Do you hear music playing in your head? Are you looking for a way to get it out of your head and into the world?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a music beginner. You don’t need a big-time music producer to know how to produce beats. You can follow these 7 steps to produce your music to share it with the world.
1. Get Your Equipment
If you want to make music, you’ll need a few pieces of equipment to do it right. At the very basics, you’ll need a laptop and some beat making software.
If you want to create a more professional sound, you might want something to help make it easier — a keyboard or drum midi controller.
If you’re unable to get this equipment on your own, it’s worth looking into this recording studio company.
2. The Recording Process
Recording music these days is a lot more complicated than pressing a record button. Today’s music starts with a multitrack recording. There are two benefits to doing it this way:
- It allows you to work the sound of each instrument on its own.
- It allows each instrument/sound to be recorded at a time.
Make a Track
You’ll want to start with a basic guide to lead the other instruments you’ll add later. Most of the time, people use a clicking metronome to set the tempo they want. However, you can also try using a drum loop.
The Rhythm Section
The rhythm section creates the foundation for any song. Most of the time, this is with the drum or bass. If your song lacks both of these, you can try another rhythmic instrument, like the acoustic guitar.
Add Harmony
Now is the time to add more meat to your song by creating a chord structure. This is where your song will stand out as unique. Play around with rhythm guitar, piano, synths, horns, or any other instrument that can sound off chords.
Time for the Melody
What are your most dominant sounds for your song? Usually, this is your lead vocals or lead guitar. Record these first. Then, you can fill in any gaps you have with supporting melodies.
Add Some Flare
Every song has its own unique touch that sets it right over the edge. These nuances add a little color to your song and can include any of the following:
- background vocals
- filler percussion
- filler piano
- Sound effects
3. Editing
You’ve recorded your song, but it’s not quite ready. You need to clean it up for a polished sound. You can think of editing in 5 different tasks:
Arrangement
Take an overall look at your song. Think about what works and what doesn’t. You can delete anything that doesn’t add any value to your music. Cut out anything that clutters the sound. You might even want to move around sections to make it make more sense.
Comping
Here, you’ll want to check and see if there is a better take on one of your duplicate tracks.
Noise Reduction
Sometimes, you’ll have sounds that are before, after or in-between sections of audio. This could be amp noises, background noise footsteps, etc. In this stage, you’ll want to take those out.
Time-Editing
With time-editing, you’ll want to fix any notes that sound offbeat. You can do this by cutting and pasting or time-stretching instruments.
4. Mixing
Now, you’ll want to take your edited track and mix it up. That is, blend it to be a more cohesive sound.
You’ll want to make sure none of your instruments sound too loud or too soft. Give each instrument its own “space” and ensure they don’t fight over the same frequency. Compress your sounds so they can be clear.
Basically, you’ll want to make sure your track sounds great when it’s all put together.
5. Bounce Your Track
Before you can master your song, you’ll need to bounce it. You’ve been creating your song by layering several tracks. However, you can’t keep it that way.
Bouncing simply means to record it into a single stereo file. This will make it easier to master later. Don’t forget to keep your multitrack recording available. You never know when you’ll want to play with it again to rearrange it.
6. Mastering Your Music
Now is the time to put the finishing touches on your song. If you thought it sounded good before, it’s about to sound even better.
During the mastering process, you can make your song more dynamic by playing with the loudness. You can also use multi-band compression or stereo widening to balance your frequencies.
7. Outsource When You Don’t Know How to Produce Beats
You might find you aren’t able to create the beats you want all on your own. When you get in a musical rut, it’s time to outsource. Call some friends with a good ear. They might be able to help you layer your tracks in the beginning.
Mastering your track is really difficult. If you’re not careful, you can easily make your sound worse instead of better during that step. Many times, someone who mixes their music will refer to a “mastering engineer” instead of doing it on their own. You may want to find one to help you clean up your sound the best way possible.
Make Some Noise
There it is- your guide on how to produce beats. You should now have the basic tools to go out and create a track that’s been playing in your head.
Keep in mind, practice makes perfect. Start easy. You’ll eventually have an amazing track to share with others.
Check out our blog for more music inspiration and ideas.
