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Top 10 Mixing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

October 18, 2024

Mixing is an art form that requires not only technical skill but also a keen ear and attention to detail. Many producers and engineers fall into common traps...

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Choosing the Best CPU for Music Production

October 18, 2024

When upgrading your CPU for music production, whether you're composing orchestral scores, producing electronic music, or working with intricate multi-track projects, selecting the right processor...

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How to Create Epic Risers and Transition Effects for Electronic Music

October 11, 2024

Creating epic risers and transition effects is essential for electronic music producers to build tension and anticipation before a drop or shift in their tracks. Here’s how you can do it...

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Automating a Drum Bus in Reaper to Create Dynamic Room Effects

October 6, 2024

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EQ in Practice: How to Use Subtractive EQ to Clean Up Muddy Mixes

October 6, 2024

ixing music is an art, and one of the most essential tools for achieving clarity in a mix is the equalizer (EQ). One technique, in particular, known as subtractive EQ, can work wonders for cleaning...

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How to Manage Static Noise in High Frequencies When Compressing Vocals

October 6, 2024

One common frustration in vocal production, especially for home studio and bedroom producers, is encountering static noise in the high frequencies after compressing and brightening vocals...

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Sampling Like a Pro: How to Flip Samples and Avoid Legal Issues

October 6, 2024

Sampling has been a cornerstone of modern music production, allowing producers to reimagine and breathe new life into old tracks. Whether you're producing hip-hop, EDM, or any genre, knowing how to...

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What Makes an EQ or Compressor VST High-Quality: Insights and Examples from Pros

October 6, 2024

When selecting EQ and compressor plugins, musicians and producers look for more than just a shiny interface or brand recognition. It's all about how these tools perform in real-world scenarios...

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Sound Design 101: Crafting Killer Drum Sounds Using Synthesizers

October 6, 2024

Drum sounds form the backbone of many music genres, and while sample packs are popular, designing your own drum sounds from scratch can elevate your production to a whole new level. Crafting custom...

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Mastering Multiband Compression Sidechaining: A Solution to Clashing Frequencies

October 6, 2024

In modern music production, one of the most common challenges is the clash of frequencies between instruments. For example, bass guitars and drum kits often compete for space in the lower end of...

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Studio One Workflow Tips for Faster Music Production

October 1, 2024

Studio One by PreSonus is an incredibly powerful DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that offers a variety of tools to streamline your music production workflow. However, like many DAWs, getting the...

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Solving the Issue of Buried Crash Cymbals in the Mix

October 1, 2024

Crash cymbals often get buried in the mix, especially when using complex miking techniques like Glyn Johns, which balances close mics with overheads. While re-recording with higher cymbals may be a...

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Ryan Tedder’s Studio Review: Writing Three Songs From Scratch

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Photo: Studio

Ryan Tedder is a highly accomplished and sought-after music producer and songwriter. He is known for his work with a wide range of artists including: Adele, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and OneRepublic. He has won multiple awards for his production and songwriting, including multiple Grammys. In his pop songwriting and production class with Studio, he teaches a class about the best way to efficiently create music starting from conception all the way to mastering. The cost for this course begins at $19/month and goes to $279/year if you want to utilize more of Studio’s classes. There is great demand for this course and it even has a waitlist at times, when it isn’t running, but is it worth waiting for?

The course promises that you’ll leave the course with three fully completed songs. From concept to recording to production and mastering, Ryan guides you through the process in four short weeks, including helpful plugins, tech like MIDIs and audio interfaces, and melodic inspiration. In comparison to other popular online music courses, the output is much greater and Ryan helps by providing time management skills he has picked up for the artistic process throughout his career. The output promise of the course also comes with a time commitment on the student’s part, with most reviewers saying that they spent more than 10 hours a week to complete the assignment requirements. So if you don’t have that much time in a week, it may need to be put off until you have that kind of time. 

To help you with the time dependent process, each student is put into a small group to work through ideas together and give each other feedback. The small groups really support students in their process and encourage each other to create. These small groups are very important for building the community base that many people enjoy about the course. From these groups, students will find collaborating partners whom they’ll make their third song with. Many students said that this process was very helpful in making them create much more efficiently with a partner as they are given about 4-5 days to finish a collaborative song. Within this, they learn to give each other feedback live and grow in their own respects. Feedback is also a core base of the course and how musicians learn to create better melodies and supporting sound for their tracks. In some instances, Ryan Tedder also will give feedback on some group’s tracks. The students who received feedback said that having an industry professional view their work and respond with constructive praise and criticism, was very helpful and supportive to their process. That being said, very few people got feedback on their songs and for most reviewers, they only had one group of songs have a feedback session from Ryan. For this course, it is very self-directed so don’t expect to be guided along the way, and feedback may be far and few between from Ryan.

Photo: Inc. Magazine

This course will challenge you. From time constraints to fast-paced collaboration to sharing music for feedback, this course will take you out of your comfort zone, in the best of ways. Many reviewers loved the challenge of having to create in such an intense time frame and said it made them create some of their best work. 

Many said that this course would be good for beginner to intermediate songwriters because it succinctly describes some of the basics of melody writing and song structure. Sometimes, it does jump around between concepts, and skip over some explanations of harder concepts though. 

Overall, Ryan Tedder’s Studio Course is an excellent resource for those looking to get into music production or take their skills up a notch. With its comprehensive approach and clear explanations from one of today’s top producers, this course is sure to provide viewers with valuable insight into the world of music production. For the price, the course is worth it for a self-directed and passionate music maker. Be ready to be challenged and sign up!

If you want to watch Ryan react to songwriter’s songs from his class follow the link below!