Music Production Foundations
The groundwork every producer needs before theory, mixing or sound design. Learn how audio moves through a DAW, how musical time is measured, what frequency and decibels mean, and a repeatable path from idea to exported track.
Start the course5 lessons · 36 min · free
What you'll be able to do
- Trace a sound from a clip through its track, a bus and the master to your speakers
- Set tempo and time signature and place notes on the grid in bars and beats
- Name the frequency bands of a mix and read levels in dBFS without clipping
- Choose between MIDI and audio for a part, and convert between them
- Take a loop to a finished, exported track with saved versions along the way
Lessons
- 1What a DAW Is and How Signal Flows Through ItTracks, clips, inserts, sends, buses and the master: the path every sound takes from a clip on the timeline to your speakers.7 min
- 2Tempo, Time Signatures and the GridBPM, bars and beats, time signatures and grid divisions — the coordinate system every note and clip in a DAW is placed on.7 min
- 3Sound Basics: Frequency, the Spectrum and DecibelsHertz, the frequency bands every mix is built from, and how dBFS on a meter differs from how loud something actually sounds.8 min
- 4MIDI vs Audio: Instructions and RecordingsMIDI is a list of notes; audio is a recording of sound. What each can and can't do, and when to convert one to the other.6 min
- 5From Idea to Export: A Workflow That Finishes SongsA five-stage path — idea, loop, arrangement, mix, export — with saved versions, so ideas become finished tracks instead of folders of loops.8 min
Next up:
Music Theory for Producers
The theory you'll use in a piano roll: notes, scales, chords, basslines and groove.