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I mean, imagine if a techy person went through every menu, button, function, etc, of Ableton, so that from a software perspective they had deep knowledge of how to do everything it can do. I do not mean trivial knowledge; but like they actually understand what they’re doing, in musical terms, be it increasing some aspect of sound, a certain synth envelope; whatever.

Then they did it for some physical digital production equipment, whether people have in their studios, various boxes with knobs, cables going in and out, etc.

How much of music production do you think this person would not know? What main topics are they lacking?

I.e.: they know tons of techniques or options in the software to change the EQ - but they do not know any theories of how to mix music in any particular way, to have a certain sound. They have no idea what standard practice might be to make a singer’s voice sound professional - compression, reverb, etc - they know perfectly how to apply compression if someone told them to, how to tweak the dials and levels. They just have zero clue what a producer is actually supposed to do to make music sound better.

Of course, if they were musically inclined, a lot of the rest could just be up to their own discretion - if they can generate a sound they like on a synth, they can use it.

So it’s not as if they have to learn music theory or something to make songs. We can assume they know how to play instruments and stuff.

It’s just the stuff right inbetween, kind of like the theory of how to make sounds in a particular way, how to put them together, pan them, add effects for functional reasons, mix and master professionally.

What would you say are the core topics in that area, and is there a specific term for that - the theory of sound design, almost - with no explicit mention of any specific technology, it could even be analogue and acoustic instruments? Is that sound design, acoustics, mixing and mastering? Do you think an artist could just intuitively develop a sound they liked, and do not need any contemporary theories of mixing, effects, vocal processing, etc?

John Smith
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    I'm torn between two equally valid, if somewhat glib answers… "About ten years." or "How long is a piece of string?" Production/engineering is not something you do in a vacuum; you have constant reference/comparison between what you can do & every other record that's ever been made. – Tetsujin Feb 17 '23 at 10:14
  • I don’t know if it will help you to say that I’ve voted that this question is too broad. I agree with the “how long is a piece of string?” problem. Even with the VTC, I want to suggest/guess that ten years of daily study and practice would make one a solid music producer. And that would have nothing to do with knowing every option in any DAW. The core skill of music production is **listening, analyzing, and understanding**. In fact I would say you could produce music without know very much music tech at all. The more you know, the better, though. – Todd Wilcox Feb 17 '23 at 12:05
  • "...theories of mixing, effects, vocal processing, etc?" Are there actually _theories_ about those topics? – Michael Curtis Feb 17 '23 at 13:32
  • 1. Welcome! Interesting stuff here. 2. I'm voting to close; let me explain so you can edit and I can retract my vote. 3. First of all, please read about [the topics covered here](https://music.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) and [how to avoid subjective answers](https://music.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask). 4. One of the issues here is that the phrases "music technology" and "music production" are often used interchangeably or in ways that overlap. Some schools offer a "music technology and production" course of study, and it generally means "Working with mics and mixers and DAWs." ... – Andy Bonner Feb 17 '23 at 14:54
  • 5. One of the issues with the question as it stands is that there's a lot of speculation and a lot of "What do you think?" language. Not that these are banned per se, but it adds up to a conversation prompt rather than a clear question that can have a clear answer. 6. If the question is, "Does writing music software teach you music or even require much knowledge of music," then resoundingly "no." I worked on an app for a geological company and don't know much about geology. But I'm not actually sure that that's the question that's being asked here? or maybe it's one of several questions? ... – Andy Bonner Feb 17 '23 at 15:24
  • There also seems to be some language contrasting inexperienced music techs with ones who know what to do? That could be its own question. And then there's some contrasting their work with making music from scratch; that could be its own question too. Try identifying a single, clear question that can get a clear answer, and edit to focus on that. Thanks! – Andy Bonner Feb 17 '23 at 15:26
  • In general, I think the question underestimates the knowledge of the average sound technician. In general, most *do* know why they should apply a certain EQ or effect. If they don't, and just know how to turn knobs and sliders, it just means they're inexperienced, maybe interns. It's not like, say, construction, in which you might know how to operate a jack hammer but not understand architecture. Everyone can have differing levels of knowledge and experience, but generally in this field, the "why" is gained progressively along with the "how." – Andy Bonner Feb 17 '23 at 15:30
  • @MichaelCurtis I don't think anyone calls them that, but there are bodies of knowledge that could be called "production theory", "audio processing theories", etc. Very similar to music theory where it is more descriptive than proscriptive, there is a lexicon/jargon, different schools of thought, common practices, etc. Here's a very small example: https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/57954/what-do-the-different-reverb-parameters-mean – Todd Wilcox Feb 17 '23 at 17:10

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The most obvious thing you don't learn from working with software only, is recording actual sound with microphones. Creating a good sounding environment and choosing the right microphones and the right microphone placement for a certain instrument and style of music, is a science/art in itself, that you can only master with years of experience.

Besides, nothing you can learn in software can ever fully prepare you for the sometimes counter-intuitive world of analog technology. There's no such thing as impedance mismatch in the digital world. And if you connect the output of device A to the input of device B, you may find that device A start to behave differently, which is not something that happens when you're working "in the box".

If you're working in a fully electronic genre, with modern synths with digital audio output, and effects and other outboard gear that is also digital, then that would probably be the situation where working in a DAW or working in a physical studio would be most similar. All other genres and workflows will probably leave you scratching your head from time to time.

Pearly Wurly
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If we're going to make a distinction between 'technology' and 'production', I guess 'technology' is understanding the tools, 'production' adds on knowing what you want to do with them. Like the difference between being an expert piano player and being a composer. You can pretty well say 'got that covered' about technology. Production is open-ended.

Laurence
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