Production

If you’re a band, it’s likely that you’d be playing all your own instruments and parts. You will need a producer to enhance those parts and get the most out of them. There will be free production advice and guidance if you are recording or mixing at Moyr Productions.

If you are paying for a Gold level mix, then there will be elements of production included in that (layering, experimenting, re-amping etc).
If you are recording at Moyr Productions, then during the recording process, many different production options will be discussed with you along the way.
If you want a bit of extra ‘spice’ adding (extra instruments, FX, complicated edits/chopping), then see individual part pricing section.

As a producer, the job will vary from project to project.  It maybe that you are a singer songwriter.  You have the lyrics, the melody and the chords, yet you need everything else producing.  That means the accompanying music, the rhythm, the structure and all the instrumentation and advice that goes with it.

Or it may be that you are a band, so you all have your parts rehearsed ready to go.  So does that mean all the music’s done?  No it doesn’t.  Often times band members are playing parts that are individually good, but cohesively not.  It’s not until a producer gets involved, who has no bias either way and is solely focused on the end goal of the overall track, do these problems get resolved.  The other thing a producer will bring to the project is a full understanding of many different production techniques, from different genre’s. That can be used to make you sound more polished and unique. Things like how to layer different instruments with different sounds, how to use effects in the right way, how much saturation or drive you need, different recording methods and all the professional editing and mixing techniques needed.  All the time keeping an eye on the overall end goal of the song, whilst caressing (but ignoring) each individual ego within the band.  I’ve been in bands, I know what it’s like!

There are two main methods used to produce most music.  Electronically or using session musicians.  Each have their own advantages and disadvantages and can be weighted according to genre and situation. Production can also be a hybrid of the two.

Electronically Produced Music
To produce a track in this manner no other musicians are required.  This does not mean we are making ‘electronic’ music.  We’re merely using electronic technology to accomplish certain tasks.  All the sounds (drums, bass, keyboards etc) are derived from sampler instruments or synthesisers.  A sampler instrument, is a real recording of an actually instrument, that is captured note by note at different volume levels and from different positions.  That means you can now play that instrument on a keyboard or other midi controller.  The resulting effect is a sound that is extremely close (and in some ways better), to recording the real instrument.  The advantage of this is that production time is drastically reduced.  The disadvantage of this, is that that some of the minor nuances that a real instrument, played by a human would have, could be lost.

In most cases, this is nothing to worry about.  Nearly all chart music uses this method (pop, hiphop, R&B, EDM, dance, dubstep, grime etc) and more and more, rock, metal, punk-pop etc are incorporating some of these techniques, in part or full.  A lot of genre’s don’t even try to imitate real instruments and instead purposely try to sound electronic.  As they say, it’s ‘horses for courses’.

Moyr Productions have access to hundreds of different sampler instruments and over 500,000 different sample sets, along with dozens of synthesisers, both software and hardware.

Session Musicians
Depending on the end goal of your track and what genre of music you’re making, you may want the the sound and feel of a real human backing back.  Unfortunately, you’re a singer song writer and don’t have access to one.  There may be mates of yours floating around who you could call on and they may be at a suitable level with enough enthusiasm to to do a good job for you.  However, if that’s not the case, paying for high level professionals, to do the job is the best option.  Or it may be that you’re looking for a high level pianist or saxophone player etc, to add to your production.  These are decisions that will be discussed with you and ultimately you will make, depending on budget and required outcome.

You will automatically get one session musician when you choose to have production done at Moyr Productions and that’s me (Moyr).  I’m a multi-instrumentalist with capacity to play percussion, guitar, mandolin, violin and keyboards.  It’s only if a part is beyond my scope that I will recommend using a separate session musician.  We have access to many different musicians, at different levels (costs) and different styles.  If it’s something we haven’t come across before, we have the network to find it.

The advantage of session musicians, is that you will get a real organic human feel, along with all its nuances.  The disadvantage is that recording real instruments takes time and there is also a hire charge, so this will add to the costs.  All of these choices are purely dependent on required outcome vs budget.

When producing a track together, it’s important to have an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve, what the style of music is and what will be the end purpose of the track?  If you have a definitive idea of how you want the track to sound, then you should bring along a few examples of something similar, to get us ‘in the ball park’.  Generally, we should be trying to produce tracks that take influence from previous tracks, but have their own unique edge.

Back in the day if something was considered good it used to get you the deal.  In the music industry today, supply far out strips demand and as the saying goes ‘good isn’t good enough anymore, it has to be great’.  It’s simple maths, if the world buys 100 of something and you have 1000 people making it, the world buys 10% (that’s the old days).  If the world buys 100 of something and you have 10,000 making it, the world buys 1% (that’s today).  So when we produce something we must have this concept in mind and aim to stand out somehow to get in the 1%.  Our aim must be to have something unique and different but at the same time, something that appeals to the market you’re aiming at.  This concept is always in my mind when I’m producing a track.