What made you want to produce/make music?

[crunkedxup]

Why do girls all of sudden like nerds now?

because nerds have bad self-esteem and get good jobs.

[OfficialDAPT]

Well i started out wanting to make sick dubstep drops about 6-10 months ago. Just recently I've moved past dubstep and started producing hip-hop beats and calm music. I've grown to make what I like and not just make songs for the "drop."

[lloydy]

I started because i thought it would be easy lol.
Also having something i could be proud of was probably a big part of it too.

[outdropt]

Also having something i could be proud of was probably a big part of it too.

Right, I finally got to a point where I am proud of what i produce as well. I can sit back with a smile on my face while i play out an almost finished tune and say, damn... thats alright.

Its a good feeling. Almost like the first time you listened to your favorite song, you get those tingles/goose bumps all over and this really happy/uplifting/euphoric feeling.. Better than any combination of drugs i have taken IMO.

[Rymphony]

Because i was bored lol. I have never even told anyone i produce music.

[bassbum]

learned guitar at 12 and played in a few bands, writing all the music. Used to listen to loads of rock music until I one day randomly listen to one of my mums dance cds, I think it was like Club Anthems 2000 or something. Feel in love with electronic music. Got Hiphop and Dance Ejay at like 13-14 and spent all day on it, every day. Then at 15 I had to make a track in Sonar with the crappy sound card sounds for my music GCSE, wasnt that into it because you had to write all the music in score mode. Then at 16 I had to do a audition for collage and was shown the basics of Reason, I knew then that I wanted to make electronic music for the rest of my life. I made UK Hardcore tracks till I was 18 then I got into Dubstep.

Im downloading this now.... Brining back memory's.

[Skrew]

Basshunter. Lol.

All I ever wanted, was to see you smiling, all I ever wanted was to make you mine.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I started making music because.

[ehbes]

I started making music because.

Deep

[Huts]

Started DJing house first as my dad did it when I was a lot younger and it looked cool. Hit a plateau I suppose and got bored with the genre. Right before skrillex got big I'd heard some dubstep and it actually sounded fun to make. Production seemed like the next logical step up from DJing so I gave it a shot

[OfficialDAPT]

Started DJing house first as my dad did it when I was a lot younger and it looked cool. Hit a plateau I suppose and got bored with the genre. Right before skrillex got big I'd heard some dubstep and it actually sounded fun to make. Production seemed like the next logical step up from DJing so I gave it a shot

AND THE REST IS HISTORY!

[grimsin]

when i was like 9 i would always dream of making music didnt know about any electronic music until i was like 17 but i would sing the music my mom listened to (sabbath,zepplin,metallica,iron maiden etc) i would always listen to them close my eyes and pretend it was me singing. When marilyn manson got big i started getting real deep into poetry and dark lyrics (i was about 12 or 13) i always dreamed of being that guy on the stage that everyone had their attention on. when i was about 15 me and some friends formed a band called potted meat (thanks for the band name mom ) I was the vocals learning how to scream and do the metal thing we thought we were so cool looking back we sucked balls but my friends moved away and i was left alone. At age 16 i was all about rap lil jon, ying yang twins, bone crusher, CRUNK MUSIC!. I started rapping i had a video game on my ps2 that you could make beats on (arrange presets to make a song) i would rap over them i was pretty good (at least thats what people told me) at the end of 16 i got out of rap and went heavy goth me and a few new friends made a metal band FYS (fuck your society) again i was the vocals we did a gig in a place called the foundry all was well until i met my fiance and broke the band up i first heard dj Angerfist by accident when i was browsing youtube one day ever since i have loved electronic music (before angerfist i had never even heard electronic music didnt even know it existed) at 20 years old i cracked my first version of fl studio and started rapping again makin beats about a few months later i heard my first dubstep track (thinking it was some weird version of techno or something) it was the charlee sheen one not sure who does it but i fell in love next i heard sexy praty by tremourz and j rabbit and was oh my god i have to figure out how to do this .... now here i am 22 im better at what i do but not as good as i could be (cant spend alot of time making music) (about an hour a day if im lucky)

[Maxxan]

started playing guitar when i was 10 in 1987, was into metal. then got into punk around 1989-1990. always was into early hip hop, watched yo mtv raps.

started becoming aware of electronic music/rave culture when i moved to south florida at the age of 14 in 1991. often had cheapo keyboards and stuff and used to imagine being a dj/producer back then. just mainly played guitar and sang in punk bands then.

around 1993-1994 started going to my first raves in ft. lauderdale and miami and getting more into electronic music. i didn't hear people calling it house music at the time but that's most of what i was hearing, got mixtapes from local dj's and such and then heard jungle/drum n bass for the first time and it blew my mind but i didn't know what it was actually called until moving back to the boston area in 1995 and hearing it on a college radio station where they mentioned what genre it was that they were playing. i ran out and bought a bunch of jungle/dnb compilation cd's and such and got really into it.

around 1996-ish my punk band started morphing into a fast hardcore/powerviolence band then a grindcore/death metal band. met a couple people around here who like me were into both grindcore and drum n bass, and also produced. they explained to me what was needed to produce at the time (sequencer [usually a DAW app], sampler [hardware sampler at the time, we all had emu ultra's], mixing desk, monitors, audio interface) and explained what did what and i saved up and got my first real DAW studio (digital performer 2.7, emu e4xt ultra sampler, allen&health mix wizard 16:dx, tannoy reveal monitors) and started messing around with it. came up with 1 kind of ok first beginner track but it was so cludgey to make it (working with the emu is the opposite of the intuitive software we all have today) that i mainly concentrated on the grindcore and indie rock bands i was in as i was used to that and it is much easier to me than electronic production.

this went on like that till about 2007, finally stopped being in a band, wanted to concentrate on electronic production. still couldn't figure a lot of important things out that would smooth out my workflow and allow me to make electronic music i was as happy with as i was with my guitar based material. then in february i got logic, and i had gotten komplete a few months before and logic is clicking a lot more for me and i'm finally starting to figure out stuff i've been trying (half assed admittedly) to figure out for 10+ years now and i'm pretty psyched on it.

over the years being a solo electronic producer has become so much more appealing to me than being in a band. it's actually not as expensive for software and a computer as most of the band gear i had owned, and you can do so much more with it it's ridiculous. plus much as i still do love guitar music, it's beating a dead horse at this point, recycling the same riffs over and over and over, same guitar tones (hence old guitars are usually the most sought after for one specific sound you've been hearing since the 50's-60's-70's, etc.) whereas electronic music changes so much over a comparitively miniscule timeline. like i listen to squarepusher from like 10 years ago compared to what everybody sounds like now and the difference is insane (i still love his music but the difference in production quality is nuts). it's the only kind of music that i really see completely untapped potential with. there are still so many places to go with it that no ones thought of yet, meanwhile almost every other genre of music is just rehashing the same old shit forever. it's the only kind of music that makes me excited for the future, for what is still going to be done.

Well put. I also came from a hardcore background, it's interesting how many people do and yet electronic music is so incredibly frowned upon by many in that scene. It's really similiar in a way though, so much energy.

[sn0wday]

All my life I've played video games. And that was my source of feeling proud, and like I accomplished something. And I loved the music in video games. when I was like 8 I was more interested in the soundtrack to Pokemon Red version than what was on the radio. And it kidna stayed that way. Yeah I started listening to normal music, but I sell had this deep appreciation for the electronic music in video games.

I always LOVED pokemon cries. If you look at games like Pokemon RBY and listen to the sounds of the pokemon cries, they sound like bro. If you pitched em down and threw some more bass on it. Straight bro. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvZzyN4-1gM for reference haha.

I got into EDM in general in middle school. nobody else liked it. didn't think much of it. over the years got really into it.

I realized video games have no real value, they're fake, and I didn't like that. So I quit playing them. and I needed something else to like "do" to be my thing, my art, my accomplishment.

Then about a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to start DJing. And I did. started playing out bass music at friends house parties and it went over well, right as all this music is getting big now. But then I got this odd feeling like, none of these tracks I'm playing are really mine. And I thought about how fucking accomplished I'd feel if I made something myself. Kinda brushed that off.

Then about 6 months ago I downloaded Ableton. Couldn't figure it out. Picked it up again a month later and just sat on it. for hours. 2 months later kinda got over the initial learning curve, and then up to now, I'm still learning but it's coming so quickly. And it feels amazing, production is in depth. That's what I love about it. What I loved about some video games was the depth, learning every mechanic, perfecting my strategies, but I'd be disspointed when it was over, I'd learned it all, and I need to just find a new game. Left with nothing.

Production feels like a never ending journey. You just keep getting better. Its so open ended. And I like being good at things that are difficult, makes me proud that I took the time and dedication, and I had the smarts to do it. And now Production is that thing for me, and I keep hating myself that I didn't figure out about it earlier cause it's what I've always been looking for, something I can invest time in on a fucking screen that i'm not going to eventually max everything out, or get the end credits and it's done. No feeling that all those hours went to waste.

I dunno if it's just the after initial learning curve burst of learning phase, but I can get in bed every night and think of dozens of new things I learned in production. And I feel accomplished, and can therefore go to sleep happily.

And yeah it would be awesome if I was famous, and the music I create, my art, got me girls or money or fame. Who wouldn't think that would be awesome. And I'm not sure how healthy it is to have that as something that pushes you, but I think it's good to have dreams. As long as you understand they aren't realistic but can still follow them cause it feels good. And I bet one of these days I'll meet gorgeous girl who loves this sort of music, and finds it "sexy" that I try to produce it/play it out. But who knows haha.

[accordionfan]

cosmic forces drew me in, i had no choice or say :/

edit:

All my life I've played video games. And that was my source of feeling proud, and like I accomplished something. And I loved the music in video games. when I was like 8 I was more interested in the soundtrack to Pokemon Red version than what was on the radio. And it kidna stayed that way. Yeah I started listening to normal music, but I sell had this deep appreciation for the electronic music in video games.

this is my story too. i didnt even know there was good music outside video games till i was like 15 though

[illtabulous]

I started after i felt just mixing 2 songs together wasn't enough, and i wanted to try my hand at making the tracks that i loved mixing together. only then i found out how accessible producing really is nowadays, wish i figured that out when I was younger though.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

Autechre

[Espirion]

Produced shitty trance music around 13-14. Quit. (Insert space for 7 years). Friend got me into producing dubstep. Learning and trying to produce now with no results. The end

[Snarfie]

I started for the moms. Rlytho who doesn't like to create art?

[Smiles]

Listened to hardstyle and house mostly. Thought it would be easy and cool. I got confused as shit with all the software possibilities and such so i quit. Got live intro cause I was bored and had money and watched all the tuts i could and read a lot for like 4 months before I even attempted to make a tune. Got into a lot of deep stuff. Now I start a a new track every other day and almost never finish them or i do just for the practice, have maybe 3 or 4 tunes that I made that i like, every month I delete all the shit i don't like. Just recently showed my friends some of the tunes i have made but they have no idea deep stuff exists and think all electronic music is dubstep, so didn't get great feedback. One of my friends got traktor kontrol s2 and is djing brostep which is cool but he also pirated ableton and just puts a bunch of loops together to make tunes which is really gay imo but i just keep it to myself lol, hopefully he'll figure out that isn't the way to do things.