Translate

Search This Blog

Wednesday 15 May 2013

WHAT IS MUSIC PRODUCTION?

Well while listening to a piece of music with strange effects, you might have wondered about how such things are done, specially if you are fond of electronic music. The obvious questions are like, how did he do this? Did he really do this? How was this music produced? What is MUSIC PRODUCTION?

Well, here I would give you a simple yet appropriate explanation of what Music Production (the primary topic of this blog) actually is. 

Music Production is actually a complicated yet very important technical side of music. To put it simply, as the name clearly states, it refers to the processes involved in the making of music - simple isn't it?(yet not very!)

I’m not gonna delve very deep into the subject (as it may seriously bore you if I start writing pages on this topic!), but will just give an overview of it step by step so that people new to this field can get a clear idea of what Music Production is all about.

To understand this, first you need to know the various stages of the making of a song or any piece of music and about the different people involved in it.

The people involved in the entire process are composers, performers(instrumentalists/vocalists), the record artist or the recording engineer, and the mixing engineer. Well, you may call them all musicians as all of them must have a good sense of music to successfully do their jobs. It's common these days that a single person plays multiple roles in the entire production procedure.

Now let us get into the procedure. Music Production involves the complete process of making a song starting from scratch to recording it and bouncing it down to any suitable audio file format.

We can broadly classify Music Production into three categories: 

1) Pre-production - This is the stage in which the music is composed, structured and rehearsed. After this the musicians are all ready for the recording.

2) Production - This is the stage in which the music is recorded by some convenient means, for example, recording the music into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This process is carried out in the recording studio in presence of the recording engineer who supervises the entire process including microphone positioning for various instruments and vocals.  However this is not the section for which all those above mentioned questions actually crops up in the listeners' mind. 

3) Post-production - This is the most complicated yet most important stage of music production. Now that the raw music has been recorded, its time to edit it. (Yeah, I'm really excited now! OK, back to work!) All of the post-production work is done in the DAW. Remember, the song was not recorded all at once. It was recorded part by part and multiple times according to the convenience of the musicians. The editing procedure includes selecting the best portions of the recorded music, cutting, stretching, and positioning of the audio and adding effects to the different tracks. Finally the tracks are mixed and mastered in an acoustically treated studio control room to make the final piece sound perfect before the audio file is rendered. A room with proper acoustic treatment is essential so that the mixing engineer can listen to the reality without the influence of room reflections as this can affect the mix very badly. 


Indeed technology plays a vital role in today's music industry and the need for it in music production is ever increasing.
That ends Music Production in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed it.

If you want know more about recording music and building a home studio at a reasonable budget, refer to my post on HOME STUDIO MADE EASY here.

If you want to know more about music production you may refer this book:
What is Music Production?: A Producers Guide: The Role, the People, the Process
 

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERY FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT DOWN BELOW.

Saturday 11 May 2013

SPECIAL POST - For All Music Lovers

Hey,

This is a special post, where I would not share any information about Music Production. This is a post for Music lovers from all over the world who love soulful music. Today I would share with you an Instrumental / Piano (Reprise) version of the popular Bollywood song "Tumhi Ho" from the movie Aashiqui 2 made by me recently. As we all know, music transcends the barriers of language, so where ever you are from, you will surely love it.

HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS VERSION OF THE SONG AND DO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS DOWN BELOW. Don't forget to like, share & favourite the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel if the music touches your heart.

Original Version Composed by Mithoon and sung by Arijit Singh

Watch the YouTube video :


Or Listen on SoundCloud :


Tuesday 7 May 2013

Best VST Plugins


When I wanted to know, what the best VSTs were for me, I started researching, but soon got confused, as there were many plugins, effects and instruments to choose from. After a lot of hard work, I started understanding how things actually worked. I decided to write this post so that you, beginners, can get into music production without going through that hard work, that confusion and without wasting any of your precious time.

In this post I am making a list of the top rated VSTs available in the market today, dividing them into their categories to make things easier for you. So, based on what kind of music you want to produce you can easily reach a conclusion in no time.


1. Complete Library :










2. Synthesizers :





3. Drums :





4. Grand Piano :





5. Orchestral :











6. Ethnic :





IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERY ABOUT THIS POST OR ABOUT ANY OTHER PLUG-IN WHICH YOU MAY BE CONSIDERING FEEL FREE TO POST A COMMENT OR CONTACT ME.

Sunday 5 May 2013

COMPOSERS TIP OF THE DAY

Technology can never be a substitute of creativity, as a software can never compose a tune. So use it to unlock your creative mind, not expecting it to be creative itself.

Friday 3 May 2013

Review - GarageBand for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch

With GarageBand on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch,  you can make music anywhere you go, as it turns your iDevice into a semi-pro recording studio. The touch instruments are quite playable  by most conventional musicians owing to its fantastic user interface. The automated smart versions of the the instruments like smart guitar, smart strings, smart drums etc. makes it easier for the amateur to start making music even if he/she has never played a note before. You can use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, strings, pads, guitars, drums, etc. which sound extremely natural and at the same time let you do stuff that you could never do on a real instrument. 

If musicians find it difficult to play the instruments on the touchscreen they always have an option to use iRig Keys, a midi controller made for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by IK Multimedia. There are several other similar gadgets to make the set up more professional. Using these gadgets you can connect a guitar, keyboard or even a professional microphone to your small studio.

The only draw-back in my opinion is that it does not have a score viewer or a score editor which most musicians would love to have.  It has some preset effects and plugins but lacks manual controls. Otherwise GarageBand is a wonderful app for everyone that can easily turn your creative thoughts into music through its user friendly and enjoyable interface.

It's really a lot of fun making music with such a portable tablet even though it lacks some pro features. Rather we cannot expect an iPad DAW to do any more than this whatsoever. It is an enjoyable app for everyone, starting from musicians to kids.


                                          
 

\

WATCH A VIDEO




Buy these products now
Apple devices:

1. iPad (Buy from Amazon) :
    iPad 16 GB 4th Gen or iPad Mini 16GB

    iPad (Buy from Flipkart) :
    iPad Mini 16GB or iPad 16 GB 4th Gen

2. iPhone 5 : Buy from Amazon

IK Multimedia gadgets for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and Android Devices:

1. iRig Keys (Keyboard Controller) :

  Buy from Amazon
                                                                 or
                                                       Buy from Bajaao


2. iRig (Guitar Interface) :
Buy from Amazon
                                                               or
                                                     Buy from Bajaao


3. iRig Microphone :
Buy from Amazon


4. iLine (Cable Kit) :
Buy from Amazon


5. iRig Mix DJ (Mixer) :
Buy from Amazon
                                                               or
                                                     Buy from Bajaao



6. iRig Mic Cast (Compact Microphone) :
Buy from Amazon
                                                   or
                                         Buy from Bajaao



7. iRig Midi (Midi Interface) :
Buy from Amazon
                                                                or
                                                      Buy from Bajaao



IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERY FEEL FREE TO POST A COMMENT OR CONTACT ME. YOU CAN FIND MY CONTACT INFORMATION IN THE CONTACT TAB.