Pre-Production: Preparing Your Music Creation Tools

Now we're going to look at pre-production and how we can get all of our tools ready for the act of creating and writing our songs. The idea here is to create all those tools, instruments, and effects.

• Experiment: Make sure our library is good.
• Organize: Have our samples and things ready so that when we move into sketching, creating ideas, and making things up, we have a clear sense of our tools.

You don't want to start something massive, like a woodworking project, with a desk covered with tools all over the place. If some tools are in other rooms and you don't know where they are, you might find yourself frustrated during your creative inspiration as you spend time searching and moving things around.

To avoid these problems, we clear everything away at the beginning so that it's ready for us when we're in those other parts of our creation and music production.

Pre-Production Tools

Tasks for Preparing to Make Music

To prepare for making music, there are a few tasks that we should focus on:

• Clear Workspace: Create a clear workspace.
• Build a Library of Sounds: Organize those files and have pre-made templates and tools that are ready to use.

Now, let's delve into building your library. A well-organized and usable sample library is really important as a music producer. It helps you easily add sounds and gives you a palette to work with.

Building Your Library

There are three main ways you can build your sound library:

1. Making Your Own Samples
2. Purchasing Samples
3. Finding Free Samples Online

Let's look at each one of these methods in detail.

Making Your Own Samples

Cons:

• Access: You need the instrument to record it, recording facilities, software, and equipment. This can be quite a lot, especially for rare or expensive instruments.
• Time: It takes a lot of time to record, edit, and organize your samples.

Positive Aspects:

• Exclusivity: No one else has these samples, just you.
• Quality: You can record the process and the samples exactly how you want them, ensuring high-quality sounds.
• Potential: You can sell these samples in the future or use them in other projects.
• Rights: You own the copyright of the samples with no questions of ownership.

It can also be a really fun process if you want to get into it!

Purchasing Samples

I have experience with all three methods. I have recorded my own samples, purchased many, and used free ones while ensuring I have the rights to them. When I'm looking for a specific instrument that I don't have and I want to do it quickly, I turn to purchasing because it's efficient and usually good quality.

Cons:

• Non-Exclusive: Many other producers might have the same samples.
• Investment: You'll need to pay for good quality samples.
• Potential: You won't be able to resell purchased samples.

Pros:

• Time and Ease: With just a small amount of time, you can access a huge library of amazing sounds.
• Quality: There are many professional libraries out there with really amazing quality.
• Rights: By purchasing royalty-free samples, you know you can add them to your commercial music if the rights allow.

Free Samples Online

There are tons of free samples out there, but it's a wild web full of sounds. Here are some cons:

• Non-Exclusive: Many other producers might have the same samples.
• Quality: It can be hard to know if the whole library is good, as some samples may have gone through many hands before reaching you.
• Time: Finding, testing, renaming, and organizing samples can take a lot of time.
• Rights: You need to ensure that you are allowed to use the samples in commercial products.

Pros:

• Speed: Finding samples of specific sounds can be pretty quick if you know where to look.
• Price: Free is always a good price!

Building Your Library: Resources

Now, let's start building our library. Here are two examples of purchased and free samples online:

Purchased Samples

• Loopmasters.com: A great website with a vast collection of loops, covering genres like hip hop, trap, cinematic, and more.
• Sabaquismusic.com: My own website, offering various sample libraries and free Ableton Live instruments.

Free Samples Online

• Wikilaptop.org: A massive collection by Berkeley and One Laptop Per Child with a wide variety of samples.
• Freesound.org: One of my favorite websites for free sounds. You need to sign in to look for specific sounds.
• Looperman.com: While not my favorite, there are some samples that can be useful.

Conclusion

Building your library with these resources will equip you with the samples needed for your music production. We will also look later at organizing these samples to ensure quick access once you have a collection. You might go on a shopping spree or download many samples, and organizing them will help you navigate your library efficiently.