Production 101: A Basic Walkthrough of the Production Process

Note: I made a SoundCloud account last night and the music player below includes some uploads of my past work.  Feel free to shuffle through the songs or pause the player altogether. Enjoy!

Laugh all you’d like at the worn-out lyrics and generic instrumentals found in popular music, but deep down we all listen and sing along to the songs when they come on at a party. As a producer, I can safely say that anyone in the industry would love the opportunity to produce a “sell-out” record that gets heavy radio play. 

Sure, it’s not cool or unique to produce anything other than underground music, but sometimes it’s a fun challenge to create a song that has mass appeal (not to mention that most pop songs draw influence from the underground scene).

Not only do pop tracks gain popularity in the industry, but it’s also where the money is at.  I’ve been producing music since the age of 13, and within the past five years I have worked with major labels and learned quite a bit about how to effectively create music with general appeal. 

While there are no set methods to production, there are some efficient tips that I have learned along the way.  Crafting a radio-friendly record is no walk in the park; however, here are some great starting points to get you well on your way to becoming the next Timbaland (maybe not that big, but we can all dream can’t we).

The Basics (Pre-Production)

The first essential step to creating music is to have production software on installed on your computer.  A plethora of software already exists, ranging from the fantastic price of free all the way up to several thousands of dollars. 

Personally, I have taken a liking to Logic (which is only available on Mac computers, so I apologize to all you PC users out there).  However, one of the most common software choices that I see used is Fruity Loops Studio (FL Studio). 

This software is free or very cheap to upgrade, and has actually been utilized by high end professional producers for years now.  It is one of the most user-friendly products out there and while I have not used it, I believe it may be a great place for the beginner producer to start.

The second essential step to creating a song with a radio potential is to listen to current hits as well as underground successes for inspiration.  The most popular producers are able to combine underground trends with mainstream trends to develop a cross-genre record.  

Some of the recent examples of the fusion between underground and mainstream components include dup-pop and EDM songs, which are now heard on all of the current top 40 stations.  Being able to stay emerged in both cultures is essential to creating the next big radio hit. 

A final optional tip to consider before beginning production is the incorporation of hardware to the equipment setup.  Some individuals prefer to have a physical MIDI keyboard to play, whereas some are content using the computer keyboard that they already own.  This is all personal preference.

The Fun Part

So now that the basics are covered, it’s time to have a little fun and begin the process of making the instrumental.  However, keep in mind that this is my personal process and that there are several ways to go about this. 

Also be weary that to utilize these steps it may be beneficial to have a slight knowledge of how to operate your chosen software.  Some of the terms you may see in this section are important to familiarize yourself with and may require some outside work. 

Some Useful Terms:

-          Plugin – a plugin is an additional component of software that can be added to the already existing software to create more options for the producer.  For example, if someone is using Fruity Loops and they purchase a techno plugin, they will now have access to a new techno instrument within FL. 

-          VST (Virtual Studio Technology) – this is the interface in the software that has all of the effects and audio editors.  It also includes access to the virtual instruments found within the software. 

-          Bars – this refers to the segment of time on the audio track (think of a metronome counting out 4 bars).

-          Quantization – this is a process that allows you to set drums and other notes to a specific beat or fraction of a beat.  This tool helps with imperfections seen when recording and can help to place all notes on a uniform beat.

Step 1

Create a basic one note melody progression

The easiest way to start the melody creation is to go into the software and select 4 bars of the project and set them to loop.  What this does is sets those 4 bars to continuously play back, which can be helpful when creating a simple melody.  

In order to play the melody within your software, you must first find a list of virtual instruments and select one that you think fits the song concept well.  Now begin the process of finding small combinations of one or two notes that sound good together.  

From there continue to add notes until you reach a nice sounding melody pattern.  Depending on the track, notes can be similar or even run a full octave apart.

Please be aware that you may have to look up the simple steps such as creating a new file or setting up the loop pattern on your selected software.  There are several different programs that have different interfaces and would take forever to explain on here.

Step 2

Build on the melody that has already been created

This process is similar to Step 1 with respect to the method.  At this point you already have the first lead melody created, so building on it is much easier.  Often times, the quickest way to build onto the first melody is with the incorporation of chord progressions.  

These add complexity to the track and provide a more “full” sounding record.  A simple way to add chords is to take the individual note you have in the melody, and use that note’s full chord simultaneously.  For example, if you have a C note in the beginning of the melody, add a C chord behind it to add depth. 

Step 3

Develop a basic one note drum pattern

Once you have the core components of the melody, you can begin the process of adding drums.  While there are no set portions of the drum pattern to start with, a common starting place is with the kick drum.  

Navigate to the software’s drum VST section and open the digital drum.  There should be a menu that displays several different drum sounds; within this menu, find and select “kick drums.”  With the melody playing, begin to experiment with simple one note drum patterns.  Remember that this is only the first step to drum sequencing, so if it sounds a bit weak or empty after this step, don’t worry at all!

When producing some styles music, drums are edited with heavy amounts of reverb and depth.  To do this, you can simply go to the reverb section of the plugins menu and select “echo,” or something of the like.  Once the control comes up, play around with the reverb echo until you have a mellow, down-tempo drum foundation.    

Step 4

Add depth to the drum pattern

Just like the melody, the drum pattern needs more depth to create a full sounding instrumental.  Often times, this is the step where the hi-hats, toms, and snares come into play.  The most difficult portion of this section is being able to keep on rhythm in order to record the drums accurately.  

So you may be sitting there worried because you don’t have any rhythm and couldn’t keep beat if your life depended on it.  Well guess what?!  There is a simple solution to your rhythm deficiency and it’s called quantization.  

If some of the drums notes seem a bit off beat, simply find the quantize tool within your software and open the plugin.  From there you can select the specific beat that you would like the notes to “snap” to, and voilà!  A perfectly timed pattern.

Step 5

Create a fitting intro build

Although it seems strange to add intros so far into the process, I find that it allows for a better understanding of how the song should be introduced to the listener.  Also, this allows the producer to take snippets of the melody and stretch them or minimize them to create a well-fitting intro.  

A simple way of making an intro is to take the chords of the melody along with a downbeat drum component and add that on loop to the first 8 bars of the song. 

Step 6

Create an outro fade   

This step can be done by essentially taking the intro and “reverse engineering” it.  For example, let’s say the intro was 4 bars of chords, and then 4 bars of chords with quiet drums; the outro for a song like this could be 4 bars of chords with quiet drums followed by 4 bars of plain chords.  

While that is the simplest way of creating an outro, a lot of producers like to get innovative and create entirely new melodies to close out a song.  One way of changing the outro without having to produce a new melody is to highlight the 8 or so bars and change the tempo to halfspeed.  

This can be done by finding the tempo control within the software and simply entering a number that is half of your current tempo.  For example, if the instrumental was 120 BPM, change it to 60 BPM for the closing bars of the song. 

In Closing...

Although these tips may not provide the most in-depth instructions for music production, hopefully they do provide some insight into the process of getting started.  Improving within the music industry is just like improving within any other field; it requires a great amount of dedication and practice.  Whether you're a beginner or a professional, you must work hard to stay relevant and up to date on trend changes.  

Continue to develop the craft of music making and familiarize yourself with your own sound. Hopefully one day you'll be accepting your first Grammy and you can look back and thank this blog for sparking your interest and getting you started on music production.