Your music business career will prosper and flow when you see through the myths below... 1 The Discovery Myth... Everybody and their friend wants their fifteen minutes of fame. Shows such as Pop Idol or American Idol push the idea that the "Industry" is on the lookout for talent, which it is. Only the "Industry" wants to push you through the machine so it makes money, not you. It cares not for you as an artist, only how much you can generate. You will get nowhere waiting to be discovered. This Myth is from an old age in the Music Industry when record labels cultivated talent, which has long passed. Don't let "music business" shows such as Pop Idol fool you with the glitz and glam. As a Renegade Producer you will work to maximise exposure for your own music. You will take responsibility for your own success and you will start and maintain your own music business, not wait for any type of discovery. 2 The Record Deal Myth... You know this one, the myth that says when you sign a record deal you're made. Music business psycho-bait for fools! You most likely see through this myth already. A record deal may have been the only route to success in the past. This is no longer the case because of the Web changes the nature of the music business. You needed the Record company for mainly financial investment, marketing, and distribution. Now you have the technology to produce good music at a much lower cost and you have the Internet for income, marketing and sales at costs you can afford easily on a shoestring. As a Renegade you don't waste your time hunting the prison cell called a record deal. You strive to set yourself up legally and financially in such a way that you maximize and enjoy the fruits of your work, while at the same time retaining rights to your masters and all derivative works, merchandise, licensing and other profitable activities of your music business. You want to keep creative control over the music you produce and your public image and performances. You know that with most record deals artists lose many of the above rights and control, or have to fight hard to keep them. As a Renegade producer you work a bit harder and smarter to use the modern network nature of the Internet to replace Record Label functions. 3 The Superstar Celebrity Myth... So called Fame (celebrity status) is an highly overrated leash used by the old "Industry" to entice bodies with a bit of talent to seek "stardom". Think Pop Idol Culture. The old Industry uses this myth to ensure they have a steady supply of ambitious youngsters with stars in their eyes to feed through the music business money machine. The result is music gets recorded and performed with the superficial motivations of money or fame. Think Pop Charts. As a Renegade your motivation is your love of good music and to entertain and uplift of others with your music. You know you are the provider of services, entertainment and escape. You do not allow your ego with illusions of fame to get in the way of your art or make you believe you are someone who deserves "diva treatment". Your listeners will become your community or tribe only when you are accessible and keep communication up on a regular basis. You will get the attention, exposure and respect you deserve because your music is good, not because some Greyface decided to pump millions into advertising and radio play to force you down the throat of "the masses" and up the charts. You can creatively use the Internet to replace the old way of doing things, which means you don't have to play the old Superstar image game. 4 The Mega Money Myth... You've probably heard the stories of big name artists who have been done in by unfair record deals. Record Labels made an art of providing artists with a rich-and-glamorous image through marketing, publicity and styling

Do you want to learn how to produce music? Great! Music production schools can offer you a foundation for your music producer career. You'll discover you have a range of courses available to you both offline and online. You'll find however that good courses are often quite expensive and you may not have the funds available to attend these schools right now. You shouldn't let this stop you! You'll find some ideas below which you can use right away to start with your music producer career. Learn everything you can about producing music... You can teach yourself a lot about production when you use the leverage made available to you by the Internet. It won't be easy as there are many areas you need to learn about to become a good producer. Your effort is more than made up for by the pleasure you get when you make your own music. So, what do you need to learn about? You'll find you need at least a basic music knowledge to produce your music. A good way to learn music is to learn to play an instrument. You can learn to play guitar, which is one of the most popular instruments, with free guitar lessons online. You'll also find some great free guitar lessons on YouTube. The piano or keyboard is also used a lot in computer music production because of the versatile ways you can use it as a controller when you make your music with MIDI, so this is another instrument many musicians choose to play. My fellow Renegade Lynne offers great free online keyboard lessons and further music lessons you can start with today. You also want to learn about writing music, recording music, mixing music and the production process with the help of music production sites, articles and tips you'll find on the web. You can visit online producer forums to ask questions about specific topics you want help with. You should be able to find forums which focus on the exact type of music you want to produce. I have also collected some great resources which you can use to make your own music online here. You can always do a good course at a music college or school and you should consider this option should you have the time and money. Otherwise, you should start with self-taught music making and progress as you have time. You can in this way set a foundation for your music career as you will learn what's needed to make quality music. You will never say you know it all when it comes to producing music because the technology and music scene changes all the time. Musicians and producers, even the best ones, constantly learn new things to stay on top of their genre and make fresh music for their listeners. All the best, Nortynort Beatz

Ok. In order to make your own music on your computer you need music software. You simply want to know which is the most suitable music software to make your own music with, and when you ask, the countless opinions vary like day and night. Why don't they just let you in on the best program to use already? A few reasons... 1) The leading Audio/MIDI sequencer packages can pretty much do the job with only minor differences in interface and functionality. 2) The music recording software and sequencer you choose will come down your taste and style, which is subjective to your personality. 3) Other people don't know exactly what you want to create as a musician or music producer and therefore can only give you general advice. 4) There are so many music software packages available which range from toys to pro level, which means nobody can say for sure which is the best music software. You're going to have to get your hands dirty and do your research because Audio/MIDI software is a vital choice when you decide to produce music on your computer. So, here are a triple dose of Nortynort tips to get you going... 1) Head for music producers forums. Ask for tips, read previous posts, look for polls and any information that can help you make a choice of music production software. 2) Visit your local music equipment retailer for demonstrations of the leading music software packages. 3) Download available music production program demos from the manufacturer's web sites and buy when you feel comfortable that you will like the program in the long run. I said it before and I'll say it again... ...there is no best music software. You'll find a few very good and many more reasonable to just plain wacky programs available. The music production software you choose will come down to who you are, how you like to work and what you want to create with your music. To Your Success, Nortynort ~Hustle Hard!

Your music production computer forms the core of your home music studio so you want the best you can afford. You want keep these simple words in mind when you search for your recording PC... Bigger, Faster, More! Bigger CPU... ... which means go for Intel or AMD (to match with your Intel or AMD chipset on the motherboard), as fast as possible because you want to run multiple effects plug-ins and virtual instruments and CPU plays the key role here. Multi-core processors now allow you to run more programs at once. Faster RAM... ... translates to a faster music production computer, faster software operation and faster streaming of audio, so... ... get as much as your motherboard (and pocket) can take! 1 Gig gets you off to a good start, 4 Gig and you start taking off. And you don't stop... ... more RAM! more RAM! Oh, and while we're at it... More Disk Space... ... with two disks at least to separate your operating system and music production programs from your audio files and your sequencer project files. Your audio files and music will take up a lot of space. Can you ever have enough disk space on your recording PC? Only when you've stopped making music. And that will never happen! So get as much as possible. More inputs and outputs... ... which depends on your motherboard and on your recording sound card or audio interface. More inputs and outputs means you can plug in more of your beat toys and gadgets, and allows you to expand your music production computer in future (which you will!). Yes, these are the bare bone basics, because I tend not to get too technical (yawn), and leave that for the propeller-heads. 80/20 remember? I'm also not capable to tell you which system would be best for you as this depends on the music you wish to produce and the music software you wish to run. This is why I try to provide the basic guidelines for you. It's up to you to research well before you spend your hard-earned money on your choice of music computer because your choices can be costly when you don't plan well. The best sequence to set up your studio is... First choose your music making software, then choose a compatible recording sound-card (or audio interface) and then lastly, choose your music production computer. Oh, and one last tip... You can get much more value and power for your money when you purchase a desktop instead of a laptop for your recording studio and desktops are also easier to fix than laptops. Get a laptop only when you really need to be mobile and make sure it's a reputable manufacturer you buy from. To Your Success, Nortynort ~Hustle Hard!

1. The Producer, Not The Gear, Makes The Music A producer who doesn't know what he's doing cannot produce golden sound, even with the best gear on the planet. Give a great producer even just decent gear and he'll still manage to produce quality results. The point? New gear won't make you better. Work on your super-ninja production skillz first! Learn how to use the gear you have, learn and use different mic techniques, study the basics of acoustics, computer recording and mixing. Apply this knowledge and refine it as you go along. 2. Crapola In, Crapola Out You've probably heard of the fix-it-in-the-mix mentality by now and you also know you should avoid that line from ever entering your mind. Heaping on the effects or compressing the living life out of a track during the mixing stage won't give you the fat sound you lust after. A low-level recorded or weak signal will be much closer to your noise-floor. Adding compression to this weak signal during mixing will pull up the noise along with the signal. The same goes for out-of-time-or-out-of-rhythm instrumentalists. Headache to fix in the mix. The point? Always aim to get the best possible signal down while recording. Don't settle for less-than-great takes unless you're absolutely pressured to do so. 3. Monkey See, Monkey Do You learn the most valuable things by watching and talking to other producers. Advancement by osmosis! Manuals and text-books are good maps, though they don't always show you the actual territory. This is where seeing producers at work can pay huge dividends for your own music production progress. Luckily, you can now also watch other producers, even some of the pros, provide music production tips on YouTube and other video sites. Music production forums also give you the opportunity to connect with other producers. The point? Connect with other producers and talk craft. This is always where you'll get the best music production tips. Watch how others do it and learn faster. Easy. 4. S.O.S (Save Obsessively Silly!) Computer music production is great, no doubt. Computers and software however like to sometimes crash. It sucks to get a mix just right, crash and then realize the last half-hour of your work has vanished into the abyss where all non-saved work dwells. The point? Develop the save often habit into a compulsion. You may find yourself hitting the save shortcut (Ctrl+S) even while browsing the web! That's fine. At least your work will be captured. This is one of those music production tips you don't want to learn from experience. ;-) 5. Close Your Eyes To Open Your Ears The visual sense takes priority with most of us which means that while your eyes are open the ears are pushed to second place. The visual aspect of computer-based DAWs makes music production much more of a visual activity, often at the expense of good sound. The point? Close your eyes to make your ears into the top priority sense. Trust your ears when hunting for a good sound. If it sounds good to you, it probably is good. 6. Record Dry, Add Effects Later This one's simple: You can add all the effects you want in post-production. Removing effects is much harder. The point? Keep your recordings clean on the way in and the mixing stage will offer many more possibilities for creative work. 7. Order Is Freedom As an artist you may draw inspiration from chaotic environments. This changes the moment you put on your producer cap. Tidiness, whether it be in your studio, your computer file-system or your DAW session, will allow you to be creative. The point? Keep things tidy so you won't get overwhelmed or bogged-down with technical issues or searching for files when you want to be creative or productive. 8. Inspiration Comes While You Work Pros sit their behinds down every day and work. This is what makes them