Electronic Producer by Jonny Sonic

10 PRO TIPS

HOW TO BECOME AN

ELECTRONIC

PRODUCER FROM SCRATCH AT HOME, CHEAP!

AND START YOUR FIRST TUNE!

..with very little gear, cheap and fast. Even as a total beginner that has never made a beat.

It will prepare you in every aspect of how to become a producer.

This Book + Beats is a HUGE kickstart that I wish I had when I began my journey as a Producer, Performer, DJ + Songwriter. Cutting through all the bullshit on the net and really focussing on what you want and need and how to obtain your goals as a music producer + artist producer By the end of the book you will be able to make your first track because I’m loading you up with 5 FREE BEATS that you can literally throw into your DAW and they are Mixed, Mastered, Fully arrangenged and all you have to do is put in some sounds!

You will know what to buy, cheap, where to buy it, how to set it up, what you need, cheat sheets for chords and so so sooo much more……

The Beginners Guide to:

You are going to SAVE:

Time Save money It takes all the fear away because it can be daunting when you don’t know where to start Save valuable brain cells Theres no thinking, PLUS when you buy the Book you will get 5 FREE BEATS That I have producer directly for YOU in the styles of: þ

FISHER, TIESTO, MARTIN GARRIX, DIPLO, SPINNIN’ RECORDS, and many more..

I answer HUGE ‘Have to Know’ SECRETS and HACKS, that GET RESULTS You will Instantly gain popularity on Social Media when you start posting your creations.

Once you start making music you can start to build your skills online to get more fans! People will watch you on TIKTOK, Instagram, Youtube Facebook.. etc.

“We are all humans and some of us love to make music, make beats, sing, or write and produce tracks” – Jonny Sonic

If this IS what you want to do, this Book + Beats will give you the BEST Starting Point because its written by someone whom has over 30 years of experience Hey im Jonny Sonic Founder of The Potbelleez, I have been producing and performing electronic music for nearly 3 decades.

Im a multi platinum + gold certified producer and won many awards for songwriting and producing #1 Records such as… (play DHB/Hype Video chops)

Mentoring Artists and producers is a passion of mine and ive helped hundreds of artists all over the world including my own band The Potbelleez to gain huge success, #1 Records and headlining festivals all over the world. Ive had 2 #1 Albums, 6x Eps, over 25 Singles, 10x Club Chart #1s, and the longest running Published track in Oz history with JEEP – Don’t Hold Back. And we have had hundreds of major syncs to TV + Movies

10 ULTIMATE

SECRETS ON HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCER FROM SCRATCH AT HOME!

AND MAKE YOUR FIRST BEAT!

I HAVE CREATED THIS BOOK BECAUSE 1. It helps young and up and coming Artists and Producers get started 2. It helps you make choices and music faster without the headaches 3. It helps me actualize my dreams of bringing music production to as many humans as possible as it helps the soul and spirit.

4. I want to give back to the industry that gave me everything

INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome budding producers. Its an honour for me to have written this Book and is a huge kickstart for any budding artist, Dj/Producer on How to Start Making Music On Your Computer from home with very little gear, cheap and fast even as a total beginner that has never made a beat.

Ill even show you how to make your first track by loading you up with 5 FREE BEATS and how to make a track in 24 hours with them!

“I have worked and played with artists from all over the world like Boy George, Tiesto, Chemical Brothers, Grandmaster Flash, Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada, Skrillex, Q-TIP, Snoop Dog, The Prodigy, David Guetta, DEADMAU5, Martin Garrix, Bass Kleph, B.o.B, Calvin Harris, Steve Aoki, Bloody Beetroots, and so many more, and now I’m excited to be working with YOU and be YOUR MENTOR! My job is to provide you with everything you need in order to be successful”

DISCOGRAPHY: þ 5 x Platinum þ 3 x Gold þ 7 x ARIA Nominations þ 2 x APRA Winner “Dance Work Of The Year”

PUBLISHED MUSIC: þ JEEP, GO CHANNEL ANTHEM, IM A CELEBRITY, CELEBRITY APPRENTICE, BIG BROTHER, AFL + NRL ANTHEMS, SAMSUNG CHANNEL 7 ,9 + 10 þ Featured on Multiple Major Shows.

SHOWS: þ Sydney Opera House Steps x 4 Finals of Big Brother Live Finals of AFL+NRL þ Opera House

Jonny Sonic is a MultiPlatinum and Multi Award Winning Producer, Songwriter, DJ, Promoter, Radio DJ, Presenter and Mentor

þ Rod Laver Arena Multiple times Richard Branson Launches þ Every Major Dance Music Festival 16 Years on Tour þ Adelaide Oval Opening þ O2 Arena in Dublin þ Opening ceremonies þ Usher Support for 16 Arena Shows Endless Gig List

WHY JONNY SONIC? He uses mathematical codes that he has invented himself from universal frequencies. His alchemy includes an untapped Universal coding, created by Jonny, found nowhere but his creative mind.

Over his 30+ years experience, he uses a recipe of The Fibonacci Code, Solfeggio Scale, Camelot Wheel, Chakras, Energy, Tonal Frequency Epigenetics and fires and wires new neurological pathways to create the perfect energy and money magnet clients to your business, THROUGH the Law Of Melody Attraction.

Beyond all that.. Lets start with the basic!

Because what Jonny does is very different. He has a mountain of knowledge and experience.There isn’t anything else like this.

He has a very different way of approaching music production.

“In this Book you will get over 30 Years of the EXACT BEGINNERS BLUEPRINT I have used my whole career to write, produce and engineer Multiple Platinum & Gold Records around the world with over 27 records, 17x #1 records, 2x #1 Albums, 12 E.Ps. Best DJs In Australia INTHEMIX Awards, Multiple Awards for “Best Dance Work” and Most Played Song” at the APRA Awards plus 7 Nominations at the ARIAs. I lay out all the best ways to get equipment, what I use and what you should and should not buy.

CONTENTS. The 10 Ultimate Secrets on How To Become a Successful Music Producer from Home with Zero Experience, Cheap and Fast!

1. What IS a Music Producer

Bonus 1:

2. What does it take to become a Music Producer

5 FREE BEATS written, produced, arranged, mixed and Mastered with Fx by Jonny Sonic.

3. Where do I Start 4. What do I use and where do I get it

Bonus 2:

5. How do I know what music to make

10 SKILLS TO SPEED UP THE LEARNING CURVE

6. Ableton simplified and Build Your First Beat

Bonus 3:

7. Arrangement

6 CREATIVE PROCESS ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESS

8. Why is it so important for artists to also have production skills?

9. The 7 modern cheats on how to write music brilliantly without knowing the theory and what to learn 10. Cheat Sheats.

Bonus 4: THE A-Z OF SIMPLE MODERN PRODUCTION

1. WHAT IS A MUSIC PRODUCER? When I Started out, the term Music Producer meant that 1 person was in charge of making the artist sound great.

These modern days, as a ‘Producer’ you are to be expected to help write the music, sound design, select the drum and keyboard sounds for it, and then go all the way through to recording the vocals, mixing the song and finishing the Master.

Basically, we wear a shit load of hats being a Writer of songs/tracks, Producer, Engineer, Arrangement, Vocal Engineer, Recording Vocals, make someone’s song/track much better.

From Bedroom DJs who want to progress into making music, to aspiring talent that wants to headline Tomorrowland to the girl with her vocals & guitar writing songs and recording them.

We are ALL Music Producers

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: I started as a bedroom DJ, wrecking my mums head because i was thrashing out techno on my little stereo PC basic studio using REASON 1.0. The roof was thumping but she knew how passionate I was about learning how to make tunes.

It was an easy transition for me because i wanted to know how the tunes i was performing, were made. I was hooked.

2. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A MUSIC PRODUCER? These days not a lot. Anyone with a Laptop and Headphones can put a track together.

There are so many ways to started but there are 2 different types of producers in the Electronic world:

- THE WANNA-BE Expects everything to happen to them overnight and hand-me-fame-fast-so-i-don’t-have-to-work hard.

- THE GRINDER. They learn a lot, take their time learning each craft of production.

They know that they will make a lot of garbage before they hit their stride. They know it’s a big learning curve and they are patient They focus on consistency.

Set backs don’t bother them because they know the more mistakes they make the more they learn They FEEL the music, its in every atom of their being and nothing will stop them from success whatever it takes

They know how much work it takes to become a real successful producer. They go and find a mentor and do Tutorials and Online Courses.

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: “Nothing in this industry comes easy. It wikll come if you work. I don’t mean just a few hours here and there. I mean dedication to the craft. Being a student of the game in every aspect. You must live and breathe it to be a successful producer. This is what I look for in my students.

…..What does it take to become a music producer?.... Continued

7 Skills a Music Producer Needs To Practice Sound Engineering Music Instrument (Piano First) Music Theory (But Not Essential These Days) Creative Trust In Yourself The Music Lingo Communication Making reference Tracks

MUSIC THEORY: Start with the piano. Learn basic chords and what major and minor chords are and how to put them into action. I personally have never learned the real deep musical theory. Ive always used my ear and my gut feeling. The piano can be turned into any instrument when you start using plug in synthesizers.

Simple Contract

Lets Go Through Them 1 By 1: SOUND ENGINEERING: This skill is a must. We need to learn the skills to actually make music. Don’t worry you wont have to spend millions on an Engineering Batchelors degree.

In this case, sound engineering wears many hats. You will have to know, How your Daw works, How to make beats, How to use FX etc.

MUSIC INSTRUMENTS: Start with the piano. Learn basic chords and what major and minor chords are and how to put them into action. I personally have never learned the real deep musical theory. Ive always used my ear and my gut feeling. The piano can be turned into any instrument when you start using plug in synthesizers.

CREATIVE TRUST IN YOURSELF When sitting down to your laptop, sometimes you might get a bit nervous. You will question why and how all the time. This is very normal. You must trust your instinct and just start making something. The more trust you have in ‘Flow State’ the better you will perform. Trust your Gut!

LEARN THE PRODUCERS LINGO Have a look at what Synths are being used. What lingo is. It’s a language of frequencies and Plug Ins. You will start to learn the basics as I have listed at the end of this book.

USING REFERENCE TRACKS When you do get started it is always a great idea to load in a reference track. This will be a track that you love that has already been released. You use it as a guide for many reasons. Including Arrangement, Sound Quality, How Loud it is etc. Load it onto a track in Ableton (Or Your Daw) and mark it. Copy the arrangement, listen close and learn from it.

SIMPLE CONTRACT If someone comes to you and asks you to “Produce a Record’ for them. You will need a very simple 1 page contract.

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: “I’m a student of the game and I need to know what im doing when i turn on my computer to be able to make music. I am prepared to sacrifice time, clubbing, partying, or any bad distraction so I am clear headed to take on this beautiful challenge. At the other side there is a workflow that you will get addicted to.”

3. WHERE DO I START? THE 5 THINGS TO GET YOU STARTED PROPERLY 1. A laptop/computer 2. Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) I would advise ABLETON 3. Headphones and/or Speakers 4. Audio Interface 5. Midi Keyboard (Not necessary at the beginning) You start by starting. I got into making music because I simply love it.

It was a perfect blend of colour and frequency, energy and feeling.

Once i got the itch I’ve never stopped scratching. I began on a PlayStation on a game called music 2000 and I got my 1st #1 record on Irish radio!

I learned how to go from PlayStation, to VHS, to Tape and sent in the tape to my buddy john power who is the best DJ in Ireland and next thing i know, I’m listening to my track from the PlayStation music 2000 on national radio.

2 weeks later I was signed to a performance deal as a DJ and I had never mixed before (we will leave that story for later)

TIPS: Jump onto Blogs or Reddit and Youtube. Searc everywhere for as much information as possible.Buy Ableton Templates so you can see how tracks are formed together.

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: There are loads of free music making daws for pc and you have Garage Band built into any mac. Your daw software will come with a ton of stock sounds and presets, samples, and plugins. Everything you need is already included, believe it or not. There’s no hurdles or road blocks in your way other than learning how to use the daw, which isn’t too bad.

3. WHAT DO I USE AND WHERE DO I GET IT? EQUIPMENT & SOFTWARE Music production can be easy to setup for beginners and fairly inexpensive too. The most expensive equipment I’d say is worth investing in is a high spec laptop. I’ve always used a MacBook because of the reliability, but I know some music producers use a desktop PC which are a lot cheaper than MacBooks.

As a beginner I started out with a midi keyboard controller by Yamaha. This is simply a basic keyboard and it was enough to allow me to start inputting midi notes into music production software and start making music.

Technology has advanced a lot and we genuinely spoilt for choice. There’s a new midi keyboard that I’ve seen recently that I feel would be great for a beginner because it has a beatpad and keyboard. This is a great combo and saves having to buy two separate bits of kit.

The AKAI MPKmini.

I’ve used all of these different DAW softwares and can safely saw I’m most impressed with Ableton. It has an amazing simplicity about it and the workflow is definitely the best of the bunch. I have not used anything else since 2002 My advice is to purchase software direct from the software company websites. There are deals throughout the year for getting cheaper software and also you know the software is legit too.

START WITH THE BASICS: LAPTOP COMPUTER SOFTWARE AUDIO INTERFACE

If you want a great entry-level option, it’s hard to look past Apple’s GarageBand, which is free - and a no-brainer - if you have a Mac.

HEADPHONES

Acoustica’s Mixcraft is probably the closest PC equivalent, though you’ll have to pay for that one.

HERE IS JONNY SONICS SIMPLE SET UP:

Looking for anything that is FREE in this industry is easy.

þ LAPTOP COMPUTER -Macbook Pro (2012 with the guts ripped out and replaced with 2 big hard drives)

Making it sound great and having a reliable DAW that allows you to have NO LIMITS, is a totally different story

SPEAKERS

þ SOFTWARE DAW -Ableton Suite Max þ AUDIO INTERFACE/SOUNDCARD -Audient iD14 þ SPEAKERS -Yamaha HS7 þ HEADPHONES -BeyerDynamic DT770pro + -Seinnheiser HD 25 This basic set up has churned out over 30+ big hit records, 2 Full #1 albums, 7x Platinum, 4 Times Gold, Multiple Awards and shit loads of money.

So its never “What do I need to use” it’s “How am I going to use this“

You don’t want Cracked/Illegal Software because bootlegging is a real crime and I don’t want coppers on my front door saying “OIY HOW DID YOU MAKE THAT HIT, YOU DON’T OWN ANYTHING!?

There are many many free DAWs on the market but I would seriously have a look at buying the real thing.

In the long run it will save you so much time

LETS LOOK AT THESE 1 BY 1 AND BREAK THEM DOWN. 1. LAPTOP COMPUTER 2. SOFTWARE DAW 3. AUDIO INTERFACE/SOUNDCARD

Here is a list of the best of the best out there 1. MACBOOK PRO – GET THIS ONE!

4. SPEAKERS

2. MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 2

5. HEADPHONES

3. HP ENVY 360 4. ASUS VIVO BOOK SLIM 5. LENOVO THINKBOOK 14 6. BUILD YOUR OWN

COMPUTERS SPECS UNCOMPLICATED FOR YOU: These days it does not really matter what type of laptop or computer you have. Whether you choose Mac or Pc is your choice.

(GET MAC)

LAPTOP/COMPUTER If you don’t have a laptop or desktop computer you can search e-bay or an old-school computer store that might build you one much cheaper or use your parents (ask first) The Macbook is the #1 Computer on the planet. I made the transition from PC to MAC 25 years ago and never looked back.

It doesn’t matter so much these days, but I am still a Mac Producer.

As long as you have enough room to store the software and run the programme daw of your choice.

If you already know you are going to be running your Laptop into the ground with Lots of Audio Processing and added Plug In Software Synths and Sound Bundles. You need a decent Computer

HERE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING OR GETTING A SOLID MACHINE TO DO THE TASKS EASILY. Look for the processor speed The CPU is still the most important factor when it comes to audio making.

Look for “more cores” and “faster clock speeds” over 2.0Ghz for a better overall machine processor

Hard Drive Make sure you get an SSD card (solid state drive) to run your computer as it is faster to start and quicker reactions in real time. = NO WHEEL OF DEATH!

Ram Start with an 8gig of ram. You will need to upgrade to 16/32 gig of ram if you have multiple soundbanks and vst plug ins.

E (DAW): FREE AND PAID Best Free Daws On The Planet ģ Ableton Live Lite – Get This One

ģ Tracktion Wave Form Free

ģ Audacity

ģ Pro-Tools First

ģ Garage Band

ģ Cubase Le

ģ Soundbridge ģ Reaper

BEST PAID DAWS AND PRICE POINTS ABLETON – Free for 3 Months then starts at: GET THIS ONE

FL-STUDIO – Free edition when you sign up

LOGIC PRO – Garage Bands big brother + 3 Months free Trial STANDARD VERSION IS $320

PRO TOOLS – not recommended for beginners.

Monthly payments from $29.99 and the full year upfront is about the $200 mark per year

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: I’ve used all daws and because I’m a DJ/performer and artist too.

Ableton gives me all the freedom I want to jam out some music on the fly and record it as a track!

No other daw does this and that’s why it’s my #1 to go to!

AUDIO INTERFACE This is also known as a Sound Card. There are 100’s on the market. I would get one of these:

Here is a fantastic article on the best of 2022 under $500 https://musictech.com/guides/best-audio-interfaces-under-500/

ģ SPEAKERS ģ HEADPHONES

SPEAKERS There are so many on the market now that flood your ears with too much bass or not enough high frequencies.

The aim is to buy as true to the original sound as possible.

The best starter cheap speakers are the ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT YAMAHA HS5S

Or cheaper again the ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT KRK ROKIT 5S

HEADPHONES This is 1 thing I would encourage you to spend some money on. If you can’t afford speakers, invest in clean, flat, quality headphones.

Best Budget Headphones: ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT BEYERDYNAMIC DT770 PRO CLOSED STUDIO HEADPHONES (250OHMS)

4. HOW DO I KNOW WHAT MUSIC TO MAKE? Ask yourself this. What music do you love? What style of music gets you in the soul. The type of music that inspires you to get the fuck up in the morning and rush to your laptop and headphones to learn how to make more.

There are a few ways i went when i started. I loved 2-step UK garage music. It had sharp, short drum hits and round bubbly bass sounds with UK rappers on top of a beautiful simple melody.

It’s a style of production i keep to this day.I also loved hip-hop. The Very early stuff i listened to, shaped me for the rest of my life. So get stuck into learning what you want to know. þ How do i make a house beat? þ How do i make a hip-hop beat? þ How do i…. Etc. You must keep asking yourself these questions, because otherwise, how the fuck will you know?? Hah

HERE IS HOW I DO IT. I’ve always loved U2 (yes I’m Irish) and banging underground tech house with gnarly synth lines and banging ‘4 to the floor’ drums.

I incorporated all of these things into my productions.

Huge soaring anthemic U2 style songs over absolutely nasty filthy underground techno. (it’s called so many things these days).

If you look at my track The Potbelleez – Don’t Hold Back.

This is the perfect example of a hugely successful track that draws from several different genres of music.

THE BEAT IS BANGIN WITH A LAZY LATE SNARE (HIP HOP) THE BASS IS GRINDING SAW TOOTH (TECHNO) THE GUITAR IS ACCOUSTIC THE SONG IS AN ANTHEMIC SING ALONG (U2) Remember i told you about how i got my 1st #1 in Ireland?

Well i did that on a PlayStation and i was copying a massive tune that had already been out for 10 years ‘Underworld – Born Slippy’.

I literally found sounds that sounded like they were in the track, I messed around playfully with an open heart and out popped my first track

4 TIPS TO SHINE A TORCH ON WHERE TO START

Remake songs/tracks you love.

1 2

Throw the song into Ableton and start building your sounds to match it. That means figuring out their key, chord progressions, orchestration and arrangement, and recreating it the best you can.

You can usually find acapella tracks, too, though i recommend performing the vocals yourself.

Remix a song you love.

Its so much fun to take a song or an acapella (full vocal and fuck with it. Time stretch it, put it in a lower key so it sounds really low.

Chop up sections of it and figure out how you want it to sound. Shit loads of fun

3

Set fun challenges. Once i challenged myself to make a full anthemic track in 1 single note.

4

The more you sharpen what your focus is, the more creative you have to be.

JONNY SONIC SIMPLE CONCLUSION: Always Remember That The Magic Happens In The Unknown

DR. JOE DISPENZA

“My definition of creation is when I forget about myself, because that’s when you’re free.”

–Joe Dispenza.

“Learning is forming new connections in the brain and memory is maintaining/ sustaining those connections.”

–Joe Dispenza.

6. ABLETON SIMPLIFIED + BUILD YOUR FIRST BEAT!!

1

BASIC ABLETON RUN THROUGH

2

MAKE A BEAT

3

HOW WE LISTEN TO MUSIC

4

CHEET SHEETS AND LOTS OF VISUAL KNOWLEDGE FOR YOUR WALL

MAKE A BASIC 1 BAR BEAT 1:

BUILD A BASIC 1 BAR BEAT CONTINUED…..

BUILD A BASIC 1 BAR BEAT CONTINUED…..

BUILD A BASIC 1 BAR BEAT CONTINUED…..

BUILD A BASIC BEAT #2 Music Travels from Left to Right and from Bottom to Top

STEP 1 Let’s start with a simple Kick/Snare/HiHat pattern:

It’s pretty effective as a basic foundation of a track/song/meditation music/any music You should choose samples that you are happy with, but if you don’t find the perfect drums just now don’t worry.

I often go through dozens of samples until I’m happy and I often change samples when I got the pattern laid out completely.

Just choose something you can work with

STEP 2 To loosen up the groove a bit, we are going to do two things: 1. Move the snare slightly ahead of the kick, which will give us a slightly more driving feel and line up the transients of kick and snare 2. Add slightly off-grid ghost notes for the HiHat

STEP 3 Adding a second HiHat never hurts. Pick out a sound that is similar to the first HiHat, but different enough so you can hear it clearly.

Note that it is placed pretty off grid!

STEP 4 Now that the basic HiHat pattern is done, you can add other elements.

I’ve chosen a classic rimshot sound.

Because this sound is pretty dominant in the mix (as it’s a very different timbre than the HiHats), you probably shouldn’t go too crazy with it.

I’d advise a good mix between on-grid and off-grid hits.

STEP 5 Adding a drum sound that is similar to another and playing around with it can add tension and release to your drums - an essential technique to get groove.

I’ve chosen a tom sound that fits just nice with the rimshot. Note how both rimshot and tom overlap at a certain time.

Alright, that’s it! You got a nice foundation of a Dance track.

Please note that I didn’t do a lot of processing on the drums.

THINGS YOU CAN DO: þ Check if the drums sound good when you mute hi hats

þ Experiment with groove templates

þ Check if the drums sound good when you mute the kick

þ Add ghost kick notes

þ Add variation. Just a small fill each 8 bars make a huge difference.

þ Play around with note velocity!

þ Experiment adding other elements.

þ Add ghost snare notes

HERE IS ANOTHER WAY: SUPER SIMPLE! þ MIDI

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DIGITAL INTERFACE This is the correct terminology for what it means. Now for beginers, lets look at it like this

MUSIC IS DRAWN INSIDE. It’s the virtual piano roll that pops up when you throw an instrument onto a MIDI Channel. You can dowuble click and a small red bar will be placed on the note. When you play it back you will hear a note being played by the instrument.

Check this out! https://musicianshq.com/a-beginners-guide-to-midi/

SHORTCUTS TO REMEMBER þ New Audio Track: Command T þ New Midi Track: Command Shift T þ Re-Name Anything: Command R þ Set Markers: SET BUTTON þ Rename Markers: Command R þ Pen: B þ Find Operator: Left Column> Instruments> Operator þ Get Rid Of Side and Bottom Bars: Triangle Arrow.

7. ARRANGEMENT THIS IS HOW THE TRACK DEVELOPS OVER TIME FROM THE START TO THE FINISH OF WHAT YOU HEAR. How do i know where to put my sounds?

FIND A REFERENCE TRACK: When looking for inspiration for your song/track, it is always a great idea to have a reference track. Something that you love that you can almost recreate.

This gives you so much knowledge of what should go where and what levels should be in volumes, EQ, Compression and Arrangement.

TIP: It is really important to lock in the track in ‘warp mode’ so you can change its tempo and chop and re arrange the sections

BUILD A FULL ARRANGED TRACK WITH YOUR 5 FREE BEATS 1. Find a reference track to copy 2. Match its bpm + set markers 3. Find similar sounds with mixture of midi and audio 4. Copy the arrangement of the reference tracks 5. Build the sound pallet

6. Colour and organise sounds 7. Group beats + instruments 8. Chop vocal takes 9. Mix + master basics

FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS: PRINT THEM OUT!

8. WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR ARTISTS TO ALSO HAVE PRODUCTION SKILLS? WHAT I NEED TO LEARN. þ If you are a singer it is amazing for putting down demos þ if you are a songwriter you can lay down audio vocal track demos

Here’s a list of the top level areas that you can expect to learn within music theory.

þ if you are a session musician you can lay down takes of your instrument

þ Time signatures

þ if you are a drummer you can make electronic beats and sell them

þ Song structure

IM NOT A MUSICIAN AND DO NOT KNOW ANY THEORY!

þ Chord progressions

That’s ok. I still don’t know music theory as i should.

Ive been producing and performing for a long time.

MUSIC THEORY Music theory provides us all a grounding of knowledge that allows our creativeness to be poured into context to sound amazing. The wonderful thing about music theory is that it can be adapted to both music production and DJing. Music production for helping with aspects such as chord progressions and DJing for harmonic mixing.

þ Bars & Phrases þ Harmony þ Notation þ Scales þ Melody þ Rhythm þ Pitch

WHY IS MUSIC THEORY IMPORTANT?

WHAT IS MIXING AUDIO?

Music theory will give you a head start in your music production quality, depth and swiftness of creating music. A foundation of theory knowledge is a very good thing. It will help you writing chords, melodies, basslines and song structure. BASICALLY when you look at a piano, you will be able to know which keys to press.

Multiple effects and automation can be added once the the audio and midi notes are recorded onto the DAW. The aim is to take away any clashes in sound, smooth volume of certain sounds, make grooves sound more solid and punchy e.g. kick drums to stand out more in the mix by adjusting EQ.

TIP. I have attached a bunch of free Cheat Sheets to help with your music theory. Print them out and stick on your wall.

Ultimately music theory gives you a solid knowledge of music to provide a richer experience for listeners.

HOW DO I START LEARNING MUSIC THEORY? Jump on Youtube and type “how do I learn basic piano” and go from there. Pretty much everything I do or learn comes from tutorials on youtube. It’s the fastest free way to learn and there are a million people teaching it. There are a bunch of APPs too that you can learn fast.

WHAT IS A DAW? A DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation. It’s the beautiful big software that you will be using to create music across many different individual Channels/Faders.

Each channel allows you to add various sounds and instruments. You can play a midi keyboard or record live audio onto a DAW and once recorded it’s possible to edit the midi notes and audio waves. Once you’ve created a the structure of a track that you’re working on, you can move onto mixing and mastering, this process is considered the ‘post-production’ phase.

This process is known as “mixing”, which is the process of making the creativeness that you’ve captured to sound tight and well balanced to the listeners ears.

COUNTING BEATS, BARS & PHRASES Hopefully you’ve already encountered what bars and phrases are by up-skilling yourself with a bit of music theory. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick definition of what both bars and phrases are.

WHAT ARE BARS IN MUSIC? Bars are segments in music which contain a certain amount of beats. The quantity of beats per bar is determined by the time signature in which the song is written. Time signature 4/4, which means there’s 4 beats to a bar, is the most common and popular time signature to write music in.

4/4 is typical of most popular and electronic music.

EQUIPMENT & SOFTWARE Music production can be easy to setup for beginners and fairly inexpensive too. The most expensive equipment I’d say is worth investing in is a high spec laptop. I’ve always used a MacBook because of the reliability, but I know some music producers use a desktop PC which are a lot cheaper than MacBooks.

HERE’S YOUR BEGINNERS MUSIC PRODUCTION CHECKLIST: Laptop / Desktop Computer

USB

Midi keyboard

Pre-amp speakers

Sound card

DAW Software

As a beginner I started out with a midi keyboard controller by Yamaha. This is simply a basic keyboard and it was enough to allow me to start inputting midi notes into music production software and start making music.

Technology has advanced a lot and we genuinely spoilt for choice. There’s a new midi keyboard that I’ve seen recently that I feel would be great for a beginner because it has a beatpad and keyboard. This is a great combo and saves having to buy two separate bits of kit.

The AKAI MPKmini.

I’ve used all of these different DAW softwares and can safely saw I’m most impressed with Ableton. It has an amazing simplicity about it and the workflow is definitely the best of the bunch. I have not used anything else since 2002 My advice is to purchase software direct from the software company websites. There are deals throughout the year for getting cheaper software and also you know the software is legit too.

9. THE 7 MODERN CHEATS ON HOW TO WRITE MUSIC BRILLIANTLY WITHOUT KNOWING THE THEORY. 1. The scale mode in ableton

5. Buy midi packs

2. Vst – scaler 2 from loopmasters

6. Download midi of famous songs

3. Mixed in key 4. The camalot wheel

7. The hack – Ableton instrument

1. THE SCALE MODE IN ABLETON Good God this is bloody brilliant.

Lets not kid ourselves, music theory is fucking hard.

There is an amazing trick ableton 11 offers now. Its called ‘scale’. Beautiful and simple.

It literally lights up the row of piano keys that you hit in midi so you can never hit a bum note.

Cool hey? Oh yeah.

2. THE VST – SCALER 2 BY CARBONE AND LOOPMASTERS

It’s the best tool for dj-producers

David Carbone, what a legend for making this amazing vst!

You can see the main parts of this brilliant plug in

I was with him when he had finally made it and even asked for some ‘POTBELLEEZ’ chords. You can choose them if you want lol

1. The key of the track

Here is mine. I still gotta update.

It’s an extremely awesome piece of software that literally writes chords and chord progressions for you!

2. The artist

3. MIXED IN KEY

4. Tempo

This is the be all and end all of music theory for me.

We can figure out any key of any track!

I literally use it everyday.

3. Title

5. Energy 6. Cue points

4. THE CAMALOT WHEEL

VISIT THIS WEBSITE FOR ALL INFORMATION ON THE CAMALOT WHEEL HTTPS://MIXEDINKEY. COM/HARMONICMIXING-GUIDE/

5. BUY MIDI PACKS There are so many amazing midi packs out there.

A midi pack consists of multiple midi notes, chords, phrases and basslines that you can easily throw into your daw and place a sound on the channel and , heyt presto, you got perfect chords.

5 GREAT FREE MIDI PACKS + WEBSITES þ UNISON MIDI

DOWNLOAD THE MIDI OF FAMOUS SONGS HERE

HTTPS://UNISON.AUDIO/FREE-MIDI-PACKS/

þ Audiomidimania.com

þ THE HIGHEST PRODUCERS

HTTPS://AUDIOMIDIMANIA. COM/MIDI/CHART+SONGS/

HTTPS://THEHIGHESTPRODUCERS.COM/MIDIFILE/ULTIMATE-LIST/ þ SPLICE MIDI HTTPS://SPLICE.COM/HOME þ CYMATICS HTTPS://CYMATICS.FM/BLOGS/PRODUCTION/ MIDI-FILES þ LOOPMASTERS HTTPS://WWW.LOOPMASTERS.COM/ SEARCH?UTF8=%E2%9C%93&Q=FREE+MIDI

þ MidiNation.com – top 35 websites!!!!

HTTPS://MIDINATION.COM/ MIDI/FREE-MIDI-FILES/\ þ The Hack by phil Speizer – BUY THIS NOW!!!

HTTPS://PHILSPEISER.COM/ PRODUCT/THE-HACK/

10. PRINT THESE ‘CHEAT SHEETS’ AND STICK ON YOUR WALL

BONUS SECTION 1

10 SKILLS TO SPEED UP THE LEARNING CURVE 1: TECH - KNOWLEDGY

5: COLABERATION

Any Music Producer must learn to be Tech Savy in software like Ableton. Ableton is a digital audio workstation that allows us to create, edit, mix and master music. Don’t even worry about learning about big music studios yet. You have enough to be dealing with in this first 6 months.

Get your mates around. Now that fucking covid has slowed down, we can see friends again. If you are just starting, go to Facebook groups of Producers and Unsigned Artists. You will dfind a plathera of people happy to jam with you. You will learn so much from each other and make some very special magic.

2: CHIT CHAT When im not making tunes im usually talking with people in our vast worldwide Community. Whether it is, artists, musicians, A&R executives or other studio staff, I love it when young artists send me their demo’s. I listen to every one of them and give as much feedback as possible.

3: START SOMETHING , JUST START It doesn’t matter if you do not know what you are doing. Just DO SOMETHING.Throw in a drum machine, write some midi notes in the piano roll. Get a feel for how the DAW works and throw in samples from SPLICE or from Ableton Stock sounds.

4: LISTEN AND LEARN Simple. Get a big playlist of all the Artists, producers, singers, songs, tracks that you love and LISTEN closely. Get a feel for what type of sounds they use.

Write down what you hear, try to remake it. Practice Practice.

6: KICK FRUSTRATION IN THE ARSE It is inevitable that problems will arise. I am not able to tell you how many computers I have almost smashed because I have the SPINNING WHEEL OF DEATH or “I don’t Know How to save this session, where did that sound go etc etc. It never ends to be honest.

My advice is cool off, listen to some Neo Soul Music on Spotify and meditate. Go back when you don’t wanna punch a wall.

7: ORGANIZE IT Staying organized really. Good organization follows a set of priorities, sets goals and keeps good attention to detail. Organization applies to both physical elements in the recording studio and to people, like setting a series of tasks for the studio staff to meet a goal and managing resources to their fullest.

9: CREATIVITY Creativity is using your imagination and come up with something that has never been done before, to create a unique song. A creative music producer can see different ways of creating music, come up with new techniques and try new things. Part of being creative is taking risks and trying something new. A creative music producer will need to be patient because greatness takes time.

10: EAR TRAINING A music producer will need to focus on ear training.

This skill allows them to identify intervals, notes and chords. During ear training a music producer will hear sounds, name them, play them back and sing them. They will train their ears to hear music and be able to transcribe melodies and chords solely by ear.

Ear training allows a music producer to hear minor changes in the music as they listen so that they really understand what they are hearing and perfect the mix of the sound.

BONUS SECTION 2

6 CREATIVE PROCESS ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESS 1. PRACTICE

3. THE PERFECTION TRAP

2. ALWAYS LEARNING

Don’t get me wrong, getting the skill level up to an intermediate and expert level really helps with swiftness and quantity of production. You have to focus on getting a track done, finished and ready for mastering.

3. THE PERFECTION TRAP 4. GET FEEDBACK (AND LEARN FROM IT) 5. SOUNDCLOUD / YOUTUBE 6. CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT

1. PRACTICE In order to get good at anything in life, especially music, then you need to practice. Consistent and habitual practice on a daily basis is going to get you to where you need to be. And that is to become a DJ and producer of music.

2. ALWAYS LEARNING If you’ve followed my advice up until this point then you will certainly of built up a great deal of foundational knowledge.At this stage it can be frustrating as you’ve learnt so much but might feel limited. From experience I’ve felt frustrated due to hitting road blocks in the quality in my music production and certain DJing skills.

The solution: Have an attitude of continuous learning.

There’s always a few tweaks that you will want to go back to and try to smooth out. In doing so you’ll spend too much on a track that is already amazing.

4. GET FEEDBACK Finally, in the creative process it’s always great to get feedback.

Some people are honest and some people will be polite. Take all feedback on board and put that continuous learning to good use.

If people don’t like your music production or DJ mixes for some reason or another e.g. quality of sound or lacking of beat matching, then you need to know. Get better, progress and smash it. Push forward and become better.

5. MIXCLOUD / SOUNDCLOUD / YOUTUBE Building up a great portfolio of tracks and mixes is great for future investment. It’s highly likely at the beginning that the amount of views and listens to your audio is low. Very low in fact. It will be worth it in the long run.

6. CONTINUOUS PROCESS (OF IMPROVEMENT) When I say “continuous process” I mean and process of improvement, creation and marketing to help drive you towards you goal of becoming a successful producer.

SIMPLE A-Z OF MUSIC PRODUCTION A – AUDIO/ABLETON

N – NORMAILSE

B – BASS

O – OPERATING SYSTEM

C – COMPRESSION / CHANNEL

P – PRODUCER

D – DRUMS/DRY

Q – QUANTIZE

E – EDIT / EQUALIZER

R – RECORDING

F – FILTER / FADER

S – SCALE / SAMPLE / STEREO

G – GRIND H – HEAADROOM I – INTEGRATE J – JACK K – KILOBITES PER SECOND L – LOOPING / LATENCE M – MIDI / MONO / MIDS / /MIX

T – TRACK / TRANSPOSE U – UNDO V – VOLUME W – WAVE X – XLR Y – YOUTUBE Z – ZIP