I was asked a question about music production. Exactly. What is the very best way to learn music production? And I have no idea. And so I thought I would look into that. And my instinct is a structured learning syllabus uh meaningful pro uh progression just like any other class with an experienced teacher. And that would seem to me to be a far superior methodology than watching a bunch of videos on YouTube. Uh, unfortunately some people that’s all they have and they can’t they either don’t have the time or the resources to do that.
So I looked up uh what is the best way to learn music production and this gentleman his channel is Tetro. I hope I’m saying that right. No disrespect. I hope that that is correct. Uh was number one. So good on him. And uh it’s got around 400,000 views. It’s about 3 years old. I don’t see a whole lot of people just saying he’s a maniac. Uh this video made me emotional. I realized how hard I am on myself. Woo. This maybe we got something really juicy going on here. I literally I literally sucked into the vortex of choosing the most suitable MIDI keyboard. That’s not very interesting. Uh I’ve been trying to get myself to commit and learn and make music. This video was perfect in helping me. You know what? That’s good enough for me. So, this is Tetro and we’re going to watch how he thinks we should start music production. Let’s hear what he’s got. >> What is going on everybody? This is Tetro and welcome back to the Lowi Lounge.
This video is meant to be like your blueprint, your ultimate guide, the things that you need to know and focus on and the direction you need to go if you do want to start making your own music. Obviously, I’m not going to teach you everything about learning music production in this video, but I will point you to all those specific resources that you can use to start making your own music and become an artist. Let’s get right into it. >> One of the major reasons learning music production can seem really overwhelming is because if you have no prior musical knowledge, you’re actually learning two huge things at the same time.
You’re learning the technical side like how to use a DAW and how to use gear, but then you’re also learning how to make music. The fun. >> Okay, great first point. And I’ve talked about this. He is putting it much better and so we’re going to continue listening to him, but I want to voice full agreement.
If you are trying to, for instance, write a song, learn how to record it, learn how to mix it and release it, and you’re doing all of that at once, you were going to do all of it very, very badly. And one of the ways I sort of it early on, I guess early on, like I’ve been doing this a long time. So like eight or nine years ago, I uh took songs that I had already written written several years ago and recorded them. And when I ran out of those, I started recording uh cover songs for myself because I found that if I was trying to put together uh some sort of complicated riff or
interesting song that I that I was interested in, uh it added a level of complexity that just became absurd because I didn’t know how to record it. And if so, if I don’t know what it’s supposed to sound like, how am I supposed to know I’m doing it correctly? And eventually, you know, you can fumble around like that and produce something that you like. But my I I started making real progress when I started pulling as many variables out as I could. For instance, I was I was going to write the song, not record it.
Then I was going to record a song that I already liked and was done with. Then I was going to mix something that I already recorded long ago and ultimately I was going to give up on mastering anything because it’s a goddamn nightmare and I just bought some AI software. So that was pretty much how I got to the end of that to where I felt pretty good about it. But in the in the very beginning I was drowning because I wasn’t very good at writing songs. I knew how to play the guitar sort of and
I knew nothing about recording, mixing, mastering, and all this other crap. You’ve got to remove the X factor. So, well said, Tetro. >> Fundamentals of music and dare I say music theory, which can sound scary to a lot of people, but I’ve actually created two series for beginners that can help make both of those things really easy. The number one is the music theory series for beginners starting from zero. I’ve had so many people tell me they’ve tried to learn music theory so many
times. >> Let me just say this. it. If you do not learn music theory because you think it is hard, your music career is going to be significantly harder than it had to be by not knowing it. Writing music is going to be more is going to be harder than it would have been had you understood it. And if you’re in a band trying to talk to each other about music, if everyone understands music theory to a degree, not a college degree, to a certain degree. If everyone is on the same page, no pun, everything is easier. So if you
think music theory is too hard, you’re wrong. It’s not. And if you think you don’t need it, while you may technically be right, you have thrown away a powerful tool. Please continue. >> And I can relate to them when they tell me that every teacher has made it so overly complicated, but this series actually helps people break through and start to learn. >> When this is over, I’m going to I’m going to get his uh music theory course, and we’re going to talk about it in
another video. >> Put together chords and melodies and how the notes on a piano work. And then I’ve also got the Ableton Live for beginner series. That’s the DAW that I use. It’s a great introduction to the Tetris. But don’t get discouraged. Music theory fundamentals and the fundamentals. >> In fact, I would say that at some DAWs have come around to a point to where it is just a preference really. The only thing I would say I didn’t I had a bad experience with ProTools. I
didn’t like it. uh only because I had a I had ProTools. It came with one of the units that I bought back there, an 11 rack, one of the early emulators, and I didn’t know what ProTools was. And I installed it and I started learning recording on this and it was unnecessarily complicated. And then eventually they updated the software and it simply wouldn’t work on my computer. and my computer was fine, but they just kept piling garbage into the product to the point to where it loaded too slowly.
It couldn’t handle what it was supposed to handle. So, uh, I use Reaper. It is easy, easy peasy, and it’s free until you want to actually license it. So, he’s talking about Ableton, but anything you learn in Ableton will probably help you in Reaper and anything else you use. of learning a dah can seem overwhelming but you can do it. It’s just going to take time. It is also whether you’re a beginner or not really easy to get caught up in the idea of gear. But the caution I have for
beginners is that since you don’t have enough knowledge to understand how to solve all your problems, it’s easy to think that just buying another piece of gear will solve whatever problem you’re. It’s called gear acquisition syndrome or gas. It is a real phenomenon that plagues musicians across the globe. I have suffered for from it and uh I he’s absolutely right. You don’t need all that stuff >> you’re having. And sometimes that’s >> except guitars. You need as many guitars
as you can afford. They’re very important. >> It’s true. Like if you want to be able to record with a microphone, buying an audio interface is a good purchase. But then you end up in the rabbit hole watching hours and hours reviews, maybe even reviews on this channel. Agonizing over what is the perfect gear. And what you need to embrace is that there really is no perfect gear. But don’t get stuck in a loop and say, “Oh, well, this one does this one better and this.” >> He’s totally right. In fact, I using
Reaper tried to make some videos and using the AIO driver is a is a nightmare with videos. I won’t even go into that. I won’t touch on it. But what I will say is I used my common method of simplifying as much as possible. And if I don’t have to use Reaper, I’m not going to like right now. And so I bought this $30 USB microphone and I it sounds fine. It sounds really good. Uh I have a $500 microphone that I use for vocals and there’s a $1,500 microphone back there that I would use for vocals. And
you would think that I would use them to make these videos, but no. Absolutely not. Because then I would have to run it through the audio interface. I would use AIO drivers. I would run it through Reaper and on and on and on and on and I’d have to use OBS Studios, which I’m using anyway, but I’d have to use OBS Studios, 15 different plugins, and somehow juggle all this to be able to watch this guy lay on a bed of MIDI devices and talk to you about it when it’s just not necessary. Sometimes
simple is better and it’s a $30 mic, but it’s fine. It’s working well. Don’t get hung up on what things cost or what people say they can do. If it works, just do it. >> This one does that one better, and which one should I get now? Sometimes it might come up to a coin toss. And other times, you might have all of the gear that you actually need, and you don’t need to be searching uh for gear reviews, and you don’t need to be browsing for something else to buy. You need to just be making
music. I’ve got a really great minimalist bedroom setup explanation video that tells you not which gear to buy, but which pieces you might need for what purpose. Either you need something or you don’t. >> And I guess you’re just buying it out of pure passion, and that’s okay, too. But just be honest with yourself about what’s driving your decision to purchase more gear. >> Brick Rubin is confusing a young man. There’s no shortage of 5 minute, 10 minute, even 20 minute tutorials out
there on the internet to show you how to do anything in music production. Side chain compression, mixing, EQ, all of this great stuff that you can learn, but none of those can teach you the actual process, what it actually means to be making music, releasing. >> I see what you’re saying and I totally agree. People are asking, well, what’s the best tool to use and what tools do I need? And these are valid questions and everyone’s had them, but the answer is very unsatisfying. The answer is the
right tool for the right job is always going to probably be different. And what tools you need is an unanswerable question. The only one you can answer is what tools do I need for this very specific thing? For instance, I need to I need to put a vocal track that sits well into uh a death metal song that sounds like it was recorded in a garage with one microphone. And we did that, excuse me, and we did that on purpose, but the vocals won’t sit right. Well, no Nothing will sit right, quote unquote, in that. What you have to do is
take the tools that you have and do the best you can in the moment with whatever you’re dealing with. And if you have unlimited funds, you should probably not be watching these videos and just go hire an engineer and a mixer and a master and record your music, watch what they do, and pay them to teach you. If you do have limited funds, then welcome aboard. Here we are. and ask not, you know, what tools you need, ask what tools you have and then use that and create art through adversity. I realize I got way upy on
that last bit, but I do believe that. I believe that uh with no with no adversity, with unlimited everything, you wind up with a beautiful mess that no one’s going to care about. But if a band like Baie records something unique in a garage with one overhead mic while they scream in the corner in an just indecipherable mess, they’re going to create a genre and they’re going to be loved by thousands forever. So maybe worry less about what you’re worry less about how this is happening and
more about what you are doing and make that the very best you can and use your tools to the best of your ability at the time. >> They’re albums living in the music industry and there’s really no shortcut to learning that until you watch a producer that you love. If you watch full processing, I’m talking long form hours of them working on so you can see the nittygritty details of what they do, stuff that doesn’t fit in these little snappy fast tutorials. If you want to know my new process and see how I
actually work live video, I do live stream weekly here on this channel and you can watch previous live streams, but I just think watching a raw process, watching somebody really work through issues and struggle. >> Exactly. Another thing you can do, and I don’t know if he’s going to bring this up, I’m going to talk over him anyway, is um if you have a local studio, I live just north of Dallas and there’s a ton of studios in Dallas, and just do a walk-in and ask the engineers if you
could buy them lunch and watch them work or ask them, you know, when they’re going to have a band in and pay them for their time and just say, “I want sit in for a few hours and I want to watch what you do. And that will help dispel a lot of confusion that you might have about what’s going on. Now, what they’re doing in the studio is going to be wildly different than what you do at home. But and if you know a professional that works out of their home that has what would be referred to as a home studio
like like I’m using uh talk to them, ask them for some of their time and don’t interfere with the process. just say I want to I want to I want to audit your process and you can pay them whatever hourly rate that they might charge for such a thing and they may be open to it and that might help and but don’t do it with Rick Rubin he’s very very expensive and he may be insane >> a lot more informative sometimes than a quick tutorial and we’re also fortunate enough to live in a time where some of
the greatest >> I’m bad talking Rick Rubin I love the guy he’s just Again, maybe he might be insane. I don’t know. >> Producers of all time have sat down to do interviews, hours of interviews talking about little anecdotes from their career. You should be consuming all of that. And not only that, sit there with a notebook and consume all of that. Take notes. You do it with the math class and the history class that you don’t care about. Why not do it with something that you actually care about?
Learn from the masters through interviews or whatever they have out there. And there’s no shortcut. You can’t learn the process quick like that. >> Well said. Well said. >> A ton of content out there, but not all of it is actually going to help you learn and not all of it is actually made to help you learn. Some of it is just meant to be entertainment. And it’s important to make that distinction because if you after you come home from work every day only have >> I don’t think anything I do is ever
going to run the risk of being entertaining. So maybe it’ll be more useful. >> An hour to go on YouTube and maybe learn a little bit more about this hobby or whatever time you have to spend learning about how to make your own music. You want to make sure you’re not getting sucked into a vortex of entertainment that kind of checked a box in your head that said, “Oh yeah, I watched some music production videos. That’s enough for today.” But what did you learn from those videos? And I’m not saying there’s
anything wrong with those videos. is I like to sit down and watch some Netflix or watch some fun YouTube videos sometimes, too. But I’m mindful while I’m doing that that hey, this is just entertainment. There’s a reason some of those videos out there are edited an awful lot like Mr. Beast videos. And it’s not because they’re trying to teach you something. >> I’ve never seen a Mr. Beast video. Is that weird? Am I weird because of that? Let me know in the comments if it’s
weird that I have never seen Mr. Beast. >> Keep you watching. >> See, now that’s entertainment. Just be mindful and just be cautious about that. The way you spend your time learning music production, if you did sit down to learn music production, make sure you’re consuming something that’s actually informative. >> Yes. Well said. >> All right. So, I hope you found this video helpful, but don’t forget this video is just the beginning. This is just meant to be blueprint.
Interestingly, while I don’t think we learned anything specifically, we may have learned about things we need to learn, and that can be a valuable first step. Uh, as far as the nuts and bolts of what’s going on, this video did not do much, but it did discuss other videos that he has done that might. And I think that this is a good primer for future activity. basically laying out a philosophical approach that is valuable and maybe warning of a few pitfalls as you move forward with the entertainment
stuff. So, while I don’t feel like we’re all ready to go record our first platinum record, I do feel like this guy knows enough that we need to listen to more of what he has to say. Shockingly, if we didn’t, I never would have done the video. So, I kind of don’t want to be like dine where, you know, in the first five minutes that some who who the killer is. If I’m doing a video, then it’s going to be something that I thought was valuable and that I enjoyed. And so, and I’m going to say the name
Tetro Teatro. Forgive me. Uh I mean no disrespect. I enjoyed this video and I am going to buy uh his other uh he had some offerings early in the video. What was it? Uh, free beginners courses. Uh, music theory for beginners. I think we should talk about that. I want to see what he has to say about music theory because I don’t think that we talk enough about it and I want to talk more about it. So, I hope you enjoyed this. Go and check this guy’s uh channel out and see what you think. I enjoyed this. I’m going to see
if I enjoy more. And uh very very soon I’m going to talk about music theory for beginners from him. And maybe we have uh we have a new tool. Anyway, moving on. This is good. And uh have a great day. We’ll see you soon. Bye-bye.