If you’re looking to get into the royalty free music business or if you’re wondering how hard it is to create so you can get a better appreciation for what creators have to go through, you might want to read this article. It very well may turn into a real eye opener for you. Or it may just be what you suspected all along.
Creating any kind of music, whether it’s royalty free or not, is a difficult process. For some people it comes easier than for others but I don’t think there is anybody on this planet (including the top composers) who will tell you that it’s easy.
For starters, there is coming up with the idea itself. What kind of music are you going to create? There are so many different styles of music. Just go to Wiki and look up “list of musical genres” and your mind will be totally blown away. Just in the broad genre of electronic music there are dozens of sub genres. Yes, the types of music out there are staggering in numbers.
Now fortunately, a lot of the decision making process is going to be determined by the demand. If you’re writing a custom piece for somebody and they’ve got a certain kind of video that lends itself to a certain music style (like a circus video) you’re going to almost be locked into a certain style of music. Doing anything else would probably not fit into the video itself.
But quite often you’re staring at a blank canvas that can go into many different directions and choosing a genre becomes a very difficult thing. When that happens, I find it’s always best to go with my strengths. What music do I feel most comfortable creating? I answer that question and then move on to the actual creation process.
But the creation process doesn’t end with the genre of music. What key is that music going to be in. What’s the tempo going to be? What instruments are you going to use? How long will the piece be? These, and many other questions, need to be answered. You’re not going to just sit down and start banging on the keyboard. Well, I guess you could. But rarely does that turn into anything productive.
After all that is mapped out and you know exactly what you’re going to write and have answered all those other questions, the next stumbling block is the technology end of it. How are you going to piece this together?
Having a digital audio workstation (DAW) can make a lot of the process easier to navigate. A DAW is very flexible. It can accommodate just about any method of working.
For example, one way to piece a song together is to insert a separate track for each instrument (VST) that you’re going to use. This is probably the most common way of putting a musical track together but it’s not the only way.
Another thing you can do is create a loop track using some kind of sequencer. Now sequencers have come a long way from the old days. In the old days a sequencer could only play one part, monophonically, and with a limited number of notes.
Today, sequencers are much more complex.
For example, Cubase 7 comes with something called Loop Mash. What this is can be explained this way.
Loop Mash can take a number of different tracks of sounds and combine them together. The sounds can be mixed in a variety of ways controlled by sliders. Sounds can be faded in and out. Random patterns can be created. Fill ins can be added on the fly using other controls.
I personally use Loop Mash for some of my dance tracks as it’s great for beat music where you want a little variety in your beats and want to be able to control that variety in real time.
Loop Mash takes a little bit of time to get used to but it’s time well spent as it’s a very versatile instrument.
After you’ve decided how you’re going to put your music together the next step is actually recording the song. How are you going to do this> Are you going to play everything in real time? Are you going to input the notes in step time or import them from a musical scoring software like Finale? Are you going to play the notes at reduced speed, especially if there are some tricky runs and you’re not the best performer in the world? All of these questions need to be answered.
What about after the music is all recorded? Are you going to add effects in the post processing? A lot of what you hear on songs that makes them sound good is the effects processing.
The most common effects processing is reverb. That’s how so many songs sound like they’re coming from a big concert hall. But if you do use reverb, what kind? Will you use a big hall or a plate? Will it be an analog reverb or a digital reverb? How dry or wet will it be? Wet reverb meand there is more reverb sound than natural sound. Will you use reverb on the whole song or just certain tracks?
How many different effects will you use? Just some of the common ones are reverb, distortion, overdrive, delay, compression, bit crunching and phase shifting. For some tracks, too many effects will muddy it. For other tracks, too few won’t make the tracks sound authentic for that genre.
For a dance track, are you going to compress the crap out of it or are you going to allow it to have a more natural sound? There are so many different levels and kinds of compression.
A fat dance master compression will essentially equalize the levels of each instrument across the whole track and pump up the volume greatly. A more subtle compression will do some equalization of levels but not pump up the volume as much. Which is more appropriate for the track you’re doing?
These are all questions you have to answer.
And then finally, after the song is actually finished, you need to document everything including come up with a description for the song so that somebody reading it can get a pretty good idea of what it will sound like before they preview it. This saves them time listening to tracks that won’t even be close to what they’re looking for.
Sometimes writing the description is the hardest part of the whole process. Describing music is not easy.
And I haven’t even covered the actual purchase process of all the things you’ll need. What if you’re on a limited budget? What instruments must you have and what can you live without?
Then there is marketing your business. Contrary to what you may believe, build it and they will come doesn’t work anymore. You need to promote, promote and promote some more.
So as you can see, creating royalty free music is a complex process. If you’re going to do this for a living, you better love what you’re doing.
It will make the whole process a whole lot easier.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim