What is the song production process?
A-Z process from basic idea to final Spotify release
1. Personal goals and customer research
In the first phase of a song production process, we’ll sit down and find out what your goals are. What’s the plan with the songs? What’s your personal goal? Then we’ll need to determine and research who the customer is, and empathize with them. There’s often a misunderstanding, because our customer is not the artist. Who’s listening to the music, buying music, merchandise and concert tickets? Right! The customer is the audience, and that’s the target we need to focus on.
2. Songwriting
Melody, lyrics and music are written. You can start with a basic idea, story, melody, guitar riff, a few words or a rhythm. Or even start with a sound, feeling, vision, scene or a dream. The wonderful thing about songwriting and composing is, that are no rules and limits to inspiration and the creative process.
3. Pre-production & arranging
The song is prepared for the studio. Structure, key, instrumentation, arrangements, choosing sounds, tempos, rhythms, and the right formats to meet certain standards. We also look if we need extra musicians, so we can hire the right people if necessary.
4. Recording
All instruments, sounds and vocals are recorded. Changes to the song can still be made, but remember this may affect all other parts!
5. Post-production & editing
All tracks are being edited and treated. EQ, compression, FX, sound changes and tweaking, drum types, keyboards, bass, re-amping guitars, etc. In this final creative stage, it starts to sound like a song.
6. Pre-mixing
No more changes will be made to the song. The next phase of EQ and compression, and all instruments are balanced and grouped. Each instrument and sound gets its place in the full frequency spectrum. The definition of the song is regularly tested on different speaker types, from expensive high definition studio monitor up to the cheapest consumer speakers.
7. Post-mixing
Refining and balancing group tracks, next phase of EQ and compression, effects such as ambient, modulation, space, etc. Now all the pieces of the puzzle have to fit perfectly into one big picture.
8. Mastering
The mastering engineer polishes the final picture, and makes sure the song meets all industry standards for vinyl, streaming (like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music), radio, STEMS, etc. Now the song is ready for release.