New to the Producing Game...Give my first song a listen?!

[larrymcgone1]

I've only been In the music game for about 7 months now. Started off with a simple Idea, that I could go somewhere with music. So I bought some crap Mixer and started djing and learning the basic's of everything there is to do with music and music production. Now I'm on the second chapter and hopefully i'll go far with it. This is literally my 5th day to sit down and work with ableton on a constant level, and this is what got. I know it's pretty shitty, not too much structure to it, but I didn't want to start over so I just kept with it lol and I thought I'd share my first song. Give it a listen and let me know how I could improve. Just don't be too harsh :eek:

| Mac Pro 13 | KS4 | MF | Trigger Finger | M-Audio 02 | TMa-1 |

[Maxiboy]

The thing that stands out to me is the volume levels are all over the shop so what it needs is some mastering (often refered to as normalizing in most DAW's) stage to even them out. I say this because when I started doing mixed tapes this was a problem for me. I worked on it, read all the tips & articles on this site and now I keep my levels tidy. After getting some basic mastering down you then learn to listen with this in mind and learn to record everything with better levels from the start. Doing that means the mastering stage just becomes a subtle finishing touch and doesnt take away the dynamics of your sound. EQing is a mine field you dont want to walk at this stage, less is best, any major EQ changes are best left to professionals.
Cheers, Maxy.

[heaps]

Here's my advice to you: express emotion, capture a moment of yourself in an audible form. Technicalities (mixdowns, mastering, music theory, etc) don't mean fuck-all when you're just starting out.

Listen to the link to my album (in my sig), the mixing is pretty crappy, but I'll never be ashamed of that thing, because it's expressive, and it shares a massive part of my imagination. I spent over 2 years making that thing (age 16-18) without any intentions of sharing it until recently.

Make jazz.

[larrymcgone1]

The thing that stands out to me is the volume levels are all over the shop so what it needs is some mastering (often refered to as normalizing in most DAW's) stage to even them out. I say this because when I started doing mixed tapes this was a problem for me. I worked on it, read all the tips & articles on this site and now I keep my levels tidy. After getting some basic mastering down you then learn to listen with this in mind and learn to record everything with better levels from the start. Doing that means the mastering stage just becomes a subtle finishing touch and doesnt take away the dynamics of your sound. EQing is a mine field you dont want to walk at this stage, less is best, any major EQ changes are best left to professionals.
Cheers, Maxy.

Thank's For the advice, and not being too harsh! I realize that I have a long way to go, but That's why I started now. I'm only 19 and hopefully in a couple years i'll have a good feel for it and be able to start making some good stuff. I just really wanted this to be a keystone that I can always go back to and see what I can improve on. I'm glad they're are some people still on this forum that know that this is a music community for helping each other out, and not just bashing on them. I will definitely take your advice to head, I realized that the audio levels were really messed up when I listened to it through good speakers :/ My mac didn't really do it justice, but for now on I will definitely make sure to check all the levels and such!

Here's my advice to you: express emotion, capture a moment of yourself in an audible form. Technicalities (mixdowns, mastering, music theory, etc) don't mean fuck-all when you're just starting out.

Listen to the link to my album (in my sig), the mixing is pretty crappy, but I'll never be ashamed of that thing, because it's expressive, and it shares a massive part of my imagination. I spent over 2 years making that thing (age 16-18) without any intentions of sharing it until recently.

That's what i'll do for now on. Try to play out what's in my head! I will just have to learn mastering on my own somehow :eek:

I listened to all your stuff, The album was good stuff. Not quite my taste but I appreciate all kinds of music. I was definitely not wanting to post this at all, but I like the constructive criticism I can get from this forum!


Once again, Thanks for the advice, I wont let it pass by!!

[heaps]

No worries