Im not improving! :( Please help!

[S1NTH3TIC]

Gonna repeat what everyone else has said, just keep practicing and you'll start to notice improvements. Those first few months are rough just cause you have sooo much info to process and learn. My only real advice is to keep it simple, dont try to go into your daw and be the next zeds dead. Producing is gonna take a long time, my tracks are just now sounding presentable after ~6 months. Keep at it though, nothings more fun than seeing people moving to your tune

[blinx]

I would be far more worried about learning to create a solid and interesting drum patterns before i would worry about bass noises. Sure dubstep is bass driven but the sickest bass will never be heard if your drum tracks are super weak and uninteresting. Get ahold of proper drum samples (vengeance packs make this easy for begginners).
and write solid rhythm sections first.

[Ldizzy]

young grasshopper, u still have much to learn. and to me that's the fun part of it. i still have much to learn as well.

btw there is already a how to be a dubstep producer in 20 min, dark elixir made it.. go check it out its pretty efficient.

[jrisreal]

let it be more of a fun hobby than a laborous task. Go out and do some other things too, man like longboarding or something fun. And don't force improvement on yourself, it'll only frustrate you.

[Gurnumsbug]

.

[Toric]

FOR F*CK SAKES

Dubstep is not just wobbles.
Ignore the wobble and make good music.

Viola

AHA! I know I'm not the only one who uses the Dubstep Viola!

[ComfiStile]

I've been producing from october last year, and I still struggle. I think it's finish when it really isn't. Then some days shit doesn't sit. And you get angry, tired and pessimistic. But let me tell you, when you finally make the one song, that in your own ears sounds awesome and professionaly or whatever, you will be like fucking extatic. It'll be like the nirvana (the 'place' not the band) of music production.

Just make a youtube channel, soundcloud channel and upload shit there. With every track you will be able to hear yourself getting better and better. When you finally get to 'nirvana' you can look back and remember the journey.

It's not what other people think, you don't make music for other people, you make it for yourself. When you are happy with your music then you have probably found your style.

TLDR; It's like 2 paragraphs, just read it you lazy tnuc.

[hifi]

it's kind of strange how when i go on this forum and see a lot of very informed people with loads of experience that are also most of the time a lot older than myself and at the end of the day we are all still making the same type of music. dubstep. that is what brings us all here together as one big family. /end off topic rant

also I have been producing for about 4 and a half months and have made some alright tunes not good enough to be promoted or played out but tunes I can actually listen too and be like yes i uhh made that. not quite there where I can be completely confident in the tune I have made. some people just get better than others quicker than others. but experience takes time

[Boomachucka]

Was meaning to join the forum for a while, so I figured this is a good spot to make my first post...

I've been playing drums for 13 years, and with a band for about 5 or 6. I can tell you from personal experience that any instrument (whether it's based on a computer, or has strings, or whatnot) has a learning curve. With drums, what I've observed is that your first 2 to 4 years are pretty much spent learning proper technique, theory, fundamentals of playing, and broadening your musical horizons. Eventually the curve will lessen greatly, and you'll finally have learned to just be creative with the instrument. By creative, I mean you can consider the sounds you want to make in a more complex manner and have an idea of how to produce said sound before even touching the instrument. You don't even think about it, you just do it. Then there's another curve as you get more advanced, but that's another story. It's the toughest part about learning anything musically, being able to dedicate yourself to practice and learning for the first (what seems like a) loooong while.

It might not be exactly the same as music production, but there's gotta be a lot of similarity there as far as the learning aspect goes. Don't expect to produce anything awesome in your first couple years unless you literally practice it for 3, 4, or more hours per day. Also, constantly push yourself to work on something new that's a little outside your comfort zone.

That said, I love this stuff- dub, house, etc- and plan on really committing to gaining some skill in this area. I'm growing a little tired of playing metal

[ComfiStile]

Was meaning to join the forum for a while, so I figured this is a good spot to make my first post...

I've been playing drums for 13 years, and with a band for about 5 or 6. I can tell you from personal experience that any instrument (whether it's based on a computer, or has strings, or whatnot) has a learning curve. With drums, what I've observed is that your first 2 to 4 years are pretty much spent learning proper technique, theory, fundamentals of playing, and broadening your musical horizons. Eventually the curve will lessen greatly, and you'll finally have learned to just be creative with the instrument. By creative, I mean you can consider the sounds you want to make in a more complex manner and have an idea of how to produce said sound before even touching the instrument. You don't even think about it, you just do it. Then there's another curve as you get more advanced, but that's another story. It's the toughest part about learning anything musically, being able to dedicate yourself to practice and learning for the first (what seems like a) loooong while.

It might not be exactly the same as music production, but there's gotta be a lot of similarity there as far as the learning aspect goes. Don't expect to produce anything awesome in your first couple years unless you literally practice it for 3, 4, or more hours per day. Also, constantly push yourself to work on something new that's a little outside your comfort zone.

That said, I love this stuff- dub, house, etc- and plan on really committing to gaining some skill in this area. I'm growing a little tired of playing metal

Nice post mate, and welcome to the forum.

[hifi]

Was meaning to join the forum for a while, so I figured this is a good spot to make my first post...

I've been playing drums for 13 years, and with a band for about 5 or 6. I can tell you from personal experience that any instrument (whether it's based on a computer, or has strings, or whatnot) has a learning curve. With drums, what I've observed is that your first 2 to 4 years are pretty much spent learning proper technique, theory, fundamentals of playing, and broadening your musical horizons. Eventually the curve will lessen greatly, and you'll finally have learned to just be creative with the instrument. By creative, I mean you can consider the sounds you want to make in a more complex manner and have an idea of how to produce said sound before even touching the instrument. You don't even think about it, you just do it. Then there's another curve as you get more advanced, but that's another story. It's the toughest part about learning anything musically, being able to dedicate yourself to practice and learning for the first (what seems like a) loooong while.

It might not be exactly the same as music production, but there's gotta be a lot of similarity there as far as the learning aspect goes. Don't expect to produce anything awesome in your first couple years unless you literally practice it for 3, 4, or more hours per day. Also, constantly push yourself to work on something new that's a little outside your comfort zone.

That said, I love this stuff- dub, house, etc- and plan on really committing to gaining some skill in this area. I'm growing a little tired of playing metal

aha yea I use to just intake loads of information and experiment a lot from 6 to 8 hours a day when I first started because i was so anxious to produce a good song. i guess that helped me out a lot

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

Was meaning to join the forum for a while, so I figured this is a good spot to make my first post...

I've been playing drums for 13 years, and with a band for about 5 or 6. I can tell you from personal experience that any instrument (whether it's based on a computer, or has strings, or whatnot) has a learning curve. With drums, what I've observed is that your first 2 to 4 years are pretty much spent learning proper technique, theory, fundamentals of playing, and broadening your musical horizons. Eventually the curve will lessen greatly, and you'll finally have learned to just be creative with the instrument. By creative, I mean you can consider the sounds you want to make in a more complex manner and have an idea of how to produce said sound before even touching the instrument. You don't even think about it, you just do it. Then there's another curve as you get more advanced, but that's another story. It's the toughest part about learning anything musically, being able to dedicate yourself to practice and learning for the first (what seems like a) loooong while.

It might not be exactly the same as music production, but there's gotta be a lot of similarity there as far as the learning aspect goes. Don't expect to produce anything awesome in your first couple years unless you literally practice it for 3, 4, or more hours per day. Also, constantly push yourself to work on something new that's a little outside your comfort zone.

That said, I love this stuff- dub, house, etc- and plan on really committing to gaining some skill in this area. I'm growing a little tired of playing metal

This, completely. great post and all very true.

[Toxic_Acidity]

f^$% learning music theory people, this is dubstep not classical music! Their are only a loose set of rules to dubstep but 90% of it is down to feeling. Most dubstep and dance music artists started off DJing for a couple of years. When you can listen to a track and pretty much tell who made it, what rpm it is, what key its in and know every beat change in that track your close to understanding the basics of dance music. Also don't just listen to nero or Rusko and think 'Yeah this is dubstep I want to make tracks like just this!' go listen to every dubstep track from 2001 onwards, even listen to UK garage and 70s dub music too.

Another good tip is to not try and make every beat and start tuning synths from scratch, most top artists are don't have honers degrees in music and electronic sound engineering. They pretty much just use whatever easiest to play, try downloading massive and then search for massive dubstep wobble patches. Get a load of sample packs and track mash them together into a track: Loopmasters, prosamples, vengence samples are really good.

[wub]

f^$% learning music theory people, this is dubstep not classical music! Their are only a loose set of rules to dubstep but 90% of it is down to feeling. Most dubstep and dance music artists started off DJing for a couple of years. When you can listen to a track and pretty much tell who made it, what rpm it is, what key its in and know every beat change in that track your close to understanding the basics of dance music. Also don't just listen to nero or Rusko and think 'Yeah this is dubstep I want to make tracks like just this!' go listen to every dubstep track from 2001 onwards, even listen to UK garage and 70s dub music too.

Another good tip is to not try and make every beat and start tuning synths from scratch, most top artists are don't have honers degrees in music and electronic sound engineering. They pretty much just use whatever easiest to play, try downloading massive and then search for massive dubstep wobble patches. Get a load of sample packs and track mash them together into a track: Loopmasters, prosamples, vengence samples are really good.

Other than your comment about listening to UKG and 70s dub music, I disagree with everything you've written in this post. Particularly the part about downloading wobble patches for Massive, and then using Loopmaster/Vengeance Sample packs.

[hifi]

f^$% learning music theory people, this is dubstep not classical music! Their are only a loose set of rules to dubstep but 90% of it is down to feeling. Most dubstep and dance music artists started off DJing for a couple of years. When you can listen to a track and pretty much tell who made it, what rpm it is, what key its in and know every beat change in that track your close to understanding the basics of dance music. Also don't just listen to nero or Rusko and think 'Yeah this is dubstep I want to make tracks like just this!' go listen to every dubstep track from 2001 onwards, even listen to UK garage and 70s dub music too.

Another good tip is to not try and make every beat and start tuning synths from scratch, most top artists are don't have honers degrees in music and electronic sound engineering. They pretty much just use whatever easiest to play, try downloading massive and then search for massive dubstep wobble patches. Get a load of sample packs and track mash them together into a track: Loopmasters, prosamples, vengence samples are really good.

Other than your comment about listening to UKG and 70s dub music, I disagree with everything you've written in this post. Particularly the part about downloading wobble patches for Massive, and then using Loopmaster/Vengeance Sample packs.

[Toxic_Acidity]

Another good tip is to not try and make every beat and start tuning synths from scratch, most top artists are don't have honers degrees in music and electronic sound engineering. They pretty much just use whatever easiest to play, try downloading massive and then search for massive dubstep wobble patches. Get a load of sample packs and track mash them together into a track: Loopmasters, prosamples, vengence samples are really good.

Other than your comment about listening to UKG and 70s dub music, I disagree with everything you've written in this post. Particularly the part about downloading wobble patches for Massive, and then using Loopmaster/Vengeance Sample packs.

So your saying he should go spend a few grand to go study music theory at some music school. Ok tell me which music school skream, benga and mala came out of? No point really listening to dubstep either just copy rusko! Oh and never ever use samples, go out and buy a drum kit and then record it?

[wub]

Another good tip is to not try and make every beat and start tuning synths from scratch, most top artists are don't have honers degrees in music and electronic sound engineering. They pretty much just use whatever easiest to play, try downloading massive and then search for massive dubstep wobble patches. Get a load of sample packs and track mash them together into a track: Loopmasters, prosamples, vengence samples are really good.

Other than your comment about listening to UKG and 70s dub music, I disagree with everything you've written in this post. Particularly the part about downloading wobble patches for Massive, and then using Loopmaster/Vengeance Sample packs.

So your saying he should go spend a few grand to go study music theory at some music school. Ok tell me which music school skream, benga and mala came out of? No point really listening to dubstep either just copy rusko! Oh and never ever use samples, go out and buy a drum kit and then record it?

No need to be facetious - there is a big difference between disagreeing with the points you've made, and advocating the complete opposite of them.

[Toxic_Acidity]

Well I'm just wondering what the benefits of programming your own synth/ using a synth which has already been programmed are?

[ComfiStile]

Because its YOUR music, not music some other dude has made.

[wub]

Well I'm just wondering what the benefits of programming your own synth/ using a synth which has already been programmed are?

You mean the benefits of programming your own patches vs. using presets?