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Hey, I’m Andrew Huang. I’m the largest music educator on YouTube with over 300M views. I’m a prolific and versatile producer, with 2,000+ released songs. In my Studio, I’m sharing my real, behind-the-scenes process for everything music creation: You can watch me write and produce brand new songs from start-to-finish on camera, as I show and explain everything I’m doing and thinking in detail. You can also watch me explore a range of tools, techniques, and topics from music theory and composition to sound design and sampling to mixing and mastering. My Studio is designed to help you learn exactly how I do what I do by seeing it firsthand.


- [Spitfire LABS](https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/) (This is the instrument library Andrew uses in this video)


Sound Selection and Finding Inspiration


**Instruments Andrew uses in this video**

- [Komplete Start by Native Instruments](https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start)
- [Helm by Matt Tytel](https://tytel.org/helm/)

**The Five Arrangement Elements**

It’s helpful to break an arrangement down into these five main elements, bearing in mind that some instruments may do different jobs at different parts in a song, or even fulfill multiple roles at once:

- **Foundation:** This is usually the rhythm section - drums providing the major pulse of the song that you would feel and count along to, and bass providing harmonic context for all other pitched instruments. The rest of the arrangement is built upon the foundation.
- **Pads:** Long sustained sounds - often chords, notes, or atmospheric effects which are held to fill some of the background space.
- **Rhythm:** Rhythm is any instrument that plays off of the Foundation’s pulse, adding movement and excitement to the track.
- **Lead:** What you would sing along to and probably pay the most attention to when listening.
- **Fills:** Fills occupy the spaces in between Lead lines to maintain interest when it’s natural for the main melody to take a break.

**Tension and Release**

- **Harmonic tension:** The root chord of the key of your song is the most stable and resolved harmonic position. Tension is introduced as you move to other chords, as well as by accompanying them with some lead or bass notes which fit in less “expected” ways, i.e. notes that are outside of the current chord.
- **Rhythmic tension:** A lot of fun and interest comes from accentuating “weaker” beats - mainly, ones that don’t fall on the quarter note “1 2 3 4” that you would typically count along to most songs with. Think about rhythmic tension not only for typical “rhythm” parts like percussion, but also the rhythm of your main melody or the rhythm of the chord changes.

Tension and release play out across every aspect of a song - the impression of the introduction, the quantization of notes, the length of a buildup, contrasts in volume or brightness...

**Bass Line Algorithms**

This is definitely not a complete list of every way you could write a bass line but it includes a lot of common approaches and is a great starting point for ideas.

1.  **Root note pads:** Bass holds the root of each chord.
2.  **Line up with the drums:** Bass plays root notes on each of the main drum hits.
3.  **All offbeats:** Bass plays the root note of each chord on all the “and” beats of the bar (“1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”).
4.  **Disco octaves:** Bass plays the root note of each chord, alternating between two different octaves of that note (usually the higher one is on the offbeats).
5.  **Root note downbeat + fills:** Bass plays the root note on each downbeat, followed by melodic fills leading to the root note on the next downbeat.

Also think about “passing notes” or “passing tones” - notes that may be outside of a chord or even outside of your key, but that can serve as a bridge in between the more important, anchoring bass notes you’re using.


From Inspiration to Idea


Most DAWs should have all the common audio effects built-in. If yours does, especially if you’re a beginner, you should use these. However, if your DAW doesn’t have built-in effects like reverb, delay, filter, distortion, or compression, here are some free options Andrew recommends:

- **Free Reverb Plugins**
  - Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
  - OrilRiver
  - TAL-Reverb-4
  - Smartelectronicx Ambience Reverb
- **Free Delay Plugins:**
  - Voxengo Tempo Delay 2.0
  - TAL-DUB-X
  - Valhalla Freq Echo
  - WatKat
- **Free Filter Plugins:**
  - Brainworx bx_cleansweep v2
  - TAL-Filter-2
- **Free Distortion Plugins:**
  - Camel Crusher
  - Creative Intent Temper
  - Audio Damage FuzzPlus 3
  - Softube Saturation Knob
- **Free Compressor Plugins:**
  - AdHd Leveling Tool
  - MeldaProduction MCompressor
  - Audio Damage Rough Rider


Developing the First Loop


**Song Structure**

The “expected” song structure for popular music that is there for you to play within or without is basically:

- Verse
- Chorus
- Verse
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Chorus

Some common variations:

- An additional third verse after the bridge
- The first verse being longer than all the others
- The last chorus being longer than all the others
- Intros and outros - if a song seems to require a distinct section to begin or end it (often may be just a verse or chorus without the lead part)
- Pre-choruses and interludes - “in-between” sections that serve to move from one place to the next to add more interest than a simple back and forth between verse and chorus

**Coming up with new sections**

Creating new sections for a song is a common place for musicians to get stuck. Here are some things that might spark inspiration:

- Listen for the story of the song. Does it want to go to a place of higher energy or lower energy? More tense or more resolved?
- Jam. Whether with an instrument, your voice, experimenting with sound design - giving yourself permission to have fun and “feel it out” can sometimes lead you to solutions faster than trying to be cerebral about it.
- Change something, keep something. When you break your song down to the components that make it up, which feel like they could continue on into your new section and which feel like they could be altered or replaced with something new?

**Don’t forget the ear candy**

One thing that separates demos from finished songs, and boring songs from bops, is ear candy. Great tracks have something purposeful and interesting going on at every moment - even if they’re things you might not catch the first couple times you listen. While it can feel foreign to the typical picture of music production that’s usually presented to us, spending an entire session or more on just crafting these extra sonic details will take your songs to an entirely new level.


Expanding Beyond the Loop


**Get the finished track.** You can download and listen to my finished track [here](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/svk529jzqw9g0h0/AAD3jzUWUrstwJMyCg4DdTFja?dl=0&preview=Andrew+Huang+-+OMG.wav). Please don’t share it publicly — other people will have a better experience by following my process without knowing where the song is going. Enjoy!

**Employ focused listening.** Listen closely for differences between your song and similar tracks from other artists. Listen purposefully to a song’s production and mixing, and write down notes.

**There is no one right way.** As much as there are tips and tricks to getting a good mix, the real magic lies in using your ears. If it sounds good, it is good, whether that means you used four compressors on one instrument or you started the whole mix from the tambourine.

With that said, there are plenty of general mixing guidelines that are helpful to adhere to in most cases:

- Be deliberate about whether you should focus on a creative or technical task.
- Make mixing its own stage in the process.
- Organize your project.
- Start with adjusting the volume of the most important parts.
- Turn down rather than up.
- If you want to automate a track’s volume, do it on a plugin on the track so you can leave its fader free for final adjustments.
- Favor cutting rather than boosting when EQing.
- Low cut everything possible.
- Keep bass elements in mono.
- Don’t clip your master fader - keep the average level a few db below 0.

**Mastering**

Mastering is essentially a combination of compressors and equalizers. The idea is to use at least a couple of each to impart certain desirable characteristics on your song as a whole, such as the overall punchiness, bite, bass presence, treble sheen, perceived loudness, and the sense of the elements all being “glued” together.

Some compressors and equalizers are designed specifically for mastering - adding certain kinds of saturation, being gentler in some ways (for compressing complex material or not needing to make drastic EQ adjustments) and being more extreme in others (a brickwall limiter will let nothing pass beyond the threshold you set).

The typical starting chain I have used for years is all Universal Audio:

- Precision Maximizer
- Pultec EQP-1A
- Precision Equalizer
- Precision Limiter

Remember to check your masters on multiple systems and compare them to similar songs.

**Free mixing and mastering plugins:**

- Equalizers:
  - TDR Nova EQ
  - Baxter EQ
- Compressors/limiters:
  - VLADG/Sound Limiter No. 6
  - DCAM FreeComp
  - Klanghelm MJUC jr.
  - D16 Group Frontier
  - TDR Kotelnikov
  - LoudMaxLVC-Audio Limited-Z
- Saturation:
  - Softube Saturation Knob
  - Klanghelm IVGI
  - Shattered Glass SGA1566
  - Ferric TDS
- Stereo expansion:
  - A1StereoControl
- Spectrum analyzers:
  - MeldaProduction MAnalyzer
  - Voxengo SPAN


Mixing & Mastering

In this video series, I share my entire, start-to-finish creative process on camera, as I produce a brand new electronic song from scratch. Along the way, I share and explain everything that I'm doing and thinking in detail — every idea, decision, tool, and technique.

 You'll learn exactly how I make music firsthand, from how I come up with my initial idea all the way through how I mix, master, and export my final track.

 In the process, I'll be explaining my approach to the following topics:
 -   Production Fundamentals
 -   Creativity and Coming Up With Ideas
 -   Music Theory and Songwriting
 -   Sound Selection and Design
 -   EQ, Reverb, Compression, and More FX
 -   Automations and Advanced Techniques
 -   Arrangement, Layering, Composition
 -   Expanding Loops and Finishing Songs
 -   Transitions, Ear Candy, and Polish 
 -   Workflow, Productivity, DAW Mastery
 -   Mixing, Mastering, and Finalizing Tracks 
 -   And a lot more

In this series, I also make sure to teach you all of the skills you need to successfully follow along with my process. While you watch, feel free to follow along step-by-step to create your own track alongside me.

Producing a New Electronic Song From Start to Finish: My Full Process


**Recording audio**

So many modern devices are capable of perfectly decent audio recording. If I come across a sound I like and all I have with me is my phone, I’m more than happy to use it to capture the audio. If you see yourself using this kind of technique often, it may be worth investing in an external audio recorder for more options and improved quality. I will most often use the Zoom H6 recorder with the SGH-6 Shotgun Microphone Capsule.

**Listen for a variety of sounds**

Since we are making a very sample-heavy track, it will be good to capture a wide range of sounds. Try to find sounds that can fill these musical roles:

- drums/percussion
- pitched sounds
- sound effects (any kind of interesting one-shot sound)
- more sustained textures (atmosphere, sweeps, scrapes)

**Objects and exciters**

Pay attention to what makes the sound, but also to what makes the sound make the sound! For example, tapping a glass with your knuckles sounds different than flicking a glass with your fingernail.


Sampling Real-World Objects


**Organizing and editing**

You may find a system that works better for you, but I find it helpful to group similar sounds into categories, each category on its own track. Then I’ll trim the audio clips in the timeline so there’s no silence surrounding the sounds I want to use. I also completely get rid of sounds that I don’t think will be useful right off the bat - however, I know some producers who keep absolutely everything they’re not sure of on muted tracks just in case.

**Sample manipulation**

I only occasionally do something super fancy with transforming a sample, and more often rely on a few basic utilities of audio editing.

1.  **Volume.** With modern audio tools we can make a pin drop loud enough to be the featured sound in a piece of music. We can make it louder than a gunshot if we want to. Also think of the creative possibilities with shaping volume over time - fading in or out, or even sharp transitions so sounds cut off suddenly or start half way through.
2.  **Pitch.** Transposing a sound much higher or lower changes the frequencies, and hence the tone of a sound, as well as making it play back faster or slower in time. Automating pitch over time can also lead to interesting effects.
3.  **Tone.** Using EQs or filters can drastically change a sound, and again, experiment with automating these parameters over time.

**Additional tools and techniques**

1.  **Layering:** A combination of two or more sounds acting as one can be quite different and often more compelling than any of the sounds individually.
2.  **Treating the sounds as instruments:** Music has developed over thousands of years and we’ve discovered lots of things that sound good. No need to throw that out the window just because you’re using samples instead of traditional instruments. If you have a low thumping sound, you’ll probably find the quickest success using it the way you would use a kick drum, from the patterns you create to the types of effects you would put on it.
3.  **Reversing:** Reversed audio has a special quality to it because it’s a sound that is literally impossible in nature!
4.  **SoundSoap:** Not a free plugin, but a very helpful one if you often find yourself needing to get rid of consistent background noise from less than ideal recording environments, such as the hum of a fan or a fridge.


Processing & Composing with Samples


Synthesizers come in many forms, but a number of elements are common to the vast majority of them, and even these basic building blocks provide endless possibilities for coming up with musical sounds. I recommend [Helm](https://tytel.org/helm/) as a free, cross-platform synth plugin that offers all of these features in a way that is well laid out and easiest to understand.

**Oscillators** produce sound.

- Pitch is determined by coarse and fine tuning knobs.
- Tone is determined by the chosen waveform. It’s helpful to get familiar with the sonic characteristics of the simplest ones which most synths feature: sine, triangle, saw, square.
- A **sub oscillator** is sometimes included, providing an additional lower octave to thicken up a sound.
- A **noise oscillator** produces a dense combination of frequencies (similar to TV static) which can serve as useful raw material in sound design.
- A **Mixer** will allow you to adjust the volume between the different oscillators.

**Filters** shape the sound’s frequency content, as we covered in Part 1 Lesson 3.

**Envelopes** shape a parameter over time, and most commonly have four stages that respond to how they’re triggered. The easiest way to understand what an envelope does is to imagine it affecting the volume of a sound as you press a note on a keyboard.

- The **attack** stage is first, and starts as soon as a key is pressed. It sets the amount of time for the sound to reach maximum volume - will it be instant, or will it gradually swell, or something in between?
- Second, **decay** sets the amount of time from when the sound reaches that maximum volume to when it settles on the next stage.
- This next stage is called **sustain**, which you can picture as a flat line on a graph - it will hold this volume setting for as long as you have that note pressed.
- The final stage is called **release**, which in our example is engaged when you lift your finger off the keyboard. It sets the amount of time that the sound’s volume takes to go from where it was in the sustain stage back to 0, which might be immediate or might be a very long fade.
- These four stages are set up the way they are to emulate the behavior of many types of real world sounds, but it’s also possible on most synths to apply envelopes to many parameters other than volume, such as pitch, filter cutoff, and so on.

**Low Frequency Oscillators**, usually shortened to LFO, are oscillators whose frequencies fall below the range of human hearing. This isn’t useful for listening to, but assigning them to modulate parameters can add a lot of life to sounds. Imagine a wave moving up and down as the LFO oscillates - if we assign the LFO to modulate volume, then the sound will get louder as the wave climbs higher and get quieter as the wave drops lower.


Synthesis


**Get the finished track.** You can download and listen to my finished track [here](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/svk529jzqw9g0h0/AAD3jzUWUrstwJMyCg4DdTFja?dl=0&preview=Andrew+Huang+-+Scullery.wav). Please don’t share it publicly — future students will have a better experience by following my process without knowing where the song is going. Enjoy!


Arrangement, Expansion, and Polishing

In this video series, I share my complete process for creating, manipulating, and designing sounds from scratch. You’ll watch me produce a brand new song from start to finish, composed only of sounds that I sample or synthesize myself.

 Along the way, I share and explain everything that I’m doing and thinking in detail — every idea, decision, tool, and technique.

You’ll learn exactly how I make this kind of track firsthand, from how I start creating my own palette of sounds all the way through how I mix, master, and export my final song.

In the process, I’ll be explaining my approach to the following topics:
 -   Production Fundamentals
 -   Creativity and Coming Up With Ideas
 -   Sampling, Sound Design, and Sound Manipulation
 -   Synthesis: Oscillators, Filters, LFOs, ADSR Envelopes
 -   EQ, Reverb, Compression, and More FX
 -   Automations and Advanced Techniques
 -   Arrangement, Layering, Composition
 -   Expanding Loops and Finishing Songs
 -   Transitions, Ear Candy, and Polish
 -   Workflow, Productivity, DAW Mastery
 -   Mixing, Mastering, and Finalizing Tracks
 -   And a lot more

 In this series, I also make sure to teach you all of the skills you need to successfully follow along with my process. While you watch, feel free to follow along step-by-step to create your own track alongside me.

Producing a New Song Using Original Sounds: Full Sound Design & Sampling Process


There’s no single right way to create music, and in my other video series I did a lot of composing and producing in tandem. For this song, we’ll try a different approach where we finish writing a song (melody, chords, lyrics, and structure) before making any production decisions. We’re also going to work with lyrics, vocals, and live instruments.

**Common starting points for lyrics**

- **The concept.** What do you specifically want to say in the song? What is the situation you’re writing about, and where does the tension come from? Every line of the song should connect back to this concept in some way.
- **The opening line.** The first words that listeners hear in a song can have a tremendous impact. Usually an opening line that elicits a strong response will also share the strength of being a good seed for a concept, or inspiration for the rest of the words. Three ways you might do this:
  - Immediately imply an interesting story.
  - Craft a compelling image or feeling.
  - Grab people’s attention by going weird!
- **The title.** Similar to the previous starting points, finding an interesting song title can spark all kinds of lyrical ideas. Like the concept, it can give you the anchor that all the lyrics can point to, and like the opening line, it can jumpstart emotions and get the words flowing.
- **The hook.** Usually a combination of lyrics and melody, the hook is that one bit of the song that’s the most memorable, the most fun to sing along with, and often will be or contain the title. If you come up with something short that’s really enjoyable to sing or that won’t leave your head, you may have a hook!
- **Singing sounds.** If you have some musical ideas happening already, singing gibberish is a great way to come up with melodies and lyrics that fit. The types of vocal sounds that go well with the tone and speed of the musical notes will flow naturally as you jam with your voice.

**Other tools and tricks for lyric writing**

- **Show, don’t tell.** Don’t simply tell your audience what’s happening or what to feel. Paint them a picture that makes them feel it. Show them some clues and let them figure things out.
- **Embellish.** Talking is ordinary; singing is extraordinary. Music has a way of amplifying emotions and as such it tends to fit better when you sing about truly BIG things - so you might have to exaggerate a little.
- **Spider diagrams.** Write the title or concept of your song in the middle of a blank page, and then around it write down anything that feels related. Draw a line between things that share a connection. As you continue to branch off with more words, ideas, and even potential lines of lyrics, your mind will open up to all kinds of possibilities for your song.
- **Puns.** This is a bit of an off kilter way to jog inspiration, but it can be effective when you have some lyrics started but are struggling to flesh them out. Pick a theme at random and write down a handful of words related to it. In the lesson the example is “camera”, so some related words would be “lens”, “photo”, “button”, “focus”, “shutter”. Since many words have different meanings depending on context, trying to work some of these random words into your lyrics can often spark new ideas for imagery, or even actual final lines to include in your song.
- **Rhyming dictionary and thesaurus.** These are tools to help with exactly what songwriters need to do - find words and find rhymes. I use [rhymezone.com](http://rhymezone.com/), [thesaurus.com](http://thesaurus.com/), and a free app called Rhymer’s Block.


The Fundamentals of Writing Lyrics and Vocal Melodies

Andrew explains and walks through his process for recording, producing, and mixing live instruments, like drums, guitar, and bass. 

Recording, Processing, and Mixing Live Instruments

Andrew walks through how to record, process, and mix your vocals, teaching you how to effectively use EQ, compression, reverb, and more.  

Recording, Processing, and Mixing vocals


**Get the finished track.** You can download and listen to my finished track [here](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/svk529jzqw9g0h0/AAD3jzUWUrstwJMyCg4DdTFja?dl=0&preview=Andrew+Huang+-+Eternal+September.wav). Please don’t share it publicly — other people will have a better experience by following my process without knowing where the song is going. Enjoy!


Arranging, Mixing, and Mastering a Song with Vocals

In this video series, I share my entire, start-to-finish creative process on camera, as I write and produce a brand new song from scratch, featuring vocals and live instruments. Along the way, I share and explain everything that I'm doing and thinking in detail — every idea, decision, tool, and technique.

 You'll learn exactly how I make this kind of music firsthand, from how I come up with my initial idea all the way through how I mix, master, and export my final track.

 In the process, I'll be explaining my approach to the following topics:
 -   Songwriting and Production Fundamentals
 -   Creativity and Coming Up With Ideas
 -   Lyric Writing and Melodic Development
 -   Vocal Production and Editing
 -   Recording and Editing Live Instruments
 -   Music Theory and Songwriting
 -   Sound Selection and Design
 -   EQ, Reverb, Compression, and More FX
 -   Automations and Advanced Techniques
 -   Arrangement, Layering, Composition
 -   Expanding Loops and Finishing Songs
 -   Transitions, Ear Candy, and Polish
 -   Workflow, Productivity, DAW Mastery
 -   Mixing, Mastering, and Finalizing Tracks
 -   And a lot more

 In this series, I also make sure to teach you all of the skills you need to successfully follow along with my process. While you watch, feel free to follow along step-by-step to create your own track alongside me.

Behind the scenes videos from Andrew Huang

Producing a New Electronic Song From Start to Finish: My Full Process

$99.99

Producing a New Song Using Original Sounds: Full Sound Design & Sampling Process

$99.99

Writing and Producing a Song with Vocals & Live Instruments: Full Process

$99.99