If you’ve ever wondered how to produce music, you’ve come to the right place. In this two part guide, we look out how to produce music for beginners, and how to do so with minimum funds available to you. Despite popular belief, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on software to become a good music producer. What you do need however, is practice and a good ear for sounds.
I’ve seen people spend hundreds on music production software and struggle to use it properly. I’ve also seen people spend $30 on simple beat maker software such as DubTurbo, and make good quality beats in a matter of hours. Being a producer is more then just what software you use; it’s how you use it, and how much time and effort you’re willing to put into mastering your craft.
If you want to learn how to produce music, I suggest you read this article from start to finish. As long as you apply what you learn and work on becoming a music producer, there’s no reason you won’t have your first songs complete sooner rather then later.
P.S. How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two is also out now. If you want to know what is the beat maker software why, how to structure a song properly, and how to get the work levels of a top producer, we suggest you read that as well.
Why Would You Want To Make Your Own Beats?
Depending on what the aim is for your music career, music production could be your ideal job. There are a lot of people who enjoy music, but don’t want to necessarily be up there in the spot light. Becoming a producer means that you can make music to your heart’s content, but stay relatively unknown if you so choose. If you do enjoy the spotlight however, there is plenty of space for recognition as a master producer. Look at Dr Dre and Will.I.Am for example, two very big producers who are known throughout the world. They also make a lot of money.
If you do vocals however, you may you may also want to produce your own music. If you can make your own beats, you won’t have to rely on other people to give you backing tracks. Sometimes producers can be long to give you an instrumental you want, or they may end up giving you no songs at all. Waiting for other people to deliver can be one of the most frustrating things about the music industry, and one you may want to cut out if possible.
Another reasons why you would want to learn how to produce music if you’re a vocalist, is because you can get your backing tracks exactly how you want them. Other producers not giving you the type of backing tracks you’re looking for? No problem, if you know how to produce you can make it yourself.
All in all, music production is a good skill to have. I’d advice you try it at least once, get some cheap beat maker software such as DubTurbo, and see if it’s for you. If you’re after professional music production software however, that guide will give you all the details you need.
Is It Hard To Make Your Own Beats?
Well, yes and no. It can be if you do it wrong, but if you go down the right path initially then the learning curve should be fine. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you what the right path is. 😉
The thing is, many beginner producers start out punching above their weight. They buy complex software such as Cuebase, and hardware to mix all their music down. Doing this is basically setting yourself up to fail, as you don’t have the basic knowledge to create your own beats yet.
What you need instead is some simple but powerful beat making software such as DubTurbo. This has built with beginner and intermediate producers in mind. It is easy enough to pick up and learn, yet powerful enough to produce good quality music that you’ll be able to get someone to vocal.
Forget about getting all the most expensive equipment you hear Dr Dre talking about, start out with the basics and work your way up. Try jump the gun too early and you’ll be left with nothing but confusion.
Do You Need A Recording Studio To Make Your Own Beats?
A common misconception that many people have is they think you need a recording studio to produce music. While you can produce your own music in studios, it isn’t necessary at all. In fact, I’d actually advice against it unless you’re a professional producer. There are two main reasons for this:
- It Gets Expensive.
As some of you may know, the cost of hiring a studio isn’t generally cheap. While it can be manageable to vocal a few songs here and there, using a recording studio to produce music is a whole other thing entirely.
It can take a long time to make a fresh beat, hours if you’re a professional, or days if you’re not (You’ll find you’ll always be going back to tweak things and make them better). Now think about it, how much would it cost to make an album’s worth of instruments for yourself or another independent musician to use? Way too much is the answer, so unless you’re already making money from the music industry, it’s simply not worth it. - You Don’t Get As Much Time As You Need.
Unless you have your own studio, then the time you’ll get in the studio is limited. You’ll have to book your session in advance, sometimes days or weeks in advance. When you do get your booking however, you may only be able to book it for a few hours at a time. When you make your own beats, you don’t want to be stopped in the middle of things and be told your time’s up. You want to keep going and finish your song while you’re in the zone. This is another reason why I’d advice against using a studio to record beats unless you’ve an unlimited budge or your own recording studio.
So how do you produce music if you’re not going to be using a studio? Easy, you learn how to produce music from home.
How To Produce Music From Home
So now you know you don’t need a music studio to make your own beats, I’m guessing you’ll be wanting to know how to produce from home? Great question, and one we’re going to show you today. There are a few essential things you’ll need if you want to produce music from home, and they are:
- A Computer With Sound.
If you want to get into audio production, you need a computer. This is where you’ll make all your music, using your mouse to arrange the sounds as you want them. You’ll need a decent computer with sound capabilities, and one with enough power to make sure you can run any music software without having the computer slow down. As long as you have bought your computer in the last few years and have treated it well, it should be fine. - Music Software.
You need music software to actually create your instrumentals. This will basically give you the power of a miniature studio in your own house, with all the instruments and sound effects you need to produce your own music. I’d suggest going for a cheap option (You can check out our DUBturbo review and bonus here) while you’re starting out, it’s easy to learn and can produce good quality songs for both beginner and intermediate producers. Alternativly, now there are many great free software options too as you can see in this article: https://midination.com/daw/free-daw/best-free-daw/
And that’s it. You don’t need anything else to get started producing your own beats, with just those two things you can start producing music at home right away. There are however some additional add ons you can get such as keyboards, instruments and effect machines, but for now I’ll say keep it simple. All of the sounds you’d want from those instruments you can get in your software anyway, and new sounds can easily be downloaded from the internet if required.
How To Produce Music For Beginners End Of Part One
How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two is out now, so click that link (<) and check it out!
And that’s it for today, we hope we’ve given you some good background knowledge on how to become a music producer. You should now know why you would want to become a producer, why it’s a good idea to start off producing music at home, and what you need to start off producing music. In part two we’ll be looking more deeply into how to become a producer, showing you what beat maker software to get and why, how to get fresh sounds to make songs with, how to arrange your songs, and much more.
If you’ve any thoughts or questions about this article, please leave them in the comments section below. Go and check out How To Produce Music For Beginners Part 2 for more tips and advice.
P.S. The links to Dubturbo in this guide are affiliate links and I will be compensated if you buy Dubturbo after clicking one of them (At no cost to you).
thanks for the info,helped alot 🙂
You’re welcome. Glad it has helped. 🙂
Really useful info here. Some people are put off trying to make their own music because they think its too expensive. However, as you rightly say you can do so much from home with just your computer. Software like DubTurbo offer beginners a great entry into producing their own beats.
Thanks heaps guys got me supermotivated, props
No problem Branden, feel free to check back when you need even more motivation 😉
thank u .
No problem Sedor, hope you found it useful.
Was wanting to learn how to start making my own beats / recording music. Very useful info here, I think I’ll go ahead and try out this DUBturbo you speak highly of. Any way you could give me a list (links) of additional accessories like keyboards, effect machines, recording microphones? Whats the best out there without breaking the bank? Thanks man
Hi Jake. I haven’t got a full list of equipment, sorry. I may write up a list in future. That said, check on Amazon in your country as they usually have good deals going on. You can usually get a idea of how good something is based on the reviews, so that’ll help in terms of finding the hardware side of things. Also put ‘cheap’ in front of things when you’re searching on Amazon, so for example ‘cheap keyboard’.
Thanks for the info, i always wanted to make music but never had the drive. Now i do, and i love how this was the first search result on google, it really gave me some insight.When i make great music and people ask me how it all started ill make sure to give this site credit 😀
Thanks Jay, some credit for our advice is always appreciated! 😉
And glad I helped give you drive, hope you become a great music producer!
that really help a lot thank u!!!!!!
No problem Latjor, get out there and start making some good beats!!
Very helpful in motivating my boys to make there own beats
Pls were can I get d software d dub Turbo thx
The link to Dubturbo is at the top of this guide.
Good stuff Ej, you’re never too young to start producing!
Hey, thank you so so so much for sharing a important information and to guide all!
You’re welcome Nizani.
Wow very good info can the dubturbo be downloaded
Yep, see the link at the top of this post Harbey.
You’ve given me motivation to follow my dream as a music producer. Thanks A bunch!
You’re very welcome Kawai, that’s what they guide’s here to do 😉
This is really helpful but i would like to know a lot more about sound mastering and how to have a good ear for sound.
Glad to hear it’s helpful Speech! Here are some more music production related guides: https://www.independentmusicadvice.com/category/make-your-own-beats/