How To — music production

Producers use "acapella" and "stems" interchangeably all the time. They're not the same thing. Knowing the difference saves you from buying the wrong thing, asking for the wrong files, or getting confused when someone sends you a session. The Simple Difference Acapella A single audio file containing only the vocal performance. No instruments, no drums, no effects buses. Just the voice. Stems A set of audio files that together make up the full song. Typically: vocals, drums, bass, synths/keys, FX. Each stem is a submix of related tracks. An acapella is one stem. Stems are the full breakdown. When someone...

You sampled a song in your beat. It sounds incredible. But can you actually release it? Sample clearance is the legal process of getting permission to use someone else's recording in your music. Skip it and you risk takedowns, lawsuits, and losing all the revenue from your release. Here's how it actually works. What Needs to Be Cleared? When you sample a song, you're using two separate copyrights: Copyright Who Owns It What You Need Master recording Usually the record label Master use license (permission to use the actual recording) Composition (song) The songwriter/publisher Publishing clearance (permission to use the...

A single vocal track sounds solo. A layered vocal sounds like a record. The difference between amateur and professional vocal production often comes down to how the vocals are stacked, blended, and spread across the stereo field. Here's how to layer vocals effectively, whether you're working with your own recordings or acapellas from a marketplace. The 6 Types of Vocal Layers 1. Doubles (The Foundation) A double is a second recording of the same vocal line performed as closely as possible to the original. The natural micro-variations in timing and pitch between takes create thickness that no plugin can replicate....

EQ is where most vocal mixes are won or lost. Get it right and the vocal sits perfectly in the track. Get it wrong and it either sounds muddy, harsh, thin, or buried. This cheat sheet breaks down every frequency range that matters for vocals, what to cut, what to boost, and how to adapt for different genres. The Vocal Frequency Ranges Frequency What Lives Here Action Why 20-80 Hz Rumble, handling noise Cut (high-pass filter) Nothing useful here. Cut it to clean up low-end mud. 80-200 Hz Body, warmth, chest resonance Careful Too much = muddy. Too little =...

You found the perfect acapella but it's in the wrong key. Or you want to push a vocal up for energy. Or you want that deep, pitched-down vocal effect that's all over modern music. All of these require pitch shifting. Pitch shifting vocals is one of the most common production tasks, but doing it wrong makes vocals sound robotic, chipmunky, or just plain bad. Here's how to do it right in any DAW. Basic Pitch Shifting: Transposing the Vocal The simplest form of pitch shifting is transposing: moving the entire vocal up or down by a set number of semitones....

Not every producer has a budget for vocals. Whether you're just starting out, experimenting with a new genre, or working on a non-commercial project, free acapellas are a solid starting point. But "free" comes with trade-offs. Quality varies. Licensing is often unclear. And you'll spend more time searching than producing. Here are the 10 best places to find free acapellas in 2026, ranked by quality and reliability. 1. Looperman The biggest free sample community online. Producers and vocalists upload loops, one-shots, and acapellas for anyone to download. The acapella section has thousands of vocals across every genre. Pros Completely free...