If you’re passionate about music and want to venture into music production, these free online music production courses will be of great benefit.
Even if you are on a budget or still honing your talent in music, as long as you can afford the basic music equipment, these online courses will help you get prepared.
And that’s not all. These courses are cheap, efficient, and practical, and you don’t need to borrow money from the bank or anyone to enroll in them.
So, if free online music production courses for free is what you’re looking for, but haven’t seen any or are not sure where to start, we have compiled this detailed guide to help you. However, some of these courses might not actually be “courses” per-se, but you can still learn music production/audio engineering for free.
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10 Free Online Music Production Courses
1. Coursera – Music Production Specialization
The music production specialization course is offered by Coursera. Coursera partnered with Berklee College of music to put together this reputable course.
Berklee College of music is a renowned music college that has taught legends such as John Mayer, Steven Tyler, Quincy Jones, Steve Vai, Mike Portnoy, Robert Moog, and many others.
Course Structure
In this course, you learn about the music production process that includes recording, editing, and mixing—and the tools available to you to create contemporary music on your computer.
This course equips music enthusiasts or those into music with the knowledge and tools they need to professionally record and produce music. They are also taught the inner workings of being a successful producer, like developing an identity, vision, and intention as an artist/producer.
Recently, the introduction of high-quality-low-cost software and hardware has made tools for music production available to all and sundry. Albums can now be made from the comfort of one’s bedroom for the low cost of a few pieces of gear and a software package.
However, the knowledge, dedication, and creativity needed to produce music are what this course teaches. There are a lot of tools you will need to use for any kind of music you are making. Each lesson of this course loosely follows the music production process of recording, editing, and mixing and will show a separate set of music production tools.
By the end of this course, you will learn:
- how the physics of sound works
- Recording techniques, and
- how to process and manipulate effects
- And lots more.
More about the course
The course is taught using Pro Tools, one of the best industry-standard DAW for most professional studio applications. Pro Tools is what you need if you want to work in professional studios across the world.
The final assessment will require the completion of a 4-week capstone where a project will be completed from the pre-production stage through the recording, mixing, and mastering stages.
Though the course actually costs around $35 USD per month to stay enrolled, it is still a free course because of the 7-day free trial which provides you full access to all of the courses in the specialization.
The 7 days free trial enables you to watch as many lectures, try assignments, participate in discussion forums, and more.
We highly recommend this course as one of the best free online music production courses in 2023.
Click here to visit the Music Production Specialization page.
2. Point Blank Music SChool’s Free Courses
Online courses offered by Point Blank have put out graduates like Claude VonStroke, Goldie, Plastician, Pete Tong, and so many more.
I’m gonna make no bones about it as one of the “free courses” designed to give you a free teaser of the school. The courses are both free and paid.
Among the things this course teaches are the basics of the nature of sound and how we perceive it, and the components necessary to record audio into a computer. In a music production process, it is important to understand the devices that sound must travel through.
The process of editing sounds is also included. With the contemporary editing tool, Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), assets of a musical project can be stored and organized.
After completing the free online course, you will be equipped with a lot of music industry wisdom.
You’ll also receive free teasers of these award-winning courses:
- (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering Degree
- Music Production Master Diploma
- Complete Electronic Music Composition
- Complete Ableton Live
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3. Noiselab’s Free Courses
Noiselab is one of the new providers of online music production courses, with a mission to be the very best Ableton Live music production course in the world.
This course explores the basic functionality of both hardware and software mixing boards, such as mute, volume, pan, solo, busses, inserts, sends, and submixes. The music-mixing process includes a lot of tools than what the mixing board provides on its own.
Noiselab has had courses offered by Grammy-winning producer, Stint (Sabrina Claudio, Gallant, MØ, Train, Carly Rae Jepsen).
There are a couple of cool free courses, like the “Electronic Music Production Level 1″ and “In The Studio With Stint” course. However, the main course is paid for.
Noiselab’s “Electronic Music Production (Level 1)”
In this free course, you’ll learn Ableton Live’s interface and its many preference settings. You will also understand how to use Live’s browser to quickly sample sounds in your tracks without having to spend time inefficiently searching your computer. They also discuss the build blocks of Live – clips. There are also focussed tutorials.
4. Skillshare
Skillshare is another online learning platform where you can take up a free online music production course.
Fortunately, there is a 2-month ‘all access’ pass that students can take advantage of and take as many of their courses as humanly possible in 60 days. There are over 2,200 music-related courses on skillshare; they include:
- Music Production
- Music Composition
- Music theory
- Mixing & mastering
- Music Marketing
5. Learn How To Mix Music With Young Guru
One of the best free ‘music production’ courses in skillshare that we highly recommend is the Young Guru’s “Learn How To Mix” course. It is the highest-ranking and most popular course for music production on Skillshare designed to fit the needs of the ‘intermediate’ level producer. It is still a must-watch for producers of all experience levels.
Throughout his career, Young Guru is one of the most renowned recording and mixing engineers in music today who have earned a great reputation. He has worked with artists such as Jay-Z, Beyonce, Drake, and Kanye West, and has received several Grammy nominations for his works and collaborations.
Presently, Guru offers his vast amounts of industry knowledge, skills, and secrets through several Skillshare courses.
Course structure
This online class is made up of four sections, and each session includes exclusive videos and materials broken up into the following lessons:
- Organizing a Mix – This entails dealing with the fundamental elements of a DIY mix, such as the DAW, tracks, and controls, as well as how to best arrange all of the audio data and tagging tools. How to set up levels so they correspond to the artist’s intended sound for the song.Adding Effects – how to work with basic effects like phasers, enhancers, reverb, and delays, as well as create negative space or blend/fade where appropriate
- Tonal Balance – This is about how to recognize when the perfect tonal balance has been achieved
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6. Alison’s Music Production Courses
Alison offers free online music production courses on a variety of topics.
When you Sign up On Aseveralget access to a number of modules from the Diploma in Music Theory, Melody and Harmony, and Music Producer Masterclass: Making Electronic Music.
Their Music Producer Masterclass course focuses on composing and mastering your own music in FL Studio. Lots of other content is available to teach you the traditional Irish fiddle and even soundtrack composition scores.
All of Alison’s courses are free and come with paid benefits such as official certificates. This can be added to your resume.
7. Syntorial (Learn Synthesis In A Video Game Format)
Syntorial is one of the best foundational courses in music production for anyone looking to truly master synthesis. It combines theory, learning, and the practical side of synthesis while breaking down complex tasks into a series of easy and fun steps. You are also given access to the tools needed to master sound design.
Their free trial/demo is fairly extensive and gives you access to the first 22 (out of 199) Essential Lessons, 4-5 videos from each additional Lesson Pack with No time limit
Syntorial is a video game-like training software that teaches how to program synth patches by ear.
8. Audible: 30-Day Free Trial (Get 2 Free Audiobooks)
Audible contains a good range of quality audiobooks to improve your music production skill, music theory, mixing & mastering, and more. In Audible, you own your audiobooks, and your books are yours to keep, even if you cancel. You can also swap an audiobook for any reason and exchange any book, at any time. There are up to 80% off selected audiobooks, unlimited listening to original podcasts for members, free Audio Shows, exclusive deals throughout the month, and online or offline listening features.
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9. Education & Bass Online
Education & Bass Online content is a free online music production course best suited for the modern bass music producer. This is because a large portion of the course content focuses on UK drum and bass and dubstep.
Course Structure
The free area and the paid members are the two components of the site. There is lots of free content on their platform that explains the basics of what the course will be all about.
The lectures are also delivered by some of the most prominent figures in music, such as Leon Switch, Nurve, Nomine/Outrage, Occult, LSN, and DubApe to name a few.
There are a handful of courses that explore some popular, paid VSTs such as Omnisphere, Massive, and Serum. Some other course content is a good balance of exploring native plugins focused mostly (on Logic & Cubase, and Ableton).
In this course, you will learn:
- how Leon Switch creates beautifully textured synth leads in Ableton’s Analog
- how to program Nurse’s signature mid-bass growls in Serum
- Being blown away by Cocktail Party Effect S ‘no-input mixer hardware technique’
10. Pro Tools Basics
The Pro Tools Basics course by Coursera is a 4-week course that will give you an introductory look into the world of Pro Tools and Avid Pro Tools first
Producing music is an incredibly creative process, therefore it’s essential to know the tools needed to transmit the musical ideas in your head into the DAW in an uninhibited and creative way.
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Conclusion
Music production courses focus on recording, editing, and mixing—and the tools available to you to create contemporary music on your computer.
These courses equip music enthusiasts or those into music with the knowledge and tools they need to professionally record and produce music. They are also taught the inner workings of being a successful producer, like developing an identity, vision, and intention as an artist/producer etc. They are cheap, efficient, and practical, and you don’t need to borrow money from the bank or anyone to enroll them.
Even if you are on a budget or still honing your talent in music, as long as you can afford the basic music equipment, these online courses will help you get prepared.
If you have any questions about online music production courses, let us know in the comments below
FAQs on Free Online Music Production Courses
The time it will take to complete a Music and Sound Production course depends on the type of program you pursue. Music production certificates are usually for three-six months, and the duration of diploma programs typically ranges from one-two year. At the same time, a degree course duration can go up to three years
The best free online music production courses include:
Coursera – Music production specialization
Point Blank music school’s free courses
Noiselab’s free courses
Skillshare
Learn How To Mix Music With Young Guru
Alison’s music production courses
Syntorial (learn synthesis in a video game format)
Audible: 30-day free trial (Get 2 free audiobooks)
Education & Bass online
Pro Tools Basics
If you want to perfect music production to the point where you can produce music at a professional grade often takes 4-6 years. Your daily work hours and any prior experience or talents that may be applicable will determine how long it takes.
Learning music production is challenging in that there are several elements to grasp, but if you like creating music, it’s not at all difficult.
Through music production, you have the opportunity to interpret music in new ways, which may lead to some fairly powerful outcomes. It’s a line of work. If you’ve decided that performing isn’t for you but still want to be involved with music, sound engineering is a great option.
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