Is Music Production Hard to Master?

Music production can definitely be considered a difficult skill to master. It is a pursuit that requires both a creative mind but also technical mind. It requires being able to analyse sounds and use technology but also to come up with musical ideas that capture emotions and ideas.

Not all people are able to do both of these skills well simultaneously and tend to fall somewhere along the continuum between a musician and an engineer. Music production to a high level requires being able to do both well.

That is unless you work collaboratively with someone whose skills compliment your weaknesses and vice versa. Maybe one person is more musically creative and the other is more technically minded and better with the mixing element of music production.

Music production is hard because It requires understanding complex software (the DAW), music composition, music theory, arrangement, acoustics, psychoacoustics, mixing and mastering. This is just to name a few elements of the music production process.

However, there are many tools and help out there to make it easier. There are some very simple DAWs to use, GarageBand, and BandLab are two that spring to mind. There are many AI tools now on the market that can help with mixing and mastering music.

Furthermore, you can also purchase music samples and sample packs that have already been made to a very high standard, So it could be argued that creating genres that use beats and electronic music has never been easier.

Finally, there is now no barrier to entry as home studios are easy and cheap to build. All you need is a laptop, headphones and software which can be put together for less than £500. However, most people already have a laptop, most DAWs have a free trial (some are completely free) and most people have a set of earbuds which are sufficient to get started.

So although music production can be hard to start with, there are so many resources and so many opportunities to learn it. I recommend checking out my beginners guide to music production here - which simply explains everything you need to get started.