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Find your voice as a producer through utilization of Berklee’s time-tested techniques using

cutting edge production software. The following lesson material is taken from Berklee Online’s

Bachelor of Professional Studies degree program in Music Production. Want to learn more

about earning a degree online? Contact us at 1-866-BERKLEE (USA) / +1-617-747-2146 (INT’L)

or advisors@online.berklee.edu.

Music Production: An Introduction

Listening Like a Producer

Tools of the Trade: Microphones for Vocal Production

Tools of the Trade: Mixing & Mastering with Pro Tools

Meet Instructor Jeff Baust

How Berklee Online Works

Get in Touch

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Being a recording artist or record

producer is in many ways a strange

job. What a producer creates can’t

be seen. What a producer creates

is not even an object. If you zoom

all the way out, what a producer

does for a living is this: Vibrate air

molecules in such a way that when

the air molecules bump up against a

human life form, that life form feels

something.

That last part, the part about feeling

something—that’s the key. Vibrating

air molecules is the easy part,

especially with all the gear record producers now have at their disposal. With a modest investment in

technology, you can be the master of frequency, volume, and timbre. But what determines whether or

not vibrating air molecules are worth anything is what happens neurologically to the organism whose

epidermis, eardrum, and cochlea receive those air molecules.

Music Production: An IntroductionFrom ‘Music Production Analysis’ by Stephen Webber

Fraser T. Smith, Grammy award winning producer for Adele and Sam Smith, and Berklee Online student

• Recording Engineer

• Mix Engineer

• Mastering Engineer

• Live Sound Engineer

• Sound Technician

• Production Assistant

• Acoustic Consultant

• Studio Manager / Owner

• Digital Remaster Engineer

• Multimedia Developer

• Studio Designer

Make Your Mark: Careers in Music Production

4.

Music, Prejudice, and the BrainThere is data that suggests that

musicians experience music

differently than non-musicians.

One brain imaging study showed

that when professional classical

musicians listened to music, the

left hemisphere of the brain (the

analytical hemisphere) was more

stimulated, while the brains of non-

musicians listening to the same music

were more stimulated in the right

hemisphere (the hemisphere involved

with creativity).

Often, musicians listen to music for reasons other than stimulating their emotions. They may want to learn

something, glean new ideas, broaden their horizons, check out the competition, or see how they stack

up against other players or singers. Sometimes they subconsciously harmonically analyze what they are

hearing out of habit.

Regardless of whether or not one is a musician, any person who listens to music has musical prejudices.

Fortunately, there are ways to transcend those prejudices. These skills are not easy to cultivate, but they

will make an enormous impact on how effective one is at making a record that conveys the intended

response.

Specific listening skills that benefit record producers include:

• Responding to a record’s emotional content

without unwanted prejudice

• Reacting to a record as though it is the first time

you are hearing it, even on the hundredth listen

• Listening on many levels at once

• Making note of possible problems without

letting this pull you out of the emotion of the

record

Listening Like a ProducerFrom ‘Music Production Analysis’ by Stephen Webber

5.

How To Develop Your Listening SkillsPut yourself in a good listening environment free from distractions. This can be your listening room or studio, or

somewhere comfortable and private with a good pair of headphones. Turn off your phone, and let the people

around you know that you will need to focus for the next several minutes and shouldn’t be disturbed.

Attempt to let go of as many of your musical prejudices as possible, and become an empty vessel. Allow yourself

be a good audience. If the record you are about to experience is capable of conveying emotion, resolve to

stay open to receiving this slice of human experience. At the same time, if you are distracted or confused by

something in the record, make note of this as well.

Have in front of you a blank sheet to write on, or, if you are more comfortable typing your notes, create a blank

word processing document on your computer. You will be making short, quick notes while listening, reporting

what you feel, and then returning to a relaxed state of listening.

Immediately after the record ends, expand on your abbreviated notes while your emotional response is still fresh.

Let’s take a few moments to consider some of the emotions and sensory responses one may experience when

listening to a record.

agitation

anger

anticipation

anxiety

arousal

awe

boredom

calmness

confidence

confusion

contentment

defiance

delight

depression

desire

disgust

ecstasy

elation

emptiness

energy

envy

exasperation

excitement

exhilaration

ferocity

fury

gloom

gratefulness

grief

guilt

happiness

hate

homesickness

hope

humility

infatuation

joy

jubilation

loneliness

longing

love

lust

melancholy

nostalgia

passion

peacefulness

pleasure

rage

rapture

rebelliousness

relief

religiosity

fervor

remorse

repentance

righteousness

indignation

sadness

scorn

sensuousity

sexiness

shock

sorrow

sympathy

torment

Listening Like a Producer

Examples of Possible Emotions Being Conveyed:

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chills

clapping

clicking fingers

clicking tongue

concerned expression

eyes closing

eyes widening

feeling of exhilaration

foot tapping

frowning

furrowed brow

goosebumps

hair standing up on the back of neck or arms

hand covering mouth

hand touching face

head bobbing

headache

holding of breath

increase or decrease in breathing rate

increase or decrease in heart rate

knot in stomach

laughter

mouthing the words

nausea

noticeable increase or decrease in heart rate

playing air guitar or air drums

protruding lower lippursing lips

raised eyebrow(s)

relief exhalation

rubbing fingers together

rubbing hands together

shallow or deep breathing

singing along

sleepiness

smiling

squinting and tiltinghead to one side

surprised expression

tear(s)

tingling

Examples of Organic, Kinesthetic, or Sensory Responses:

Listening Like a Producer

7.

Transduction is a process that converts energy. Microphones are transducers that convert acoustical energy into

electrical energy. Although there are different types of microphones available for commercial use, two have

emerged as workhorses in recording environments: the condenser microphone and the dynamic microphone.

Dynamic MicrophonesDynamic microphones operate by attaching a

thin diaphragm to a wired coil that is suspended

around a magnetic field produced by a permanent

magnet. When a vocalist sings into the diaphragm,

the vibrations cause interruptions in the magnetic

field that cause the generation of a minute electrical

current. The electrical output of this “mini electrical

generator” is not powerful enough to be useful at this

point, so it needs to be amplified using a microphone

pre-amp.

Dynamic microphones are sturdy, but have a low

sensitivity. Sensitivity is usually given in terms of a

reference dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level, i.e., 94 dB

SPL = 1 pascal). Microphones simply convert the

sound pressure variations “Pa” (pascals) to audio

voltage “V” (volts). Dynamic microphones have an

output in the neighborhood of 1.5–3 mV/Pa, which is

less sensitive than condenser microphones.

Dynamic microphones don’t reproduce high frequency

detail as well as condenser mics. They are most

effective when working with sound sources where a lot of high frequency detail is not necessary.

Although dynamic mics are preferable in live situations because they are rugged, there are some dynamic

microphones that are very common in recording studios. The Shure SM57 is known to be a great snare-drum

mic, for live situations and in the recording studio.

Tools of the Trade: Microphones for Vocal ProductionFrom ‘Vocal Production’ by Prince Charles Alexander and Mitch Benoff

Dynamic Microphone

Magnet

Diaphragm

Sound Waves

Cone

Coil

SignalOut

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Ribbon TransducerAnother type of dynamic microphone is the

ribbon microphone. Ribbon microphones

replace the moving coil with a thin sheet of

aluminum placed between the poles of a

magnet. Once again, the vibrations of the

singer’s voice on the diaphragm moves the

aluminum ribbon, which then causes small

interruptions in the magnetic field and,

thus, the generation of a minute electrical

current.

In the past, ribbon microphones were

typically not sturdy, but technological advances have given producers a generation of ribbon microphones that

are almost as durable as their coil counterparts. Ribbon microphones have an output of about 1–2 mV/Pa.

Ribbon microphones are good for high-frequency detail, thus making them competitive for vocal performances

with the fine detail of condenser mics.

Condenser MicrophoneCondenser microphones use a different method of

transduction for the conversion of a singing voice

into electrical energy. The diaphragm of this type

of microphone is one side of a two-sided capacitor.

The changes in air pressure from a vocalist singing

into the diaphragm change the distance between

the diaphragm and the back plate. The back plate is

charged with a direct current from an external power

supply.

Condenser mics are more fragile than their dynamic-coil counterparts and rely on external power, either via

inputs on mic preamps as phantom power, or from a small battery. Condenser microphones have an output

between 5–15 mV/Pa.

Because condenser mics reproduce audio with a very high fidelity and great detail, most often they are the

microphone of choice for recording vocalists in recording studios.

Vocal Production Microphones

Ribbon Microphone

Condensor Microphone

Transformer

Ribbon

Magnet

Output Audio Signal

SoundWaves

Front Plate(Diaphragm) Back Magnet

Pro Tools is as ubiquitous today as a tape recorder

was 25 years ago. Vast multitrack recording

capability, non-destructive editing, MIDI sequence

playback, automated mixing, signal processing,

integrated software, synthesizers and samplers, full

video support, and numerous other capabilities

make it possible to use Pro Tools for anything that

involves audio recording.

Starting a MixImagine that you’ve been given a project to mix. The

big question is, “Where do I start?” The answer, of

course, is that all mix engineers have their own way

of approaching a mix, and they aren’t all going to

do it the same way. There are many approaches to

mixing, none of which is the “perfect” or “proper”

way.

Mixing is a creative act—an intuitive process where

you will be required to draw upon and utilize all of

your learned skills at once. It’s like playing a jazz

solo on a saxophone: a musician spends time in a

practice room learning scales and modes, playing

Charlie Parker transcriptions, and practicing ideas

over a variety of changes. In an actual performance,

however, the musician deploys everything she has

learned in a synthesized and intuitive way that

defines who she is as a player.

When you’re learning how to mix, break the

process down into its components, such as mix

organization, working with EQ, using time domain

effects, and so forth, and focus on learning those

things one by one. When you go to mix, draw upon

everything in your toolbox as you need it, relying

on your technical knowledge as well as your musical

intuition and creative instincts.

Overall Approach in a MixLet’s think about the overall approach you might

employ in a mix. Imagine a typical pop music track

with lead vocals, two guitars, bass, drums, and keys.

One of the most common ways engineers approach

this kind of mix is to solo the kick drum, and EQ

and compress it. Next, solo the snare, and add EQ

and compression to that. Soloing and tweaking the

hi-hat comes next, then the drum overhead mics.

Once the drums are set, solo the bass and tweak

that up. Next, EQ the guitars, soloed and tweaked

one at a time, followed by the keys. Once the

backing tracks have been tweaked up, mostly while

soloed, the engineer adds the lead vocals...last!

There is nothing wrong with this approach, and it

works great for legions of engineers the world over.

However, it’s not the only way to mix. In the

above description, each track is tweaked (EQ’d,

compressed, etc. while soloed—that is, in isolation.

For many inexperienced engineers, this approach

often leads to hours and hours spent making each

individual track sound great, but when the tracks

Tools of the Trade: Microphones for Vocal ProductionFrom ‘Vocal Production’ by Prince Charles Alexander and Mitch Benoff

9.

are all combined, the overall mix sounds terrible.

The problem is that working in solo mode helps

you focus on an individual sound, but takes away

your ability to hear how the sound will relate to the

rest of the production. This is where inexperienced

engineers stumble when they mix. These engineers

forget that a mix is essentially a sonic jigsaw puzzle,

where all of the pieces of the mix fit together in an

intricate way.

In a pop song, the most important element isn’t

the kick drum, or the rhythm guitar track; it’s the

vocal. Everything about the mix and the production

should support that. But if you mix by starting with

the kick, then the snare, etc., and add the vocals

last, you set yourself up for a situation where, by

the time you add the most important element into

the mix, there’s no more room for it. The mix has

slamming drums, and clean, crisp backing tracks,

and yet, the lead vocals are buried and must

compete for their own frequency and amplitude

space with myriad other sounds. This might cause

you to go back and redo substantial amounts of

EQ’ing and tweaking the other sounds, meaning

that the hours and hours you spent getting the

drums “just right” were, at least in part, wasted.

There are other ways to approach a pop song. For

example, think of this kind of production as having

“layers” of sonic elements:

• lead vocals

• backing vocals

• “ear candy” (strings, pads, sound effects)

• supporting chordal and textural elements

(guitars, keys, etc.)

• rhythm foundation (bass, kit, loops)

Layered Approach to MixingIn this approach, you will work from the “outer”

parts of the mix, in towards the “inner” parts of the

mix. Tools such as groups and memory locations

help facilitate this process.

1. Start by putting up the lead vocals, the drums

(and/or loops), and the bass. It is important to

think about the most important elements in the

song: the lead vocals, and the foundation of the

rhythm section.

2. After those sounds and balances are underway,

add the rest of the production: guitars, synths,

and so forth, perhaps with the backing vocals.

3. Put up the pads and strings last, once the more

important elements are in place.

Tools of the Trade Mixing & Mastering with Pro Tools

10.

1:30 -2:04

Guitars

Keys

Backing Vocals

Pads

Strings

Vocals

Drums

Bass

Layered Approach to Mixing

Focus Approach to MixingIn this approach, simply set the faders for a “rough” mix,

sit back, and listen critically. When something doesn’t

sound right, adjust it, and then listen some more. When

you identify the next sound that isn’t quite right, adjust

that sound and continue the process. This approach can

be compared to a videographer slowly bringing an entire

sonic picture into focus on a camera. When everything

feels like it’s in focus, the mix is done! In working this way,

don’t think about any sound elements in isolation; instead

hear and adjust every sound in context. React to the

overall blend of all of the tracks, and how it enhances or

distracts from the impact of the music.

The point is to think consciously about how you approach a mix, and then evaluate your results. The next

time you mix, force yourself to try a different approach, and then evaluate your success. This way, you will refine

your mixing skills by developing your own best approach to mixing. And of course, you’ll probably find that

different mixing situations will call for a different approach, and you’ll be adept at any of them.

Tools of the Trade Mixing & Mastering with Pro Tools

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12.

Jeff Baust

• Associate Professor, Electronic Production and Design

• Online Course Author and Instructor: Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools, Advanced Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools, and Producing Music with Logic

A composer, audio engineer, educator and multi-

instrumentalist, Jeff Baust has created scores for ESPN,

New England Sports Network (including music for the

Bruins and Red Sox), Avid, Sony, Polaroid, Sharp, Reebok,

Lotus, and others. He works primarily in his own facility,

Coral Sea Music. As an audio engineer, Jeff has worked

on projects for such artists as the Boston Symphony

Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, NBC-TV,

Andre Previn, Itzhak Perlman, Jessye Norman, and Dawn

Upshaw, as well as labels such as EMI, Philips, Nonesuch,

and many others. Specializing in digital audio production,

Jeff works with technologies such as Sonic Solutions,

high-resolution audio (96k/24bit), HDCD encoding,

and mastering as well as forensic audio and restoration

tools. Jeff holds a M. A. in Composition from University

of California, Davis, and a D. M. A. at Boston University,

where his concentration was electronic and electro-

acoustic composition. He has been published in Berklee

Today and Electronic Musician magazine.

“Berklee students go on to do everything from composing

and producing cutting-edge music to scoring and sound

design for video games, television, film, and the web,

to working as DJs and remixers, to being music artists

in and of themselves. Some become producers and

programmers for other artists as well as producing their

own music.”

Renowned FacultyBerklee Online instructors have managed, produced, and engineered hundreds of artists

and records and have received numerous industry awards and accolades. Each week you’ll

have the opportunity to participate in a live chat with your instructor and receive one-on-

one instruction and feedback on assignments.

Award-Winning CoursesInstantly access assignments, connect with your instructor, or reach out to your classmates

in our award-winning online classroom. Study from anywhere in the world at a time that fits

into your schedule.

Specialized Degree ProgramNo other accredited institution offers the acclaimed degree curriculum provided by Berklee

Online. Earn your degree at a cost that’s 60% less than campus tuition and graduate with a

professional portfolio that will prepare you for a career in the music industry.

Like-Minded ClassmatesOffering courses for beginners and accomplished musicians alike, our student body comes

from over 140 countries and includes high school students getting a jump-start on college,

working professionals, executives at industry-leading technology and business firms, and

members of internationally known acts like Nine Inch Nails and the Dave Matthews Band.

Experienced SupportEvery online student is assigned a Berklee-trained Academic Advisor. Each Advisor is

passionate and knowledgeable about music and here to support you throughout your

online learning experience.

Try a sample lesson for free: online.berklee.edu/sample-a-course

How Berklee Online Works

13.

Questions about Earning Your Degree Online?

Contact Us.

1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1-617-747-2146 (INT’L)advisors@online.berklee.edu

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