How to Perfect Your Production Workflow

Imagine sitting down to make that one beat that you swear has the raw potential to change everything only to realize nine hours have passed and you’ve barely laid down a skeletons worth of product, let alone anything substantial. For some this is a horrifying reality consistently, and not for the sake of creative block. Instead, and in many cases, it’s due to sheer inefficiency. That being said, even a creative block can be overcome with proper workflow, the navigation and stagings implemented in each persons creative process. If there’s one thing the modern producer should be cognizant of, it’s the balancing of simplicity, genre components, and organization necessary to create full projects without spending your most valuable asset: Time. 

Simplicity has been and always will be an art form. Citing the artistic movement of minimalism that shaped the girth of this concept, as Producers should use it:

‘..minimalism in music often features repetition and gradual variation…’

First is acknowledging what and why beats and instrumentals are being made. The modern Producer certainly plays a significantly larger roll in the creation of the record than they used to, but the job is and always has been to support the Recording Artist. Play your roll from the beginning and you’ll find that you have more success in the end result. That is to say, if you start with the understanding that you’re building an accompaniment versus the entirety of the composition, it allows you to compartmentalize the tasks in your workflow differently. The result is a higher likelihood to get that placement or have your beat chosen when it’s amongst 1,000 other beats for that defining factor. If it’s too busy, too complex, or doesn’t have space or a pocket for an Artist to sit, how could it support an artist? Since we make Instrumentals to support Recording Artists, try realigning your mission in creating beats based on the basic necessities for modern music. The Melody, The Counter Melody, Drums, Bass, and then you’re out of there. These four are enough to create any song in Hip-Hop.

The key here is in that repetition and gradual variation. Narrow your scope or scale your vision when creating beats. For each of those four components, work in a 4 bar or 8 bar duration. Melodies themselves are a frustrating point for many Producers, but in truth creating them is as easy as your understanding of Music Theory will allow. For many Beat Makers, Theory is a chore and an aside to the actual mission, but unfortunately that is not the case. Especially when it comes to developing memorable progressions in that allotted short duration. If you’re struggling with developing Melodies, spend some time studying the Circle of Fifths, Voicing, and basic Chord Theory. A large majority of Synthesizers and Midi Controllers are based off of keyboards so taking the time to learn a bit of keys will bolster your ability to improvise. There isn’t really another way to improve in this field and though it’s possible, only a small amount of producers are musically illiterate, however they eventually accumulate these basic skills regardless after years in the industry. Lay down a 4 bar Melody and a 4 bar Countermelody (just another melody accompanying your principal or main melody), variate them minimally in the next 4 bars and now you’re at 8. Remember you’re thinking in simplicity. How much tension and mood can you deliver in these short pieces? Make each melody meaningful. Less executed perfectly will always be stronger than more executed averagely. 

Hip-Hop Drums are extremely multifaceted, but also not really. The vast majority of the Industry is pretty attached to 4/4 time signatures, staying in a single key, and a single BPM. Once again, having an understanding of those very basic Music Theory principles will be very important, especially considering how easy working within those parameters is. When you’re developing in those short 4 and 8 bars, not needing to change the time signature, never leaving your key, and never variating the tempo means you can Quantize and Control C -> Control V your way through your entire production. 

Here it’s important to say, the spirit of music is in its freedom, organic nature, and lack of rules. The Music Industry is vastly separate from anything that particularly has to do with actual music. When you need to sell something, the nature of it changes. If you’re producing a Project or EP, spend time crafting creative sonics, stepping out of what the Industry consumes, and try to pioneer as best you can. Experiment, turn elements on their heads, and undermine traditional music rules when you want. But from a commercial standpoint, now more than ever with the emergence of online catalogues like BeatStars or the booming Type Beat Industry on Youtube, you should be striving to have a hard drive and a half full of beats. Especially if you’re looking to monetize.  How can you personally compete when hundreds of thousands of beats are instantly accessible? That means you’ll need more than one a day. Just a short disclaimer. 

With that in mind, Drums are the actual meat of any HipHop track. The components of your Drums (Hi Hats and Cymbals, Snares, Rims, and Claps, Kicks, and Percussion) stretch the entire Audio Spectrum and occasionally are panned or in the stereo field, taking up a majority of space on the Record. This is where understanding your the components of Genre will come in handy. Modern Urban Contemporary Music is infinitely diverse in terms of sonic textures and melody, but its Drums Patterns are pretty consistent especially contained within their respective Genres. Identifying these rhythm Motifs will expedite your Workflow as you try to add Mood and Drive to your tracks. Examples of these include:

– Rapid Double Time hi-hats in Trap, with spaced out high impact kicks, and driving and saturated 808s.    

• Swing, Rim Shots, and live bass for Neo-Soul. 
• Samples, non-quantized 3 part drum hand-programming, and Bitcrushing in Lo-fi. 
• Organs, Choir Progressions and Voicing, and Sub bass in Trap Ballads. 
• Builds and Risers, 4 to the floor Drum Composition, bright 4 chord synth progressions, Live Guitar and Live Drums in Pop Music. 
• Claps, Pitched and Sped Samples, Low Passing the Melody, constant driving Moog styles Bass, and down tempo BPM in TrapSoul.
• Chimes, Bells, Shakers, and Pad Melodies in Soul.

These persist as consistent themes across these Genres as foundation principles for easily building a track out. Once you understand them you can easily program drums across any input method whether it be Pad Machines, Keyboard Programming, Keys Inputting on your Laptop, or drawing into the Piano Roll. All the while, if you need help identifying these quintessential patterns in music, try consuming more music. Having other records to look at and deconstruct creates a framework for understanding how they work and how to recreate and emulate. 

Bass couldn’t be easier than, “make it slap.” Tastefully, of course. Follow the chords and voicing in your melodies.  The hardest part of Bass is applying the correct one to fit the mood of the track, not actually programming or playing it. Don’t overload your track; seek to punctuate instead and move the track forward. Pull away from the Bass to create sections in your arrangement and develop anticipation. Light Work.

Arrangement itself is the gradual variation of Minimalism. Again, what do you need to support the Artist? An introduction, hook section, possibly a bridge, and an outro. Get in and get out. These sections can be created by extending your 4 and 8 bar loops, variating the instrument presences, and developing tension when approaching changes. It should be as simple as deleting tracks and copy-pasting. 

The point of Production geared towards commercial release is being efficient and quick. In house producers may have to create beats on the spot, especially at label amps, writing sessions, or for Artists they’re assigned to or choose to work with. Spending too long on a beat will dissuade Artists from spending their money with you because inevitably it will be more than someone who can produce similar quality product quicker.   

Once again, these rules and metrics are bendable and they should remain that way to push music forward, but Artists are accepting music currently. This is just a different facet of Beat Making as a career, one driven by commercial conceptions on how music should be packaged and delivered.  It’s easy to remain a purist and produce at your own speed but it hampers profits. Effectively, your ability to consistently turn out the product deemed the best from you is your money maker. Your talent and the quality of your beats are unfortunately secondary, when you’re working on a clock. Think of your beats as conceptual deliverables. If you get a call from your artist friend who’s going into a session with Kendrick Lamar at 11:00pm, how many original beats can you get to him? If it’s less than two you may need to develop that sense of efficiency. You never know when opportunity will knock.