I decided to write down some music making tips for the beginners in a field of electronic music production (although these guidelines apply to other musical genres as well). A little info about myself is that I’m an electronic music producer myself and I have been producing electronic music for years: dance music under the artist name “Primo Lux” and something a bit more experimental under my own name. Some of my songs has been released commercially through record labels (one hit to number one position in dutch dance charts) and has also been used in a documentary film project. If you like, you can listen my music here and check out my discography as well.

Excuse my english, it’s my second language and not so fluent, but I hope you understand and find this guide useful. Also, if you have any questions or opinions feel free to leave a comment!

So, without further ado, let’s begin!

1. Get the tools. Hardware first.

The following are what I use and am familiar working with. You can actually produce very good music just about anykind of computer setup and even with free software.

• Computer. I still have my old Athlon XP with 1GB ram memory and 800GB hard drive space and I’m still doing fine with it. But the more power, the more merrier.  UPDATE: In December 2009 I updated my computer system. Here’s what I have currently:  http://petrisuhonen.com/studio-upgrade

• Sound card or audio interface with ASIO support is recommended (ASIO stands for Audio Stream Input/Output and it’s a sound card driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing a low-latency and high fidelity interface between a software application and a computer’s sound card), BUT you can start off with almost anykind of soundcard and if you wan’t low latency for a audiocard that hasn’t ASIO support, you can use ASIO4ALL driver. I myself have M-Audio Audiophile Delta 2496 and it has been enough for me for all these years.

• Studio monitor speakers or studio grade headphones. Or both. Although I created “Turnpoint” using only cheap Sony headphones I bought from a local supermarket, decent studio monitors or studio headphones are highly recommended – especially studio monitors. Why? Because studio monitors are specifically made for audio production and they give an accurate reproduction of the tonal qualities of the source audio. In other words, they ‘tell you the exact truth’ what’s going on in your music in frequency vice. The sound is “uncoloder” so there will be no bass or high frequency boosts or anything like that like the normal home stereo system speakers or heapdhones tend to have. This will help you create music where every sound is in balance (depending on your mixing skills of course) and will increase the probability that your music sounds good in normal music listening devices like home stereos, car stereos and ipods as well.
  
  
  There are lot of different types of studio monitors and headphones in the market on all price ranges. I’m using Behringer Truth B2031A monitors and AKG K271 studio headphones and I’ve been very happy with them.

• MIDI keyboard, although its not necessity: I’ve created many songs just by using mouse and regular computer keyboard. Many computer music software (like FL Studio) lets you play music using your computer keyboard as a ‘virtual piano keyboard’. But on the other hand, you get a totally different feel for playing melodies and controlling your audio software with a MIDI keyboard. I use M-Audio Oxygen 61.

2. Get the software:

• Get a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and learn the basics of it. I really recommend Image-Lines FL Studio. It’s a very powerful, easy to use and you can do so much with it and FAST! It’s like they say in one of their ads: FL Studio is the fastest way from your brain to your speakers and I can confirm that! I’ve been using it for years now and all my music has been produced with FL Studio. There ARE other excellent DAW’s like Ableton Live, Cubase, Sonar, Reason, Reaper and some free alternatives too (although I’m not so familiar with the free ones), but I have to say that I’ve been working with both, Ableton and Cubase and I’ve always come back to FL Studio. This is just a matter of taste, but FL Studio is my choice. If you decide to buy it, you get lifetime updates for free!
  
  
  For more info about FL Studio, visit their website. I also have to mention that if you’re going to buy it, I have a special link for you which’ll give you 10% discount. Check here.

• Get audio editor. This is for doing final adjustments for your songs before you let them go public. I recommend Sony Media’s Sound Forge Audio Studio. There are free alternatives as well like Audacity.

• Get some soft synths aka VSTi’s. (Check introduction to VSTi’s) These are MUST if you’re going to start producing music digitally with computer. They’re virtual synths that produce different kind of sounds. There are TONS of free ones in the net, just Google for “free vsti” or “free soft synths”. Or check out this website.
  
  
  If you have money, I highly recommend Native Instruments stuff. Check out the demos of synths like Absynth, FM8, Massive, Reaktor. Also, reFX has some quality synths like Vanguard for example. It can produce many kind of sounds from huge basses to lush pads and sharp leads and arps. And Nexus 2 , which is their flagship, is TOTALLY AWESOME sounding ‘all around’ rompler. It has sounds for practically anykind of music style: from trance to house to hiphop to ambient to soundtrack.
  
  
  Others I highly recommend are IK Multimedias stuff. I have all of their virtual synths and I especially love Miroslav Philharmonik which has very good orchestral sounds. Also check out H.G Fortunes synths like ProtoPlasmTSMPro, STS-33 and Artvera’s Golden ASET. These can produce some really beautiful and experimental pads and background sound and the price is very low.

And now to the music making. First things first.

3. Learn song structures: listen and study other peoples work.

• Get some songs from the genre you wan’t to break into, take a song you like, listen it carefully an make a notes how it’s build: how many bars (for what does bar mean, check out here) long is the intro, what kind of elements does it have, when does more elements start to come in, where’s breakdown, how many bars long the breakdown is, what kind of elements are repeated and faded etc. Make a notes and you can write them down on a paper if you like.

• If we think about usual radio-pop song structure, they’re typically 3-4 minutes long and structure goes like:
  
  
  [intro]->[verse]->[chorus]->[verse]->[chorus]->[bridge]->[chorus]->[outro]
  
  
  or chorus can also work as intro and then it would go like this:
  
  
  [chorus(intro)]->[verse]->[chorus]->[verse]->[chorus]->[bridge]->[chorus]->[outro]

• In uplifting trance or dance music that is generally aimed for club’s, structure goes typically like this:
  
  
  [quite long intro with drums and other elements]->
  
  
  [breakdown] – Here’s where you showcase your ‘big idea’, it could be a nice melody or whatever. It’s called “hook” ->
  
  
  [the "hook" with drums] – This is the “climax” where everything’s playing together. In dance floor people will typically go nuts at this point lol ->
  
  
  [the "hook" with drums fades out]->
  
  
  [another breakdown with the "hook" or another "hook", whatever you like]->
  
  
  [the "hook" with drums again(another climax)]->
  
  
  [fade out / outro]



If you’re more into trance or dance music, I have written an article with videos showing how trance song is built and how does it progress. I have taken one of my own songs as example and it should give you a rough idea how uplifting trance song progresses and what kind of structure it has. I must say the song is a bit ‘old’ (2004), and trance is sounding quite different these days: the “trend” in buildup to breakdown and onwards is a bit different now then it was few years ago, but the basic idea is roughly the same.

Given these examples, these are just the structures I typically like to use with my own songs. Of course, it can be anything you like. There’s no boundaries. I’ve also used many different kind of variations. Or you can decide to make music without structure at all. But some sort of logical progression is recommended IF you aim to produce your music for the ‘wider audience’ and wan’t it to be easy to listen/follow and catchy.


Next, a few words about the production itself:


4. Start with the drums and bass.

• I’ve found it’s best to first build the drums and get the groove going. With a cool drumgroove, it’s much easier to start build a bass groove on top of it and other instruments as well. And remember, drums & bass should work together, not overlap each other. If you have heavy drums like fat bass kick, find a little bit lighter bass sound or do some equalization (you can find a little EQ tutorial in here). Or vice versa. Or if you have harsh sounding drums, dont’ use harsh sounding bass sound. And vice versa. I must say that for me the most hardest part in music production is to make drums & bass work together and IMHO it’s also the most important. When you build a solid drumgroove and bass, you’ve come a long way in your song. At least in electronic dance music. I really recommend to put a GREAT effort on these two.

5. Stir up the synths!

• Many soft synths have several ready made quality preset sounds to start with. These will help get you going. But I recommend to experiment and twiddle and fiddle with the knobs, sliders and buttons and see what happens. You can come up with some really original and wild stuff by experimenting!

6. Use sample cd’s (or sample libraries). Sparingly.

• I use sample cd’s (or sample libraries). You can find all kinds of song elements there: drumloops, synthloops, bassloops, single drum hits, fx etc. They speed up the producing process. So many times I have found a perfect fill, fx or drumloop that fits perfectly to my song so I don’t have to start building it from scratch. You can find some really cool stuff from these cd’s which you can then recycle and chop-up to get you started. I recommend checking out samples from Peaceandloveproductions, Big Fish Audio, Zero-G, Mutekki Media and Best Service. These guys produce some pretty awesome stuff for many different genres. But REMEMBER, don’t build your songs only on ready made samples, use them like a spice instead. You have to have something original and something you have created by yourself. In fact most of the song should be your own ideas. But of course, you can turn ready made samples into something completely original by reversing, twisting, cutting, pitching and running them through various effects. Just use your imagination.

I use help of sample cd’s like a spice or glue to help me achieve my goal in my music which is to showcase my original ideas to the people.


I have also written an introduction to sample cd’s which I recommend you to read. Included is a helpful link section (to free samples as well) to get you started with samples.


Now few words about mixing:


7. Mixing: give power to the rhythm!

• When I mix my songs (if it’s a rhythmic music), I  give most headroom to the drums. Drums are element that should be heard of clearly. Then, “according to drums”, I level the bass and other instruments. I use drums as the basis for how I mix other instruments in my song. I just make sure drums are punchy and loud enough and if some other instrument is trying to compete with drums (or bass in this matter), I equalize the low out a bit or simply drop down the level of that instrument. I use the drums like a “yardstick” to make other instruments fit in the mix.

8. Mixing: hear how pros do it and learn from examples.

• Again, listen to your favourite songs in a same genre you’re trying to make music in and notice how they’re mixed. What kind of elements stand out and why? How does your song sound compared to your favourite songs?

9. Plan to use vocals?

• Well, I don’t have much experience working with vocals as my tracks are mainly instrumentals, but if you’re building a song which main idea is based on vocals, make sure you make them stand out CLEARLY in the mix.

10. Beware ear fatigue. Take a break or continue producing in the next day.

• It has happened to me several times, that I thought I’ve made a killer song in a day and then in the next day when I listen the song again, it sounds like garbage: all the sound levels and equalization settings are out of balance or there are elements that doesn’t seem to fit in the mix at all. And then I usually get frustrated and and dump the whole song! This can happen if you produce music for several hours non-stop: your ears get tired and in the end of the day you can’t hear things in as balanced anymore as with “fresh” ears. So, my advice is this: try not to finish a whole song in one day, spare your ears and leave something for a next day.

That’s about it.


Check out my other tutorials as well and how to start promoting your music online.

Also, remember to subscribe to my blog by email. This way you get notified everytime I post something new in my website.

Happy production!