Music Production Glossary

A working glossary of the terms producers actually meet: what each one means in a sentence, and when you would reach for it. It runs A to Z, and every entry has its own anchor so you can link straight to it. Read it top to bottom once, then come back when a tutorial uses a word you half know.

A

ADSR

ADSR is the four-stage envelope found on nearly every synth: attack, decay, sustain, release. Attack is how long the sound takes to reach full level, decay how long it takes to fall to the sustain level, sustain the level it holds while the key is down, and release how long it takes to fade after you let go. Set attack to zero and release short for a pluck; set attack slow and release long for a pad.

Arpeggiator

An arpeggiator plays the notes of a chord you are holding one at a time, in a pattern and at a rate you set. It is the fastest way to give a static chord movement. There is a full page on what an arpeggiator is, including every control.

Arrangement

Arrangement is the order and layout of a track’s sections over its length: intro, build, drop, breakdown, second drop, outro. It is where a loop becomes a song. Most unfinished tracks are finished loops with no arrangement.

Attack

Attack is the time a sound takes to reach its peak after you press the key. A zero attack is a click and a percussive start; a slow attack is a swell. It is the first thing to adjust when a sound feels too sharp or too soft at the front.

Audio interface

An audio interface is the box that converts sound to digital and back, with better converters and lower latency than a laptop’s built-in audio. It is also where microphones and instruments plug in. For a synth-only setup, the built-in output is enough to start.

Automation

Automation is recording changes to a control, a filter cutoff, a volume fader, a send level, over time so that they play back with the track. It is how a static loop becomes a track that goes somewhere. A filter opening over sixteen bars is automation.

B

Bar

A bar is a fixed group of beats, four in most electronic music, that the whole track is counted in. Sections are built in multiples of it: four bars, eight, sixteen. When someone says a drop comes in at bar 33, this is the unit.

Bassline

A bassline is the low melodic part that outlines the chords, usually playing each chord’s root and the notes around it. In electronic music it often carries more of the groove than the drums. A bassline that lands off the kick is what makes a house track move.

Beat

A beat is the steady pulse you tap your foot to, and the unit a bar is divided into. In 4/4 there are four per bar, and the kick often sits on each one. Everything else is placed in relation to it.

Bit depth

Bit depth is how many bits each sample is stored in, which sets the dynamic range of a recording. 16-bit is CD; 24-bit is the standard for recording and mixing because it gives far more headroom. Record and mix at 24, deliver at whatever the platform asks.

Bitcrusher

A bitcrusher lowers the bit depth or sample rate of a sound, adding digital crunch and aliasing on purpose. It is how you make something sound like an old sampler or a games console. Lo-fi hip hop lives on it.

Bounce

To bounce, or export or render, is to turn a project into a finished audio file. The DAW plays everything through the mix and writes the result to WAV or MP3. It is the step that makes a project a track.

BPM

BPM, beats per minute, is the unit tempo is measured in. At 120 BPM a beat lasts half a second and a four-beat bar lasts two seconds. Every tempo-synced effect and every note division derives from it.

Breakdown

A breakdown is a section where the drums drop out or thin, giving the ear a rest between drops. It usually carries the harmonic or melodic content of the track. Without one, a track is a single unbroken level.

Buffer size

Buffer size is how many samples the computer processes at once, set in the DAW’s audio settings. Small buffers mean low latency but more risk of clicks and dropouts; large buffers are the reverse. Record at a small buffer and mix at a large one.

Build

A build, or build-up, is the section where tension rises before a drop, usually with a riser, a filter opening and drums getting busier. It sets up the release. A build with nothing after it is the most common structural mistake.

Bus

A bus is a channel that several other channels are routed into, so they can be processed together. A drum bus lets you compress all the drums as one; a reverb bus lets many parts share one reverb. Sends are how you route to it.

C

Cent

A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, and it is the unit fine-tuning and detune controls are measured in. Two oscillators 7 cents apart at A4 beat about twice a second. It is the unit that lets you talk about tuning differences too small to have note names.

Chord

A chord is three or more notes played together. Chords give a track its harmony, the sense of a mood underneath the melody. Almost all of them are built from stacked thirds.

Chord progression

A chord progression is the sequence of chords a section cycles through. A handful of progressions sit under a large share of popular music, and learning them by scale degree lets you write in any key. The four to learn first are on the music theory page.

Chorus

Chorus copies a sound, delays the copy by a few milliseconds and modulates that delay, so the copy drifts in pitch against the original. The result is the thickening of two detuned oscillators, made with one. It is the sound of 1980s pads and the Roland Juno.

Clipping

Clipping is what happens when a signal exceeds the maximum level a system can carry and its peaks are flattened. Digital clipping is harsh and always a mistake unless you asked for it. A red meter is the warning.

Compressor

A compressor reduces the level of a signal when it goes above a threshold, evening out the loud and quiet parts. It makes a part more consistent and, with makeup gain, louder. It is the most used and least understood effect in mixing.

Cutoff

Cutoff is the frequency at which a filter starts to remove sound. Everything past it is attenuated; everything before it passes. Sweeping the cutoff up over a sawtooth is the single most recognisable synth gesture.

D

DAW

A DAW, a digital audio workstation, is the software you produce in: Logic, Ableton Live, FL Studio, GarageBand. It records audio, sequences MIDI, hosts instruments and effects, and mixes the result. Everything else on this page happens inside one.

Delay

Delay records a sound and plays it back after a set time, once or repeatedly, producing an echo. Synced to the tempo, it turns a single note into a rhythm. It is the effect that makes a sparse part sound full.

Detune

Detune shifts one oscillator a few cents off the pitch of another so the two beat against each other, which the ear reads as width and thickness. A few cents is subtle shimmer; past about 25 the two pitches start to sound out of tune. There is a full page on what detune means, including the numbers.

Distortion

Distortion clips or bends a waveform, adding harmonics and grit that were not there. On a synth it is used for aggression, and in small amounts for warmth and presence. It is the difference between a bass that sits at the back and one that cuts.

Drop

The drop is the moment the full track arrives after a build, the section with the main hook and the full drums. In dance music it is what the track exists for. Everything before it is a promise.

Drum kit

A drum kit, in a DAW, is a set of one-shots mapped across the keys so that each key plays a different drum. Kick, snare, clap and hi-hats are the core; everything else is decoration. Choosing the kit is choosing most of the character of the beat.

Dry/wet

Dry/wet is the balance between the unprocessed signal and the effected one. Fully wet is only the effect; fully dry bypasses it. On sends, the effect is fully wet and the balance is set on the return.

E

Envelope

An envelope is a control signal that changes over time each time you press a key, most often used to shape volume or filter cutoff. It is the reason a plucked sound is short and a pad is slow: the notes are the same, the envelope is not. Most synths have at least two, one for volume and one for the filter.

EQ

EQ, equalisation, raises or lowers the level of chosen frequency ranges in a sound. Cutting is used more than boosting: removing low rumble from a pad or the mud around 200 to 400 Hz from a bass. It is the tool for making two sounds share a space.

F

Feedback

Feedback is how much of a delay’s output is fed back into its input, which sets how many repeats you hear. Low feedback is a single slapback; high feedback repeats for bars and, past 100 per cent, builds until it distorts. It is the control that turns a delay from an echo into a texture.

Filter

A filter removes frequencies from a sound, most commonly the high ones, and is the main tool for shaping a synth’s brightness. Turning the cutoff down makes a sound darker; opening it makes it brighter. The sound of a synth is as much its filter as its oscillators.

Filter colour

Filter colour is the character a filter adds beyond simply removing frequencies: the drive, the saturation and the way resonance behaves as cutoff moves. Two filters at the same settings can sound different, and that difference is colour. It is why producers talk about ladder filters and state-variable filters by name.

Flanger

A flanger is a chorus with a much shorter delay and feedback, producing a metallic, jet-engine sweep. It is more dramatic than a phaser and rarely subtle. Used on a whole drum loop it is a classic transition effect.

FM

FM, frequency modulation, uses one oscillator to modulate the pitch of another at audio rate, producing harmonics that neither had on its own. It is the source of bells, electric pianos and metallic basses. Small amounts add edge; large amounts make sounds no filter could.

G

Gain staging

Gain staging is setting levels at each point in the signal chain so that nothing clips and nothing is too quiet. Peaks around minus 6 to minus 12 dB on each channel leave room for everything else. It is the unglamorous fix for a mix that sounds harsh.

Gate

A gate is the on/off signal that says a key is being held, and it is what tells an envelope to start and when to enter its release stage. On an arpeggiator or sequencer, gate length is how much of each step the note actually sounds. Short gates are staccato; long gates run together.

H

Hard sync

Hard sync forces one oscillator to restart its cycle every time a second oscillator completes one, so the first takes the second’s pitch but keeps a jagged, buzzy shape. Sweep the first oscillator’s pitch and you get the tearing lead sound of countless synth records. It is aggressive in a way filters are not.

Harmonics

Harmonics are the frequencies above a note’s fundamental that sound at the same time, at whole-number multiples of it. Which harmonics are present, and how loud, is what makes a saw sound different from a square at the same pitch. A filter works by removing some of them.

Headphones

Headphones, for production, come in closed-back, which isolate and are for recording, and open-back, which leak but give a more speaker-like picture and are for mixing. A good pair of either is enough to learn on. Check the low end on speakers before releasing anything.

Headroom

Headroom is the space between a signal’s peak level and the point where it clips. A mix with headroom can be mastered; one without has already been damaged. Leaving a few dB at the top of the master is the habit that protects it.

I

Interval

An interval is the distance between two notes, measured in semitones. A minor third is three, a major third is four, a perfect fifth is seven. Chords are built by stacking intervals, so knowing a few of them is knowing how chords work.

K

Key

A key is the scale a track is in, named by its root and its type: A minor, F major. Every chord and melody in the track draws from that scale. Knowing the key is the first thing you need to add a part to someone else’s track.

L

Latency

Latency is the delay between playing a note and hearing it, caused by the time a computer takes to process audio. Under about 10 milliseconds feels immediate; above 20 or 30 makes playing in time hard. Buffer size is the main control over it.

LFO

An LFO, a low-frequency oscillator, is an oscillator running too slowly to hear as a pitch, used instead as a control signal to move another parameter. Point it at pitch and you get vibrato; at cutoff, a wobble; at volume, tremolo. It is the simplest way to make a sound move while a note is held.

Limiter

A limiter is a compressor with a very high ratio and a ceiling it will not let a signal cross. On the master it stops clipping and raises overall loudness. Push it too hard and the track flattens and loses punch.

Loop

A loop is a section of audio or MIDI, usually one to eight bars, that repeats without a gap. Most electronic tracks begin as a loop and are built out from it. A loop that is still interesting after the eighth repeat is a track waiting to happen.

Low-pass filter

A low-pass filter lets low frequencies through and removes the ones above its cutoff. It is the default filter on almost every synth, because taking the top off a bright waveform is the most musical thing a filter can do. High-pass does the reverse and thins a sound out; band-pass keeps only a slice in the middle.

LUFS

LUFS is the unit streaming services use to measure the perceived loudness of a track. Spotify and most others normalise playback to around minus 14 LUFS, so a master pushed far louder than that is turned down and gains nothing. It is the number that ended the loudness war.

M

Major

Major is the scale and chord type that sounds bright or resolved, built with a major third (four semitones) above the root. Most people hear it as happy. It is the sound of the white keys from C to C.

Mastering

Mastering is the final processing of a finished stereo mix: EQ, compression, limiting and loudness, so that it sounds finished and plays well on every system. It is done to the whole track, not its parts. A master cannot fix a mix.

Melody

A melody is the sequence of single notes the ear follows as the tune. It moves mostly by small steps with occasional leaps, and it lives inside the scale. In a track it is the part people hum.

MIDI

MIDI is the standard that carries note information, which note, how hard, for how long, between keyboards, sequencers and instruments, without carrying any sound. A MIDI part can be played by any instrument and edited note by note after recording. It is why you can change the sound of a part after you have written it.

MIDI controller

A MIDI controller is a keyboard, pad or set of knobs that sends MIDI to the computer and makes no sound of its own. It is how you play software instruments by hand. A two-octave keyboard is enough for most producers.

Minor

Minor is the scale and chord type that sounds dark or unresolved, built with a minor third (three semitones) above the root. Most electronic music is in minor. It is the white keys from A to A.

Mix

The mix is the balance of every element in a track: levels, panning, tone and space. A good mix lets you hear each part without any of them fighting. Most of the difference between an amateur track and a professional one is the mix.

Modulation

Modulation is using one signal to change another over time, whether the source is an envelope, an LFO, a key velocity or the mod wheel. Every synth sound that moves while you hold it is being modulated by something. Learning a synth is mostly learning what can modulate what.

Modulation matrix

A modulation matrix is a grid where you choose a source, a destination and an amount, so any control signal can drive any parameter. It replaces the fixed wiring of simpler synths with routing you decide. An LFO to filter cutoff at 30 per cent is one row in the matrix.

Monitors

Monitors are speakers designed to be accurate rather than flattering, so that a mix made on them translates to other systems. Hi-fi speakers and laptop speakers hide problems that monitors show. They are the first piece of gear a mix engineer buys.

Monophonic

A monophonic synth plays one note at a time; a polyphonic one plays several. Mono is not a limitation for basses and leads, because it allows glide and makes overlapping notes retrigger cleanly. Most bass patches are mono on purpose.

MP3

MP3 is a compressed audio format that discards parts of the sound the ear is least likely to notice, making files roughly a tenth of the size. It is fine for listening and wrong for anything you will edit or master. Never bounce stems to MP3.

N

Noise

Noise is a random signal with no pitch, available on most synths as white or pink noise alongside the oscillators. A short burst of it at the start of a note adds breath or attack; a filtered wash of it is wind, a snare or a riser. It is the one source that a filter shapes completely.

Note

A note is a single pitch with a name, from A to G with sharps and flats between. On a piano roll it is one row. Twelve notes repeat in each octave.

O

Octave

An octave is the interval between a note and the next note with the same name, twelve semitones apart and double the frequency. Two notes an octave apart sound like the same note, higher and lower. It is the interval a sub oscillator sits at.

One-shot

A one-shot is a short sample that plays once from start to finish when triggered, like a single kick or snare. It is the opposite of a loop. Drum kits are made of them.

Oscillator

An oscillator is the part of a synth that generates a raw, repeating waveform at a chosen pitch. It is the source of every sound the synth makes; everything after it only shapes what the oscillator produced. On a two-oscillator synth, the second one is usually tuned against the first to thicken the sound.

P

Panning

Panning places a sound between the left and right speakers. Kick, bass and lead vocal usually sit in the centre; pads, hi-hats and doubles spread outward. It is how a mix gets width without any effects.

Patch

A patch is a complete set of synth settings that produces one sound, saved so you can recall it. The word comes from the patch cables of modular synths. A preset is a patch someone else made.

Pattern

A pattern is a short repeating sequence, usually one or a few bars, especially in pattern-based DAWs like FL Studio. Tracks are built by arranging patterns in order. A pattern is a loop with a name.

Pentatonic

A pentatonic scale is a five-note scale made by removing two notes from the major or minor scale, leaving no semitone clashes. Anything played in it fits over anything in the key. It is why so many hooks and basslines sit in it.

Phaser

A phaser passes a sound through a series of moving notches in its frequency response, producing a sweeping, swirling motion. It is subtler than a flanger and less thick than a chorus, and it suits pads and guitars. The sweep is usually driven by an LFO.

Piano roll

The piano roll is the DAW view where MIDI notes appear as bars on a grid, pitch up the side and time along the bottom. It is where most electronic music is written. It is also the best notation a producer has, because intervals are visible as distances.

Pitch

Pitch is how high or low a sound is, set by its frequency in hertz. A4 is 440 Hz by convention, and every note is a fixed ratio from it. Pitch is the thing a tuner measures.

Plugin

A plugin is an instrument or effect that runs inside a DAW, in a format like VST, AU or AAX. Nearly every synth and effect a producer uses is one. The DAW hosts it; the plugin makes the sound.

Portamento

Portamento, or glide, slides the pitch from one note to the next instead of jumping. It is what makes a monophonic lead sound like it is being bent by hand. Set the glide time short for a subtle slur and long for the classic 303 slide.

Preset

A preset is a patch that ships with a synth or a sound pack, ready to play. Presets are how most people start, and the reason most tracks sound alike. Knowing what the controls do is how you leave them behind.

Pulse width

Pulse width is how much of each cycle a square-type wave spends at its top level, measured as a percentage. At 50 per cent it is a square; narrower and it gets thinner and more nasal. Sweeping the width with an LFO, called pulse width modulation, gives a single oscillator a chorus-like movement.

Q

Quantise

Quantise snaps recorded notes to the nearest grid position, fixing timing that was played loosely. At 100 per cent it is perfectly rigid; most DAWs let you apply it partially to keep some feel. Over-quantised parts are why programmed music can sound stiff.

R

Reference track

A reference track is a finished, professionally mixed record you compare your mix against as you work. It keeps your ears honest about tone, loudness and balance. Choose one in the same genre and at a similar tempo.

Release

Release is how long a sound takes to fade to silence after you let go of the key. A short release is tight and rhythmic; a long release lets notes overlap and blur. Long releases on a pad are what make chords feel like they are melting into each other.

Resonance

Resonance boosts the frequencies right at the filter cutoff, giving the filter a peak that whistles or squelches as it moves. A little adds focus and edge; a lot turns the filter into a tone of its own. Acid basslines are a filter with the resonance high and the cutoff moving.

Reverb

Reverb simulates the reflections of a room, adding the sense of a space around a sound. A short reverb puts a sound in a room; a long one puts it in a hall or somewhere that does not exist. It is the effect most responsible for depth in a mix, and the most overused.

Ring modulation

Ring modulation multiplies two signals together, producing the sum and difference of their frequencies and removing the originals. The result is clangorous and often out of tune with the input, which is the point. It is a bell, a robot voice and a dalek.

Root

The root is the note a chord or scale is built from and named after. In C minor the root is C, and the chord sits on it. The bass usually plays it.

S

Sample

A sample is a recorded piece of audio used as a sound source: a drum hit, a vocal phrase, a bar of an old record. Sampling is playing that audio back from a keyboard or a pad at different pitches or times. Nearly all drum sounds in electronic music are samples.

Sample rate

Sample rate is how many times per second a digital system measures a sound, in kilohertz. 44.1 kHz is the CD standard and 48 kHz is common for video and most sessions. Higher rates capture frequencies no one can hear and use more disk and CPU.

Saturation

Saturation is gentle distortion, modelled on tape and tube circuits, that adds harmonics without obvious grit. It makes sounds feel warmer, denser and louder without moving the fader. It is on almost every channel of most professional mixes, usually in small amounts.

Sawtooth wave

A sawtooth ramps steadily up and then drops instantly, and it contains every harmonic, each quieter than the last. It is the brightest and richest of the basic shapes, which makes it the starting point for most leads, pads and strings. Nearly every filter sweep you have heard was a sawtooth being opened up.

Scale

A scale is the set of notes a piece uses, chosen from the twelve, in a fixed pattern of steps from a root. Stay inside it and nothing sounds wrong. Major and natural minor cover most tracks.

Semitone

A semitone is the smallest step between two notes in Western music, one key to the next on a keyboard including the black ones. Twelve of them make an octave. Every interval is a count of semitones.

Send

A send takes a copy of a channel’s signal and routes it to an effect on a bus, at an amount you set. Several channels can share one reverb this way instead of each carrying its own. It is more efficient and it glues the parts into the same space.

Sequencer

A sequencer plays back a stored pattern of notes, in time, on its own. Unlike an arpeggiator it plays what was programmed rather than what is being held. Every DAW is a sequencer at heart.

Sidechain

Sidechain compression uses one signal, usually the kick, to trigger compression on another, usually the bass or a pad, so the second ducks each time the first hits. It keeps the low end clean and produces the pumping sound of most dance music. It is the reason the pad breathes in time with the kick.

Sine wave

A sine wave is the simplest waveform, a single pure frequency with no harmonics at all. It sounds soft and round, and on its own it is a flute, a sub bass or a test tone. Because it has nothing to filter, it is the one shape a filter cannot change.

Square wave

A square wave switches between two levels and holds each for half the cycle, and it contains only the odd harmonics. It sounds hollow and woody, closer to a clarinet than a string. It is the classic chiptune and video-game tone.

Stem

A stem is one part of a track exported as its own audio file, drums, bass, vocals, synths, so it can be mixed or remixed separately. Remixers work from stems. Bouncing stems is the last step before handing a track to a mix engineer.

Step sequencer

A step sequencer divides a bar into a fixed number of steps, usually sixteen, and lets you switch each one on or off per sound. It is the fastest way to program drums and the interface of every classic drum machine. The grid in most DAW drum editors is one.

Stereo width

Stereo width is how far a mix or a sound extends across the left and right channels. Wide sounds feel big; narrow sounds feel focused. Low frequencies are kept narrow because wide bass sounds weak and translates badly.

Sub oscillator

A sub oscillator is an extra oscillator locked one or two octaves below the main one, usually a sine or square, added for low-end weight. It gives a lead or bass a foundation without changing its character. Nearly every bass patch has one.

Supersaw

A supersaw is a stack of detuned sawtooth oscillators mixed into one sound, named after the Super Saw waveform on Roland’s JP-8000 from 1997. It is the wide, bright lead sound of trance and most dance music since. It is unison, applied to a saw.

Sustain

Sustain is the level an envelope settles at while a key is held, after the attack and decay have finished. It is a level, not a time, which is the thing that confuses most people about ADSR. Turn it down and every note becomes a pluck no matter how long you hold it.

Swing

Swing delays every second sixteenth (or eighth) note by a set amount, turning a straight grid into a shuffle. Most DAWs express it as a percentage, where 50 is straight and the high 50s to low 60s is a noticeable groove. It is the first thing to try when a beat feels stiff.

Syncopation

Syncopation is placing an accent where the ear does not expect it, off the beat rather than on it. A bassline that hits between the kicks is syncopated, and that offset is a large part of what makes a groove. Without it a rhythm marches.

T

Tempo

Tempo is the speed of a track, measured in beats per minute. House sits around 124 BPM, drum and bass around 174, and a trap beat at 140 is usually felt at 70. It is the first thing set in a new project.

Timbre

Timbre is the character of a sound that is not its pitch or its loudness, the thing that makes a piano and a guitar playing the same note sound different. In synthesis it is what you are shaping with the waveform, the filter and the envelopes. When someone says a sound is bright, warm or hollow, they are describing timbre.

Time signature

A time signature says how many beats are in a bar and what note value each beat is, written as one number over another. 4/4 is four quarter-note beats per bar and is nearly universal in electronic music. 3/4 is a waltz; 6/8 has a rolling, two-group feel.

Transpose

To transpose is to shift every note of a part up or down by the same interval, changing the key without changing the music. A DAW does it in one click. It is why you can write everything on the white keys and fix the key later.

Triad

A triad is a three-note chord: a root, a third and a fifth. Major triads have a major third, minor triads a minor third. They are the chords under most songs and the first ones to learn.

Triangle wave

A triangle wave rises and falls in straight lines, and it has only odd harmonics that fade quickly. It is a step brighter than a sine and still soft, which makes it a good sub or a mellow lead. The NES used its triangle channel for basslines, which is why old game music has that soft, rounded low end.

U

Unison

Unison stacks several copies of the same oscillator on one note, each slightly detuned and often spread across the stereo field. It is how one oscillator becomes a wall. Most software synths have a unison count control, and the supersaw is the famous result.

V

Velocity

Velocity is how hard a key was struck, sent by a keyboard as a number from 1 to 127. Route it to volume and playing harder is louder; route it to filter cutoff and playing harder is brighter. It is the easiest way to make a programmed part sound played.

Voice

A voice is one complete signal path through a synth, the oscillators, filter and envelopes needed to play a single note. A synth with eight voices can hold an eight-note chord. Run out of voices and the oldest note cuts off.

W

WAV

WAV is an uncompressed audio format that stores the exact samples with no loss. It is the format for stems, masters and anything you will process further. The files are large, which is the only reason MP3 exists.

Waveform

A waveform is the shape one cycle of a sound takes, drawn as a line: sine, triangle, sawtooth, square. The shape decides which harmonics are present, so it decides the basic character of the tone before any filter touches it. Switching an oscillator from sine to sawtooth is the largest change you can make with one control.

Wavetable

A wavetable is a stored set of single-cycle waveforms that an oscillator can scan through, morphing from one shape to the next. It lets one oscillator move between timbres while a note is held, which a fixed waveform cannot do. Most modern software synths are wavetable synths.

Common questions

What are some key terms used in music production?

The terms a new producer meets first are oscillator, envelope, filter, LFO, MIDI, DAW, sample, loop, tempo, bar, EQ, compressor and reverb. They cover the synth, the sequencer and the mix, which is the whole path from an idea to a finished file. Every one of them is defined above.

What are the 5 basic fundamentals in music production?

There is no official list of five, but most courses converge on the same areas: sound design, which is making the sounds; music theory, which is choosing the notes; arrangement, which is building a track out of sections; mixing, which is balancing the parts; and mastering, which is finishing the file. Every term in those areas is defined above. The first two are where most people start, because they are the ones you can hear yourself improve at.

Every term on this page is something you can hear. A definition tells you what a control is called; turning it while a note plays tells you what it does, and only the second one sticks. Read the entry, then go and find the control.