Advice for Becoming a Music Producer

Series Summary

Have you decided that you want to give music recording a shot, but you don’t know where to start? You’ve heard of the digital music revolution, and you know that analog is nice for warmth and tone, but you’ve chosen to go with digital. Maybe the ubiquity of software applications that allow you to do on your laptop what it used to cost thousands of dollars to do in a studio swayed your decision. Whatever the reason for going digital, now that you have, you’ve got to learn how digital recording works. With the large number of inexpensive options for getting your songs down, the choices can be pretty overwhelming, but if you start simple and get a little bit of help, you’re sure to be pleased with the results. Other key parts of the recording process are finding the right equipment for a studio and making sure the studio has the right equipment. In this free video series on music producing and recording, a veteran record producer will discuss the basics of recording music. Find out how to record music on a computer and build a music studio. Learn how to choose session musicians to get just the right sound for a recording.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Greg Hansen and my website is Greg-Hansen.com, and I've been a record producer for thirty five years. The question we've been asked to day is how to become a music producer. Well, a music producer is kind of at the top of the industry food chain, and so, you don't actually walk into that. You have to build into that, starting from the bottom and working up. And, there are various paths to do that. One way is to apprentice with a producer, which is very hard to do, because they usually don't want to give away all their secrets. And their reputation is everything. Another way is to go to school. There's some terrific schools out there that can teach you the basics of how to do it, but then again, the connections and reputation are everything as a music producer. Nobody asks you how much school you have. They only want to know what your stuff sounds like and how good you are, and what kind of track record you have. You can also work your way up, like I did. I started out as a music copyist, and then went up in to orchestration and arranging. And then, following that, I started being a music producer and owning a record label."