Whether you decide to self-produce your music because you are interested in production or because you do not know any producer and prefer doing something yourself rather than waiting indefinitively, it’s sometimes hard to know where to start.

Production is sometimes seen as a technical skill, or a set of technical skills, especially if you end up being the sound engineer as well (which obviously you will be if you self produce your music at home). However, creativity has its place in production; in fact, production starts off with creativity, and the technical skills are only there to transfer the idea to reality.

Production is about creating, blending and mixing sounds, it is about creating a soundscape that will support the song, a soundscape that will bring life, light and gloss to the song. 

Defining the sound you want is therefore the first step for any would-be producer. What is the song about? What reaction are you trying to get from the audience? How do you want them to feel when they hear the song? The songwriting should be clear enough for you to be able to answer these questions. If it’s not clear, go back to the drawing (songwriting) board.

Do not hesitate to reference existing music when you describe the sound you want. In fact, i recommend you do reference existing recordings. Not one audio recording but many of them. As many as you can think of.

Let’s say you want to help people release their anger; you might think about audio recordings from the grunge and punk scenes. Which ones work for you? And which specific element works? Is it the drums? The guitars? At first, you will probably think “everything”. 

To help yourself work out the driving elements of a recording, analyse each instrument at a time. How would you describe each instrument? The tone quality, the volume, the effects, the sonic relationship between this instrument and each other (which sounds does it reinforce, which sounds does it fight for space with, which sounds does it colour).

Next monday, i will post Part 2 of “self produce your music”. I will look into mapping your own soundscape, based on what you have learnt from recordings you like.

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