Audio production, usually called music production, is the process of recording and arranging a song.

Audio production doesn’t just include music producers.

Also involved is the audio engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer.

For example, the sound of an acoustic guitar can change drastically depending on how the audio engineer sets up the mic. That’s a production choice.

The mixing and mastering engineers have to decide what effects and plugins to use on what instruments. Those are production choices.

But ultimately, the music producer is the one who helps guide the song to its final, strongest form.

Audio producers, usually called music producers, manage the recording process for a band or artist.

They can handle the technical aspects of recording the song(s), but their main responsibility is to help guide the arrangement and do what’s best for the song.

Below are the other responsibilities and skills you’ll need as a producer…

There are many ways to write a song, and as a producer, it’s important to understand the basics of songwriting.

But production can’t fix a bad song.

No matter how many cool samples you add and no matter how much autotune you use, the song can only be as good as its foundation.

If you play the song with just your voice and an instrument and it doesn’t evoke an emotional response in people, it needs more work.

Knowing how to write a good song can help you as a producer can help you give songwriting critiques and suggestions when necessary.

You can actually do a good portion of the arranging during the songwriting process.

Part of songwriting is how the song is structured, and structure is part of arranging.

The arrangement decisions will involve:

• How the introduction goes and how long it lasts
• The instruments used and where they show up in the song
• Where the instrumental breaks will be
• When the song should build and when it should decrescendo
• How the song will end
• Etc.

As you can see, many of these steps happen during the songwriting stage while many of them happen when you’re in the arrangement stage.

On top of that, much of the arrangement will change during the recording process.

This is when you take that dope song and its solid arrangement and bring it to life.

This is when you put microphone to voice, cable in guitar, and virtual instruments into the song.

Even though some songwriting adjustments may happen during this stage, recording is more like the “creative assembly” of a song.

You can record the music live, then go back and redo certain parts that need to be tighter or performed better.

Recording is where you build the song.

Editing and recording overlap a lot. Right after you record, you’re often editing the tracks just enough so you can continue recording.

For example, a singer may want a bit of reverb, delay, and/or chorus on their voice while they’re recording.

Or the drummer may lay down a beat as a scratch track for the rest of the band and you may have to shift a couple of hits to make it perfectly on rhythm. This saves time and makes the recording session more efficient.

After recording has wrapped, you’ll enter the editing stage full-throttle.

This is when you’ll pick the best takes of all the instruments and splice them together. You’ll shift track items around until everything is on time, you’ll adjust pitches that are off, and add crossfades.

Editing audio nowadays is easier and more versatile than ever. Take advantage of the tools available.

This is where many audio producers have their fun. This is the stage where you take a dry track and make it sound vibrant and professional.

Mixing is when you make all the instruments sound good together using things like EQ, compression, reverb, delay, and a bunch of other audio plugins.

A good mix allows the listener to hear all the instruments clearly.

If the listener wants to focus in on one instrument, they should be able to pick it out. But if they want to just sit back and enjoy the track as a whole, they should be able to do that too.

The final mix should sound drastically different (and better) than the unmixed recording. It’s basically a polish for the already great songwriting, arranging, recording, and editing.

And finally, the dark magic mystery called mastering. Well, to most, it’s a mystery, but to mastering engineers, it’s second nature.

Here’s what mastering does:

• Makes the song louder to meet industry standards
• Helps all the songs on an album or EP sound coherent with each other
• Ensures the instruments keep their original recorded and mixed sounds
• Points out any issues with the mix

Here are 13 tips that will help you get started in audio production…

No one was born amazing at what they do. The biggest music producers today had to earn it with hard work, an openness to learn, and, most importantly, persistence.

Authenticity and emotion win every time.

If you’re bobbing your head to your own track, that’s a good sign.

Chances are, other people will like it too.

You won’t know what an instrument or a melody will sound like until you put it in the song.

If it doesn’t end up working, at least you tried and didn’t just wonder whether or not it would work.

But you have to experiment and try things.

You don’t want to record a guitar, drums, bass, piano, and vocals…just to realize the original guitar was out of tune.

Recording at least two layers of an instrument — two different takes —will instantly make your track sound fuller.

Record acoustic guitar in stereo, add two layers of that drum machine, and add a chorus of vocals.

You can’t pull water from a dry well. You have to fill yourself up with music before you can make music.

As an audio producer, you’re only as good as your ideas.

Once you get recording equipment that’s good enough to make professional music, spending loads of cash on higher-tier equipment is not worth it.

At that point, it’s better to invest in gaining knowledge.

Today’s music industry is a place that often requires musicians, producers, and audio engineers to have more than one source of income.

Producers often work with musicians, record audiobooks, do songwriting, and do freelance audio editing.

You have to work quickly and efficiently, and you don’t want to forget where that fourth harmony went.

When building an audio production, keep things simple. You can always get more complex later on. Learn the basics of dynamics, building the energy, and doing what’s best for the song.

Even if you’re not a musician and if you just want to focus on producing audio, it can still be really helpful to know some basic music theory.

After all, you will be dealing with musicians every day. You may have to speak their language.

When the volume is low, the main features of a song will still be audible, giving you a better idea of what listeners will hear.

Plus, it will help you avoid ear fatigue.

Speaking of ear fatigue, take a break from all noise for 15-30 minutes every two hours.