what helped YOU to become a better producer? [tips, advice, products, lessons?]

[kbridge]

Hey forum.

I am a reletively new house music producer, still experimenting with ideas, practising daily and always ready to learn new techniques, ideas and concepts to help better myself.

As I'm new to this forum, I am not sure if this has been started before, but I figured I would try to make a thread to help EVERYONE in their producing journey.

How I aim to do this is to provide a simple place for people to share tips, tricks and advice that they found changed their mindset or ability levels, and would benefit others.

Any tips you have are bound to help at least ONE member so feel free to share!

• How do you arrange your tracks?
• How do you start a new track?
• What elements really help to make a track?
• How do you come up with ideas for melodies and basslines?
• Have you ever taken classes or lessons that helped you improve, or were they a waste of time/money?
• Have you purchased or read anything notable?

Anyway; you get the idea!

[BiggChev]

hey kbridge welcome to DJJT!

I found the best way to start and become a better producer/musician was deconstruction. By picking apart a song and trying to recreate it. Now, you can do this note for note or just sort out the "bones" of the track.

This helps to sort out common traits among a genre. I.E. drums patterns, scales, progressions and arrangements, and instrumentation. Pick an album, or some of your favourite songs, and bit by bit try to recreate it. Start with the kick, then the snare and move through the piece. You'll quickly learn similarities with regards to instrumentation and rhythm like this.

Also, having a basic understanding of music theory helped as well. It gives a frame of reference as to what notes are being played and the correlation to chord progressions etc. Not to mention it also helps to figure out melodies and such if you know what kind of scale or mode you're working in.

Specific to electronic music, I'd say experimenting and researching the basics of sound design can also be helpful.

Hopefully this helps

[kbridge]

I use that very technique for some songs. I like to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen, draw a timeline and note at what times different progressions take place etc.

My biggest piece of advice to ANYONE starting production is to buy or find a copy of Rick Snoman's "Dance Music Manual".. althought the title might seem a little broad and possibly condesending, I can assure you that this book is vital to getting started.. even at the most basic level, it gives you a general idea of what all of the rotaries and sliders are that you've just been blindly adjusting before haha!

[Tarekith]

Here's a few I have from my blog, tons more there if you're interested:

1. Less is almost always more. Turn down the effects, back off the compression, use less EQ and reverb, get rid of tracks that don’t really add anything important to the song.

2. Don’t force yourself to write only in one genre (blasphemy, I know). Variety is the spice of life, so experiment with other genres/styles, it’ll only make you a better musician/producer.

3. Learn at least basic music theory. You may never, ever use it, but it’ll help you understand how we got to where we are, and might just help you out in the future.

4. Don’t force yourself to write if you’re not feeling it. Go outside, take care of your errands and BS, and come back to it when it’s fun again. Even if that means a month long hiatus (or longer).

5. Do it for the right reasons. Make music because you love the process, not the hopeful outcome. Never make music thinking you’ll make money, cause you won’t 99.999% of the time.

6. Understand it takes years and years to get that polished and professional sound. It’s not down any magic plug ins or settings. An experienced producer can make a pro-sounding tune no matter what the gear. It’s the ears, not the gears. (trademarked) The only way to get to this point is practice, plain and simple.

7. Learn to calibrate people’s comments about your tunes. There’s a fine line between solid, unbiased production advice, and personal preferences. Listen to what people say, and then judge if their comments are expressing their own personal preferences, or if it’s a genuine advice from an experience producer. Listen either way though, both kinds of advice can be helpful if taken in the right context. On that note, your friends will always tell you they like your tunes.

8. Learn to play a real instrument.

9. Interviews with other producers are the best source of production advice. Especially if they produce a completely different genre than you.

10. Slim down your studio. Kinda ties into #1 above, but the less gear you have, the easier it is to learn it, and the farther you can take it. Especially with plug ins.

http://tarekith.com/blog/

[josephy]

In addition to the above, give yourself time to play and experiment without feeling like you're writing a song. Work on just building a groove and having fun. Before you know it, tracks will emerge as you introduce, take away, and change elements of what once seemed like a simple pattern.

[PjAndreasson]

How do you arrange your tracks?

It really differs what genre it is, but I'm not a fan of doing 32 bar loop beat intro & outro. I usually make a atmospheric intro to
make the whole track interesting. Usually it goes like this: INTRO-CHORUS-VERSE-CHORUS-ATMOSPHERIC-BUILDUP-CHORUS

How do you start a new track?

I usually take/make a sound, then I arrange the whole track by that kind of sound or melody.

What elements really help to make a track?

The art of picking sounds.

How do you come up with ideas for melodies and basslines?

I usually just play on the keyboard or I'm trying to reproduce a melody/bassline i've heard and then take some ideas from that.

Have you ever taken classes or lessons that helped you improve, or were they a waste of time/money

Taking a lesson in music really helps you improve the theory about music, I think that's good because then
you can produce much more quality stuff and you got the theory. But if you do this all yourself, you
might learn abit more and develop your own sound instead of using the original scheme.


Have you purchased or read anything notable?

I've actually read "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life". A superb book that every DJ and music producer need to read. It really
gives you a wide experience about the history of DJ:ing.

[kbridge]

These are some great tips, I love that everyone has their own style

[kbridge]

Also, what aspect of music theory do you all believe to be the most fundamental to electronic music production?

I played piano for around 2 years a long time ago, and have read a few books on music theory, but I was just wondering specifically what producers would recommend studying since "Music Theory" is a large umbrella term

[JasonBay]

6. Understand it takes years and years to get that polished and professional sound. It’s not down any magic plug ins or settings. An experienced producer can make a pro-sounding tune no matter what the gear. It’s the ears, not the gears. (trademarked) The only way to get to this point is practice, plain and simple.

Sums up my thoughts on this exactly. It's just practice and dedication. If you want to become better and love what you're doing, then it will come at it's own pace and time and things will start to click and make sense.

[josephy]

Also, what aspect of music theory do you all believe to be the most fundamental to electronic music production?

I think relearning key signatures, major and minor chords within those key signatures, how to invert chords, how to put together various seventh chords, etc. is a really good start and probably the most important thing outside of the fundamentals of rhythm.