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Where do your song ideas come from?
Whether it’s while driving or dreaming, brainstorming or bored at work, it doesn’t matter – what’s important is where you go to get them down.
That’s where a production station comes in. Whatever genre or style you’re into, a MIDI keyboard is your first step in swiftly crafting a track. Connect it to your digital audio workstation (DAW) software of choice, get your main melody recorded, and start expanding on it from there with endless options (think: everything from pitch shifting to tapping out drums and beats just how you imagined them). You’ll be able to add layers and loops that truly make the track your own creative creation.
What You Need to Know Before Buying a Production Station
Selecting the best production station depends on what exactly you’ll be using it for. All the options here include a limited MIDI keyboard for melody and beats, but if you’re a pianist or keyboardist, you’ll most likely want something with either a full range of keys or easy access to other octaves, both high and low. On the production side, the options for effects are endless, and include digital modifications like distortion, resonators, equalizers, synthesizers, compressors, chorus, virtual amps, limiters, phasers, and flangers. While some stations have pre-assigned knobs and levers, others let you set them to whatever feature you’ll be using to manipulate your sound the most.
Add layers on top of layers, adjust the tone, pitch, speeds of your samples, and mess with your modifications until eventually, you’ve created something entirely new for the world to hear. Finishing a track that you’re proud of is a great feeling, and getting positive feedback on it acts as fuel to keep on writing, recording, and producing. You may even start helping others make their ideas into an audible reality too.
With a good production station that fits your needs, you’ll quickly learn your way around it, until it becomes an extension of your creative output. We’ve chosen some trusted brands to get you started.
