready for recording and sound design.
Recording and Sound Design
If you have live instruments at your disposal, now’s the time to get recording. This may also include refining your performance/recordings of digital instruments, like electronic percussion and synthesizers.
The sound design stage involves getting as close as possible to that perfect sound representation in your head. To do so usually involves some of the following:
At the end of this stage, it’s often a good idea to prepare for mixing. This may lead you to bounce your MIDI regions into audio files or even convert your tracks into stems.
The goal of the mixing stage is to create a balanced arrangement where each musical component has its own space in the mix and sounds defined within that mix of musical elements. Two of the primary tools in achieving this are volume faders and panning dials. It’s worth emphasizing these two as they represent foundational elements of mixing.
Panning dials help you determine the width of your mix as you place sounds left and right in the stereo field. Volume faders are vital in setting the depth of each element in your mix; loud parts are pushed to the front, and vice versa.
Similarly, EQs make up a key mixing tool as they can alter the depth of instruments by adding/removing brightness and fixing frequency masking issues.
Other plugins such as compressors and reverbs are often used in the mixing stage to further tighten up diverse sounds and add a sense of cohesion to the overall mix. Before moving into the final stage, you’ll want to fix any and all remaining sonic issues and achieve your desired balance of depth and width in all your tracks.
The mastering stage is the final step in a track or album’s journey. One of its main characteristics is increasing the loudness of a mix (via limiting plugins) so that it reaches commercial standards. However, there are a variety of not-so-obvious tools used during mastering to further polish a mix.
For example, EQs are used to fix any frequency imbalances, and subtle additions of saturation and stereo width boost the sonic quality. Similarly, compressors are often used to add some final touches of sonic color and cohesion.
While most bedroom producers resort to mastering their tracks themselves, specialized mastering engineers produce the best results. Nowadays, there’s also the alternative of usingAI mixing and mastering tools. At the end of the mastering stage, your track is ready for distribution on your platforms of choice.
Under the Hood of Music Production
Whether you’re an up-and-coming producer, an artist, or a music aficionado, it’s useful to know just what goes on before a track is ready for release. Composition sets out the foundations and lyrics of a track, and arranging sets out the instruments, thereby developing a more intricate and extensive scaffolding.
Recording and sound design fill in the unique colors and textures of your musical elements in line with what you had in mind. Then, mixing makes sure everything is well-balanced and in its proper place. Finally, mastering provides the final lick of paint and brings your track up to commercial standards.
