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S1E01 – Welcome to Music Production Made Simple

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Welcome to ‘Music Production Made Simple’.

This is the first episode in the podcast which introduces what to expect from future episodes, and also a brief background on GratuiTous and his approach to this music industry.

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S1E01 – Welcome to Music Production Made Simple

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses, which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's up, everybody?
  10. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple.
  11. So this is actually super super exciting for me.
  12. First of all, how to get the most out of this podcast.
  13. Okay, so I'm gonna be having an ask gratuitous session every once in a while.
  14. So what you guys can do is come to the podcast page.
  15. It's at it'sgratuitous.com forward slash podcast.
  16. Select an episode, and at the very very bottom, there's gonna be a contact form.
  17. You guys can just ask me a question.
  18. So you guys can either subscribe when however you listen to these podcasts, but the
  19. best way to do it is if you do come to my website on the actual page for each
  20. episode, I'm gonna be leaving a resource section.
  21. So if I talk to you, you know, about courses, links, books, I'll always include
  22. links to what I've talked about in each episode.
  23. In addition, I've also allowed you guys to support the podcast for five dollars a
  24. month. That financial contribution will help tons.
  25. You know, again, this podcast has taken a lot of time to figure out and all that
  26. research, coding, all that kind of stuff.
  27. That's taken me about a month up front to figure out, you know, how to put together
  28. a high quality podcast. In addition, I've also been doing a lot of planning.
  29. I have 11 episodes planned so far.
  30. I have two pages of ideas already.
  31. So the goal of this podcast is to teach you best practices with music production,
  32. kind of get through the fluff and get right to the point, talk to you about what you
  33. really need to know as a music producer.
  34. I also want to create episodes in terms of how to prepare you for what life is like
  35. as a producer, because you know, as soon as you start venturing out into
  36. entrepreneurship, which is really, you know, being a music producer, you don't just
  37. have to sell your music. Like I've taken more of the approach of selling courses and
  38. books and providing knowledge, right?
  39. But when you are in the entrepreneur lifestyle, it's you know, the music is really
  40. no longer fun, it's now a business, and you have to make sure that you really enjoy
  41. this to really pursue it as more than just making the music because when you first
  42. start up, you know it's fun, it's just a hobby, you're doing your thing, but
  43. eventually it turns into you know, like it's a business and it can get tiring,
  44. especially when you don't see results.
  45. I've been doing this for over 10 years now.
  46. I've seen a lot of ups and downs, but over the years I continue to push through and
  47. keep growing, okay. I'm also wanting to show you guys some real audio examples in
  48. this podcast, too. For example, if we're talking about like compression or like cut
  49. itself, not every single episode is going to be like that, but from time to time I
  50. will do something like that, and I think that'll be a really cool approach so that
  51. you guys can hear like the before and after and see the power of that technique that
  52. we're talking about. And in those episodes, I'd highly recommend listening with like
  53. headphones or earbuds or something where you could really hear the audio nice and
  54. close, okay. So I just want to talk a little bit about me personally as well as a
  55. producer. That way you guys can get a little bit more of a sense of who I am and you
  56. know, my approach to this music industry.
  57. So I'm both a music producer and recording artist.
  58. I actually have nine beat tapes.
  59. The ninth one is a greatest hits.
  60. So what I did was I took volumes one to five, I took my favorite tracks and I
  61. combined them into a greatest hits, and I'm planning to do that when I am going from
  62. six to ten. So right now I'm on volume eight, so I have two more releases before
  63. greatest hits Volume Two comes out.
  64. For myself, I've taken more of the beat tape approach to releasing my music, and I
  65. feel that that is a lot better for branding.
  66. It allows your listeners to follow with a series.
  67. And you know, for example, if they join. in, let's say volume six, for example, you
  68. know, they can go all the way back to volume one, as well as if you have any future
  69. releases It also allows your listener to get a more sense of who you are as a
  70. producer, especially if you know you're not just creating that same style of music.
  71. Throughout my audio career, I've also worked with a Grammy nominated artist.
  72. It happened really, really cool.
  73. It just happened over like an email.
  74. They asked me, he was like, Hey, can you make a remix of Amazing Grace?
  75. And I was like, Okay, I'll try it out.
  76. I sent him the beat and he recorded like that same night.
  77. So like it happened within like a day.
  78. And we ended up doing two tracks or whatever.
  79. I have a different approach in a sense of when it comes to selling music because of
  80. like my faith. I believe in Jesus and stuff like that.
  81. So my approach to selling music, he has revealed to me that it's wrong to sell music
  82. with the name of Jesus in it. If you want more information on, you know, what I just
  83. said there, there's a couple scriptures that I'll link to that reveal where the
  84. stories have happened in the Bible about this.
  85. It's called the cleansing of the temple.
  86. And what happened was Jesus walked into the temple and there was people selling
  87. stuff in the temple. Like, you know, they were like selling like doves for
  88. sacrifices and stuff like that.
  89. And like Jesus walked in, he made a cord, like I think it says like a
  90. scourge, and he went and he kicked over all the tables and he just like pretty much
  91. told everyone, like, you gotta leave.
  92. Like this is my father's house, it's a place of worship, it's not a place of selling
  93. stuff, okay. And the thing is, in like the Christian music industry, what these
  94. artists are doing is they go from church to church to church, and what do they do?
  95. They set up a merchandise table and they sell their music.
  96. And really, it's like, who's that benefiting?
  97. Like, that's not benefiting Jesus, it's benefiting that artist.
  98. so I don't want to get too much into it, but that's just gonna give you just a
  99. little bit of an idea of who I am as a music producer.
  100. So that's why if you go to my website, that's why all my music is for free, even
  101. though it is on like these streaming platforms like Spotify and stuff like that.
  102. I've only done that so that's it, it's easy access for potential listeners, or even
  103. people who like my music, but you know, they can just simply stream it quickly.
  104. But in terms of myself for creating music, so I'm really big on not following the
  105. trends because the way how I see it is trends come and go.
  106. But if you get liked for who you are for your music creation, for your style, that
  107. is huge. Okay. So there's kind of like a balance in between yes, you have to create,
  108. you know, what people like, but at the same time, you have to create what you like,
  109. and that happens for two reasons.
  110. First of all, you know, you're gonna enjoy what you're doing for a long time.
  111. And that's super super important because if your music takes off and you start
  112. making money through this music industry, in 10 years from now, you can still create
  113. your music on how you like, not on what your fans like, okay?
  114. It's kind of a combination of both.
  115. And I also find by doing that, you won't get in this producer's blog, okay?
  116. Because right now, if you're creating what's in, what you're doing is you're hoping
  117. to get found by you know the popularity behind these certain genres.
  118. For example, trap music is in right now.
  119. I don't like trap music at all.
  120. I don't like the sound of the music, I don't like the message that they're
  121. portraying. I just don't like it.
  122. And I think it's a trend. And I feel that within a couple years, it's gonna be gone,
  123. just like dubstep, right? Look at dubstep.
  124. It was huge, it was you know, it was unreal how big it was.
  125. but it it's gone. And I personally I'm happy.
  126. Like, I don't like I didn't like that music.
  127. the thing with dubstep, it was like there's certain parts of dubstep where like the
  128. the melodies, like it's like it sounded so good, and then all of a sudden it went
  129. into like the LFO wobbles, and it was just like, man, like okay, next song..
  130. Like, let's let's go to a song like where I can actually enjoy the melody
  131. So now, in terms of music production, the gear and stuff like that.
  132. So I'm really big on keeping things simple.
  133. Now that we're in the digital age, this it's awesome.
  134. It's affordable. We can recall presets, but just by opening up a project from our
  135. music program back in the day.
  136. If you were on an analog console and you made a mix a week later, someone wants to
  137. change like how the vocal sounds or whatever, like how do you approach that?
  138. Like you have to go to the console, dial all the knobs back.
  139. Like that is, you know, that's so backwards.
  140. So you have to be careful on the knowledge that you are receiving within this music
  141. industry. for myself, over the years, you know, as I've been starting up trying to
  142. read all this stuff, what I found is there's kind of like an older generation in the
  143. music industry, and they are the ones many times putting out these myths and rumors
  144. in terms of audio production. For example, like in the box, it sounds cold and dry,
  145. but it's like, well, nowadays they also make analog plugins.
  146. So to give you that same sound as like the hardware gear.
  147. Again, you just kind of got to be careful of what you're listening to out there.
  148. But what I'm trying to say is I like to keep things simple, I like to save money,
  149. but as at the same time, still get the highest quality results out of my music, out
  150. of my sound, you know, pretty much whatever I try to do online, like even with video
  151. editing or whatever. I'm always trying to keep it simple, save money while still
  152. getting the highest quality, okay?
  153. Because no matter where you go in life, there's always gonna be that kind of balance
  154. in between you pay for what you get versus you know, when you s once you start
  155. paying way more, you know, you're only getting a few percent more.
  156. And so on the personal side of things in my life, so you know, everything can't be
  157. about music when you're a music producer, because since music has become your
  158. business, you know, you gotta know how to balance your time to do other things.
  159. And it makes it really, really hard because, for example, like if I'm making my
  160. beat, now I gotta, you know, mix, master it, and get it ready.
  161. So now if I go create the artwork, it's like, well, I'm still working on my music.
  162. If I go to release it on like Spotify and stuff like that, it's like I'm still
  163. working on my music, even though I'm not actually creating the music.
  164. And then, for example, like let's say I'm talking about like my courses or my books,
  165. and it's like I'm still trying to create and market those.
  166. It's like you see, it's like my life is always about music, always about somehow to
  167. do with music, and it can get really, really tiring.
  168. So you have to somehow get different hobbies.
  169. And for example, like you know, I I like to skateboard sometimes, so like, you know,
  170. I'm not amazing at skateboarding, but it allows me to get out and clear my mind from
  171. always sitting in a studio or in front of a computer, or just even always thinking
  172. about planning. Like, for example, like I'm saying with this podcast, just the other
  173. night, I was sitting there trying to figure out in what order should I put these
  174. episodes for you guys to get the most benefit.
  175. Because I gotta kind of think like for myself, like when I first started, what do I
  176. think? Like how like what path do I want to take you guys so that you guys get the
  177. most knowledge and that it's the most effective.
  178. And that planning stage is super super tiring.
  179. But the thing is, since I've planned, you know, maybe I can take a day break,
  180. whatever, and come back. And it's just like now that I have that planned, it's
  181. actually saved me so much time in the future.
  182. Hobbies are really, really important just to get you away from your business.
  183. I usually go skateboarding with a buddy, and you know, even sometimes like just the
  184. other day, we like we went and like throw the frisbee, and it was just like it was
  185. super good exercise after, like we were just sitting on the grass, chilling,
  186. talking. But again, it just allows me just to get away from my music business.
  187. And and when I say that, it's very loose, right?.
  188. Because you know, I create courses, books, tutorials, I write articles, but then I
  189. also create the music And you know, if this is your approach to it as well, it's
  190. like you know, it's just it's very, very tiring.
  191. Now, I just want to share with you the music program I use.
  192. Okay, so this podcast is gonna be based on FL Studio, but that doesn't mean that you
  193. can't learn because for the most part, I typically do teach the principles of music
  194. production, you know, the fundamentals that you have to know to excel, and that's to
  195. do with like anything in life.
  196. Like you always want to know the basics because as soon as you know the basics, it's
  197. easy to go to the advanced topics because as soon as you get stuck in the advanced
  198. topic, you can always go back to the basics and you'd be like, Okay, I see where
  199. this is all linking linking together, but as soon as you don't know the basics,
  200. that's where you start to crumble.
  201. Okay. So, like I'm saying, I teach the basics and fundamentals, even though I use FL
  202. Studio. However, you know, from time to time, there are certain features of FL
  203. Studio which will make that information unique, and you know, you may not be able to
  204. follow along on certain areas, but that's the way it is.
  205. I use F I use FL Studio, so I just want to talk about why I use FL Studio and why I
  206. like it so much. Okay. So the biggest selling feature of FL Studio is that it's a
  207. one-time payment, okay? And you get lifetime free updates, and they're constantly
  208. updating this software. Like, I think I started on like FL Studio 8 or 9, and it has
  209. come such a long way. I have gotten so many free updates, like I'm so grateful for
  210. that. A lot of these other companies they charge an upgrade fee every year or like
  211. however often they upgrade, and it's not cheap, it's like $150 dollars per upgrade.
  212. A lot of times, it's like, you know, what what did they really include to make that
  213. worth your money? You know, some upgrades are obviously better than others, but
  214. that's a huge selling feature, and I don't think any other music program, DAW offers
  215. that in the industry. In addition, as a company, they are just such an amazing
  216. company. Like they actually listen to their users, which is super rare.
  217. Like, how often do you read, you know, online, like on forums or like you know,
  218. social media, wherever, that people are always complaining about this company
  219. because they don't listen, or you know, the users are constantly asking for this one
  220. feature, and like you can actually see, like, you know, there might be a blog post,
  221. and you scroll down, look at the comments, and it's like there's like 20 comments
  222. all asking for the same thing.
  223. And Ethel Studio Image Line is the creators of FL Studio, that's the company name.
  224. They actually listen to their users, okay?
  225. So they ask what the users want to see most, okay.
  226. And then what they do is they create betas, so test versions, and they allow their
  227. users to test them out before the actual release.
  228. And that's huge. Like they actually listen.
  229. Like, I remember one time I actually asked for a feature, and you know, not to say
  230. that it was because of me that I got included, but I do recall asking for this
  231. feature, and in the next release it was there, and it was to do with like having a
  232. start and stop point of a sample, just like you can do with like you know MPCs and
  233. machine and stuff like that. That was not a feature that was included in older
  234. versions of FL Studio. That just allows you, like let's say you were working with a
  235. kick drum or a clap, whatever.
  236. You know, you can actually trim the beginning or end to fine-tune it.
  237. And then FL Studio has these in and out knobs, which are super super amazing.
  238. I'll I'll share that technique with you in later episodes.
  239. So they actually listen to you as a user, okay?
  240. That's really, really crucial.
  241. Now they're also super active on the forums.
  242. Now, these are the actual developers of FL Studio.
  243. A lot of times, a lot of companies, what they do is they hire someone, you know,
  244. they might look at someone's's resume and their resume says that yes, they're really
  245. good with customer service, but it like they might not they might not actually use
  246. the software. You know, they might just be learning it as they're trying to be the
  247. customer service person. But like I'm saying, image line, the actual developers use
  248. the forum. It's amazing. Like you have question, they're there.
  249. If there's a bug, you know, they add it to probably like their development list of
  250. like bugs they have to fix and they come out with updates.
  251. It's amazing. In addition, FL Studio has tons and tons of power users.
  252. So these are really, really popular people within the music industry.
  253. And FL Studio is also known for its super super fast workflow.
  254. That's why a lot of people use it.
  255. Now, don't get me wrong, every single music program has its pros and cons.
  256. Like at the moment, FL Studio isn't like the best when it comes to like audio clips,
  257. whereas other DAWs, you might have more control on automation over like the actual
  258. audio clip. Like you can still automate in FL Studio, don't get me wrong, but it's
  259. just other DAWs are maybe more tuned towards working with real audio clips.
  260. Whereas FL Studio is more of like a you know MIDI and you know a sequencer, but the
  261. workflow is amazingly fast. And like, you know, don't get me wrong.
  262. Like if you want to record vocals, you know, you can record your vocals into FL
  263. Studio, get you know, commercial results, super high quality.
  264. I'm just saying, in terms of like the audio clips, you know, maybe some DAWs might
  265. have a little bit, you know, a better workflow that way.
  266. Now, FL Studio is probably the fastest growing music program, the fastest growing
  267. DAW. Okay. If again, if you guys look at YouTube tutorials, what is the most popular
  268. software that you see? It's FL Studio.
  269. I even had a student that is currently a part of my membership.
  270. And if you guys don't know, I have a membership where you guys can sign up for a
  271. monthly fee. Currently, it's $10 a month, and you guys can get access to all of my
  272. 16 FL Studio courses.. but they signed up, and when they first asked me, they were
  273. using Reason, and they said to me, It's like, hey, I use Reason
  274. Do you think that I'll benefit from your courses?
  275. Like, do you think that you know, because I use Reason, I won't be able to learn
  276. because it's FL Studio. So two weeks later, they ended up emailing me.
  277. And what they asked me was, what version of FL Studio should I buy?
  278. And they ended up buying FL Studio.
  279. I think they bought the signature edition.
  280. That's the addition I recommend if you do buy FL Studio.
  281. There's like the Fruity producer and signature.
  282. the signature is not way more money than the producer for the extra price, it's well
  283. worth it. the fruity is not worth your time.
  284. Okay, it's very, very restrictive.
  285. Producer is worth your time. but the reason why I'm saying the signature is you
  286. know, you're only paying you know, I'm gonna say it's like an extra hundred dollars,
  287. but the plugins and tools that you get are well worth that money, and again, it's a
  288. one-time payment. Okay, so other music programs you have to pay the upgrade fee.
  289. FL Studio, it's that one-time payment.
  290. So that's why I suggest purchasing the signature, the all plugins bundle.
  291. I personally wouldn't recommend I would actually use that money towards buying maybe
  292. some third-party plugins like Fab Filter or something like that.
  293. Like I really like Fab Filter plugins over the years.
  294. That's what I've mainly used for like EQs and compressors and stuff like that.
  295. in addition, so FL Studio, what they've written on their website is they get over
  296. 30,000 downloads a day. So that's 10 million downloads a year.
  297. Okay, that's amazing. That just goes to show you that FL Studio is so popular, it's
  298. constantly growing. And personally, I'm very very grateful for FL Studio.
  299. So I just want to personally say thank you, ImageLine, for providing a platform for
  300. me to create my music, build my brand and my business off of the lifetime free
  301. updates, it's amazing, and I'm sure many other users of FL Studio feel the exact
  302. same way. So thanks for tuning in..
  303. Again, you guys can subscribe to get these podcasts weekly
  304. The best way to approach it is to come to my actual website, it'sgratuitous.com
  305. forward slash podcast. Select the episode, and you guys can check out all like the
  306. resources and stuff there. In addition, you guys can use the ask gratuitous image.
  307. Click that, it's gonna bring you down to a contact form at the very bottom of the
  308. page and ask me a question. If you guys have questions about music production, want
  309. me to answer it, I'll answer it.
  310. Okay. You guys can also check my courses, books, current studio gear, and stuff like
  311. that at it'sgratuitous.com forward slash learning.
  312. Okay. Super super simple. If you guys want to support this podcast, it's just five
  313. dollars a month. You guys will see the button there as well.
  314. you know, it helps a lot with all like the planning and just you know, motivation to
  315. keep creating these these episodes.
  316. If you guys want to cancel, you guys can just email me anytime and I'll cancel your
  317. subscription, okay? So thanks so much for checking out the first episode.
  318. you know, this was more of a kind of like a little rant.
  319. it was just more of kind of like a little intro, like you know, what to expect in
  320. our future episodes and stuff like that.
  321. You know, I have tons and tons of ideas and information, what I want to get across
  322. to you. I want to teach you the best practices, you know, how to have a healthy life
  323. being a music producer, while at the same time not following into the trends and
  324. making yourself stand out as a music producer and staying original.
  325. Okay, so I'm gratuitous. Thank you so much for checking out the first episode, and
  326. that's it. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  327. If you had any questions, visit it'sgratuitous.com/slash podcast.
  328. Select an episode and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact
  329. form. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and
  330. podcasting here, read my books or are interested in lessons.
  331. Visit the link it'sgratuitous.com/slash learning' that page will redirect you to
  332. more info and resources I hope the best with your productions Im gratuitous and I'll
  333. see you in the next episode
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