The Pre-Production Process
Although this phase of the Production Process isn’t the most exciting, It can be VERY useful depending on the genre. I will say this though - if I’m writing & producing ‘on the fly’ with (or without) an artist, than I don’t tend to separate this step from Producing. It tends to be one fluid process as I work. Creating Arranger Sections, dropping in Markers, adjusting BPM, all as I’m working..
That being said, this isn’t usually the case if I’m hired to produce a Record, EP, or Single. In those cases, the basic idea’s of the song, and rough chord progressions, arrangements and Hooks are usually already determined. The client / artist would send me the above (in varying degrees of quality / completion) and I would then need to set this up in my DAW to get started on the project. This is really where good Pre-Production comes into play for me.
What is Pre-Production?
Well, simply put, I like to think of Pre-Production as being organized before the main tracking / writing sessions take place when developing a song or musical idea with an artist.
Although nothing is yet “set in stone”, for me personally - at a basic level, this would involve having a basic BPM, maybe some Markers, Key Signature, Time Signatures, and some basic arrangements in place. Essentially, I want to make sure that I’m familiar with the material and the different sections of the arrangement, so that I can run a tracking / writing session. However, this happens to be one area that Studio One really outshines the competition - because it’s actually capable of doing SO much more - and I personally love the way Studio One’s tool aid in the above process.
In this video I demonstrate my basic workflow that I use when doing my Pre-Production Sessions to prep for tracking / writing in PreSonus Studio One - Covering everything from working with scratch tracks, Arranging, to utilizing the Chord track in PreSonus Studio.
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Cheers, Marcus
