1. The Music Creation & Production Process

2. STAGE 1

3. Inspiration

4. Stage 1 - Inspiration day to day life emotions another musician or piece of music film or story life changing event place, trip news story riff or groove jam session title contest assignment new piece of gear financial reward

5. STAGE 2

6. Composition

7. Stage 2 - Composition melody chords harmonies rhythmic ideas lyrics riffs musical sections (verses, chorus, bridge)

8. STAGE 3

9. Arrangement

10. Stage 3 - Arrangement organizing the musical sections voicing the chords working out a bass line drum beats sounds & effects orchestration incorporating melodic variation background vocals solos dynamic shape counter-melodies melodic ornaments

11. STAGE 4

12. Recording

13. Stage 4 - Recording decide on medium (tape, digital audio, MIDI) environment (type of recording space) sample/bit rate (ex. 96kHz/24 bit) approach (live or tracked) microphone selection/placement capturing the best takes punching in parts bringing in session musicians knowing when to wrap it up

14. STAGE 5

15. Mixing

16. Stage 5 - Mixing adjusting the volume of each part placement in the stereo spectrum (panning) editing of parts (cutting, trimming, pasting, copying) eliminating noise adding effects (delay, echo, chorus, distortion, reverb, compression) equalization (treble, bass, midrange) fixing the tuning of parts referencing the mix on different speakers

17. STAGE 6

18. Mastering

19. Stage 6 - Mastering editing the beginning and ending of the tunes determining the track order volume of each track in relation to each other inserting the track information into the file (ISRC) last minute sweetening Encode the final master (CD, DVD-audio, MP3, Super-Audio CD, wav file, 5.1)