You Can Start Producing Music on a Very Low Budget

You don’t need expensive tools to help you get started in your craft.

Photo credit: Asmus Koefoed/ShutterShock

I’ve have many people come up to me and ask how they can get started on creating music from scratch. Singer-songwriters that want to produce something more tangible and professional rather than relying on recording themselves singing with a guitar on their phones; rappers who want to create their own beats instead of buying them from the digital market; EDM enthusiasts that want to experiment with making something on their own.

They ask questions that all relate to how I am able to make my songs “sound professional.” What programs and equipment do you use? What are the best ones? How much do they cost? What if I don’t have money to buy these things — would I still be able to make good music without them?

These questions assume that in order for someone to get started on crafting their own musical repertoire, they need money. And a butt load of it. There is an understandable correlation between producing music that could be heard on the radio or streaming services and utilizing highly-priced, versatile tools that can allow songs to sound professional. And I’m not saying that there isn’t a correlation: of course having and using these tools can help you create these polished sounds much more efficiently. What I’m saying is that people rely on this correlation too much, and think that buying expensive equipment is the only way to get started on making music. Even I believed that too.

I’m here to tell you that that’s not necessarily true, because I’ve found ways to create the music I wanted to create without having any of these tools. And if I really had to purchase something, it would be years before I actually manage to financially access it.

If you are someone that wants to start making music but are not sure how to start or what to start with, this article is for you. You don’t need thousands of dollars to start making music! I want to share my journey so that you, too, can produce some magic of your own with just a laptop and a cheap mic.

I’ve been writing songs since I was in middle school. My mother bought me a $70 acoustic guitar that was being sold in a Korean bookstore, and I plowed through learning the instrument on my own to play some decent chords to sing over. And believe it or not, I still use that guitar today, just with better strings and adjustments of the neck and body.

Although I always wanted to bring these songs to life with actual production, I didn’t know how. I wanted to record vocals, but I didn’t have a mic, nor could I afford one. As immigrants, my family seriously lacked the finances to purchase one for me. And I wasn’t a kid that would beg for things either, because I knew the situation that we were in. All I can do is save up from New Year allowances and the occasional change my parents would let me keep from going to the store to buy groceries.

Right in the beginning I wanted to bring my songs to life, and just having the drive to do so led me to find some inadequate but manageable ways to make recordings. In middle school, I recorded myself singing and playing guitar using my PC laptop mic and edited on Audacity, a free, open-source digital audio editing software. It was super-low quality music, but the products I made were satisfying enough for me because I knew that I lacked even the basics to make something even better.

In eighth grade I managed to save enough money to buy a used Blue Yeti USB microphone for $80, something I’ve had my eyes on from doing mic research. Just having that microphone really cleared my perspective on sound recording, although I was barely scratching the surface. I was still using Audacity and not a Digital Audio Workspace (DAW), but it was enough for me to make some cool Youtube covers that had cleaner vocals and layered sounds.

I also began to research more about microphone polar patterns and what each of them was used for, since the Blue Yeti mic offered several patterns. I began to experiment a lot, slowly but surely building my knowledge on producing and audio engineering.

I kept using Audacity until junior year of high school, when my parents gifted me a MacBook Pro — that I still use to this day! I discovered GarageBand, and from there I played with many sounds from its library, exploring a new world of digital instruments and audio tools that got me a step closer to my dream of producing my own songs. I experimented with its built-in synthesizers, drum kits, organs, etc. and started to make mental notes in my head. What sounds would be useful if I want to create certain moods and tones in a song? What sounds pair up nicely or contrast with others? Everything I did was a learning opportunity for me to grow my skills in understanding sounds and how to utilize them.

I also didn’t have a MIDI keyboard at the time, and I wouldn’t until freshman year of college when I saved up money again to purchase the Novation Launchkey 49. So instead, I used the Musical Typing tool configured in GarageBand, which allows you to play MIDI on your computer keyboard. It was an extreme hassle: the lack of a proper keyboard setup and a built-in velocity function made it troublesome to be musically expressive. I began to realize that I needed a better software to tap into features that would provide more control over the sounds I wanted to produce.

Approaching senior year of high school, I became more self-conscious of my lower financial status compared to my high school friends. I went to a school in Hell’s Kitchen that was filled with financially privileged students, and spending time with them made me realize just how different I was compared to them, especially as a Korean immigrant. Alongside the enormous identity crisis, I became extremely mindful of what I spent money on, for saving just a couple of pennies would get me a step closer to buying something I urgently needed for making music.

I knew that I needed a DAW to competently create music and desired to buy Logic Pro X, a DAW suited for macOS, but I did not have $200 with me at the time. Because I lacked the finances and was becoming desperate, I instead torrented the entire program and worked with what I got. The torrented Logic was filled with any bug you could imagine: audio files got misplaced, pitches were randomly shifted up and down, and sometimes files did not even open.

But at the end of the day, I was grateful that I still had a useful software with a bank of decent sounds, and learned tons about audio mixing. I started to educate myself on compressors, equalizers, reverb, imaging, etc., and became obsessed with identifying aspects of sound when listening to any song. I dedicated hours and hours of listening to amazingly produced music, understanding how sounds and frequencies are balanced to achieve certain effects that I looked to apply to my music.

And as usual, I experimented heavily with the sounds that I made on that crappy version of Logic, trying to replicate the mixing of some of my favorite songs. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on mixing — it is filled with helpful videos that can help you grow your mixing skills.

In the summer before heading off to college, I chose my favorite projects, polished them up, and released them on SoundCloud. I remember being amazed by the feedback I got from my friends and family: everything from my songwriting skills and my production to just how clean things sounded.

But in my ears, there was so much work left to do because I still had plenty to learn. I began to realize that this dedication to learn and experiment was much more important than having expensive tools. In fact, it was never about having the tools, but rather knowing how to use what I had properly in the first place.

In college I found opportunities to work 6 hours a week for minimum wage, which was enough for me to save up on buying the Novation MIDI keyboard as well as the official version of Logic at the end of my freshman year. It took me seven years to get my hands on a DAW software, a mic, and a MIDI controller. But that seven years allowed the culmination of an extensive knowledge on producing, mixing, and mastering, as well as the development of an important artistic philosophy that would guide me in my approach to not just creating music, but tackling any challenge in life.

After freshman year, I made a nine-track album, producing, mixing, and mastering everything in a matter of two months. I was cooped up in my room, working on my music every day for twelve hours, sweating profusely while recording vocals and instruments because I had to shut the windows and turn off the air conditioning to prevent noise from bleeding into the mic. It was an incredibly hard work, but it paid off, because I finally accomplished my dream of crafting some incredibly produced and extensively refined songs that I got to release on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. I got to where I wanted to be… and I knew that I still had so much more to learn.

If you have just enough finances to purchase Logic, a USB mic, and a MIDI controller (it can even be 25 keys!), then I swear that you have enough to start making music. You have plenty of sounds to mess with and an essential way to record live sound.

But even without the money to buy those three things, there are still plenty of opportunities for you to grow as a creator of music. Remember that it’s not about what you have physically with you, but how much you are willing to learn and grow your skills in whatever ways you can. You can have all the tools, but if you don’t comprehend the underlying concepts of those tools, what is the point of having them? Dedicate your time instead to really understand how to use what you have. That in itself is a greater reward, for that skill can be transferred to when you use a newer product with better features.

Here are some other takeaways I find extremely significant:

• Be experimental. What I did was literally go through every single sound in the sound library and play around with them. And when I say play around, I don’t mean just press a bunch of notes then move on. Play some chords, adjust the sound settings, explore its modulations, and play them side by side with other sounds. Listen to the relationships between sounds. Try to make connections between the sounds and their functions when creating certain moods. Do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and apply sounds you don’t usually hear.
• Research. If you don’t know how to do something, such as making a certain sound effect or something purely related to editing, chances are the Internet has the answer. I used YouTube many times to get help on achieving certain results. If you are a college student, then this is the best time to learn about producing music and audio engineering. Chances are, your school has a free account for you on Lynda.com. There may be music courses that educate you on DAW programs like Pro Tools, Ableton Live, and Studio One, as well as software such as Max MSP and WaveLab. I also got to work in a recording studio in my school’s OIT, and I learned a ton about analog/digital recording, recording techniques, various mic functionalities, and audio editing. And if you have anyone who knows how to produce, mix, or master, connect with them and become their mentee. In short, take advantage of whatever resources you have!
• Be mindful of your finance. If you wish to purchase something but you don’t have the money, find ways to acquire that money. Work a part-time job. Save up your money by not buying unnecessary things. If you really must, ask for money from your friends and family, whether they be donations or borrowed. Be responsible.
• Lastly, stay dedicated, and know what you want. Like anything else, if you wish to be good at something, you have to dedicate the time and effort to do so. In your free time, open up a new project and create something. Play with tools or equipment so you have a better understanding of them. When an idea for lyrics or a melody comes up, pull out your phone and record it. Practice your instrument, including your voice. Know what to look for when listening to songs (having good headphones is key). Keep a list of software or equipment you need in the future. Continue learning in whatever ways that you can. Your mind has to constantly turn its gears, and your heart has to constantly feel the fire.

I still don’t have a proper home studio nor can I afford to buy everything to build one all at once. But I still have the passion, and it motivates me to do everything I can in order to be proficient at what I love doing. And more importantly, I did not need thousands of dollars to find that passion.