Before coming to UAL this September, I only had knowledge of using Logic as a DAW. With the help of content creators on YouTube, I taught myself all about plug-ins, buses, how to download free instruments online etc.—essentially, all the basics of music production. I was refining my skills by composing original songs. I had a goal of releasing them on streaming platforms and I believe this gave me the incentive to get better at production each day. While I did desire to be a specialist in song-making, my learning curve slowly plateaued. It was like, “Okay, I’m satisfied with my mix. This is good enough for me”, but I knew deep down that I had lots and lots of room for improvement. I guess I was too intimidated to explore it all on my own.

Thankfully, I now have the privilege of being taught by my professors in UAL. I was introduced to a new DAW called Pro Tools this week. I think I enjoy learning together with my course-mates because, like me, they’re similarly enthusiastic about music production.

In our class, we discussed about what it means to be a music producer. Music production is the act of producing records. So we agreed that a music producer is a person who is able to understand a musical vision and transform it into playable audio. It includes being a songwriter, a mixing engineer, or a recording engineer—just to name a few.

We were then shown the traditional and modern ways of producing a record. The traditional process was strict and linear. Starting off with the composition, then the recording and then ending with the distribution of the record. There was no going backwards in the process and absolutely no way to fix any prior mistakes once you have moved onto the next step. However, things are certainly very different today. With the gift of modern technology, anyone can record tracks on their laptop or phone, and distribute it onto every steaming platform without the help of any record label. The traditional procedure simply doesn’t apply when doing production in a DAW. There are no rules—producers can jump back and forth in their steps. For example, an artist could purchase an already mastered beat and add their vocals on top of that. There’s infinitely more freedom in creative production today than there was in the past.