Making Music at Home

Whether exchanging lyrics to better song or editing loops you are producing. Sometimes it seems the producers are almost spooky, faceless names on an album. Those strange names that sit behind the studio desk and make magic happen.

They can make a band bigger, give them a new sound that they needed, and take you to another level you never thought you could get to. However there's nothing spooky about it, nothing creepy or spooky or magical. Like everything else in life it's all talent and skill. Trust me more skill than talent, as for everything else practice makes perfect, or at least good.

The art of production is simply a part of the act of making music. Producing for your own band can be a good idea, but having a fresh unbiased pair of ears never hurts. The same can be said of other bands. In this article I will cover producing from the point of view of an outsider. By which I mean producing for someone else, I will also cover producing for your own work. The reason having fresh ears available is the artist tend to think of songs as children, it is often difficult to tell the worst from the best. Some songs just aren't meant to be and that's where the producer comes in.

The first step with any project is getting to know the band and the material. Whether it's your own or someone else's. If it is your music don't start by thanking you know it already. See what you have a play around with it and get to know it as best as you can. Listen to everything you've done old, new and the stuff you're working on. This preproduction will allow you to really understand where it is you are going.

If you're producing for someone else do the same things. Talk with them, listen to all their old material, listen to any rough material they may have, into your best to get to know them. You need to understand their image, style, and overall band concept. If they are true virgin band you still need to understand who they are so you can help form them into the band they want to be.

The next step is to choose what you'll be working with. At this point the idea is to pick out the best material they have so you can make it better, and by you I will always mean everyone involved in the project. This may seem difficult but most songs will say "I'm good", or at least "work with me". You and the artists will also have favorite songs you want to work with.

The production is all about taking the bad or mediocre and make an awesome, and taking the awesome and making it pure gold(or platinum;), there is no wrong move to make. Just keep in mind the image and style that you wish to show.

It is also a good idea to keep in mind egos. Be respectful if it is not your work, your job is to help make it sound good not to take over their project. Having said that being a pushover doesn't help anyone either. You must balance between taking over and being a tyrant and just letting them all over you. Being strict but fair is a huge part of the job.

Next you must plan. How much time can everyone stand? How much money can be spent? Do you have a time frame you need to keep to? Even if this is a simple open-ended home recording project with you, a band, or just you and some friends coming up with a few guidelines is never a bad thing. It prevents wasting time, it helps keep things on track. If you're doing this more as of a hobby this probably isn't as important.

Finally you will get the bulk of the work. Writing, rewriting, arrangement, and recording. This is the point where you craft the songs. Whether it is your work producing for someone else, this is a time when you get creative and really work out the songs. It's when you write new songs, rewrite old songs, decide what instruments will be used in the recording, and how the songs will be arranged. Arrangement is the layout of the song. For example the most use arrangement is

opening -- verse -- chorus -- verse -- chorus -- middle riff -- verse -- chorus -- ending.

This arrangement is used in pretty much every style. They use minor changes here and there but it is the same basic arrangement. Think of any pop rock song even rap songs. You have a lead in the or opening, which goes into the first verse, you can either have another verse or goes right into the course. This repeats then you have a riff or break depending on the music style, then another verse and chorus sometimes with a repeat of various elements of the song then the ending or usually a fade out, often repeating an element of the song or the main riff.

In professional production rehearsing is a very big element. Recording studio time is expensive. Unless you have a big-name band or a real home studio; as some big names do, as in someone who can afford to spend weeks in a studio because they have lots of money, you must rehearse ahead of time. Of course the problem with this is by rehearsing everything to death ahead of time you risk losing happy accidents, and just fun jam sessions. However with a little knowledge, acid music studio, patience, and inexpensive equipment you can get good results at home.

I will cover recording in another article, here are some other Little bits to consider. During a recording and mixing time frame part of your job; either for yourself or others, is making the sessions fun and comfortable for everyone involved. You will not just be sitting at your computer playing with FX and EQ(thats effects and equalization). Make sure it's a pleasant creative place to work, most of what you will end up using is likely to be created while you are recording and doing sessions. Those happy accidents and jam sessions I was speaking about earlier. You are the diplomat between bandmates, the man or woman in charge of setting up, the go to person for everything that might be needed. On top of that you need to be the head decision maker and mixer for the project. Welcome to production work.

Mastering, or... why bother. Mastering is the reason why a CD sounds the same volume no matter what track its own. Why some songs blend together and others have space in between. Basically it's getting music ready to go on to disk. With the wide use of the Internet this is no longer a real issue. I will cover mastering in more depth in a later article.

As a final note I will say when you are working on your own it may seem easier to just do everything yourself. But you should get other people to help you even if it's just listen at various stages of the work. Good criticism is very helpful. When you're doing your own production work you have to act as if you or someone else listening to your work. This of course can be very difficult.

Having other people help you make decisions and listen to your work at various stages of the creation process takes you out of picture briefly. When you're making music the idea of course is to please yourself, but you also want to be able to please other people. The idea is to make good music that you, and other people will like. If you are the only one listening to your work this becomes more difficult, perhaps impossible. We all treat our songs by children as I said at the beginning. Just like in real life having other people to help shape our children makes it more likely they will be accepted by others.

More about making Hip Hop Beats

In this article I'm going to go into hardware; or analog, versus acid music studio. Even today there is a tendency towards a preference of hardware or analog equipment over computers. Some people will say the use of the computer is not really making music. This is usually from people that have spent years and years studying music and/or an instrument. They feel that since anyone can just use a computer to make up their own music; without really needing years of study, it's not real. However using a computer to create music does take years of practice and experimentation. While a computer does allow a person to overcome a lack of knowledge in music education, or ability with an instrument it is not going to turn garbage into a platinum album.

In this article I'm going to go over how useful a computer actually is. I'm going to compare old-school analog equipment to modern computers, and the programs used by them. To start off with the absolute essential analog recording device, a multi track tape deck. A multi track tape deck allows you to make multiple recordings and play them back at the same time. This lets you take two, three, or more recordings and combine them into one. This lets you record vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards and whatever other instruments being used as separate tracks. Then using the recorder you combine them into one. These multi track tape decks are expensive, and can take up a lot of space. They are also limited in the number of tracks they can use at once. Acid music studio has a number of tracks only limited by your computer's ability to handle them. The same tracks you would use for loops can be used as a multi track recorder.

Next I'm going to go over effects. There is a vast amount of effects available. In old-school analog recording you needed a rack full of various effect modules. These effects can cause lots of different changes to your music, or the sounds that you use to make it. I will go into all the various effects in a different article. Let me simply say that there are dozens of effects used both with instruments and recording. From the pedals guitar players use, to the reverb effect there are many available. And with traditional hardware each one takes up room, lots of room. If you've ever seen footage of the band recording studio you have probably seen what I'm talking about. All those shelves of black boxes with the knobs and switches, with cords leading together.

Furthermore most of these effects would be used while recording. Taking away the freedom to apply them later. And on top of all that you have the massive equalization control panel. That's the big desk with all the sliders and knobs.

A home recording studio using the computer combines all of this equipment into one tool. As long as your computer can handle them it can use as many effects as you want. Including all the traditional effects as well as plenty of very weird ones that you will only find for computers.

Including EQ panels. Best of all you can apply these at any time. While the best effects processors do cost money plenty can be found for free. Most of these will plug in directly to your program. Acid music studio has built-in effects. I have also found a number of free ones I have downloaded to use.

The same thing that can be said about effects can be said about MIDI and drum machines. Hardware versions of these machines, and old-school synthesizers which were also modular take up a large amount of space. Certain models would have their own sound just like any instruments, and with any enthusiasts there would be a tendency to collect them. A computer takes all of these tools and gives them to you in a single package. Again the best ones do cost money. However many very nice MIDI, drum machines, and synthesizer programs/plug-ins can be gotten for free.
Learn About making your own Hip Hop Beats

How important is style? Depends on you.

I use whatever I want, however I want. Unless I am specifically making a beat of a certain genre.

The best way to get a feel for a style is to listen to some music from it. Ignore everything but the beat and use their rhythms as a starting point. You will find most artists that work in certain genres have similar sounding beats. Just don't rip anyone off, look for inspiration.

The rhythm section of your songs drives the music. There is a reason songs like 'Another one bites the dust' and 'The wall' are almost universally liked.

They use simple; yet compelling, percussion and bass. In other words, a great beat.

Lets use Rap / Hip-Hop as an example. to start with.

I often use Hip-Hop software, but I also make my own.

I always start with the Kick Drum. I use One or Two kicks, then arrange them in a pattern. In my case, its most often a staggered one-hit,space, one-hit, space, two-hits.

After I lay down the kicks I cut their volume low and Duplicate it/them.

I use my EQ to cut everything but the bass on the duplicate, and raise it by 2-5 Db.

This gives you that nice deep hit on your sub-woofer.

After I have my Deep Kicks, I either Make a percussion loop, or use one I have bought. I Play the Deep Kick and find a loop I like that fits.

I also use Bass Loops. I like to use Rock style Bass Loops, but that's part of what makes my style. Just remember that the bass needs to compliment, not define the beat.

The role of the Bass depends strongly on the style of Hip-Hop / Rap you are making.

In West coast style the Bass is often layered on top of the beat, almost classically inspired, with a cello feel. More a part of the melody than the beat, with the Drums providing the drive.

East Coast is more influenced by Battle Beats, so the Bass falls into its traditional role of being part of the rhythm section.

Tempo is also important. Since I use Acid Music Studio; and mostly Acidized loops, I can make a beat then adjust the speed (tempo / BPM) to fit what it is intended for.

Since Rock music is a fluid style of music, trying to tell you there's any short cut to making good rock beats would be a heinous lie.

Similarly Pop music is far to diverse to nail down either.

BUT...here are some general ideas you can use.

1. Decide what style of song you want to make. Aggressive? Something people can dance to? Love Song? Power Ballad? A mix of those?

Figure out what you want to do before you start.

2. Don't try and force it. If you are in a crappy mood, don't try to make a peaceful song.

3. In complete contradiction to number one, sometimes I just sit down and let my mood carry me through making a song.

Let your feelings compel the rhythms from you. Passion can carry you through making a song better than thinking about it. The best songs come when you're not deciding anything. The problem is that most people cant do that on command.

When you need to think a song through, do it. When you are feeling the flames of your emotions, don't think, feel!
Learn more about making beats here

I'm going to start with Beats.

First think about what type of beat you want to use. Are you going for the standard club boom-boom-boom-boom "4 to the floor" style? If you don't know what I mean, music is arranged in a series of beats. 2, 4, 8, and 16 are most common. Each block of beats is a measure. A '4 2 the floor' beat has one kick beat on every measure. Its the type of beat you get in most clubs, and raver type atmospheres, ive also heard it called the 'gay bump'.

To set up a '4 to the floor' beat is simple, just find a single good kick drum hit, or a prepared loop of kick hits, and paste it into the track for the whole duration. Using alternating Kicks is also used often. Having some sort of processing on every other kick is also common.

A 'break beat' style uses a beat that is variable, which is to say it doesn't put the emphasis on a steady kick beat. Or any other element of the beat. Think Funk beats, more than dance beats.

For example: Lets say you are using 4 beats per measure, and you want a 'break beat'. You could do it this way. Put a Kick on every 3erd beat for 3 measures, then on every other beat for 3. Then you can use other drum, synth and noises on the other beats along the 6 measures. Then you can copy and paste those 6 measures into the whole track, and you have a 'broken beat' style beat.

Acid Music Studio makes that easy with its simple pick and paint loop system. You can also cut apart a beat loop and use the cut, copy and paste functions to rebuild it the way you want it to sound.

If you use a steady kick beat, you will need additional elements to fill out the beat. The simplest way to do that, is to just drop another percussion track on top of the kick beat, then adjust the volume to match it up.

The hard (more individual and unique) way is to do the same as a break beat. You take other drum hits, syth 'stabs' and noises, then paint them in to work with the kick the way you want.

After you have a beat, consider using Breaks. A break is when you cut some, or all of the elements of a track to either give a short pause, use new elements briefly, or add new elements. In acid music studio just use the split at cursor function (right click) with a selected track, then you can pull one or both pieces apart to create a break.

I like to use breaks to introduce new elements in the song and layer the beat.

For example, I will start a track with a simple steady beat, then introduce another element on top of it (usually a synth loop). After a few moments I will 'break' the beat and let the other element play by itself. After a moment, I then restart the steady beat, but with the rest of the beat elements I wanted to use. Sometimes I keep the other (synth) element playing, sometimes I don't.

That creates a layering effect for the listeners. They hear the steady beat, then you "pop" out the full beat on them. It keeps the track moving, and sets things up so you can do it again later in the song, without the break being a complete surprise.

The name of the game is breaking up the repetitive nature of dance beats, while still keeping the people enjoying the music.

After you have the Beat where you want it, find a few more elements to "liven" up the song.

How many you use depends on the style of song you are working with, and your style. A glitch track could use dozens of noises and processed instruments,each only used briefly through the whole track. A minimalist dance track could just use a beat and the same synth line playing over and over, just at different volumes and pitches.

Since Acid Music Studio has a built in synth piano, and you can add in other synthesizer plug-ins for it, you can also create completely original synth tracks of your own. It can be extraordinarily tedious, but rewarding to create a Dance track that you have spliced, cut, pasted, and mapped out on the synth tool on your own, without using loops.

I have found that the ones I make using the fewest elements, turn out best.

The trick is to take 3 or 4 Elements, then duplicate them and use pitch shift and effects to turn them into a dynamic and interesting composition.

Rhythmic synth works very well for doing it that way. If you get your hands on a really good synth, with a rhythm that works well with the beat, you can make a whole song just with your beat, and that one synth track.

Its also good to remember to use Pan and Volume to separate each element of the song, and to create more movement within the song.

Go in close on a loop and bounce the Pan from side to side. Use the Volume envelope to fade a track in and out.

With Acid Music Studio the only limits on creating a good Dance song, are the ones you put on yourself.

Experiment, and never throw anything away. You might think of something cool to do with it later.

Learn more about making great hip hop beats