Humans have been making music for tens of thousands of years, and the foundation of the process remains relatively the same. If you’re interested in exploring a career as a musician, it’s important to understand the production process. Here is a breakdown of the phases.

Your Guide to Music Production

1. Composition & Arrangement

Composition and arrangement can be part of the same process or separate depending on how you create songs. You’ll first come up with the basics, such as a melody, chord progression, time structure, and genre. You may choose an instrument and create the movement for it, or several if you’re working with a band. Some musicians create a baseline first, others a vocal layer, and others the drum rhythm. The process varies and can be different for every song.

The composition is the foundation of your song and gives you a reference to turn back to as you continue. The arrangement is how you choose to organize the song. In a pop or country song, it may be an intro, verse, bridge, chorus pattern; in classical music, the organization can run through a large, constantly changing movement pattern. The arrangement may be the first inspiration in the composition process rather than coming after, and your best bet is to follow your creative intuition.

2. Sound Design

The sound design process is where you begin exploring what your instruments will do. For synthesizers, this means trying different keyboard presets, such as long, sweeping, multi-layered pads or traditional techno saw lead. Guitarists may try a clean, high-end guitar verse or distorted solo depending on the genre, while a drummer may mix different cymbals and drum types to match a playing style.

Sound design is also where you begin manipulating parts of your song. You may create harmonic layers to vocals or a synth pad, apply delay or reverb effects to a guitar solo, or introduce filter sweeps to smooth out a transition.

3. Mixing

Mixing is done with an engineer. They begin leveling the individual tracks of the song, so they fit well. They’ll also start dissecting audio, removing unnecessary high, low, and mid ranges so that instruments don’t sonically conflict with one another. It’s a technical aspect of the process that’s crucial to getting a clean final product.

4. Mastering

Mastering is where you wrap up the song. All of the mix tracks are combined into a single audio file. That file is then cleaned up and balanced so that it will sound equally right coming out of car speakers, earbuds, and concert PA systems. It’s then exported as a .wav, .mp3, or format of your choice and is ready for publication.

 

If you’re looking for a professional musician for an upcoming project or event, turn to Walter Hansen Music. North Bend, WA, jazz artist Walter Hanson is best known for his jazz hits and provides comprehensive production services. You can begin learning more about this producer and songwriter on his website or by calling (813) 486-5735. Follow Walter Hansen Music on Facebook or Instagram or sample his music on Pandora (https://www.pandora.com/artist/walter-hansen/ARhKbVJ69Pg79tJ or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClbqwz3Y93ENiGTdjeiv-Jg/videos).