By Lorenzo Billie Music production is an exciting career path that’s growing in popularity, and if you’ve always got your headphones on, this might be a line of work that you’re considering. Music producers can be anyone involved in getting a song from an idea to the finished product, including songwriters and sound designers, so there really is a range of options available in this industry, but sometimes it can be unclear exactly how you can get involved. In this article, we’ll break down our top tips for getting into music production and how you can change your life with this exciting career.
Research the Industry
The first step to take when getting into music production is to research the industry. There are lots of different elements to music production, and some may suit your skills well compared with others that might not be the right fit for you. For example, you might be a skilled songwriter, but not so talented around technical software. Finding the right area of the industry takes time, but once you’ve worked out which paths might suit you best, you’ll be ready to make waves in the music scene.
Get the Right Equipment
It goes without saying that you’ll need some specific equipment to get started in music production. Although there are lots of items that are nice to have, rather than an absolute necessity, there are some pieces of kit that you can’t live without if you want to get started. The most important of these is a high-performing Desktop PC. Without a PC, you won’t be able to record digitally and this will halt your progress, so it’s important to go for a PC with a powerful processor, a fast SSD and decent RAM, such as a specifically designed Lenovo Desktop for Music Production.
As well as your Desktop PC, you’ll need some good quality headphones to listen to your work, and a Digital Audio Workstation, or ‘DAW’, that will act as the central program on which you will record, mix and edit your music. Although it can be fairly expensive when you first buy your production set up, this is a worthwhile expense to break into a competitive industry.
Experiment with Different Approaches
As a beginner, you might find music production difficult to get to grips with at first – there are many different concepts that take time to master, and it will take a while for your ear to differentiate between certain sounds and rhythms. To start improving, experiment with different approaches that you can then build on when you find what works for you.
Initially, you could begin by going through songs you like to listen to, and then trying to recreate them as closely as possible with your DAW. This will help you to get a feel for the different tools and methodologies that you can use for your work. After that, you can start to make your own songs, and focus on creating as many as possible to give yourself the most exposure to production.
Getting into music production can be daunting, but the risk is definitely worth the reward when it comes to investing in the right equipment to get started. Once you’ve done this, you’ll find yourself able to experiment with a range of approaches to make the best music, and a career in this industry will be right around the corner!
james