Why Learning Music Theory Will Transform Your Production Game

Diving deep into the transformative power of sound libraries and VSTs, this episode explores how these tools can revolutionize your music production—but only when built on a solid foundation of musical knowledge. I share personal insights from my journey from creating my first EP "Authentically Me" during the pandemic to my current production process, highlighting how continuous learning dramatically improved my results.

Sound libraries offer endless creative possibilities, from realistic bass slides to authentic violin techniques, but they can't replace understanding how melody, rhythm, and harmony function together. Even with powerful chord plugins and preset packs, producers need fundamental theory knowledge to make informed musical choices. This episode emphasizes that VSTs should enhance, not substitute for, your musical expertise.

My own production evolution demonstrates how learning basic audio engineering concepts transformed my workflow. Where I once struggled with muddy mixes and frequency masking, I can now quickly apply EQ, compression, and other processing during recording to create clearer, more cohesive rough mixes. This technical knowledge allows me to shape better sounds from the start, whether working with stock sounds or third-party libraries.

The current production landscape demands more from creators—higher resolution outputs, powerful low-end impact, and professional polish—but this doesn't mean you need to buy every plugin available. Take time to master what you already have before expanding your collection. Remember that growth takes time; you won't learn everything in one day. Start where you are, regardless of age or experience, and trust that consistent effort will lead to remarkable improvement. Your musical journey is uniquely yours—embrace it and keep learning!

Ready to transform your production process? Subscribe to Teach One Tuesday for more insights into music production techniques and mindset strategies that will help you create with greater confidence and clarity.

The Toolkit for musicianship mastery: http://bit.ly/3k5v9Vi 

Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645

Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com

Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king

The Sonic Kingship Art: https://www.rhuffmusic.com/post/it-s-a-big-music-industry-so-where-do-i-fit-in

The Toni King Experience

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Sound Libraries Introduction
• 1:56 Music Knowledge Beyond VSTs
• 4:10 Learning From My First EP
• 5:27 Taking Time With Your Sounds
• 8:01 Engineering Basics and Continued Growth
• 10:21 Start Your Journey Where You Are

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast. Man, I'm so excited to continue on with our series revealing the secrets, techniques and different tools that's used to create some great music. Before we get into that, let's get into that great theme music family. All right, all right, welcome back everyone to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast. I want to dive back into sound libraries, but this time I just want to touch on just how creative you guys can be with the sound libraries and um the ability to manipulate um tone and and EQ and just, uh, many different parameters that's given um different techniques, you know um that are used. For instance, a bass player with a slide. You know there are different things um that they add so that, so that it sounds, you know real and and and if you're dealing with strings for an orchestra, then the different techniques that uh, uh, violin and viola um players use. That all that is inside the vst, of course, and so, um, I'm very excited to continue to talk about sound libraries because I think that it opens up a whole new world, a whole new world of possibilities and creativity. Now what I want to say, though, before I dive too much into this is that it's a good idea to have a level of understanding of music. The VSTs themselves will not take the place of you having knowledge and understanding as it pertains to the musical creative process. Yes, they have VSTs and sound libraries and packs, and, and you know plugins for chords. They have libraries and packs and all, and, and you know plugins for chords. They have all this stuff for you that you know and it does a lot for you, which is fantastic. I think it's great. But at the same time, you still need to have an understanding as to how instruments and melody and rhythm, um, how they all fit together. Just you know, just like an engineer needs to know how a song needs to be cohesive and what fits where and how to pan and where to compress. You need to have an understanding of music itself. So I still encourage, as I've said in my past episodes, I still encourage people to take some time to learn some basic theory, because it will enable you to really expand and enable you to really realize the possibilities that you have. The VSTs just adds to what you already have or what you already know, At least it should. It should do that All right, and so it's it really.

Speaker 1: 3:22

For me, it's so exciting to dive into sounds. I mean, even without any other sound libraries I have, I have Logic is what is a DAW that I use, and Logic, of course, as some of you already know, comes with a lot of sounds, and there are a lot of times where I use sounds right within the DAW, even though I have complete and have other things. I can use a lot of sounds from here and it sounds fantastic. Now, what adds to that is that I am also an engineer, audio engineer, and so I am able to manipulate, I'm able to create the, the atmosphere, if you will, or the right sound textures, um, to make my recording process, um, sound so much better.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Now, when I've recorded my first ep authentically me, I did not know these things. I kind of things were just raw, um, it was hard to hear because I didn't know really how to set things in motion. This was happening around, um, goodness gracious, around the pandemic. Yeah, around the pandemic is when all this was happening and I was just learning and I just wanted to get my first project done. I knew the basics, but there was so much more to learn and even still, there's so much more to learn now, but learning engineering and learning about compression and EQ and saturation and burp and delay, and you know all and and all the amazing plugins and automation and all this stuff has really helped me, uh, during the recording phase of my process and also, and then now, as an engineer, you know, to really bring my music together. And so I'll say all that to say a couple of things Don't neglect your education, you learning basic theory. Also, you taking some taking the time with these sound libraries, you taking the time to really just sift through and listen to these sounds and and see what you like and see what you don't like.

Speaker 1: 5:22

I I will tell you that there are many times during the recording phase where I will uh, reach for an eq quick, fast, in a hurry, if something's too bright, if something is too muddy, uh, if I need to make room for the vocals in the mids, you know I'll reach for eq quick and I will do some what I call rough mixing, uh, so that I can. So I said I said I can create the, uh, the layers, and I can create the atmosphere that I need to be able to record, make sure that I'm able to hear, make sure that, uh, um, I'm able to hear vocally. That was another mistake that I made when I created my first project, even though it sounds, I had a great guy engine uh, I had a great guy mix and master myself back then but, um, the mistake I made is, is not, you know, I wasn't able to hear there were, there were things that were, they were masking each other. It was just so much going on. So so to say all that, to say that you know, um, but I continued to learn, continue to grow, and I took time, um, but I continue to learn, continue to grow, and I took time. I took the time to continue to further my education and sharpening my, my skills and my tools. So today, my process is so much easier, and, and and, and I just say, and that's just, uh, me taking time with my plugins and I need to take more time with it. I still need to take even more time to continue to learn, because there's so much to learn in one plugin. It's, it's, it's crazy, and so, um, but the possibilities of the possibilities are literally endless. Take time with your sounds, take time with your strings, your, your percussion, and today, in today's music, percussion is so important.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Uh, on the on the mixing and mastering side, I mean, people want stuff cranking. I mean they want their, their bass and bass, drum and bass coming through your chest. You know, that's just where we are now. And and there's a loudness war at one point. Um, we didn't have the loudness war we were, we were exporting or not, excuse me, we were bouncing at 24 bit and 41. That's where we were bouncing at, and now we are bouncing at higher levels, at 32, 48 and above. And all that for more clarity and making sure that we are having. You know, the music is loud and people can feel it, you know. So it's a different, it's a different world, it's a different time.

Speaker 1: 7:41

But, um, but so I want you to uh to, but I want you to know everything is at your disposal and, um, I want you to to really take time to, uh to to get to know what you have. Don't rush to something else, don't feel like, and also don't feel like you need to buy everything because there's so many libraries out there. Um, don't feel like you have to buy everything. Buy what you need and spend time, uh, spend time learning that you know. And and and again, uh, for for others, I've already mentioned learning some basic theory, but I will also urge you to learn some basic audio engineering. I mean, at least as it pertains to compression and EQ, just some basic things.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Um, I can't tell you how much this has changed my process, um, the clarity that I have, um, and how I'm able to, just, you know, get things done quicker and it's just, it's phenomenal. And so even my covers that I'm doing now do some covers on my channel, the Tony King experience, where I'm covering some songs, doing my own version, I create a rough mix for those songs. I don't do a full mix, but a rough mix, but enough that it sounds good and cohesive and together, and so that people can listen to it and enjoy it. And so, um, I wanted to drop this on you because it's it's very important to be in the mindset of of, uh, of continuing to learn and to grow and to read right, and and and take your time with these things. I'm not telling you to, um, you know, try to cram and learn everything all in one day. You're not going to learn everything all in one day. It's going to take time and um, and and as you do this, you will thank yourself as you, as you continue to mature in your process as a songwriter, as a music producer, as an audio engineer. So many amazing things, man. So I look at my life as a testament to continued learning. And, man, from where I started to where I am now, I have grown so much and I want you to experience the very same thing.

Speaker 1: 9:51

But you have to start somewhere, and I feel like in this moment, someone needs to hear this Start somewhere. Don't feel like you need to do everything all at once. It's not too late. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter. Start where you are and go forth and do what you need to do and you will be where you want to be. And don't listen to negative voices, whether it's your own or whether it's outside voices. Listen to the part of you that knows you can accomplish anything you set your mind to All right. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that by your mindset. Thanks so much, tony King out you.