There’s no better time to release music than the present. In this guide you’ll find the 3 most important software you’ll need to create and release your music.
What music software do you need to produce music:
The music software is what you’ll use to record, process, mix, and master your music. Music production software is often referred to as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Here are the most popular DAW’s for recording and producing music:
- FL studio
- Ableton
- Studio One
- Bandlab
- Garageband (apple only)
- Pro Tools
- Reason
- Logic Pro X (mac only)
If you plan on using computer-generated sound or virtual instruments (VST), Ableton and FL Studio are the most popular. If you plan on recording and processing mainly live sounds, Pro Tools is the industry standard.
If you’re not sure which DAW to use, there’s this full guide here.
What music samples do you need when producing:
Most musicians and artists don’t have the skill and/or equipment to record every element of their song live. To combat this, they often turn to sample packs to get pre made sounds and loops they can use.
Here are some of the must have samples for producing music:
- Drum samples you can use to create drum beats
- One shot samples you can use to create melody loops, E.G. a guitar one shot
- Live vocal loops
- Live guitar loops
- Live drum loops
- Chord progressions
- Pre made melody loops
These music samples also make it easier to boost your creativity, or destroy “writer’s block”. If you don’t have a whole team of song writer’s and musicians, this will definitely help you start and finish your music.
How to engineer and master your music:
Arguably the most difficult and most important step – mixing and mastering. This is where you take all your elements and blend them together.
Popular mixing software includes:
- Pro tools
- iZotope Ozone
- Maximus
- Native Instruments Music Production Suite 6.5
Once you’ve recorded and create all of the layers in your track, you’re going to want to set the levels for each of them. Go through your layers one by one, and set the volume, bringing one layer in at a time. If a layer is overcrowding your mix, lower it, or use an EQ to cut out some of the frequencies.
One you’ve finished your mix, use a mastering plugin like iZotope Ozone maximiser to boost the volume. You can mess around with settings like “character” and “speed” to change how quickly the volume automation is applied.
I hope you use this guide to record and produce great music!
