Advice for a complete beginner =)

[Swanny.NZ]

Hey guys!

This year is gonna be my first year at uni, and the year I'm getting myself on track with what I actually wanna do in life.

#1 is DJ
The other #1 is Produce Electro House songs and remixes =)

In a few weeks I'll be getting a laptop, some headphones and a S4, along with maybe some big speakers. That'll set me right up as far as DJing goes, and I assume that's all I need for music production as well? Apart from maybe a MIDI keyboard? D:

Well, truth is, I don't know the first thing about Music production. I downloaded FL Studio 9 aaages ago and tried learning the basics of that, but I couldn't even get one foot in.

I guess my main questions are:
- How would you guys recommend I make a start as a music producer that's aiming to make his way into making full-blown Electro House remixes and originals?
- Is there anywhere in a big city (such as Christchurch, NZ, ~300k pop) that I could find people or institutions that could assist me in learning the ropes of music production/remixing?

I'm a good self-teacher, but I always like to have the basics and general outlines of stuff shown to me before I go out and figure the rest out on my own. It takes me an age (sometimes never) to figure out the 'first bits' of stuff I want to learn. With DJing, I've only been shown the ropes for 2 or 3 hours in person, and the stuff I learned in that time would have otherwise taken me months to figure out. Now I feel confident that I can handle a lot more on my own. Same applies with this I guess. So I'm so keen to learn to use FL Studio or Ableton, but I aint got a clue.

I wanna know how Zedd does it too, what does he use? What does he do?

What you guys think? =)

Thanks

ElmoNZ.

[Jason Cerna]

best thing you can do is start with the basics: learning how to program a synthesizer. then, combining that with other effects or virtual instruments to get the sound you want

once you know how to do that, you will have a good foundation.

other than that, keep listening to music and practice arranging drum patterns in your head. personally, since i've been listening to electronic music since the early 80s as a kid. and with my dj experience, i have a good idea on what i like my drums to sound like. i hope that this applies to you as well. as long as you are listening to a variety of different musics and keeping a note of how the drum tracks are arranged, you should have a good idea on what to do for your starter, original tracks.

another good training tip is to try to make your first track a cover tune of something you enjoy listening to. this way, you will get to know your DAW a little better and familiarize yourself with its ins and outs. the bonus is you are not starting from scratch. you already know what the sounds are and how they are arranged. all you need to do is figure out how to create them and sequence them correctly.

also consider the audible frequencies that your production takes up. think of your potential new track as a great meal. you want just a little of everything, but not too much of one thing. that too much of one thing will end up overpowering or taking away from the other parts.

when you make a track, all the individual elements have to be eq'd right so they all fit in your sandwich. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
http://images.digitalmedianet.com/20...erpt1/fig5.gif

taken from: http://www.digitalprosound.com/2002/...g_excerpt1.htm

i will add some more information for you once i have access to this other forum i moderate on. it is currently down right now. i wrote a basic guide for such a question.

[Maxted]

Just had a quick google to see if you have any tutors near you:

http://www.ableton.com/pages/educati...iners/tom_cosm

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Services/Ot...9366-9372-.htm

Not sure if that will help.

[Warwolt]

Don't forget to read up about mixing, the concept of fitting stuff in the mix, and learn to use the EQ and the Compressor early on. From my experience a lot of the problems with stuff sounding thin, muddy, nonbassy, noncrisp and all those other don't-wants is because of mixing, so when you feel like you can produce some pretty sweet sounds, don't let the fact that you don't know how to mix keep you from making all those sweet sounds compliment each other.

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-t...-eq-tutorial/1 <- THIS

An amazing article that explains the whole purpouse of mixing in a pretty clear way, so you actually know what EQ and Compressing and reverbing and delaying and all that will actually do to get a proffesional sound.

Creating songs in Ableton will also, in the future, probably give you more flexibilty when figuring out how to perfome it live, since you don't have to move it from FL to Ableton, you just have to make the Ableton-project "come alive".

[Jason Cerna]

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-t...-eq-tutorial/1 <- THIS

I just looked through this. And it's a great guide.

[farhanashraf]

^ OT: yo jason, yknow whats goin on with djforums?

[Jason Cerna]

^ OT: yo jason, yknow whats goin on with djforums?

it's down. that's all i know. so, i've moved on.

[Swanny.NZ]

Thanks guys =) I've emailed the Ableton trainer to see what he can offer me in the way of personal training. Very thankful for being pointed this service out!

[Jason Cerna]

from a post from a user[UK based] off of one of my faq's off a different forum

not even a decent soundcard or controller is necessary for the first 6-12 months of your production adventure. the single most important thing in that time is learning what the hell you're doing. a load of hardware and equipment WONT help you in that respect

start off with the absolute basics, or if you have a few quid to spare buy a decent soundcard, some good monitors and a midi controller. once you have them, learn the absolute shit out of your DAW, plugins, learn the theory behind synth programming (start with subtractive, itll give you the best introduction imo), how samplers work, signal flow (in both digital and physical realms), principles of eq, how each of the different types of effect available work, audio editing, looping within samplers (this is NOT the same thing as making a 1 bar drum sample loop perfectly), mixing theory, basic information on mastering, music theory (starting at the basics, youll know when you've learned enough for your current production level, no point snowing yourself under with too much too soon, learn the theory gradually as your production improves)

if you dont do the above, you can have all the gear in the world and you'll still churn out shite

EQ Primer:
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

Frequency ranges:
http://emusictips.com/downloads/Frequency_ranges.pdf

Another resource that may be helpful to you:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

[ares1010]

Thanks Jason, those are some real helpful links, especially The Project Studio Handbook. So many guides!