Music Production
Making records: synthesis, beats, samples, arrangement, mixing and mastering, and how a track gets from a laptop to listeners.
A specialization of Music. It assumes the first two years of the major and gives the last two a focus.
For: music students heading for the studio, bedroom producers who learned by ear, and songwriters who want to finish their own tracks.
Shaped by Berklee's Electronic Production and Design and Music Production and Engineering programmes, the Point Blank and SAE production diplomas and the AES education guidelines. Shares its studio subjects with the Sound Engineering major.
Year 3 · Making the sounds
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01Deep diveInteractiveQuiz18 min
Music Technology & Production: The Studio as an Instrument
The studio as an instrument: how records are made.
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02ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Digital Audio & the DAW: Numbers That Remember a Wave
Sampling, bit depth, latency and the digital audio workstation.
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03Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min
Synthesis & Sound Design: Six Ways to Make a Sound from Nothing
Oscillators, filters, envelopes and designing a sound from nothing.
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04Deep diveInteractiveQuiz17 min
Beatmaking, Sampling & Arrangement: The Grid, the Slice and the Drop
Drum programming, sampling, loops and arranging a track.
Year 4 · Finishing the record
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05Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min
Microphones & Recording: Where You Put It Is the Sound
Recording voices and instruments well.
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06Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min
Mixing & Signal Processing: Making Room for Every Sound
Equalisation, compression, space and building a mix.
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07ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Mastering & Loudness: The Last Ears Before the World
Mastering, loudness and getting a release ready.
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08ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Producing Records & the Music Business: Who Decides, Who Gets Paid
Working with artists, releasing music, royalties and rights worldwide.
You have read every subject on this route: the intuition a graduate keeps. Pick your next major; the ones that share subjects with this one will go faster.
Study it in depth, for free
These pieces give you the intuition. To learn the major properly, these are the courses and texts universities use, free to read or audit, and the standard textbooks if you want to own one. Links checked November 2026.
The whole major, free: No free full diploma exists; the best sequence is Ableton's Learning Synths and Learning Music for the sounds, then MIT's 21M.380 Recording Techniques and Audio Production for recording, mixing and mastering.
Free courses and texts
- Learning Synths · Ableton, free interactive lessons · oscillators, filters, envelopes and designing a sound; Year 3
- Learning Music · Ableton, free interactive lessons · beats, loops, arrangement and song structure; Year 3
- Composing with Computers I (Electronic Music Composition) · MIT OCW 21M.361 · synthesis, sampling and building tracks with software; Year 3
- Music and Technology: Algorithmic and Generative Music · MIT OCW 21M.380 · generative processes and electronic composition; Year 3
- Music and Technology: Recording Techniques and Audio Production · MIT OCW 21M.380 · DAWs, microphones, mixing and mastering; Year 4
- Music and Technology: Sound Design · MIT OCW 21M.380 · designing sounds for media; Year 3-4
- Techniques · Sound On Sound magazine · working producers' articles on synthesis, drums, mixing and mastering (many free, some subscriber-only); Years 3-4
- Ableton YouTube channel · Ableton, official channel · tutorials and producer interviews; Year 3-4
The standard textbooks
- Modern Recording Techniques (David Miles Huber and Robert E. Runstein) · recording voices and instruments, studio practice; Year 4
- Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools (Roey Izhaki) · EQ, compression, space and the mix; Year 4
- Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Bob Katz) · loudness and release preparation; Year 4
- Sound Synthesis and Sampling (Martin Russ) · oscillators, filters and samplers explained for producers; Year 3
- The Dance Music Manual (Rick Snoman) · beats, arrangement and electronic production workflow, for self-learners; Year 3
- All You Need to Know About the Music Business (Donald S. Passman) · contracts, royalties and rights (US-centred); Year 4
Music History
How we know the music of the past and what it meant: sources and notation, the music of Latin America and the Caribbean, and how power, faith, money and technology shaped what was played.