Hi mate, welcome to the world of producing - long road ahead
This is a very relative set of questions, and each person will give you different answer depending on how they personally perceive the music industry. I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability by my own standard.
Q:
what features does a skilled producer possess?
A: This is THE most relative question of which you will receive many different answers. For me, there is a priority list of what you need in order to be a "skilled" producer. Included this list is knowledge of music theory, sound engineering (mixing/mastering) etc. HOWEVER, these things (although important) are not highest in my list of priorities. The most important features
in my opinion is dedication, perseverance, patience, motivation and ambition. You might not know a lot about music theory or sound engineering - but you can learn. The features listed in bold are
not things you can learn, they are things you must already possess and all producers, skilled or amateur, require these.
Q:
Do I need to know who a lot of various/obscure music for sampling/inspiration?
A: No. Producers draw inspiration from infinite sources, not just music. I, personally, get inspired by mood an emotion. If it's a bright summers day and I'm feeling good I'll (ironically) lock myself in a dark room and producer a feel-good, upbeat track.
If you're curious about samples - there are millions of free samples out there for you to use. Search some key words like "House Samples" or "Trap Samples" into google or youtube, maybe add the tag "Free" and see what you get. I can suggest some if you'd like.
Q:
Does a skilled producer listen to all genres?
A: Depends on the person. I listen to
all genres of House music, I also listen to lots of Drum and Bass, Hip Hop, R&B, Trap, Glitch, Dubstep, Indie, Rock and many more genres because I enjoy them all. Some of these inspire/influence my music, others do not. Some producers that are expert in their craft may
only listen to music similar to that of which they create. I'm not one of those people. There are no boundries to what you can and can't listen too, it doesn't have to affect your production or equally could completely inspire you!
Q:
How much time does a typical producer listen to records?
A: This is entirely up to you. Listening to lots of music will help you learn and become motivated to produce. When I'm making a track, I often listen to a handful of tracks that are similar to what I want to create to learn methods and copy styles used in the songs that help define that genre. For example; in Future House, drops often start with and include reverse bass notes, double kicks, breaks in the hats, bursts of white noise on new segments and fast offbeat patterns. Listening to music is like doing your homework. Spend as much time as you'd like!
Q:
What is ear training?
A: Simply being able to identify notes by ear, identify instruments and features within compositions like taking a cake apart to see what ingredients are used to make it. If you're bad at this; don't worry - so was I. You will learn
naturally over time, you don't need to dedicate time JUST for ear training, but instead when you listen to music in future make an effort to listen more closely, try to pick out what instruments are playing and think about how you could mimic that in your production software.
Q:
Do producers play all the instruments?
A: Not at all, but it certainly helps. I, personally, do not play any instruments. I have piano/guitar lessons when I was younger but never pursued them. Today I have only a basic knowledge of piano. Almost every single instrument in the world can be sampled somewhere on the internet using patches for plugins or downloadable sound samples and manipulated into compositions using DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation; FLStudio, Ableton, etc)
Q:
Do I need to know music theory?
A: No, but again, it certainly helps a lot. You do not need to go to school/college/university or have qualifications in music to make music. When I started out, I knew
nothing about music. This is something else you learn as you go along, but knowing the basics is still important. You can start by youtubing "Circle of Fifths" "Piano Scales" and related subjects to get you started. It's a lot simpler once you get started.
Q:
How long until I can start making a living off of beats?
A: Depends, you could be a natural and get noticed quite early - or it could take years. I personally have been producing now for around 2-3 years and I don't expect to be making any money myself for another 5 or so years, but I'm okay with that. If you are in it purely for the money then this isn't the right line of work for you - it takes time and dedication and you need to really love what you do.
I hope these answers were helpful; please feel free to fire anything else my way
Good luck!
EDIT: Get on youtube and search for "SeamlessR" - he does, by far,
THE most amazing tutorials ever. He does a lot of videos talking about the industry, labels, self promoting and other helpful thought-provoking things and I think you will really benefit from this. Also, if you have the money to splash out, he also gives 1-on-1 lessons for about $75 USD/hour.
