where do I start to become a music producer/beat maker?

Question

I want to be a producer/beat maker but I have no idea where to start.

Answer 1

Hi Upcoming Producer,

This is a very common question that I receive from a lot of producers who are just getting into music production and are a little unsure about how and what to start with!

Let me just tell you there is no right or wrong answer here because some people have the means to invest a good chunk of money to buy a lot of hardware synth, compressor, limiters, reverberators etc etc and trust me it's endless but there are producers who just manage to do all of that while staying within the box and deliver the same quality.

Personally I think these are the things that you can start with:

1. Digital Audio Workstation: Your choice of software that you would need to produce (Live, Logic, Cubase, Protools, FL etc). You can pick from a wide range of DAW and trust me you can pick any since you are starting out and there is no chance that you can fail here. Moreover there are so many of these softwares that sometimes provide a copy of the software when you buy a small MIDI keyboard and you can also register on their official website to get a free version for sometime, start with that.
2. Headphones/Monitors: If you have the budget to get monitors that's great you can pick some really great monitors under 500$ (https://www.instagram.com/p/CT5hOjjMWUp/?hl=en). If not that's alright start with some good quality headphones that covers a good frequency range, I've produced on just headphones for so many years when I started out and had no complaints.
3. Laptop/Desktop: This can be a very sensitive topics because we have a lot of computer geeks who would suggest you so many things which might puzzle you. I think that you should try and get anything that has at least 16GB RAM, i7 processor<, 1TB SSD (500SSD + 500HDD) you'll need this much space because over the period of time you would want to buy plugins, sample packs which might take a lot of your computer's space. Go for a laptop if you want the portability factor or get a PC assembled and that might save you some money.
4. Audio Interface: Buy an interface only if you plan to record a lot of your instruments, vocals or buying studio monitors so that you can hook all that up using your AI with your laptop. Otherwise I would say hold on to that decision and plan on buying after you understand your needs. Some really good AI's under 300$ range are right here (https://www.instagram.com/p/CTxtstGLGtW/?hl=en)
5. Entry Level Skills: A good to have but not a must to have. I can say from my experience that music theory helped me a lot with production but it can be tiring. So if you like to study about music start learning some theory or you can keep working on the piano roll and you would still be able to come up with interesting ideas.

Even after getting all of the above you would still struggle to put it all together and get up to speed so for that you'll eventually look for a tutor to help, so I would recommend you to look for a mentor/educator who can guide you through all of this from scratch and that way you really wouldn't have to waste any time doing all that research.

Hope this helps and you can always reach out to me with your questions if any. :)

Answer 2

Hi Denim,

One of the first things you should do to start producing beats is to find music production software. Here are some of the most popular ones:

1. Logic Pro X (Mac Only)
2. FL Studio
3. Ableton Live
4. Bitwig Studio

Once you find software that works for you, it'll just be a matter of learning how to use the software so you can produce beats. Youtube is a great place to look for tutorials, and/or you can hire a private tutor. I hope this information helps, and good luck!