Careers after doing a Music Production Course

Whenever a student is starting to pursue a music production course, they think about the different aspects of this industry in which they can use their skill set. Below I have listed a few career options that one can go for after completing their Music Production Course

Music programmer

Music programmer is a role for musicians who can use Virtual instruments to play and record the ideas laid by the composer. A music programmer is a musician who is also a nerd when it comes to plugins and vsts and recreating specific sounds or instruments.
Usually the parts are laid down as notations by the music director or the main music composer and the music programmer gets the right sounding instruments to play those parts.
The parts are theoretically put down on paper and later it’s the job for a music programmer to use these and reproduce it on a DAW, so that it can be heard.
It’s his job to get the right sounding source for the music, for example there are a million vsts for piano but it’s the job of the music programmer to make a choice out of these vsts which one would do more justice to this specific music.

Music arranger

The music arranger is a person who is hired by the artist to take his raw idea and make it more presentable, in terms of the quality and the standards set by the industry.
He decides what genre this music would be in and hence sources musicians and arranges instruments accordingly. For example: If the artist has a 4 chord song as a basic idea, then the music arranger arranges the song in a bollywood or rock approach or maybe in an India fusion way. But usually the artist writes the idea with a genre in mind, so it’s the job of the music arranger to study the song and use all the instruments that fit that genre. It’s also his job to find the right musicians who can do justice to the music. It’s his job to make sure that the feeling is put across in the music and also the flow of the music. All of these points are also covered in a good music production course.

Rhythm arranger

Rhythm producer or arranger is the person that decides the groove of the song. The way the percussion instruments are arranged in every section i.e. the choice of groove and pattern needed in the verse vs the chorus and bridge would be all arranged by him.

Especially when it comes to bollywood songs where dhol, tabla, duf and other live indian instruments are used to have a rhythm producer is an essential part of being efficient with the song production process.

Music Director

Music directors oversee all musical aspects of a musical theater or opera production, including casting performers, hiring the orchestra, rehearsing singers and orchestra members, and conducting the orchestra in performance. In film the major score is done by the music director. He scouts for the best musicians who can give justice to the music. It’s basically his vision that the song is made to.

Vocal producer

Vocal producer is a person who is incharge of doing the vocal arrangements for the song. Arranging harmonies, vocal ad libs, specific vocal effect, his vision of how the vocals should shine through the mix and the choice of backing singers used to deliver the backing vocals.
A song reference like Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish or any song by Jacob Collier would need top notch vocal production and the only way is to get a vocal producer who studies vocal arrangements.

Sound designer

This job requires a lot of out of the box thinking and imagination. It’s the job of the sound designer to produce sounds that would do justice to the emotion of the visual.
For example : For the movie Star wars the sound design was done by this studio called Skywalker Sounds. Check out this documentary on how they used sound design to give life to the movie.
It’s his job to experiment with sounds and make sounds from scratch by using plugins. It’s a very creative job where the sound is created by what the producer hears in his head and uses plugins and other hardwares to recreate this sound. 

Beat producer

Beat producer, also known as beat maker, is a music producer who produces beats for other artists. He can be a ghost producer for the same. Usually a beat producer produces beats for Hip-hop/rap music. Catchy 808 and other ear candy effects are all the creative ideas that a beat producer should have in his arsenal.

 

Foley & SFX

Foley and Sound Effect producers are people who are responsible to record all sounds that would give it the realistic feel but also an exaggerated way of giving depth to the whole feeling. Foley is usually used in film as part of increasing the immersive experience for the audience and same with sound effects.
For example : in an action movie the punches would be layered by a sub thump on a punch sound to give the whole experience and excitement of the hit. While in reality you would never hear the punch make that sound. It would be a mixture of recording sounds and layering with unnatural sounds to give that whole effect.
The foley producer has parts layed down where all the sounds can be exaggerated, it’s his job to find foley artists to record these sounds and who would source all the materials needed to recreate sounds in a foley.