How You Can Become A Productive Music Producing Ninja With 7 Tips.
Have you ever been frustrated by a slow repetitious process? Or just can’t seem to get songs finished?
Or the worst nightmare of the music producer… lose your work?
Music production is a vast subject. Whether you’re a beginner or know your DAW like the back of your hand, you know there’s A LOT to learn.
On the technical side, we focus on things such as EQ techniques, parallel compression, reverb buses, mixing strategy, etc.
On the creative side, we focus on arrangement, melodies, harmonies, rhythms, lyrics, etc.
What’s most often overlooked is a proper workflow approach. With so much to learn, it’s often pushed aside. Yet, it can have the most impact on your overall productivity.
Once you’ve produced a few tracks you’ll inevitably realize that certain production methods you use might actually be slowing you down.
It’s time to design a home studio workflow to remove all your roadblocks and skyrocket your productivity!
And most importantly… Finish. More. Songs.
The Blueprint
As you well know, habits can be a @#$%^ to break and even harder to build. As you progress through these tips take your time to implement them and tweak them to better fit your workflow.
Here’s an overview
- Use a DAW Template
- Organize Your Session
- Create Phases
- Use Shortcuts
- Use A Piano
- Create Goals And Set Deadlines
- Find An Accountability System
1. Use A DAW Template
This is where you set up your usual routing, effects, commonly used instruments, groups, and general session layout as a template to use every time you produce a track.
Save your template as a session in your DAW. Next time you're going to produce a new song, open the template and hit “save as”, rename it, and voila!
As you get into the habit of using a template you’ll discover what things you might need to add or remove to further smooth out your workflow.
I personally use different templates for different styles of music, as well as a separate template for the mixing process.
It’s an awesome feeling to simply reach for a knob in your studio, always knowing what it will do.
It’s basically like building your own harmonicraft spaceship. Cool beans
2. Organize Your Session
FACT: Proper file-naming and organization make you a better and faster producer.
Let that sink in.
Include the artist name and the version number in your session name and save new versions in increments as you produce. You never know when you’ll want to go back to a previous version after you’ve made an irreversible change.
Example: groovatate!_aljoy_mix3
You’ll thank me later!
This will make it so much easier to know what’s what as you start to accumulate more and more session files. You’ll want to be organized.
You’ll want to keep separate folders for each new project.
You’ll also want to keep your sound libraries organized. Label, tag and sort your samples in a way that makes sense for you to easily find what you want, fast.
It can be really handy to build a “bag of tricks” with all your favorite types of samples, instruments, and effects in one magical folder. A “special moves” folder
3. Create Phases
You’ll want to separate your production workflow into different phases. Such as recording, editing, and mixing.
Having different sessions for sound design, production and organizing can do wonders for your productivity because it keeps your brain from having to constantly switch focus-modes.
If you’d like to learn more about a creative production workflow check out my 7-Step Workflow Wizardry system. (Coming soon)
4. Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Scrolling through menus kills the creative workflow.
Shortcuts > mouse in every way.
Customize and learn your DAW shortcuts for tasks you do often. It’s simple math, reducing something that might take you three moves (move the mouse, right-click, click) to one (pressing a key) will save you loads of time as your repeat it 10000 times.
Sometimes learning new shortcuts can also help you discover new exciting things about your DAW!
5. Use A Piano (Midi Controller)
This is a studio must-have in my opinion.
Using a piano or midi controller can help you program midi, find harmonies, and even create automation with knobs and faders.
If you’re using software instruments, playing a physical piece of hardware can drastically enhance your expressiveness.
It’s impossible to program the human feel and touch.
Get outta here, Skynet.
6. Set Goals And Deadlines
Be as strict with yourself as a major client or a boss. DO IT!
It’s important to have set goals in your artistic pursuits. A clear vision will help you focus your efforts and spark your creativity in new ways.
The artist's biggest enemy is perfectionism. The truth is nothing will ever be “perfect”. Setting a realistic deadline and calling something “finished” can be one of the most important skills to develop as an artist.
The way you feel about your music will change day by day, so using your own opinion of your music isn’t necessarily a good idea in order to judge it’s completion.
If you preset a release date for your work and pretend that your career depends on making that deadline, you’ll be surprised how well you focus.
7. Find An Accountability System
Having a fellow music producer or friend as a accountability partner can do wonders to keep you encouraged and stay productive. There’s a psychological shift that happens when someone else is expecting to see your finished work.
Beyond a single partner, joining a community of like-minded people can be a hidden superpower. You can receive direct feedback, learn new tips, techniques and stay motivated by the progress of others and engage in various challenges.
Interested in learning more? Click here to download your Mindset Map and discover your next steps in your musical journey.
My name is Alexandre Joyal. I help music creators achieve success with their music by teaching them how to produce themselves and adopt a creative mindset.-Alex
