Charlie Puth's 5 Tips For Producing #1 HITS | Studio Deep Dive

Learn from Charlie Puth, Kygo, Ryan Tedder, H.E.R., Louis Bell, Tainy, and more.

In this video, songwriter Benny Romalis goes through Charlie Puth's production process, breaking it down in 5 essential tips.

00:00 Intro
00:51 Play One Note At A Time
07:34 Layer Sounds: Synth + Human
11:25 Delay As A Spreader
14:09 Texture & Movement
18:26 Move It Off The Grid

[lusiii]

something else that i noticed is how charlie is saying very often "that thing that benny told me about", goes to show having friends or mentors that can teach you interesting things is also something really important to make cool music like he does, so thank you so much for this video!!

[Nightclubxx]

bless your heart charlie for producing magic in pro tools

[thelatestson]

If you write every melody like that and don't end up with a #1 track, you will finally end up in existential crisis.

[Campusanis]

During that first tip, I genuinely thought this was a comedy video making fun of producers.

[alastairgames_]

Bro hates MIDI bc he's producing in Pro Tools 😂

[zakaroonetwork]

8:05 What a Trip; his Natural Voice has so many Harmonics right out of his face. 🎉

[zakaroonetwork]

Charley Puth doesn’t even need a Studio. I want to see him record a Hit Song on His laptop in the Bathroom at the Airport, then finish the Final Mix on the Plane Ride.

[evanseesred]

One tip that is not explicitly said but is kind of a bonus tip: sing your melodies first. Then find them on the keyboard.

I find that when I put my hands on the keyboard, i consistently go back to the same patterns, the same shapes, etc. But when I’m just singing and imagining it in my head, it’s pure and unaffected by my interaction with an instrument and I can kind of intuit what’s musical and appealing about a phrase before playing it on a keyboard.

[JakeAdkinsOfficial]

I like how Charlie seems pretty down to earth. He's like "idk how you're supposed to do it, but this is what I do" and honestly, that's pretty encouraging. When you can get past the idea that there's special gear or plugins or industry secrets to make good music, you can start to lean on the fact that its ultimately going to be the heart and quality of the song itself that determines its success.

At least, I think so. -Me, someone with no industry credits whatsoever.

[scottlarock]

Good video. Thank you.
I also want to throw out there for anybody that's using OVOX, remember you can use the MIDI out to use your voice to play any of your instruments.
Even if you don't want to create a dominant instrument layer with it, you can use it to have like a backing sound to your vocal similar to what Charlie did here.

[Solanaar]

The entire first part is actually a concept. But he seems to be unaware of it so he tries to describe it.
It's what you could call "mindful production". What do I mean by that? It means that you should try to be very conscious and deliberate about EVERYTHING. This helps you to evaluate every decision and not fall into the trap of doing something the same way every time out of habit, which would lead to uninspiring and boring tracks. He just explained it poorly by talking about weird dogmas. But there's no one way to be mindful of your production, this is just HIS WAY. Rendering out things is a great way because it automatically forces you to be mindful and helps you to move forwards instead of second guessing yourself, the ultimate killer of creativity. There are actually a lot of tools to achieve this, btw. It's a really fascinating field of psychology

[CrypticSoundFX]

Charlie is really talented and all, I've listened to his stuff since See You Again and I respect him a bunch. But playing each note and then bouncing to audio?? I've also heard some pretty bad things about producing in PT and now I know that Charlie uses it, mad respect for him for that loll

[mikespink]

If you always have a stereo audio track under your Software Instrument Track - instead of 'Committing' the MIDI to Audio you can just select what you want to commit and drag the MIDI on to the Audio track ... job done

[afpwfarmer]

Great to see it's still all about musical touch and feel even for one of the best producers out there

[BrianFunkMusic]

Benny! Great to see you here! Nice breakdown!!

[worshipchristconsciousness]

Im a newbie starting producing music as a hobby and this is truly inspiring ❤

[mole]

How to be a top music producer:

1. Have a killer voice.
2. Have a perfect pitch.
3. Be a spectaular pianist.
4. Cut all notes separately like a psychopath.

[riXer]

That was the most funny thing ever… yesterday my boss asked why it took me so long to finalize the report but then I showed him my new process.
I typed every letter in the alphabet separately as often I gonna need them and printed everything. Then I took the scissors and cut…

[VicTheMonster]

20/20

10/10 for Charlie's Gems
and
10/10 for the Breakdown!

[hxnnx.]

I love how he takes his time to explain it perfectly to the world