I’m a fair novice when it comes to producing music. I use Ableton and I’ve learned everything I know from Youtube videos. I’m extremely inspired to produce and “mimic” those tracks I love to hear or play in my DJ sets. I’m so far off making quality sounds, that I lose a lot of motivation to just keep playing around and learning things without someone there that can actually mentor me. I would love to take a class and learn how to, but those are waay too expensive. I know there’s info out there that says to just ‘learn your DAW’, but there’s so much more to it than that, like with plugins and VSTs. Then there’s mastering your audio.
What are your suggestions as to how I can improve?
How should I approach this problem?
I’ve been stuck on this for about a year and a half now..
Welcome to the forum. Production is a complex science. Don’t feel bad if you aren’t getting to the level you want to be at quickly enough. To be honest, none of us do. We all throw things and swear and go through making a lot of bad tracks when we first learn.
Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on where your stuck. When you say “quality sounds”, do you mean synthesized melodies? Drums? Or your tracks as a whole?
Maybe you can link something for feedback. I’m not a professional, but I’ve gone through your pain period, so I know how you feel.
Take for example, building a quality riser. This is one of my biggest setbacks, is creating shifts like this from scratch. I can take a melody and chromatically rise it in a piano roll, but there’s way more to it than that from scratch. And I mean from scratch, not using samples.
Another big thing for me is mastering audio. I can use a limiter to make sure my channels don’t chip, and there’s waay more to it than EQing it.
There’s all sorts of cool blips and fix I don’t even know where to begin to implement and it sucks when you don’t even know where to start to get to the bottom of it.
You mentioned mastering, and here is a guide that’s helped me at different points.
If you like it, here are some of his other guides that I like.
Dance music production is a tough thing. It’s awesome that you can make music on a PC/Mac with not much money invested. But, it’s really hard to learn everything you need to get from your head to a finished, polished-sounding song.
Just a few years ago (or in other worlds that follow a more old-school approach) every step might be done by a different person; one person designs the sounds (or builds the guitars/drums), you write the song, another several people play various instruments, someone else records it, either them or someone else mixes it, then someone else masters it so it sounds good wherever you play it.
I think the big problem people have now is learning all of those at once. Fortunately in dance music, the recording stage can be pretty much irrelevant. Tarekith’s advice takes care of mastering (at least for a lot of the learning process). And the computer actually plays the instruments. So, it’s down to sound design, songwriting, and mixing. But each of those are still pretty big things to learn. And, lacking in any one of them could hamper the “quality sounds” you want to make.
One thing that helped me massively in learning sound synthesis was to create songs using only one synthesizer - no loops, no samples, everything comes from that one synth. You have to do some research on how to create certain drum sounds, but in so doing, you learn a boat load about synthesis. Plus, you get to know a synthesizer very well that way. I’ll occasionally join competitions over at KVR where you have to write a song using only one synth and the effects that come with your DAW or are free - all within a month.
Melodies, etc. are tougher to learn and it really helps to have some music theory to produce them. Study some counterpoint, or at least learn what it is and how it’s used.
Mixing/arranging are insanely difficult to grasp at the beginning. For arrangement, try to arrange things so that different sounds interact and play off each other, not at the same time. Mixing just comes down to learning how to listen and what adjustments do what. Do a lot of A/Bing of adjustments to EQ/Compressors to figure that kind of stuff out. It takes time. Be patient, and try having fun most of all.
There is a moment…usually right before my set starts, or just as I’m about to send something to a client…when my inner critic (who is an a$$hole with a MASSIVE inferiority complex) tells me that it is going to sound EXACTLY like this:
Part of the reason is that my taste is MUCH better than my ability. But, at some point, you have to say “eff it” and actually put something into the world. Good, bad, in between…ship it and move on.
i have been and still say i am in your position. i used to avoid spending money on expensive courses. but im very happy and excited to say that i finally put down some money for music classes at a community college. there i will learn the history of funk, hip hop and music after jimi hendrix. after history, i am taking on some music production and sound design classes. all this for a certificate in music tech. its going to cost me around $1200 and a year to finish but the value i will gain is far more greater than spending money. watching youtube videos IS FREE but taking classes will get feedback from someone who is experienced (professor,teacher).
i don’t know how it is for most people but i get motivated when i talk about music and am surrounded by people who are too. it will help you progress quicker. i am fortunate to live near san francisco. DJtechtools hold meet events (Coffee & Controllers) every week that allows me to test out new products and network with fellow producers/djs. if you are not in the san francisco bay area, i suggest you look for something similar in yours (check meetup.com - try and see if people hold music meets in your area).
in my opinion, i think the best thing to do is invest in taking those courses. network with people and talk about your progress. get feedback from experienced producers. ableton and djtechtools forums have sections where you can start a thread and submit your work for constructive criticism.
just remember, it takes time. practice, practice, practice. also, sometimes you need a little break in order to get motivated again. i take suspensions from music all the time. every time i come back, i motivated to make mixes and find new sounds.
Thanks for passing those on. The ones on my Tarekith page are a bit outdated and only still active for legacy links, here’s the newer ones that are always up to date:
I think this is huge, and a great idea!
Less can often be more. We have so many choices, thousands of free samples, free VSTs and so on, but do we really need all of those? Narrowing down options can help a producer become a lot more creative. I’m not an accomplished producer in any way, but after simplifying I learned to get more complex by just hearing what all the knobs and buttons do. I think that makes sense.
I’ve been producing since 96’, but I’m not great and don’t pretend to be. What I will say though is that I’ve been there, several times over. I’m primarily rap admittedly, but I have a very very very diverse sound palette, AND stylistic palette as well. With that said…oh yeah and I am a “Reason” user
Practice Practice Practice. Obvious first step.
Less is more. Never over do it. Start simple. Build the song out, then go ahead and ‘those little things’, but keep it simple. Don’t layer filters, keep things simple, including melodies. As you get better, you’ll get better equipped and have a better understanding of what to add as you’ll know the pieces better
Limit yourself - as ImNotDeadYet mentioned - building everything from a single synth, its a bit overkill - but the concept is gold. The more tools you have and the more sounds you have, the more time is lost sorting through it all and figuring it out. Pick some basic drums that don’t knock, pick a boring synth, and maybe add in a sampler for effects, with pretty basic samples (not for looping, but like vocal samples or horns). Build up a song from that, then use filters to get the sounds you already picked - to where you want them. You might struggle with getting a kick exactly where you want it, but you’ll start to understand everything involved with adjusting kick sounds - and can then chase that down with google searches on how to fix that problem. Same thing with the synth. Master your tools, not your sounds.
Get good monitors. Easier said than done. It’s something I need to do myself - I have a good setup that I’ve tuned as good as possible, but I need true monitors to help with mixing and mastering my own music as well as well as understanding the slight adjustments I make a bit more. The devils in the details.
Develop a producer’s ear. Its one of the single greatest and worst things to have. It will warp your perception compared to the average individual, but pick a complex song with lots of parts and sounds, listen to it, but focus on ONE sound or section, like mentally eliminate everything that isn’t ‘just the drums’. then do that again until you know the drums. Rinse repeat with the main sample/synth, then start breaking down the little accents. With practice, you’ll be able to listen to other artist/producers and understand ‘what makes the song good’. The curse? Half-a$$ed music will sound REALLY bad to you as the mistakes stand out. It becomes a self-teaching tool though, you’ll have a firmer grasp on ‘putting the pieces together’, you’ll “see” how its really a bunch of simple sounds put layered together that make a complex one (the most complex machines are still based on basic machines).
I hope it helps. Improvement is forever, growth is forever, if you listen to a track from several months before and DON’T think “I could have done this better by doing X Y Z”, then you are failing yourself.
Hey guys, I have just started to get into music production as well. I bought Sonar X3 Producer off steam when it was 60% off. Next time there is a sale I’ll grab some more plugins <3. Anyways I’m loving the content of this thread already and since i’m fresh to the game, I was wondering what tips you guys have for learning the daw and buying gear.
I’m pretty much not going to have room for a studio, but I still want to create, mix, and sample music. I’m going to get a set of cans, most likely the Akai MPK mini, Scarlett 2i2, and a cheap vocal mic. Since my job doesn’t pay much I’ll be piecing this together over some period of time. Should I have an order of priority?
If you want to do it the right way - start with your ears and work backwards, monitors/cans, then audio interface, then acoustic conditioning, then instruments/effects, then controllers because the most important thing is the sound and you can only work on sound when you can really hear it.
If you want to do it the way most people do it (myself included) - find shiny toy for sale, impulse buy shiny toy, play with shiny toy until shiny toy isn’t shiny, repeat.
You need to be dedicated and you should spend a lot of time. if you have a day job then its really difficult to focus.
Learn the Basics and fundamentals. Like basic keys and chords.
Learn to program a Synth if you are planning to make your own sounds (optional)
Learn the Piano roll (for creating melodies)
To make a quick track open the track in arrangement view and then add markers on every transition or when a new sound is introduced. That way you can easily create a template for your song and start arranging sounds in the view quickly instead of counting bars and phrases (intro–main section - breakdown - main section - outro).
Just pick a genre and study the song. See what sounds are used and do the same..
Quick way to produce a song is to use samples and loops.
When you get a melody in your head record it instantly in your phone using voice recorder because you will forget it. I used to get melodies when i am lying in bed. I record them and next day i create them in piano roll.
I have produced a couple of trance and techno songs. Good luck.
