Becoming a Dance Music Producer

Although I specialise in Trance music, I'm referring to Dance music as an umbrella genre as it covers various styles of music including Trance, House, Hardcore, Drum & Bass and even some R&B and Hiphop. All my advice here is relevant to all of these styles and more.

As the majority of Dance music is very electronic, synth-led and processed, you can create a track solely using a computer and the samples and synths that come with your software with nothing additional required other than a little time and creativity.

I'm not saying it's easy to produce something great - it takes a lot of hard work and dedication but a lot of producers have released music produced from their very own bedrooms and there's no reason why you can't. So how do you get started?

Well, there are several ways to go about this - software, hardware or both. The cheapest and easier option is to opt for a software based studio. This means you can work solely on your PC or Mac using software that is designed to replicate its hardware counterparts and it does a great job! This includes the whopping great studio mixer, sexy synthesisers, effects processors, amplifier simulators, equalisers and compressors as well as the facility to plug in a MIDI keyboard and external hardware units.

As this lens is about 'becoming' a Dance music producer I will assume you don't yet have the budget to buy much hardware so I will focus on the software studio. In all honesty I prefer a predominantly software based studio, mostly because it's what I'm used to and gives me that flexibility that I want and can easily transfer mixes from laptop to PC if I'm travelling. So, aside from a good PC, laptop or Mac, what else will you need?

Aside from the production software (if you decide to buy an industry standard package) you will also need a good, dedicated sound card. I have the Terratec Phase 22 which is a basic but professional sound card and, although there are much bigger cards that would do more, this is perfect for what I need now and likely what I'll need in the not-so-near future.

You will also need a good set of monitors (speakers). Don't use your stereo speakers for this as they won't have the clarity and frequency response you need for a good production studio.

Instead, buy some purpose-built monitors. You'll find that some are active (with a built-in amp) while others are passive (will require power from an external amplifier) so make you sure know what you need before you buy.

I use the Behringer 'Truth' B2031A production studio monitors as these have a flat frequency response so as to not 'colour' the sound and then use a variety of other household speakers to test my mixes on.

To take this further you can also add a mixing desk, microphone, headphones, sampler, turntables, effects units - the list can go on but the above will get you going.

You will need a good DAW - a Digital Audio Workstation. This will allow you to control everything to do with your production, from the arrangement, the sounds and effects, the tempo and everything down to the very last note.

You can also use any of the following DAWs for your productions, although expect to pay a hefty price for some:

Ableton Live
ACID Pro
Cakewalk Sonar
FL Studio (previously Fruity Loops)
Logic Pro
Pro Tools
Reason
Steinberg Cubase

If you are looking to try out your hand at music production, try Reaper from Cockos - a free DAW that works in a very similar way to many of the industry standard software packages available at a high cost.

I personally use Logic Pro, an industry standard DAW which does everything I need it to. Logic is more complex that some of the other software DAWs but is very powerful and flexible.

Prior to that I was using Fruity Loops, a great piece of software, particularly for producing digital music such as Dance music, which is ideal for those that just want to get stuck in. It has a relatively small learning curve and keeps production simple and easy with quick results of a releasable quality.

A lot of DAWs will come with some basic synths, samplers and effects processors but you can buy plenty of great synths as well as get free ones that sound fantastic and are based closely on some pretty huge hardware synths.

There are a couple of synths I like to use for Dance music as well as Trance music;

One of these is Vanguard, a fantastic sounding analogue synth from reFX which delivers warm and rich sounds currently with 12 expansion packs. You can listen to a demo of this synth at http://refx.com/downloads/Vanguard/Vanguard.mp3 (MP3)

Another is Nexus, also from reFX, a high quality ROM synth built to produce music of the highest quality for an expensive sound.

I also like good powerful samplers such as the EXS24 and some good distortion and reverb plugins that can do a good job of creating fantastically big and attractive sounds for a beautiful mix.

Although I can't tell you who should inspire you (you need to find musicians that inspire you and make you want to produce music) I can advise you to listen to certain successful artists that inspire both myself as well as lot of the Dance music producer population.

Try listening to Paul Van Dyk, Deep Dish, Chicane, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, BT, The Thrillseekers. Maybe even listen to some of the pre Dance music electronic artists such as Vangelis, Klaus Shulze, Jean Michelle Jarre and Tangerine Dream - all of which have been an inspiration to myself as well as the majority of the open minded Dance music producer population.

Well, it depends on what you want to do. You can simply write your own music and release that under your name or a guise. That is often all producers want to do. This can then grow to include collaborations with other producers and remixes for other producers and artists.

Other producers want to freelance or work in a studio and work with bands, musicians and singers. You may want to produce a bands' single, remix a track into a Dance style or include vocals on your own work.

To take this a step further, how about writing music for television including film, TV or adverts - or even radio? A lot of producers go on to write music for computer games or jingles for use under voiceovers on radio of TV adverts. The list is almost endless and the scope for success is huge.

General music producers working within a studio you can expect a decent salary, although jobs such as these are difficult to get and are rare - particularly if you are not associated with the studio in some way. There is much less calling from producers within the Dance music niche to have full time production jobs and are likely to work from their own studio.

As a freelancer you can expect anything from £200 per track upwards, depending on what's required of you and the time that's needed to be put in. I've remixed a track for £150 and remixed others for several times that, but the circumstances dictate what you charge. For example, if you are writing a track for an album, you might get paid nothing upfront but gain a royalty for every copy sold or downloaded.

I've also written tracks for free, although the circumstances dictated that this was feasible, due to the amount of promotion I'd potentially receive in return.

That depends on many things - your approach, your musical ability, the amount of quality time you can put in, your approach to taking constructive advice and criticism - this list is almost endless. Expect to write for a good year before you can really say you've come up with a good quality, polished track that's able to get attention from DJs, although there are exceptions to the rule.

From experience, I tended to reach a certain level of professionalism in my sound. Then a few months later I'd have learned more and got more experience and the ability to create a better sounding mix. I'd look back at what I'd done over the previous months and felt it wasn't up to par. Then a few months later I'd go through the same process. Although I never was happy with a track after leaving it for a few months, I could see myself progressing month on month and was happy that I was starting to get a professional sound through my experience.

This is a big part of the learning process but don't be afraid of scrapping old material or revamping it a few months down the line to come up to par with your new material. But don't get stuck on bringing all of your old material up to your current level. Make sure you produce new work to keep learning, gaining experience and creating a better sound.