 Right, so before you produce, arrange, mix, master and get into all the music technology, there are few things you definitely need to know. You need to really know your music theory, that's the backbone of music. Scales, chords, meter, beat subdivisions, accents, phrasing, of course, reading is very important as well. You need to be able to perform the song which you are about to produce in your DAW as a one-person show on your polyphonic instrument with vocals. If you're recording a drum, a guitar, a bass, a tabla or a mridangam, you definitely need to know the workings of that instrument. You need to know what are the parts of the instrument and then you learn how to mic it. You might hate me for this, but a very important point, learn how to sing. Don't just learn your DAW software, your hardware and all those settings. What if there are some technical glitches, software and hardware? What about electrical? What about acoustical? So be a bit more street smart with your tech and don't just only know the DAW.