The Producergirls crew share 10 production tips

Producergirls is the artist collective founded by DJ and producer E.M.M.A. which is focused on getting young women into music production.

The London-based, Liverpool-born artist, who has released records on Astral Plane Recordings and Coyote Records, started the project last year as a way to address the gender imbalance in the music industry.

Described as a project for the “girls who’ve ever heard a shit tune in the club and thought ‘I can do better that that’”, the 600+ applications E.M.M.A received for the first workshop showed there was an appetite for the concept.

The first workshop was held in London and featured E.M.M.A., P Jam, Dexplicit and Ikonika as mentors covering beats, melody, arrangement, and mixing.

The second workshop take place in Glasgow this weekend with Nightwave joining the collective. Ahead of that event the whole gang were kind enough to reveal their top production tips.

"Generally speaking, it's good to learn the rules of production, but also fine to break them," said E.M.M.A. "No one person uses software in the same way. Quite often you find there are multiple ways of achieving a desired result, too." Dive in below.

1. If you're not feeling what you've created so far, don't be scared to delete parts. Muting some tracks/channels helps. You can see what works together and build new parts from there.

2. Be organised. Create folders with your fave samples, create templates with your best effects, make drum kits etc. Put samples in a cloud/flash storage if you plan to collab, so you’ll always have your signature sound with you.

3. Don't underestimate the power of hi hats. Hats are superb for emphasising or creating a groove and can be used to add more movement in a drum pattern.

4. As a new producer, try to create a habit of making music everyday (even for 30mins). The more music you make, the quicker and easier musical decisions become during the creation process.

5. Don't be shy to use samples or loops, especially at the start. Far from making your process 'fake', it can encourage your creativity. Invest in good samples and get into building your own banks. Experiment with chopping and putting samples through effects, etc.

6. Do not compare yourself to others. Whether it's the simplicity of your process or lack of studio or equipment. Plenty of people with loads of analogue gear make shit music. Good ideas are worth a lot more.

7. Try and keep the habit of having the volume on the mixer and master channels at a low to medium level – you can listen to your project loud by turning up your main amp instead of your mixer channels

8. If you feel you've come to a wall with a project, start something new then come back to it later. You'll approach it differently once you come back to the project with fresh ears.

9. Don't worry about the word ‘mixdown’ too much while making your first tunes. It's one of those things you never hear the end of when starting out and it can be off putting. It's more important to get your ideas down as fully as possible – trust your own ears at the end of the day. Ask a trusted person for advice but keep it limited, there's nothing worse than five people telling you different subjective things.

10. Limit your tools and learn them well before you start bringing other things into your set up. This can also help you focus your "sound" – picking what you like and sticking to it can be a good way of creating your own voice. But equally, don't be afraid to set fire to ideas and start again. It's a journey, you change, and your music will change.

Producergirls are on Facebook here

Louis Anderson-Rich is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow him on Twitter here