Not so easy after all: The Hip Hop Music Production Scene | Feature

Written by Varun Ramamurthi '22

It’s no secret that today’s music industry is notoriously difficult to break into. Out of every aspiring rapper or singer who opens Google Docs and starts jotting down lyrics, an infinitesimally small percentage will ever witness their music becoming mainstream. The same goes for those who make beats; the music production scene, although less talked about, is no different.

But why is this the case? Hasn’t modern technology made creating music easier and more accessible? True, a singer no longer needs to train as hard to perfect their pitches when autotune can correct them for you. Music producers also no longer require access to a professional studio and years of practice with a mixing console—a complex network of dials, switches, and knobs. A Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW, packs all the drums, synths, and samples you’d ever need right into your laptop.

From the outside looking in, being a producer might seem easier than being a singer or rapper. Writing lyrics, learning how to sing, and mastering stage presence does appear more difficult than sitting in front of a computer and dragging drum patterns across a screen. A hit song with what sounds like a very basic beat might convince one that they too can learn to produce music and crank out hits with ease. This is simply untrue. Like almost everything that seems too easy, there’s always a catch. In the case of music production, there are several.

The first catch is the price tag. Depending on how seriously one wants to take their music production, the cost of acquiring the necessary equipment, both physical and digital, can run up to five thousand dollars. If one is looking to simply try out a DAW, a program called Fruity Loops Studio by Image-Line offers a free edition with plenty of features. Unfortunately, saving your work isn’t an option. With prices ranging from $100 to around $1000, various paid editions of DAWs like Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, or the aforementioned FL Studio are available. As the editions increase in price, the user is presented with more and more features: some very useful, others... not so much. Aside from the DAW, other digital tools include synth plugins like Omnisphere, ElectraX, and Nexus. Essentially, these synth plugins are digital libraries full of pads, keyboards, bells, percussion, and more. They can each cost hundreds of dollars. Outside of digital tools, picking up a MIDI piano keyboard and tabletop digital piano to play out melodies and harmonies is highly recommended. A serviceable one can be purchased for around $100 at a place like Guitar Center.

The second catch is developing the musical skills required to make a good beat. This is what truly separates an average beat from a great one. Some of these skills, notably mixing, can be developed through experience. Mixing is the crucial process of blending recorded or created tracks together through various techniques. These include EQing, which describes raising or lowering certain frequencies in order to make space for other instruments in those same frequencies, while also leveling or adjusting the volumes of each track and adding effects, like delay and reverb. A mixed beat will sound much more crisp and professional than an unmixed beat. Instrument selection also comes with experience. For example, one might decide that pianos with pads create a nice ambient vibe, or that bells don’t really go well with tambourines. A choice between using a thin-sounding violin vs. a robust flute as the melody can make or break the beat. However, not everything can be learned through experience—namely, traditional music theory. This umbrella term includes ideas like harmonization, chord progressions, and part leading. All of these are very important, yet difficult and time-consuming to learn. This is why most producers, knowing they need to learn these skills, turn in desperation to 10-minute “all you need to know about music theory” videos on Youtube. All these skills, both those that can be learned through experience and those that cannot, will take a huge amount of time and effort to master. What about all the equipment? That’s going to take a long time to prepare as well. For amateur producers, especially if they don’t play the piano, that’s another hurdle in their way. To make matters worse, both DAWs and any synth libraries purchased will take hours upon hours to learn.

Long story short, if you’re looking to take music production seriously, make sure you know exactly what you’re signing up for. Being great at making beats, let alone making it into mainstream music, will take time, effort, and persistence, just like anything else. You’ll have to invest in your equipment—both digital and physical. Once you have your tools, you must master them. Be prepared to spend hours alone looking up how to use niche plugins and other functionalities that could give your music the edge over everyone else’s. In conclusion, chase your dreams, but remember that the road to being a successful music producer will be long and treacherous.

Graphic by Elton Zheng