Discerning Between Music Producer and Beat Maker
The job description of a beat maker is to develop and hone beats. Given that they can produce beats is different from terming them a music producer. The beat maker is involved in a process, learning to produce music. He may produce the beats and sell them to a budding musician. He may exercise minimum influence on composition and tune of the track (Frith, S., 2012).
The music producer has a shared responsibility of shaping, creating as well as moulding a particular piece of music as per the vision of the artist, depending on the nature of music. More so, a musician may also coach/ direct he musicians to develop a mature feel in their music. The music producer is tasked with supervising the composition, fiddling with instruments and overall development of the song (Frith, 2012, p. 91).
Dr. Dre as a Musical Inspiration
Dr. Dre is a key musical inspiration and a famous figure in popular culture and music production sector. For the budding music producers, Dr. Dre is an entire academic institution to learn from. The roots of musical mastering and mixing essentially begins with a sound engineer, which is a stepping stone into music production (Toynbee, 2016, p. 90).
From a musical and personality perspective, Dr. Dre has remained an overall inspiration as his creative intent remains intact regardless of the artists he collaborates with and participates to the best of his ability in producing high quality and tailored musical arrangements (Timis, 2011, p. 21).
Dr. Dre as a music producer is a downright inspiration for me. His entire music compilation is flawless since it is his own intellectual works, which are in their originality. Inspirational music is often due to mutual understanding and collaboration and another key point of his inspiration is his openness to new creative ideas and preventing creative conflicts. The artistic style and imprint of an artist is allowed (Timis, 2011, p. 24).
Difference Between Dr Dre and Standard Producers
When paralleled to standard music producers in the industry against Dr. Dre, the difference exists when the producers attain a certain benchmark, they mostly rope in the hired services of sound mixing engineers for fine-tuning the songs to perfect them. The notable music producers in the industry are usually associated with sound engineers, having studied electronics and gained mastery over SSL and Neve. These sound mixers are well-studied and learnt individuals, capable of marrying sound, math and audio technology. It requires a high level of proficiency to perfectly work with a plethora of musical instruments and arrangements.
There is a massive difference between the normative music industry producers against Dr. Dre. The notable songs of Dr. Dre may begin with his programming the snare drum and kick, however, they also conclude with his mixing of the sound recording using scientific and sonic mastery from mastery of his two hands. He is different as he is the writer, producer and also the engineer of the song. All of the recordings released under him are tailored by Dr. Dre. It is more of a one-man show involving only Dr. Dre, for enhancement of the sounds.
As is the case, Dr. Dre is keen on working on the SSL consoles for hours in order to perfect the use of electronic engineering for mixing console for application of the skill in a relatively more creative fashion. His skills on the SSL console and music production softwares is unparalleled when compared to standard music producers, equalising the sound mixing engineers. At present, no particular music producer possesses similar engineering and programming skills. More so, the contemporary music producers have often resorted to hiring hands of drummers to set the tune and rhythm of a recording. However, Dr. Dre is a drummer himself as he has drummed all his songs himself. The music producers may often bring in sonic scientists for mixing their productions, graduating a song to a timeless classic. Lastly, Dr. Dre records his sounds and songs to the highest audio quality compared to other musicians.
Dr. Dre revamped the hip-hop industry on his own as his game-changing techniques in music resulted in stamping his personal signature on the hip-hop genre. His mainstay is his command over the instruments in his studio. His inspiration in music remains diversified, due to which he is an academic institution in music/ a beginner course, boasting a discography which encompasses R&B, rap and even movie scores (Goto, 2001, p. 76).
Importance of Instruments in Tracks
The importance of instruments in tracks is a key ingredient as the proper instrument combination and sound is an art form in itself, which consumes a similar creative energy similar to selecting the right chord. The right blend of instruments may result in the creation of soulful melody along-with a beautified engagement of composition. Adequate amount of time is necessary for the selection of sounds/ instruments to be applied in recording, and how the sounds are related to each other. A sound is defined by the instruments used (Söderman, 2004, p. 87).
How Unique I Intend to Be?
Experimenting with diverse instruments results in proper familiarisation with the key role each instrument can play during a musical arrangement. Instrumental experimentation can result in a wide variety of sounds when different instruments are played in from an assortment of genres. The addition of a new instrument changes the genre of music (Schloss, J.G., 2014, p. 32).
After gaining substantial familiarisation with the instruments, it is necessary to gain more understanding of the combinations. Working on Pro Tools and DAW softwares (the previous ones), original renditions were created, independent of any inspiration. However, for comparatively more uniqueness, selecting a genre is more imperative. For remaining unique, it is essential to initiate with a common range of sounds, however, gaining familiarity with them results in adding mixed sounds and features in the original sound. To gain considerable familiarity with the instruments, the subset of instruments was selected from different genres, blending them results in a new feel of sound. More so, when low instruments are played at different ranges, or even high instrument at a relatively lower range. It blends very differently with the other musical instruments (Frith, 2012, p. 77).
Using the digital effects results in proper familiarisation with instruments, especially the electric guitar, the sounds can be varied using this method. The MIDI sequence of songs is created from different parts of the song, and different instruments were swapped/ exchanged in order to render a different feel to the sound. The volume variation also changes the sound substantially. Being a budding music producer, it is necessary to be experimenting with new instruments and sound for gaining proper expertise over the musical arrangements and instruments and how they play in the musical composition (Schloss, J.G., 2014, p. 39).
How I Made the Beats
During the process of developing/ producing beats, it is a single aspect of making music, along-with many others. The associated features include music software mixing, learning to structure the songs, developing beats, mixing audio as well as exporting, among other things. Learning to develop beats independently is an overwhelming process, as the information is broken down into its constituents for for the sake of simplicity. During development of beats, it was observed that a mass majority of the music is developed from a loop-based system, as which the music passes through multiple loops repeatedly in different sequences. During development of beats, the sounds are stacked on top of each other and they can be arranged/ rearranged into different orders as per the sound suitability. With the help of the FL Studio software, the touch screen interface eliminated the usage of mouse to tap on screen. For the purposes of developing beats, the software FL Studio was shortlisted due to its increased ease of use and simplicity, whereas the other contemporary softwares such as DubTurbo, Reason and Dr. Drum were only reviewed from the audience perspective (Chafe, 2012, p. 41).
Why I Aspire to Become a Music Producer?
The music producers are tailored and attuned with a diverse amount of musical influences and trends, which enables them to create new riffs. Being a music producer results in dissecting the musical influences and tastes of the musicians and simpler understanding of their creative bent. Using the software controls, the MIDI controllers allow in controlling of drums, loops, rhythm, tone adjustment and beats using simply the virtual controls. The MIDI controllers well results in a novice becoming an expert on the audio controls and high-end keyboard synchronisation (Frith, 2012, p. 64).
Being an avid music fan, there are certain tools such as Cecilia, GarageBand, Audacity as well as Mixx were phenomenal to gain some hands on expertise on learning to produce music as a novice in the field. However, after having sufficient experience these aforementioned softwares, it was time to transition over to the Mu Tools, which was used for comparatively lesser duration. The more emphasis remained on Pro Tools, Cubase and MixCraft for gaining in-depth command over the editing, layering as well as sequencing of the musical songs. On these softwares, the artist covers were segmented and broken down into their constituents. There were plethora of tips, tricks as well as already built-in tutorials available which provisioned considerable command over the basic premises of each song arrangement (Frith, 2012, p. 60).
A novice/ budding music producer can gain command on audio production using the DAW softwares (Digital Audio Workstation). There are multiple similar options available, however, for a beginner, the DAW software is the ultimate tool to teach music production as it has ease of use, reliability along-with variability. Among the DAW softwares, there are certain highly informational tools such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro and Ableton Live (Frith, 2012, p. 51).
The interest in Pro Tools has resulted in a huge amount of interest in music production. The Pro Tools has a fantastic mixing board mimicry, which has become the preferred choice for the upscale audio manipulation and recording. It is no wonder that the industry has also adopted Pro Tools as the desired recording and sound mixing software. In the future, it has a high demand among the studio engineers, to have a substantial amount of expertise over Pro Tools for working with the top-notch musicians. Furthermore, notation, sequencing abilities and MIDI is also a competitive tool for creative music manipulation. The in-line editing feature is tailor-made for talented musicians just as well as that the novice music producers (Schloss, 2014, p. 40).
Working on the Pro Tools is a lifetime experience, which keeps on giving. As is the case, its popularity may have decreased in the music industry due to the wide range of paid options available, however, it is still an engaging and a highly informative music software on which countless recording hours have been spent in learning and experimenting. It is not obsolete as of yet since hip-hop singers still use it for its acoustic properties (Goto, 2001, p. 170).
Being a music producer obligates well-cognisance with arranging ideas, sound design, mixing and mastering and creation of musical melodies. Being a music producer, there are immense job opportunities as it is a rewarding career. A music producer may transition into sound design (including gaming and film sounds), teaching (teaching music softwares and tools), commercial production (including advertisements, movies and games) and audio engineering (mastering and mixing music in events) (Goto, 2001, p. 171).
Using the Ableton Live software has been a huge foundational course in producing music, a diverse array of music for that matter. It has provided with a step by step approach, part-oriented arranger, which enables in creation, electronic live performance along-with improvisation. However, it can be asserted with assurance the range of functions provided by Pro tools, the Ableton Live only provided a much better and mature experience in comparison. The Ableton Live in comparison to other DAWs is highly outstanding and a standalone software suite in its own right. It possesses the tempo, rhythm manipulation, audio warping as well as pitch of audio feature, often known as MIDI. This feature contributes highly in matching of tempos/ dance tracks, employed in concerts by DJs. All in all, the Ableton Live is a highly sophisticated and advanced software, tailoring an individual with mature musical skills. The Ableton Live software can also take grooves and beats from an existing audio file and append it into a new musical composition (Schloss, 2014, p. 44).