In today’s musical landscape, getting into music production has never been more accessible or more exciting. But knowing how to work efficiently and maximize your time behind the faders is no easy feat. We’re here to help. For any producer looking to boost their efficiency without sacrificing quality and sound, we’ve compiled six essential tips to improve your workflow and start producing songs faster today.
1. Build a workflow template in your DAW
When you open up a new session in your DAW, do you have a million and one things to do before you can even start your production work? A simple solution is to create your own customizable workflow template. With a premade template, every time you start a new project, all of the instruments, channels, and plugins you regularly use are already loaded and ready to go.
Now you can skip past all of those small laborious tasks and focus on the more creative and artistic side of producing. And if you produce different genres of music, we suggest creating different templates for each style of music. Pre-set drum kits, synths, and plugins will help you skip the initial tasks of production and quickly get to the creative stuff.
2. Organize your sessions with naming and color-coding
When you're working with dozens upon dozens of individual tracks, or sometimes even hundreds (you know who you are), it’s very easy to get bogged down and lost in your own sauce. Organizing your session with names and colors will optimize your workflow, especially when searching for a specific instrument or sound. Be sure to name all your tracks clearly (i.e “lead vocals”, “snare” “organ”) and use color-coding to categorize and group all similar instruments together. Most DAWs, such as Logic Pro and Ableton Live, have color coding features allowing producers to assign certain colors to different tracks. It’s a great way to stay efficient and keep the momentum going.
3. Limit your library
We know it’s tempting to fill your sound library with thousands of samples, plugins, and instruments, but usually, an overstuffed library will ultimately slow you down. Producers with too many samples and sounds usually spend far too much time auditioning them and not nearly enough time playing and producing them. To make your production move faster, start weeding out the sounds and plugins you barely, or maybe never, use and instead hone in on the handful that you consider your favorites. By curating a leaner library, you’ll not only save a ton of time, you’ll also start establishing your own signature sound as a producer.
4. Save your settings and presets
In most cases, producers aren't satisfied with the factory settings of a particular digital instrument or plugin tool. They’ll often spend considerable time twisting knobs and testing levels to find that perfect sound. What can really slow down production is having to make those adjustments every time you start a new project.
From synth patches to EQ and compression settings, creating and then saving your own presets for frequently used effects and instruments is crucial to maximize your efficiency and workflow. For instance, if you find a perfect reverb setting for vocals, save it as a preset. The next time you’re mixing vocals, you won’t need to spend time tweaking reverb settings all over again.
5. Don’t over edit
One of the easiest ways to waste time when producing is by over-editing. You might think it’s important to tirelessly adjust each and every parameter on each and every track, but spending too much time perfecting individual elements will slow your workflow and lead to fatigue. Plus a song that’s overproduced will probably sound like it’s overproduced. Too much tinkering, and you will begin to lose the essence and heart of a song.
6. Use AI tools like Moises
While music production is often a fun and even exhilarating experience, there will always be points in the process that are boring and repetitive. It’s just the name of the game. However, AI-powered tools like Moises can significantly reduce the time spent on mundane production tasks, allowing you to get back to the fun stuff.
Moises in particular can help producers streamline their workflow with its state-of-the-art stem separation, tempo adjustment, and chord detection features. The best part? Moises can automate these tools in mere minutes.
Get producing!
For music producers, maximizing efficiency and streamlining workflow are essential for producing high-quality songs faster. From organizing your workspace to using tools like the Moises App, small adjustments can make a big difference in how quickly you can produce tracks. By incorporating these tips, you’ll save time on repetitive tasks, focus on creativity, and ultimately produce more music without sacrificing quality.
●●●Written by Jesse Stanford, Company Cue
