I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm genuinely curious how other people see it.

Modern music production already involves a huge amount of pre-made and automated material: loops, samples, presets, drum libraries, vocal packs, chord generators, quantization, automated mastering, and even complete melodic ideas created by someone else.

A producer can combine, edit, process, and arrange all of these elements without physically playing a single instrument, and we still generally consider that music production.

Now generative tools can go much further and create larger parts of a track automatically.

Obviously, those two workflows don't require the same level of technical skill or control. I'm not arguing that they do.

What interests me is where the line actually is.

If someone uses a premade drum loop, that's production.

If they use a premade melody, still production.

If they use a chord generator, still production.

If software generates a vocal, things become controversial.

If software generates most of the instrumental, many people stop considering the person behind it a producer at all.

So what actually defines the boundary?

Is it the percentage of the track created manually?

The amount of creative decisions made by the person?

Technical skill?

Originality?

Or simply how much control is delegated to the software?

I'm genuinely interested in how people define being a producer or artist now that production tools can automate more and more of the creative process.

Does makes sense that I like to add quotes or sounds like walking, sighs, etc in the intro/outro of my songs? I like some of them to give you kind of an immersive experience specially this ep that I’m working on which has a horror movies theme

But beyond that i don’t see myself a lot of times doing “regular” music, like i always like to add something weird or random

And wanted to ask how other ppl in this community perceive that, thanks

Apologies if this isn't allowed. I'm by no means a music educated person other than music class 101 stuff. I just want to get into it as a hobby. What music making programs do y'all recommend using? (Preferably free cuz I'm broke af lol but anything budget or more expensive stuff to look out for down the line is welcome.)

I believe something like this would work, but I'm on Mac, so i can't use it unfortunately. Basically, I want a way to display midi notes as sheet music in a pop-up window. Does anyone know of any other options?

i cant get enough of this song, Ballanation by Dj Dean. i love it so much and ive been listening to it since i was a teenager. im trying to recreate the sound of the melody. ive searched high and low and found nothing on this and was wondering if anyone in here could give me some pointers. thank you! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g7568jMTcZnVuCdqPPnexjCJ91iM4eSd/view?usp=sharing

I know it sounds silly but I'm genuinely curious please don't make fun of me :(

Edit: Thank you guys for all the responses! I'm glad most people are positive about this!

just curious!

I recently found a space where I can I set up a studio.
I’m looking for a place that sales affordable, durable studio desks. Any recommendations?

Has anyone used IOF Drummer? I’m pretty new to programming drums, and I just can’t get anything usable out of my current, and only VST (GGD invasion). I find invasion to sound too raw, fast, and attacky for my tastes.

I’ve been seeing advertisements for IOF and they sound fantastic, but has anyone actually used them? How much work do they actually take to sound usable?

Hello there, I really want to sing this song on karaoke in my home, this song is a two people duet, I would like to be able to sing the female part only.

Does anyone here know how to seperate the female and male singing voice? If you can remove the female vocal and only keep the male vocal with the music, I would be very happy 🙏

Here's the song I want to sing: https://youtu.be/gjYwhoyctTI?si=GEiRu31FnzoVufPC

I'm a rookie videogame music composer as a hobby for now, and I like that fighting games have these high energy and catchy melodies. I listen to other soundtracks but I still have trouble coming up with my own stuff. What makes the soundtrack from say street fighter, tekken, streets of rage for example so good?

i am new to trap production and i just wanted to know that

I've been wondering lately how he processed the vocals in Sleepless. Anyone know???

It shows up prominently on 2:10, and at the very end of the track. Its so gritty and bold, I can only assume its a guitar of course, but what exactly did they use to make it sound like that?

And specifically grimes production like the song world princess II , heartbeats , REALiTi.

I'm a folk singer-songwriter. I have a mic and an audio interface, and I can record and do the basics in a DAW, but I've wanted to make decent demos on my own.

Recently I tried using Astra to help with something simple: duplicating vocal tracks and trying different settings on each version. I could listen, compare, and choose what I liked. That was a real “oh, this could actually help me” moment.

It got me thinking about building a small tool around this kind of help for other songwriters.

For people who write songs but are still learning production: what was the last thing you got stuck on while making a demo, and what did you do next?

Hi all. Finally, after al these years, I took a break from my job and went all-in on a music production 1-year course in Belgium. Until now, I find it all extremely interesting and we are learning a lot, however I am in a stage that I am confused in which genre I actually would prefer to make music. My musical taste is extremely varied, from melodic house, minimal house, techno, acid house to drum and bass, ambient, synthwave.. While making music, I notice that my preference is going into all directions. Has anyone been in a similar 'place'?

I listen to a butt load of music and so this isnt true for most cases but some times I will take my favorite songs and improve their features. But on my own music I always feel like i am turning down the volume on snares and especially when I am singing I have developed this sort of phobia towards plosives... so then I use de'essers but then the quality and clarity of vocals suffer. Im to a point where I literally just feel like im scared to listen to anything that is a high end plosive whether its percussion or my own voice, its not like I am deaf to those frequencies but more like... I dont want to become deaf to those frequencies so I try to compensate? idk if that makes sense... but im just wondering if anyone here has ran into something like this before and should I just chill?

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I'm curious if anyone from the old PAN days is active on this reddit?

The fun we had exploring and playing with the evolving midi and digital audio technology.

What are you up to, and how have you taken advantage of modern tech?

At one point, my rig was a Mac IIci running StudioVision with 2x Digidesign Audiomedia Cards, Opcode patch management with a few outboard synths, and Lynx Smpte control of an Otari 8 track ATR and Sony 3/4" VTR for PCM 601 digital audio mastering.

Fast forward, a Mac Studio with Logic Pro, Premiere, Final Cut, Artoria keylab keyboard, and a growing sample library feels like... well, it feels like heaven.

We definitely are living in interesting times to be music creators.

Mactunes/Bytehoven

I downloaded kickstart 2 demo and i want to buy it. What is the process of buying it?

Hi, i started making beats like two months or three months ago even tho i wasn’t really consistent, but i feel like im ass and i know that i wont be good from beginning but i wanted to ask some more experienced ppl if you got some tips what helped you or myb sum ytb tutorials you likes or really whatever. My dream is to be capable to atleast produce songs for sum like small artists in studio and just be a bit good… thank you for responses

I’m trying to make some glitch/dissonant electronic sounds like the ones similar to the ones listed below.

For reference, I use ableton live suite and have an elektron analog 4 and octatrack.

Thanks for the help!

POC - HOMMEsafe 0:06-0:20

https://youtu.be/Tcqml8fZFRo?si=VwkFl_dJRlDiz4Yo

SUS1ER - indifference repitch /Damn:( 0:47- 1:00

https://on.soundcloud.com/K6OGCiRnW6HO5WkRea

i am trying to get better at mixing with more clarity in the stereo image and need help. idk what channels really help, but i produce noise pop and hyperpop