I want to produce music. I play guitar, im not that great but good enough to get licks down and stuff. I might want to be in a band. But i know i should be a producer. Every time i listen to a song i always think of tiny ways to make it better and ive put them into action and they've worked. I can also make up cool little licks and stuff. I just know im meant to be a producer. i know that was a hell of a lot of babbling but im baked as ish. so basically im just wondering how do you get started? do you need to go to a legit school? Do you even need to go to school? help please, thank you.
You can go to school or you cannot go to school. I don't know how to go about becoming a producer with enough work to support themself. In musician's magazines there are always ads for schools of the recording arts and such. I dunno, I'm sure someone on here has mroe advice.
To be a producer requires you to have a professional level of knowledge for pretty much every aspect of the music business. A good place to start would be reading up on books covering everything from Recording and Mixing, to Business Networking, and Leadership-type books. Of course, if you read books that are specifically focused on Producing that won't hurt. Also a great resource would be reading biographies of famous producers from over the years (I have never read one, but I am sure there are many). An even better way to get started, in my opinion, would be to listen to recordings of all of the most popular records and singles from 1950 to the present. Compare the characteristics of those records, with those that were not so fortunate to strike musical gold. Having a good background in Recording Techniques, Mixing, and Music Theory would be the best way to approach this. You will end up listening to many artists and records which you dislike, but do not exclude these works from your study. When you become a producer you are not going to be working on projects you enjoy every time. Just remember that when you are listening to a cd you consider "bad", you are not listening to it for entertainment, you are extracting information that will get you closer to getting your dream job. Hope this helps.
i am currently attending AI Vancouver, studying Proffesional Recording Arts...which covers music theory, sound theory, Live Sound, and the main class Recording Studio Operations...which is a class about the studio...micing techniques, learning the board, and signal flow. there is alot of gear out there and alot of it is just about messing around with it. but there is alot pf stuff about digital and analog theory you should learn.....check it out, there is probably a school near you....and they can usually help you get a job after. it all starts with starting up as a cable runner or an assistant engineer....and you move on up....
If you're a stellar networker, are great at meeting people and selling yourself, or you know a lot of people in the industry, or have access to people in commercially successful bands, or you're rich (rich enough to buy/build your own studio) then you should go to school. The goal of school being 1) to learn the technical stuff you could really learn on your own, and 2) to make the above connections. Who you know is everything. The only exception I can think of to all that is if you somehow spot the next Nirvana, sign them to a contract they can't break, record them, and manage not to get ripped off like Sub Pop did.
Here's what our producer is doing: He got some basic recording software and a few mics - recorded a short EP for a band for a piece of A-level music tech coursework and then just carried on recording bands. He got a job, charged a bit of cash and as his funds builded he invested in more and better equipment and the more he recorded, the more he was faced with production challenges and the more he learned from overcoming thiem. He started with literally - 1 mic and Cubase, his equipment list (that I know about, is now thus): Software - Protools, Reason Hardware - Digirack 002, an 8 track mixing desk, 2 very high quality condensor mics, 3 or 4 industry standard closemics, a set of drum mics, various effects processors of different kinds, a synthesizor, a midi controller, a shiny red Korg sampler, lots of amps, lots of guitars, an electric drumkit (most drummers bring their own kit), and that's, not the half of it I don't think - that's just the stuff I've been aware of him using in direct relation to the Impressionables. It's not been the quickest thing ever getting where he is now, but he's in good stead for employment in a proper studio later. His production CV is probably much better now than someone's who steps fress out of production university. On top of this, he is at the Academy of Contempory Music in Guildford but not to study production - they can connect him with whoever he needs to, to find work later. So yeah - that's one way of doing it. I don't think his going to the ACM is really that big a thing helping him along the way. At the end of the day, he's got his name out and has a fantastic CV and that's what matters. I nearly forgot - if you want to be a producer; learn about music business and law. If you want to build yourself up from the ground, get the law right then, even if your average contract is 3 pages long, make it valid. Much Love Sebbi
The way to get started is to get some recording equipment and record yourself and every musician you can.As much as you can.Check out homerecording.com and start a notebook.
