A Question from a Frustrated Beginner...

[spudislander]

I know that, most likely, this has been answered before. Maybe many times before. However, in all my extensive searching for knowledge on making electronic music, I haven't found a single thing that legitimately helped me.
Here's my issue: I know how to use FL Studio (the DAW I'm using) fairly well.
I understand how to get around and do most things with it, through sheer experimentation.
I understand making music, I've been doing it with material instruments for years.
My problem is this, bluntly:

I don't know what the knobs do.

I've searched everywhere, for months, I've gone through thousands of google pages, youtube videos, and even posts on this very forum, and I haven't found a single thing that's helped me understand what I'm doing when I, for example, turn up the colour knob in the Noise window of NI Massive, or what Threshold does in Fruity Compressor, or what those production terms mean. I understand, a good deal of it comes with experimentation (that's about the most useful advice I've found). However, I just wish that I could listen to a sound, and then know what exactly to change to make what I hear in my head, into what I actually hear. As of now, all I'm doing is thinking "Oh, this is missing," and then tweaking tons of settings and screwing up what I already had, and still not learning what I should have changed.

What's more frustrating, people often try to explain things with production terms, and to me it's may as well be Russian, for all I can understand it.
So how do I start with making my own music with my computer?
Either I just follow along with what other people do, and hope to learn something along the way, I experiment randomly and make so little progress that I don't even want to bother with it any more, or lastly I try to decipher technical jargon without any help and maybe figure it out. All are rather pathetic ways of learning, don't you think?

I'm at the end of my rope here, please help me, or I might just give up on it altogether.

[wub]

Threshold does in Fruity Compressor

http://flstudio.image-line.com/help/htm ... ressor.htm



Honestly, searching for that in Google took me less than 2secs, mate. And tbh, it's covered in depth on the FL manual/help file that comes with it.

I'd suggest reading the manuals for your VSTs/DAWs in depth and learning them that way, if the afore mentioned twisting knobs approach isn't working. There are plenty of beginner tutorials on YouTube, and spread out over the Internet. If you're after a step by step hand holding approach as to what does what and why, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place.

Read everything, practice everything, experiment. Repeat ad infinitum.

[spudislander]

Of course, if I was looking for something specific such as what Threshold does in Fruity Compressor, then it wouldn't be an issue. However, I think it would be more prudent if there was a resource that explained some of the terminology and the actual relevance of a given parameter, instead of just having to research each thing individually. Experimenting is all well and good, but I'm getting conflicting messages; some say that you just have to experiment constantly, and some say that you should learn what exactly you're doing, then experiment constructively. I've done my share of experimenting, to little success, and would like to try the other approach; learn what does what, not down to each and every tweakable setting, but in a general sense so that I still can mess about and still actually learn something for myself. I guess you could say I'm looking for the very basics so I can understand what's next. Regardless, I'll go over the manuals again, more in depth this time. Thanks for the help.

[Toolman4]

Here's the deal: You are a beginner, or aka a "budding producer". In every budding producer's case, the amount of knowledge/information that you're exposed to is always unconditionally overwhelming unless you have prior music experience. The point I'm getting at is that when I watched videos, read posts, searched google, etc as a "budding producer", I was constantly being told "why" we twist the knob to 12 o'clock, or why we pushed the ratio of the compressor to 4:1 instead of leaving it at a light 2:1...etc, etc, etc...However, you're not going to be able to grasp/comprehend until you have practiced enough. I'm sorry homie, but there is no concrete/end all answer to point you in the right direction. Time spent in the daw and experimentation are your best friends. And the fact is...experience playing material instruments, unless a piano, aren't going to be much of a considerable help in the art of synthesis....I'm sorry, but I'm also not sorry....You have a world of epiphanies to experience before churning out a tune that you have in your head. Be proud that you are driven to produce music and come to grips that it's a long process to get to where you WANT to be...that's the reality. You are the only person who will determine how long it takes to get to where you want to be. This, like any other art, abides by one simple rule: What you put in, is what you get out.

I've said to myself a fuck load of times that if someone who's already established in the dubstep world, would give me the time of day, I know I could be the next rusko/benga/whatever. And I know that my passion would make goddamn sure that happens. However, experimentation is part of learning. And if you don't experiment/put in the time, you're never going to understand what the knobs do/why you're doing what you do. I've been doing this for just barely a year now, and just recently am I starting to grasp the idea of envelopes. I quickly learning about ADSR, but then applying envelopes to give movement...WOW...I heard this repeated in many tutorials/videos/etc but until I actually started DOING it, I never realized that DECAY is a fucking POWERFUL characteristic in synthesis.....

TL:DR....MOAR PRACTICE PIMPIN....TRUST ME

[Toolman4]

OH! btw...for me, the absolute single BEST video I ever saw, was the RESO MASTERCLASS video. Before that, it was and still is one of the best, RUSKO MATERCLASS. The producer masterclass videos are great to have archived for reference. They are the pros telling you how THEY do things. Whether you want to believe it or not, you can watch one of those videos now. You will make a connection that you haven't yet. Then you'll go and start practicing what you learned. Then once you've felt you practiced that particular thing enough and tried to make a/several tunes utilizing newfound knowledge, WATCH THAT MOTHER F***** AGAIN...Guess what, you're going to make ANOTHER connection that you didn't "grasp" the first time you saw it. Then you go through the practicing thing again, watch it AGAIN, and GUESS WHAT?!!....AGAIN, you'll have made another connection that you didn't really "grasp" the last two times you watched the video....

Get what I'm sayin?

For the vast majority of us, producing EDM is more of a science than an art. Therefore, trying to take chemistry before learning calculus is near impossible...You can try to go right into chemistry, however you might be left with a shitload of questions and feel quite lost...almost like you show up to class, but don't have a clue as to what you're doing....kinda like what you described

[nowaysj]

If you know how to use your daw, and you know how to make music, put the two together and make electronic music. It really is as simple as that. If you get stuck, figure it out, or skip it and move on, whatever strikes your fancy. Just start making songs. Post them up in the appropriate place, and get some feedback on what is wrong. If you don't know how to correct those things, ask. There are (were?) a lot of knowledgeable people here who can help you. I can honestly tell you it is not as hard as you may think it is now. Just stop watching videos about how to make music and start making music.

[wormcode]

Not everyone who makes great music knows what the knobs do exactly either. Speaking of masterclass videos, the EL-B one, he clearly doesn't know much about the technical side of it, but still makes amazing tunes. Don't get so caught up in the technical aspects, and remember to just make music. The technical knowledge will come in time, but it takes years, and is a never-ending learning process. Don't treat it like science class or you'll never get any tunes done and will stop having fun, which is what it's all about. IMO etc.

[hifi]

OH! btw...for me, the absolute single BEST video I ever saw, was the RESO MASTERCLASS video. Before that, it was and still is one of the best, RUSKO MATERCLASS. The producer masterclass videos are great to have archived for reference. They are the pros telling you how THEY do things. Whether you want to believe it or not, you can watch one of those videos now. You will make a connection that you haven't yet. Then you'll go and start practicing what you learned. Then once you've felt you practiced that particular thing enough and tried to make a/several tunes utilizing newfound knowledge, WATCH THAT MOTHER F***** AGAIN...Guess what, you're going to make ANOTHER connection that you didn't "grasp" the first time you saw it. Then you go through the practicing thing again, watch it AGAIN, and GUESS WHAT?!!....AGAIN, you'll have made another connection that you didn't really "grasp" the last two times you watched the video....

Get what I'm sayin?

For the vast majority of us, producing EDM is more of a science than an art. Therefore, trying to take chemistry before learning calculus is near impossible...You can try to go right into chemistry, however you might be left with a shitload of questions and feel quite lost...almost like you show up to class, but don't have a clue as to what you're doing....kinda like what you described

nooo i don't think that is what he is talking about. first OP i would learn synthesis and learn how to mix but before that you should experiment. since you did say you experiment a lot but have no idea what certain knobs do i would just learn what i have stated in my last sentence after that experiment some more but this time you will know what the knobs are doing that you will be twiddling with

[hifi]

OH! btw...for me, the absolute single BEST video I ever saw, was the RESO MASTERCLASS video. Before that, it was and still is one of the best, RUSKO MATERCLASS. The producer masterclass videos are great to have archived for reference. They are the pros telling you how THEY do things. Whether you want to believe it or not, you can watch one of those videos now. You will make a connection that you haven't yet. Then you'll go and start practicing what you learned. Then once you've felt you practiced that particular thing enough and tried to make a/several tunes utilizing newfound knowledge, WATCH THAT MOTHER F***** AGAIN...Guess what, you're going to make ANOTHER connection that you didn't "grasp" the first time you saw it. Then you go through the practicing thing again, watch it AGAIN, and GUESS WHAT?!!....AGAIN, you'll have made another connection that you didn't really "grasp" the last two times you watched the video....

Get what I'm sayin?

For the vast majority of us, producing EDM is more of a science than an art. Therefore, trying to take chemistry before learning calculus is near impossible...You can try to go right into chemistry, however you might be left with a shitload of questions and feel quite lost...almost like you show up to class, but don't have a clue as to what you're doing....kinda like what you described

nooo i don't think that is what he is talking about. first OP i would learn synthesis and learn how to mix but before that you should experiment. since you did say you experiment a lot but have no idea what certain knobs do i would just learn what i have stated in my last sentence after that experiment some more but this time you will know what the knobs are doing that you will be twiddling with

[paravrais]

Kids so lazy these days. It takes a long time to learn how to be a producer? No shit, get used to it.

[MexicanKangaroo]

Look, you can't 'picture' or 'know' what each insert is going to do to a sound, eg distortion, compressor. Each sound is different, and practice makes sure you have a gut feeling that cerrtain effects will make certain sounds good... guess what that's called? Experimentation!
You can only hear the difference... you want some maths to how many sounds there are? (quote me if I'm wrong, someone told me this once who had some music degree and I'm not sure if he's pulling it out of his ass but I'm trusting him for the sake of this topic...)
You use a frequency range of 20000Hz.
Square it (or is . You can make 400000000 different 'sound' combinations. A lot right?
BUT then you've got speed! Those 'sound' combinations are only in fractions of a second...
How many sounds you can create with speed... time infinite, so therefore the number of sounds you can create are infinite....

You're not gonna get the sound you want without experimentation... same applies to using inserts.
Besides, if you really want to know what each knob does, look at some manuals or use google... simple as that. They're all there... and they're not even that hard to find generally

[Kes-Es]

Kids so lazy these days. It takes a long time to learn how to be a producer? No shit, get used to it.

Skrillex became skrillex over the life and death of like 3 popular genres of music.

If you're not willing to sit in front of your computer until your eyes bleed to learn how to do this shit to a proficient level before spamming your stupid questions and shitty music all over the internets , then shut the fuck up and sit the fuck back watch everyone who was willing to do that go somewhere. You can watch it on youtube, if it makes you more comfortable, but the fact is, if you don't put time into it, you will ONLY be watching.

[ScatterbrainMusic]

I used to be just as frustrated as you, it's simply a matter of putting in the time, but with a target in mind.

What I mean by that is, if one day you want to learn how to make a reese, look through youtube tutorials, masterclasses and whatever else you can find, soak up the information and practice it for a few hours that day.

The same goes for the use of compressors, EQ etc.

I'll be honest, the amount of times I've read the same tutorials over and over again is ridiculous, I'll practice it, forget it, and learn it again, but even though I'm still learning, I feel brilliant looking back and seeing how much I've improved since I started producing YEARS (Usually the key) ago.