Hi Guys I am new to the forum, just thought I’d start off with a thread beginners may find interesting. Hope you enjoy
• Choose a DAW you feel comfortable with and learn it inside out. After two months of using it don’t just bin it and think hmm… I think I’ll go with another DAW because ‘so and so’ has recommended it to me. If you do this you will probably end up getting into a routine of Ableton one month, FL Studio the next and so on. I see so many naïve producers doing this it amazes me; if you stick to learning one DAW initially I promise you will develop your production skills far quicker.
• Get your music out there! With social networking bigger than ever you can get your music heard by thousands of people. Join every social network and follow people/subjects relevant to what you are doing. Speak to them, engage with them, and give feedback to them. By being nice you will receive a lot of ‘niceness’ in return.
• Take advantage of all the free tutorial resources out there. You can simply type in a search engine ‘genre’ tutorial and there will be a list of free resources for you to look at. Big producers are always willing to give away some of there production secrets, keep up to date with the big guys from Future Music and Sound on Sound and buy all music production magazines.
• I know people may disagree with me here but try and stick to one genre. I was experimenting with all different kinds of music and in the long run it slowed me down learning the genre I was best at. I was learning a bit of one and then swiftly moving onto the next which meant I had a diverse amount of tracks but the quality was terrible.
I will tend to agree, i am versed in man programs to produce with, including Logic, FL Studio, Ableton etc… Some of this was due to a switch from PC to a Mac environment and sadly FL is not made for mac. The other was trying to figure out what DAW I found best for my style of work flow. I chose Ableton as stated in other threads, you can also DJ with it, which is appealing to me since I came from a DJ background first. This way I can test rythms out in a mix right away.
I also still use Logic and Reason for their respective tools and qualities but everything starts in Ableton.
The note on Genre, so true, I bounce between House, Dubstep, to techno and trance. My goal is to mix them all into my own style. Have had some degree of success but tons of failure. Really it is all just practice, learning your DAW and Synths and developing your personal sound.
“Malcolm Gladwell mentioned the 10 000 hour rule, that successful
people in any endeavor have practiced their craft for over 10 000 hours. Thats about
417 full days. Its going to be rough and a lot of it is without thanks and mostly frustration
on your own in your bedroom studio.”
[quote]Really it is all just practice, learning your DAW and Synths and developing your personal sound. [/quote] I absolutely agree! My point about only using one DAW was for people just starting off, I hear from and see a lot of people getting bored of one DAW because they are not learning straight away. In reality it takes a while to learn any DAW so I would say starting producers should try and learn a DAW throroughly before advancing to another.
I agree with everything, as it applies to just starting out.
Later in the game, it definitely helps to experiment with other styles of music (including no particular style). I learned a lot by experimenting with the DAW Renoise, it’s a refreshing perspective at approaching computer music. I’ve learned more on that than anything, though I now use Ableton.
Yeah exactly and now that you know Ableton inside out you tend to find a range of other DAW’s that have elements that Ableton doesn’t and you then use them to further develop your music production.
Yes, For sure, all the points made above are beyond valid. Definitely pick a DAW and Synth(s) that you will learn exclusively for the first bit. When you do add another piece and so on.
The comment about finding features in one DAW that are not in another is an unfortunate reality. Case in point since moving to Mac I use Logic and Ableton mostly. I start with Ableton. However I miss Fl Studio. The workflow was alright but the real power I enjoyed was its internal controllers (ie… Peak Controller, and Formula Controller) to which you could map to any knob, slider or button within the software and apply mathematical formulas to. Gold there!
Just because you personally slowed yourself down by producing more than one genre doesn’t mean everyone will. I produce a variety of genres and experiment with different techniques all the time.
edit: And, I would also like to add that producing other genres makes you more well-rounded in my opinion, or at least in terms of what you can do.
But what I was trying to say, is that for beginners I would try and go for one genre at first and learn it throroughly rather than skimming each genre and only learning bits of each one.
All I’m saying is that I wish I hadn’t been so focused on one genre when I started. Everything I learned was genre-specific and didn’t translate well to others. You argue that not focusing on one genre could inhibit overall knowledge, and for me the exact opposite was true.
[quote]You argue that not focusing on one genre could inhibit overall knowledge, and for me the exact opposite was true. [/quote] Yep okay different experiences for different people I wasn’t saying it could inhibit overall knowledge however just slow down development of learning one genre you are best at when your are beginning.
My point wasn’t to scare beginning producers away from learning a variety of genres but was more to learn a genre thoroughly instead of just tipping your toe in each.
