Music production can encompass many things. It can be popular music production, sound design for movies and TV. Some people may even refer to the term when talking about live music and concerts. As you already know this website is geared towards those looking to mix and record music so I wanted to dive in and talk a bit about what music and audio production really is and what those starting out should be aware of.
The more you start learning about music production the more you start to see that the essence of music production is making the natural sounds and performances come alive. The production aspect is designed to arrange these songs properly and make them sound as good and as beautiful as possible.
What I find is that many beginners make the same mistake at first. They assume that what they’ve come accustomed to hearing on their MP3 players, CD’s and Radio is actually just the artist in a room recording and their brilliance just shines. The reality is that the production behind these songs is what makes it sound so good. Is it possible for someone to setup 1 mic in a room and sing a song that the world will love with no extra work required? Sure, but it is very rare. Music production is the process of taking a song and making it sound and relate to people as best as it possibly can. At least thats how I perceive it.
The tools of the craft are microphones, effects, EQ’s, compressors along with the music producer, the engineer and the artist’s ears. Its no wonder that certain record producers and mix/recording engineers get paid incredibly well. It’s because they know how to get these songs sounding better then anyone else. It can be a producer who knows how to arrange a song so that it just grips people or get that last bit of extra emotion out of the artist. It can be a mix engineer that knows how to get a singer to sound bigger then life or maybe just getting those drums to hit harder then anyone else. All of these things are equally as important to the song as the actual melody in my opinion. The reason I believe this is that I have seen the same song flop when it was mixed poorly and then be a hit when it was mixed by a top notch engineer. Ive seen the same when a song was produced by a mediocre producer or a song produced by one of the top talents in the business. Music production is key to the success and appreciation of a song.
Music production is an art just like performing. You have to love what you do and you have to be emotionally invested in the work. Creating and producing music is not like running a business. You are dealing with art that needs to be felt and appreciated in order to bring the best out of it. Of course it can take years of studying and technical knowledge to become skilled at the craft but in the end it is how you perceive the song that will really make you great at what you do. Dealing with sound and music is an incredible thing and knowing the reality of what goes into music production makes it even more enjoyable.
