Rise of the Bedroom Producer 2011 Documentary is a terrific look at how technology has made dance music more accessible and transformational to the masses.
I think a lot of kids don’t realize how much work goes into writing and producing a commercial track – it’s not just a matter of throwing together some loops and making a couple of “rises” or whatever other cliched terminology they’ve picked up.
First of all, the mixing part is 80% of the difficulty in making a track. For that you have to have professional quality studio monitors in a room that’s been acoustically treated, otherwise you’re going to end up with a track that sounds good in your bedroom but utter crap everywhere else. Same thing with mixing on headphones, you just end up with a track that sounds good on your headphones but crap on other people’s systems.
And the mastering part – again, this is something that has to be done under professional listening conditions if you want your track to have that pro “sheen” that’ll qualify it for radio/club play. Mixing is a skill that takes years to develop, there is so much to learn not only technically but also listening skills as well.
That’s not to mention the whole area of DAW’s and how they work, effects plugins and the complicated business of sound synthesis. If you want to master this stuff then there’s years of study and practice ahead of you. If you’re prepared to put in as much effort as you would into getting a degree then it’s one of the most rewarding pursuits.