72 Music Production Tips

1. Trust your taste. In other words, dont second guess yourself. Who are you
doing this for anyway?
2. Stop crapping on popular music for your ego. You can learn from
anything. In fact, its wise to learn from music that millions listen to.
3. Using loops doesnt make you a fake artist. Its the end product that
counts. Look at the gaming industry. Do you know how many of them use Unity?
Or Unreal? What matters is the game. What matters is the music.
4. Same goes with samples.
5. Having a beverage while you produce will make the process much
more fluid. Arguably its the caffeine. Arguably its having something to reach
for in between empty moments.
6. Get a nice pair of headphones or monitors ASAP. Frequency response is
important. Bass is important.
7. Mixing is not mysterious judo. Go ahead and mix. Make bad mixes.
Eventually, youll make good mixes.
8. Mastering is not mysterious judo. Go ahead and master. Make bad
masters. Eventually, youll make good masters.
9. Buy a quality sample pack as soon as possible. Here are some quality
packs including a free one.
10. Let music you dont like or understand warm up to you. Chances are
youll dig it once its familiar.
11. Repetition is important and minimalism is key but dont use these as an
excuse to ignore that last 20% of polish. Give your tracks that spit shine sheen.
12. No one cares until they do. Work on your craft and put it out.
13. If theres no market for your work they may never care. Do you care?
14. If you dont enjoy listening to your music youre doing something
wrong (or working for hire).
15. Start building a reliable way to connect with people who want your
music. Email list is a good idea.
16. Free shouldnt literally mean free. Give it out for a purpose. Facebook
likes? SoundCloud followers? Email subscribers?
17. Think about where people will listen to your music. What is the
setting? This should inform your production.

18. Think about what people will listen to your music. Who are they? This
should inform your production.
19. Dont resist learning music theory. Music theory is a map. You can
navigate without it but its handy to have.
20. Dont compare yourself too much to professional artists. Especially
not early on.
21. DO aim for the quality of these pro artists. But again, do not let them
stunt you.
22. Youll reach a point where your music is actually on par with
professionals and youll only recognize it looking back.
23. It doesnt matter what DAW you use.
24. The final production is what matters not how its made.
25. I repeat. The final production is what matters not how its made.
26. Dont ever make excuses with regards to tools. You can make amazing
music with 100% free software. Remember that $400 you spent on synths that
Deadmau5 was known to use? Youll use those for about two songs.
27. New tools do provide opportunities for new directions. Spice up your
production once in a while by acquiring a new plugin, sample pack, or instrument.
28. You know that guitar youve played for half your life? Stop pretending you
dont want to use it and get an interface. I recommend this one.
29. Invest in a solid microphone to go with that interface. I recommend
this one.
30. There are four tiers of audio equipment.
1. Cheap
2. Solid enough for pro use. Consumer level pricing.
3. Pro which is marginally better than number 2.
4. Expensive.
Tier two is good enough. Ignore the rest. When you make a living off of music you
can splurge.
31. Never get angry or upset at change. People who yell about the music
industry crumbling or that streaming is taking over the world are exhibiting
resistance. Accept the world for what it is and look for opportunities. The obstacle
is the way.

32. Deadmau5 began his production journey around age 16. He exploded
14 years later. Mostly because of market conditions. Kaskades active years
according to Wikipedia begin in 1989. Aim for the slow burn not overnight
success.
33. Start building up a following now. Fan by fan. Never forget the power of
one more fan. One more listener. One more email subscriber.
34. You dont need a million twitter followers to be a success. All you
need is one thousand true fans. This may not literally be one thousand.
35. Treat your music promotion like a boot-strapped blog. Its surprisingly
analogous.
36. Your side project of writing and your eventual day job as a game designer will
provide incredible perspective on making art. This will inform your music. Vary
yourself.
37. Compression is overrated.
38. EQ is overrated.
*Clarification: Compression and EQ are nothing more than hammers in your
toolbox. Learn how to wield them. Use them to get the job done.
39. In fact, most technical aspects of production are overrated. Focus on
the emotion and the energy. Youll write a book about this.
40. If youre sitting on unreleased music for two or more years consider
licensing it. Sell the beats. Do something with it. Chances are youll just sit on
them anyway.
41. Vocals are like cheat codes for engagement and interest in your
track.
42. Provide value to others. In time, theyll provide value to you.
43. The people Ive seen have the most success do it by physically
knowing and interacting the most. Playing the game online can work but its
harder because the barrier of entry is lower everyone is doing it, and its far
less personal.
44.

Ignore

vanity

metrics

like

number

of

tracks

or

song

length. These have no bearing on the final quality of the song.

45. As Rolf Potts says in his book Vagabonding about world travel, If in doubt
about what to do in a place, just start walking. Similarly, if you get stuck
with a piece just start messing around. Eventually what youre looking for will find
you.

46. Break all the rules. On purpose. Make this a dedicated effort. Youll learn
why they exist and how malleable they really are.
47. Label and name your tracks and project files. It really really really helps
when revisiting things. You still wont do this even if I tell you to.
48. Never ever export a song and call it final. Thats a slippery slope.
49. Use [track name]_[purpose]_[date] where purpose is something like
mix or mastered or demo or for Juan.
50. You appreciate production more during periods of your life when its
your escape. I know you want to drop everything and produce but understand it
will lose some allure. Opportunity cost is a fiend.
51. Your speakers can deteriorate overtime. This will cause you to remaster
an album 8 times in the future. Trust your monitors yet be diligent that their time
may come.
52. The real important difference between analog and digital equipment
is the ability to play and touch analog. Not quality.
53. In the absence of analog equipment, get a MIDI keyboard with
knobs, wheels, and faders if possible. At least knobs.
54. Your family genuinely enjoys listening to your music. Share it with
them.
55. You know your friends genuinely enjoy your music if their play count
is more than two.
56. If you want to make a big diversion or edit in your track do a Save
As and name it [track name]_[reason for edit]. Then feel free to make
changes. You can always go back to the initial file.
57. Keep volume at a decent level. No reason to blow your head off.
58. Make sure you check your mixes when the track is loud and when
the track is quiet.
59. When the track is quiet you should be able to hear the most
important parts of your track clearly.
60. Mixing is 90% volume and 10% remembering its mostly volume.
61. Mastering is 90% volume and 10% fixing your mix.
62. Back up your music. Dropbox didnt exist when you started so grab an
external hard drive. Losing your work is awful.
63. Never let dollars impede your creative progress.

64. Producing on a laptop is less enjoyable than having a bigger

screen. Get the iMac instead of the MacBook. Or, buy a display for your laptop.
Regardless, youll use a 13-inch MacBook for a while.
65. If youve spent more than 5 minutes adjusting a parameter youve
lost objectivity. Set it and come back later. Preferably another day. Or after
youve substantially disengaged from production.
66. Youre not gonna become famous by creating some crazy new synth
patch. Each piece serves the whole.
67. You cant force your voice. Youll stumble and mimic your way to a point
where your voice begins coming through. Let it. Be vulnerable. Trust your
choices. Eventually it comes out.
68. There is a difference between a track you casually throw up on
SoundCloud and something youve officially released. Put care and value
into your releases. People respond to this.
69. Find someone to do visual design for you. Album covers, web design,
logos, etc. theyre all important for creating a holistic experience and meeting
audience expectations. Most people dont do this which means you should.
70. Always pay for visual art. If the person declines compensation buy them
lunch. If they wont take lunch yell at them.
71. Whenever you struggle or doubt yourself remember why you got
into this in the first place. Making music is fun. If youre struggling youve
forgotten the fun.
72. Sometimes the fun isnt there. Go do something else.