how to become a music producer?

mountain lion

hi

so I upgraded to collectors edition and now I have some nice sounds I also bought ozone and its able to process the sound without unbalancing it. now what? how to become a music producer? i was thinking of contacting artists through their website or maybe searching for colabs on facebook. networking is not my strong suit.

PoorFellow

Your best way to gain knowledge with respect to your question is to Google the question 'how to become a music producer' and then read selected pages ad watch selected videos . I am sure that you can even find books on the subject. Also be aware that a lot of people wants to make money from selling you courses and what not. But basically you must learn by doing including what works for you and what not. The following page are just an example from what the google search brings of suggestions :

How To Become a Music Producer: A Complete Guide

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-become-a-music-producer

JesterMgee

so I upgraded to collectors edition and now I have some nice sounds I also bought ozone and its able to process the sound without unbalancing it. now what?

Well, seems you have already reached the pinnacle of learning all you need to become a modern day producer :)

Anyone can be a "producer" these days, all you need to do is throw some sounds together, loop it for 3 minutes, maybe scribble down 3 or 4 words to repeat over and bam, producer.... No skillz needz.

Of course you are swimming in a pond with a million other like minded fish, some even have skills in music theory, recording and production in a studio so chances of standing out and having something others want to actually listen to let alone pay you for is the real question, tho that bar seems pretty low these days if commercial radio is anything to go by so you never know.

Stick with it for 10 or 20 years and by that time you may develop those skills into a professional career, if not you will likely have a nice collection of plugins that never get used :)

mountain lion

i get the impression that websites are not as popular anymore for getting in touch in favour of facebook.

JesterMgee

Not sure where you get that impression, most websites I visit where I need to contact the person involved have contact forms.

Facebook (and most social media / forums) are ways to engage in discussions with many people and find info quickly but depends on what you are looking at.

Maciej Repetowski

The best way to become music producer would be to produce some music - just saying… 🤣

Put it online and see if people like it or not (Bandcamp and such).

DunedinDragon

Who knows nowadays. There once was a time that REAL producers had a respectable resume and could point to gold or platinum albums they produced. Many really big names were graduates from notable university programs. But apparently nowadays you just need to claim the name to be it. On the plus side you're not typically held accountable for having a notable collection of successful projects. Just show up and pretend you know something.

However if you diligently want to be a real producer you would need to start by attending a recognized school for such things. That way you won't be too embarrassed by not being able to differentiate the range of a cello versus a violin or the sound of an orchestral snare from a jazz snare.

LXNDR_BE

@mountain lion wich genre do you produce in?

Do you know some independant labels that you like and that support your genre?

Are you active in some producer Discordgroups that also offer quality feedback (not idiot roasting like in many) on your tracks?

Do you already have finished tracks?

What about Templates, Mastering and FX-Chains, EQing, Masking ....?

Do you have a productive workflow that works for you?

Do you wanna produce because of the fame and money, or just because you are addicted to producing?

Many questions, i know, but from my experiences, these are critical thoughts:

If you just want to be famous - buy tracks from a ghostproducer and save you a lot of frustration and money 😁

If you really wanna produce because you WANT to experiment with sounds and track, here my experiences in the last 1-2 years:

I restarted producing (Techno) last year 100% in Maschine (2021 was more like experimenting with Maschine and different DAWs), but I had some connections from my old days and some DJ-friends that also have a Label. In the old days I was one of those HW-Synth/Modular Synth Dawless Liveact guys (not famous :D :D )

First it took me a long time to wrap my head around the Maschine for my genre, but coming from Trackers and Sequencers like the Midibox Seq4 or HW like Electribe I could not wrap my head around Timeline-based Arrangement like in Ableton/Pro Tools ..... So i was happy that Maschine thinks like me in Pattern and Scenes.

I started then buildung a workflow within Maschine Software that is logical to me based on Instrumentsgoups .

I took a lot of roasting in Discordchannels for Technoproducers (even Robert Babitcz) just to keep learning and refine my Workflow.

After a while I had a bunch of ... amateur tracks, produced and arranged 100% in Maschine --- and deleted them all, because I did not want to be the amateur and had learned so much that the old projects made no sense anymore.

So, clean slate - best thing I ever did

I focused then on my first EP - 3 tracks that I did put all into, what I have learned with my new workflow

As single-dad with 2 kids I made a timeplan - every evening 1-2 hours working on one of those tracks to refine it.

Finally I got them like I wanted and asked a mastering service, to master my tracks

Send them to a little independant label (not the one of my friend) that publishes Deep/Hypnotic tracks like mine and they actually liked it

Release of this EP is next week ^^ :)

So, if you really wanna be a producer, go for it, never stop, do your thing and try to learn as much as possible, esp. on MixDown and Arrangement (biggest hurdle for most)

Yes, do look YT videos, but only use what you love and do not try to watch them all or buy 100s of Masterclasses - the money and time is better invested in you fiddeling with your Maschine ;)

Biggest Hints I can give you is:

• get yourself a legal copy of a vst like ToneBooster Morphit and always put it on your mastertrack
• If you mix with headphones, get some good linear Headphones (there are some under 100 €)
• If you have active monitorspeakers, get a sub

Best if those speakers and Headphones are in the list of your referencing VST (like Morphit) because else you do NOT get what you hear, and you wanna hear 20-20.000 Hz or even more.

Export your tracks as mp3 to soundcloud f.e. and listen to them in your car and phone - make notes of everything that does not fit.

Wish you luck on your way and greetings from belgium

Scoops

So you want to produce music.

Do you think because you own a set of good tools, you could be a producer?

@LXNDR_BE states a number of really good points, you need to understand these points, but I'll take it in another direction

Do you know music? What is your musical training? Do you eat and breath music? Is it in your soul? Do you have a gift of music? Do you have the drive to see things through?

And then, do you know people in the industry? It's not what you know.........

Milkman

What do you mean by that? As soon as you start to produce sounds on your PC, you are a producer. When you pick up an instrument, you are a musician. But I think what you mean is, you want to make $$$$ as a producer, and get all hooked up, etc. You mean "producer" less as "artist" and more as "business unit"? Is that correct? Otherwise, you are already a producer.

Milos

To become the producer is to experiment with sounds, effects, even with the way you finalize and master the mix and the main volume of the song.

mountain lion

there are Many great people to come in contact with on you tube but you tubes info is that at symbol followed with some text. What is that? I dont see any real contact info other than coments

PK The DJ

It's been a year since you started this thread. Have you produced anything yet?

Please post a link so we can give you some feedback.

Studiowaves

A good music producer has a lot of responsibility. Are you ready for the task.

DunedinDragon

This is such an odd thread. Maybe because the role of "Producer" has changed so dramatically over the decades it's hard to figure out what someone means when they say they want to be a "Producer".

Of course I come from a different age where it was very clear who a producer was and what they did for the artist. The Beatles would never have been The Beatles without the help of Sir George Martin and the Beach Boys would never have been the Beach Boys without the guiding hand and creativity of Brian Wilson. Fortunately there are a great number of very detailed documentaries about those and many other famous producers you can stream these days if you really want to know what the life of a producer consists of. Unfortunately NONE of the people calling themselves producers nowadays even compare with those types of producers. And maybe that's your opening to get into the business. To become the kind of producer that shapes bands to stand out from the crowd through their vast musical knowledge and creativity.

crompts

Yep, still true, listen to Aldous Hardings Party cd and hear John Parish loud and clear for instance. I love the whole electronic music scene but can't claim to be a music expert, performer, sound designer, song writer or producer so if anyone asked me I would say I was a content creator doing beats and tracks. With one follower :(