That number is insanely small and shows us that the field of music production is very much male-dominated. How is this possible, you ask? One major reason is already answered by the percentage itself – there are simply very few women in music production. Where is the incentive for them to join? We’re dealing with a lack of role models, resources and encouragement for womxn to be part of. And that needs to change.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2023 was #EmbraceEquity. In a perfect world, ‘equality’ would be enough in providing the same to everyone. Equity, however, means recognising that not everyone comes from the same place, and adjustments need to be made to counter the imbalance. When womxn are starting from 10 steps behind, you need to move the starting line forward before it’s fair game.

At MassiveMusic, we have so many incredibly talented and inspiring female-identifying producers. We know that bringing womxn into the industry is not only beneficial in providing a creative professional outlet, but it also makes music much richer, diverse and inclusive. We believe that showing capable womxn in music production roles can help make a difference. Enter: ‘Balance the Mix’.

Balance the Mix is an online music production masterclass we held for International Women’s Day 2023. It specifically focused on womxn and was designed to equip them with basic knowledge of DAWs and creating music.

A masterclass is nothing without the masters, so we think it’s time you get familiar.

Becky works as Creative Strategist & Producer at MassiveMusic London. She has a rich background in creative industries and worked as a planner and strategist for various world-famous brands. She’s also fronted rock bands and worked as a music composer for games and film.

“It was hard growing up as a woman in the music industry. I was always the only woman in a line-up or in a production space. Music production was never seen as a female job. I had to walk into the all-boys school across the street to find any classes on music production. To this day, I still walk into music shops and get asked if I want my guitar tuned for me, although I’ve been playing for more years than I can count.”

Phuong works as Coordinator of Owned Music at MassiveMusic Amsterdam, but she’s also an incredibly talented music producer, songwriter, sound-engineer and allround musician. She’s a spokesperson for women in the music industry and lead singer of her own electro-pop band D A R K D A Y S.

“When I started Music Production at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, I was the only girl in the entire school. That didn’t hold me back, but it shows how few women actively pursue this career direction. Together with many other women I’ve spoken to, us females often accidentally roll into music production instead of discovering it ourselves, simply because we have no female role models in these positions. And you can’t be what you can’t see.”

Time to change the tide. Or should we say, time to balance the mix? Together, Becky and Phuong spearheaded our music production masterclass on Zoom to provide a route for womxn to discover their production talents and equip them with more knowledge.

Looking into learning some of the basics of music production yourself? Keep reading.

DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. It’s an electronic device or piece of software that allows you to record, edit and produce audio files.

Similar to Premiere Pro or After Effects for video editing, there are many choices for music production. Apple users may already be familiar with Garageband, which comes for free with Macbooks. There’s also Audacity, FL Studio, Cubase, Pro Tools and the everlasting battle between Ableton and Logic.

For this music production masterclass, we used Logic Pro. However, the steps shown by our brilliant Becky Wixon and Phuong Boi Nguyen can be replicated in any DAW – free or paid.

Care to create?

“Witnessing the creative musical process in action is a much better way to learn, rather than learning which buttons to press.”

That’s how Becky kicked off the practical part of our masterclass, and we agree. Let us take you through the steps of creating an 8-bar loop and explain some terminology on the way.

Music exists in layers. A band is essentially a collection of individual instruments playing together at the same time, and you’ll see this visualised in Logic as well. Each instrument has its own layer – from drums to piano to vocals – and one final audio product comes out of the master track.

We started with a beat to get us into the groove. The beat for this masterclass began with a sample: a pre-existing recording that can be manipulated creatively. Why do we use samples? Well, because recording every single sound would take you ages. And who got time for that. Logic has a built-in library for samples that you can select and drag into the track. If you’re looking for additional samples, Splice is a good alternative.

With loops taken from Logic itself, the beat automatically adjusts to the BPM (Beats Per Minute) of your track. However, if you’re using external samples, you might need to time-stretch them (click ‘option’ for the tool). If you stretch the track longer, it becomes slower. If you stretch shorter, it becomes faster. Do this until your beat matches the BPM.

Want to create your own drum beat? Instead of dropping the sample into the track itself, you can also drop it on the left side, where the layers are. This should give you the option to use the ‘Drum Machine Designer’. Here, you can create a beat yourself, using your own MIDI keyboard or your computer keyboard (press ‘Command + K’ to make it show up).

P.S. Messed up the timing during recording your drums or other instruments? No problem. Simply select all the notes you played in the overview and press Q. It should be in the lower part of your screen. That’s what we call quantising.

Now we’ve got the basics of the track, it’s time to add some melodic layers. In this masterclass, Becky and Phuong simply used their voices to create sounds – that’s how accessible music production is nowadays. They recorded some humming on their phones and dropped these files into Logic using the ‘Quick Sampler (Original)’ option. You’ll find that located right above the ‘Drum Machine Designer’ option we just told you about.

Once you’ve dropped your vocals in there, all you need to do is drag the white arrow on the side until you’ve selected the part you want to use. That part will then automatically be placed in a chromatic scale, and you’ll have the option to play notes and even entire chords – using only one note of your humming. Isn’t that cool?

With loops taken from Logic itself, the beat automatically adjusts to the BPM (Beats Per Minute) of your track. However, if you’re using external samples, you might need to time-stretch them (click ‘option’ for the tool). If you stretch the track longer, it becomes slower. If you stretch shorter, it becomes faster. Do this until your beat matches the BPM.

Want to create your own drum beat? Instead of dropping the sample into the track itself, you can also drop it on the left side, where the layers are. This should give you the option to use the ‘Drum Machine Designer’. Here, you can create a beat yourself, using your own MIDI keyboard or your computer keyboard (press ‘Command + K’ to make it show up).

Maybe you’re not much of a hummingbird. But there’s no need to use your voice – Becky also recorded the sound of a small thumb piano she owns and dropped that into Logic, using the same ‘Quick Sampler’ tool. Spoiler: it worked perfectly.

These recordings-turned-instruments were used to create the chords and melody of our track, simply by playing notes on a MIDI piano connected to Logic. Don’t have a MIDI keyboard? Using that simple ‘Command + K’ option, you can use your computer keyboard instead.

There are two ways to record tracks in a DAW: MIDI or audio.

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digitalised Interface. The name is a spoiler in itself – these tracks are digitalised music, displayed in an overview with identifiable notes. Audio tracks, on the contrary, are real-life recordings displayed in a waveform.

The software instruments that we’ve used – such as Drum Machine Designer and any external sounds dropped into the ‘Quick Sampler’ option – are MIDI tracks. These can be digitally manipulated. We can add and drag notes wherever we want.

Audio tracks in their waveform display are fairly set in stone – you cannot change individual notes. These are often used for recording vocal takes or external instruments that you don’t plan on manipulating too much.

Remember that quantising option we just told you about? The screen showing the content of your MIDI track is where you can select all the notes. Press Q and everything is right on time.

Despite their differences, both MIDI and audio tracks can be taken to another level by adding the magic of effects.

Once you’ve created the main part of your track using the methods above, there are several effects you can use to spice things up.

• Reverb – add space to your sound with some reverb. In real life, all sounds are affected by reverb. Think about the difference between a small room and a church when it comes to sound. With reverb, you can add a digital version of ‘space’ to your sound. You can play around with dry, wet and distance (adding more reverb or making the room smaller).
• Delay – add echo to your sound with delay. You can choose to have the sound repeated back to you faster or slower. The best way to learn this is by simply adjusting the settings and trying things out.
• Panning – moving the audio from left to right. This is not so much an effect, but it does affect the track. An example: if you think about a band performance, you’ll always have a specific set up. The drummer in the back, the singer in the middle, the bassist on the right, the guitarist on the left… You can create the same effect in Logic by using the panning knobs to ‘pan’ audio to one side – listen to the result in your headphones.

The end result is an 8-bar loop created through digital instruments and real life voices in just over an hour. Incredible, isn’t it? Have a listen below.

Although this may sound very overwhelming to beginning producers, we promise you it gets easier with time. Music production has already become more accessible than ever before – you don’t need to hire big studios anymore. If you own a laptop, you have an entire studio at your fingertips. All you need is a DAW and you’re ready to go.

Want to watch the full masterclass? Check out the video below and let Becky and Phuong take you through the process again. Remember, it’s not about your skill level. As Becky would say: “Music production is a series of creative choices. The best way to learn is through creating.”