What Does It Take To Be A Producer?

Hello Nairaland users, please you guys in US, what does it take to ba a producer for artistes such as Mary J, Ne-yo etc. I mean to produce one or two tracks on their albums? Thanks in advance.

Master fruity loops

Music production is much more than fruity loops. I mean, frutiy loop is for creatng beats. if u want to be a producer, u need to have a passion for it. Trust me, there already big prooducers in town that trying to think big and start big ill run u down. U need to be a master in what u choose to do, i cal it passion.

Also, u need to understand music itself( i don't mean that u must study music ooooo), infact what i mean is that u need to have a good hear for music. You get that sorted by listening to good songs like "Storm is over" by r.kelly, "african queen" by tuface idibia, and other ones that are very very good. The list is endless.
Also, u need to invest money into it. you'll definitely need to buy hardwares and softwares. U need a computer ( a mac/high end PC with at least 1.8 ghz, 512 MB/1GIG, with sound card and PCI slot as well as I/o. u need a sequencer software, a mic preamp, a keyboard( trust me, u need a MIDI Keyboard controller. THe midi keyboard is called Musical instrument digital interface, and it creates a (1) and (0) binary musical notation unto a computer. which can be editted on the sequencer into a perfect keyboard production. U need a soundcard with low latency as well, u need condenser mics as well as a soft syntheszer. U need a drum machine as well like fruity loops e.t.c to create ur beats.

There is an extensive list. but those are the basics u need. You can also check www.futureproducers.com for more info. If others are ready to go on. lets dedicate this thread to music production. I avent prouce any music at all. I am planning to do that with my church youth choir (www.integrityouths.8m.net) since we can't afford to pay 150 pounds per session in a recording studio.

Gbenga you've said everything all man,  you need to have ear for music me as a Keyboardist ain't difficult for me to learn because i really got passion for it, i Score alotta  foreign CDs hey gbenga make i come UK come produce una huh ? even if you pay 100Pounds does that mean if i come to Uk i will really make it huh ?

Here in nigeria men the lowest amount for a session you will ever get in some kind of chap studio is N5000, that should be $40 something dollars so if i can Produce 5 Artist in one week with 100Pounds does that not make sense in a month ??

London here i come oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

@ smartsoft, if u knw your onions well, you can even work with local Nigerian artist and promote them for free/near free on BENTV, OBE, PassionTV
all u need is to send the music videos to tem and liase with other nigerian artist. Its more easy to av access to Nigerian artist, presenters, TV stations et.c. hre.

I once sent u an email sometimes ago about having a home studio, but u didnt reply. so i went to google and searhed. Hence my knowledge.

Do u mind if we share more ideas please?,


Post back man. am on here for another 2 hrs,

I wish u fit ome produce us oooooo. I'd be glad if u can. Me sef i no mind to learn.

are u still online ?

Yeah, am still online man.

FOr creating beats, what software do you use?,

Fruity loop, since i play the keyboard very welll, sometymes use my REASON 3 i just try to use some kinda drum kit and mix it, then i start

thank you guys, i really appreciate your comments. i love music and gbenga, how do you know i love rkelly? that's my guy and i have all his albums, he is the greatest. his songs lift me up all the time. i buy most albums that are nice. thanks you guys @ gbenga and smart.

Keep them coming please,

At smartsoft, i havent really done any production at all. i only learn from www.tweakheadz.com at the moment. But i plan to have a small studio in my room soon. I am buying equipments. But the thing is that, i don't know how to play keyboard although i have a good ear for music. I need fruity loops as well. I av the new version but needs the Registration Key.

DO u think i can use either reason or fruityloops to create beats +instrumentals, or does it just creates beats and u av to use a keyboard to create MIDI instrumentals for it.

plz do help me out./

You see for someone that does not know how to use the keyboard uses the Fruity loop of a thing, why folks who knows how to plays keyboard very well uses Reason cos it's kinda faster for them but fruity loop, you will have to use your mouse to pick up the keys we have a virtual keyboard in Fruity loop software where u use your mouse pointer to play, why the reason of a thing is physical, for instance if you very familiar with web design we have two common software for designing software. 1. Frontpage 2. Dreamweaver, now for someone who use dreamweaver knows that the software make it easier for him cos frontpage got some kinda less previlege, understand my point huh ?

So both of them does the instrumental for someone like me i do all instrumental using reason, expect if i wanna do some kinda hot hiphop i use fruitloop cos fruitloop it meant for Hiphop hardcore, Rymzo uses Fruity loop OJB JEzrel uses both Marvelous Benji uses Fruity loop, Don Jazzy uses Fruity loop while Tosin Martins song is done using Reason

Oh thanks, SO i guess i might av to go for fruity loops then. But i don't av fruity loops software, i wonder if you've got the CD key, i can send u an email for a request for it, if you don't mind please.

Also, what do you think an ideal studio should be like?. I am thinking of using a small room in my church as one.

well you can use it man you free but you must make sure you pad-up you boot very well.

Pad up as in?,


do give me more clue on that.

Please post your email so i can send u a request for Frutiy loops key

ucee85@yahoo.com what i meant by booting is where your artist are gonna make there VOICE OVER. feel me now ?

I have fl studio five though i've not mastered it fully i av been able 2 hook up some beat and sold some too but my problem is recording.some one told me i should go 4 cakewalk while another person said cubase.pls which is best and can u pls tell me wat i need 2 start recording.

!ace1, you need to have a small studio to be able to record. I guess www.tweakheadz.com will be a resource website.

i will advice you to use cubase since you using Fruity Loop but if you using Reason 3 you will probably need to use Cakewalk thats what i know

Hi fellas. This is quite interesting and I hope my contributions will help.

@ Stardom-Everything you've been told is IMPORTANT and in addition to that, you need a lot of DEDICATION and HARDWORK to excel. You should also learn how the Music/Entertainment Industry works because it takes more than making GOOD muisc to reach where you aspire to be [if I understand you well enough].

@gbengaijot+smartsoft-I must commend your keen interest and ideas about Music. To an extent, differing opinions keep confusing producers like what software/interface to use and what not to use. I wish to clearly state that what works for one producer may not/cannot work for the next man. Often been involved in debates about which is best-Loops vs Cubase, Reason for sequencing; CoolEdit vs Sound Forge for Wave Editing, Sonar vs Acid for Mixing et al. What should be UNDERSTOOD is that Softwares/Intertfaces work hand-in-hand depending on what kind of recording or production project at hand-it could be Live or just Studio sequencing as the case may be.
As a producer learn what works for you AND also experiment with other softwares-don't lock yourself into one dimension when you can exploit other options.
Finally, I realized over time that Plug-ins and Samples other than the conventional also go a long way in setting you apart from the pack.

Hope to hear from y'all.

thx maxx, good explanation there

@smartsoft, did u recieve my email?,

I think you maybe missing something in what you need. No matter how great your music or beat is, you have to understand that its still a business at the end of the day. Take for example someone like Kanye West. If you listen to his first album he's explaining how everything happened for him. He'd been doing beats since like what, maybe the early 90's, but people just started hearing about him in like 99. Another person is like the Neptunes.

One advise that I would personally give is to take a music business class, and read some books. The worst thing that could happen to you is if you get beats to those artist, and you're not paid what you're suppose to. You also need a good attorny. I made sure I studied all that before I released my album. There's also other information i can give you, its so much info.

There's a music and sound production school right now in Lagos, NIgeria. There are just so off da hook. I'm a student there now. You peeps might wanna check it out. www.mti-institute.com.
Music production is wild and so vast that I don't even where to begin.
Some other I sure will be able to drop a few tips.

Good posts. I am happy that Nigerian music industry is beginning to grow and become popular. Smartsoft and Gbenga, thank u for the info. Am a fan of Naija music.

PPS: If you have talent and know ur stuff, and u need sponsor, pls contact me,

I'm a producer myself, i worked with Dipset, but cam'ron no pay me well so i left, but i would love to work with some nija artists, i'm actually based in Atlanta, but to be a good producer u have to have good ear, there are two categories,
gifted producers and trained producers, either way u have to further develop and perfect ur craft, producing is not just about making beats, sometimes the producer is the one that even writes the lyrics and tells the artist how to sing to the melody or rap to the beat, but u have to love music to be good at it, it took me a year an half to master my craft and i'm still not perfect, so lil jon and even scott storch, it took them 10yrs to become big, and another hard task is spreading your music or should i say publicity which is another big part, if people don't hear ur work how will they know u exist, theres alot into it, but the whole point is to love what u do, don't do it just 4 the money do it because u love it, i'm mike by the way and i'm new to this forum, s 'up erryone

Good word, welcome to this forum

@mike, welcome to the forum.

At smartsoft, did u get my email?

does anyone know how to pad a singing booth? as well as the main basic spec for a multimedia PC for music production.

thanks for the warm welcome, i like to keep intouch with my roots

Gbenga yea i did i'm gonna mail it to you soon

learn from a producer! WHO ARE THOSE TALKING ABOUT FL STUDIO? WHAT HAPPENS TO CUBASE

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