We are here with 11 killer music producer hacks for beginners that will streamline your process including mixing in key and how to organise your DAW to get you producing dance floor hits in no time.
Thanks to the rise in computer technology and the reduced costs, making music on a laptop is now an everyday occurrence. But while it might be easy to get your hands on a laptop and a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) like Ableton or Logic, getting the most out of them and your music talent can be a different matter.
1# Know your goals
Inspiration can come in many different forms and in many different ways. But one way to control it is to approach each music-making session with very clear goals. Start with an idea or a theme or a bass sequence or vocal and expand from there.
Have in mind a track you want it to sound like or a genre it might fit into – and keep referring back to released, mastered music as a gauge to how you’re sounding. That will help tell you how the mix is sounding, about levels, about the punch of the kick.
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2# Always. Finish. Your. Tracks
The hardest part is nearly always finishing your productions. It’s easy to start a track and get a tasty 4 or 8 bar loop going that really rocks. But turning that into a track requires time-consuming work that often isn’t the most fun part. But persevere and you’ll quickly get faster at turning your ideas into fully-fledged tracks.
Composition and arrangement are just as valuable skills as getting the music down in the first place. It’s a little like cooking: you have all the right ingredients, but you need to learn and master how to put them together.
3# Pick a key
One of the easiest ways to make sure your track sounds cohesive and in-tune is to keep just one root key. That means keeping the base of your tune in just one key, whether that’s A, B, C, D, E, F or G. Major keys will sound more positive and upbeat while minor keys will give a darker edge to your music (the Jaws theme tune, for example, is in A minor, which helps with the creeping, edgy feeling).
The most popular key in music is C while in dance music specifically A minor and F major are the most common. Either way, listen to tracks in other keys, pick your favourite and use that as a starting point.
4# Mix in key
As well as staying with just one key, you can branch out by mixing in key. And a good way to quickly see which keys go with each other is this harmonic wheel. Used correctly, it’ll give your music more variety which staying in tune. And if you’re using loops or ready-made kits, it’ll open up the possibilities and give you more sounds and samples to try out.
Staying in key or mixing in key is great, but the best way to tell if something is in tune is your ears. Use them and get to trust your ears: they’re the best tools you have.
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#5 Find the right key
If you’re not musically trained and you don’t know your C from your A minor, there are plenty of ways to find out what key your sample or tune is. You can upload the track to sites like Audio Key Chain or Tunebat or you can do it yourself in your DAW.
Load the track and use the in-built Spectrum analyser in Ableton or Logic. Let the track play and look for the highest point on the graph. Hover your cursor over it and it’ll tell you the frequency and the key.
#6 Create a default template
Starting a new track can mean a lot of time setting up the channels, naming and colour-coding them and anything else your project involves. Save vital time and energy by creating a custom project template that you use as a default every time you start a new project.
This will set up your DAW as you want it with the right channels and allocations and let you jump straight into your music.
#7 Get organised
This will come more naturally to the tidier personalities, but correctly naming your tracks and saving them to a specific folder that’s regularly backed up will save you time and heartache.
After all, there’s nothing worse than scrolling through a folder of Tune/Big Tune/Nearly Finished/FINAL/FINALFINAL/FINAL tunes to find your work.
One good habit is to start with the Artist Name followed by the Song Title and then the mix number so you know which is the most recent version.
And colour coding can work as well. Make drums green, synths blue, melodies green, FX red – it’ll make your work easier and quicker to process.
#8 Go big when you go home
Most producers will work from their laptop, but the relatively small screen size and small keyboard bring limitations. Upgrade your studio by investing in a larger monitor. Anything over 20 inches will give you more room for your DAW and using a mouse and a separate keyboard will also speed up your producing process.
#9 Keep it simple
It’s so easy to get into an arms race and buy new synths and historic old synths, imagining that’s half the battle. But after you’ve connected them and got them working, it’ll realistically take years before you get round to playing with them.
Instead, pick one synth or soft synth and learn it inside out. Even better, master the sounds and in-built apps in your DAW.
Ableton, for example, comes with hundreds of soft synth sounds which are all customizable while you can even export a MIDI melody or harmony from a sample, making sampling that much cooler.
#10 Use panning
It’s amazing how simple this technique is, but how often it’s under-used. When you’re making music, your DAW will automatically send all the music down the middle through the left and right channels.
But you can pan the sound so that it only comes out of the left speaker or the right speaker or find the right setting in between.
By panning your tracks, you’re creating space and distance in the mix. Which leaves your mix more open, less cluttered and sounding better.
Traditionally, mainstays like the kick and the bass shouldn’t be panned, with percussion and vocals often panned. As always, experiment and find out what works best for you and your set up and each track.
#11 Use keyboard shortcuts
Another key way to streamline your production is to use the keyboard shortcuts. They’ll shave seconds off each move and manoeuvre which over hours and days will really add up.
BONUS TIPS
It’s easy to get stuck into a music-making session for a few hours so it’s important to look after your eyes and ears.
Keep your headphone speaker volume as low as possible so you don’t get ear fatigue and take regular breaks. And by mixing at a lower volume, you’ll perception will be sharper and your ears will last longer.
The same goes for the screen brightness: take regular breaks to stop your eyes taking in the damaging glare.
If you wish to know more then please check out these other helpful blogs.
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