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Well I have been trying to make music for ages now, I have been watching tutorials and I can only make small songs/loops.
I love music and I really want to continue make music, but i need help since im stuck and dont know what to do..
Right now i feel so hopeless like i never get better at produce music..
The things that im stuck on is EQ, and i cant even make the sounds fit together or anything.
- i can only make simple drum beat but they still sound like crapp.
- It takes ages for me to come up with a melody and after i done that and have the melody in piano roll im quite stuck and dont know what to do now.
Could you post something so we can hear what your music sounds like. How long have you been making music for? Have you tried creating music that comes naturally rather than trying to do a specific genre or artist?
Get a whole rough outline of your song in your head before you start it. Intro, build up, main part, bridge, outro etc. Draw it down if you have to!
Start with the thing that's hardest to you. Seems to be melodies? Start by writing those in simple wave forms (saw/square), don't make them pretty until the melody is done!
Don't EQ until the end (excluding like creative EQ'ing or effects or straight up sound design, just mixdowns). If you find it hard, only low pass or hipass (or both ofc) and don't try to do anything fancy.
Drums will figure themselves out with practice.
Don't focus too much on writing bangers. Write a tune and then some more. With practice and experience and a feel for what everything does you will get better. Don't even try to be too creative already. Just write yourself a couple of tunes. They'll be your first batch so you're gonna end up hating them anyway :p but they're still good practice.
don't think too much about EQ'ing. it's a very simple concept and you're probably psyching yourself out over it. just mess around with your EQ until it sounds good.
when you're making melodies, this is what i like to do: pick a melody from a song you really like. then try to mimic it on your DAW. you might end up getting pretty close or even perfectly mimicking it, but change the notes up a little and use a different patch and effects and it will end up sounding different enough that it won't feel like you're plagiarizing it.
For example, I've done Magnetic Man's Mad, Goth Trad's Man in a Maze, Gold Dust, and Yann Tiersen's "Amazing Short" (classical...pretty sick melody if you want to check it out).
This is the song I used Amazing Short it. The melody is the one that comes in @ 2:56.
Last edited by charles1 on Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Seems like you're trying to run before you walk. Fuck eq and all dat (for now). Focus on figuring out the music you want to make and have fun with it. The rest will fall into place.
Sample beethoven and you've got your melody m8. Seriously though, look for different ways to bring in melodic elements, doesnt have to be you looking helplessly at a piano roll with a trance preset
Technicality is over-rated imo, you'll learn all the fundamentals with experience anyway
Same thing here, haha. Been making some loops and playing around with sound design but haven't completed any songs yet, always get stuck the same as you when I think "Oh this sounds bad, let me try something else"
Madeon is doing this 24hr EP thing tomorrow so I had the idea of just forcing myself to write a tune from start to end this weekend, obviously I won't write a whole EP like he's trying to and it'll probably sound fucking shit, but i figured I won't be able to create anything ever if I don't take the first step and start trying.
thegrreat wrote:Well I have been trying to make music for ages now, I have been watching tutorials and I can only make small songs/loops.
I love music and I really want to continue make music, but i need help since im stuck and dont know what to do..
Right now i feel so hopeless like i never get better at produce music..
The things that im stuck on is EQ, and i cant even make the sounds fit together or anything.
- i can only make simple drum beat but they still sound like crapp.
- It takes ages for me to come up with a melody and after i done that and have the melody in piano roll im quite stuck and dont know what to do now.
Please can someone help me ?
when you understand you cant make whats really on your mind you will get better, self learning is the best way and have as much fun as possible. thats it dont worry about your progress you will get better when you dont worry about it
The best piece of advice I've heard here so far is don't worry about EQing for now. Also, if you want to make actual music learning some basic theory would seem the place to start. I spent years learning the technical side of things first. But when I finally stopped and realized I didn't know shit about actual song writing, sat down, read a bit of theory then put it into practice it's like a whole new world opened up.
Also, listen to other peoples songs. Don't just hear them. Listen. Take notes. Most songs are dynamic, the energy and vibe changes a bit through out the song. As for beats, most of the really infectious ones aren't overly complex, the big issue is making them sound more human and less robotic.
For most listeners, they will care less about the mixdown (EQ, gain staging, etc) than they do about the song being catchy and dynamic. Work on that first. I hear so many songs that are technically good, but lack any kind of soul at all. I'd much rather here something with a raw mixdown, but is interesting musically than a good mixdown and a boring ass tune.
SunkLo wrote: If ragging on the 'shortcut to the top' mentality makes me a hater then shower me in haterade.
rockonin wrote:Could you post something so we can hear what your music sounds like. How long have you been making music for? Have you tried creating music that comes naturally rather than trying to do a specific genre or artist?
Here's some of the tracks i'm working on.
But the thing is, whatever kind of style i produce music in, I' get stuck on the structure all the time..
Also when it comes to dubstep i find it hard to make the Basses match each others and even the bass melodies for such as wobbles or growls......
And sorry for my bad english. xDDDDD
We all feel like that from time to time. I remember making an EP a few years back. Once I have finished all the songs and uploaded then I hated every track. The thing is, I learned loads from making the tracks and then I learned even more (and hated every minute) listening back a few days later.
A combination of luck, problem solving, experimenting and experience will get you there in the end.Listen to music you love and take it apart in your head until you know where every hi-hat is to every chord change.
Dodge and Fuski said they where producing for 8 years before they thought it sounded pro. You will always be improving if you put the time in. I have been producing for a long time and if I listens to one of my tracks now I would find few faults in it... BUT I KNOW in about 3 mouths time when I go back and listen I will find loads.
Regarding the EQ issue. I struggled with EQ for ages. I was using it, but wasn't completely comfortable with it until after about a year of producing. It hit me when I heard someone say in an interview... "EQ is basically just a frequency volume control". As soon as I heard that everything I had been confused about to do with EQ just cleared up. Hopefully it helps you too?
So again, all EQ is is turning certain frequencies (basically parts) of a sound up or down.
Oh, another one that helped a lot when someone was explaining why they use EQ in mixdown...."I look at it like fitting stuff in a chest of draws. You can't fit it all in one draw. You have to arrange it properly to fit it all in" - something along those lines.
Basically he was saying that you cant just keep piling the same frequencies on top of each other. That will just clutter up your mix and cause all sorts of problems - as I'm sure you have found out - or you will certainly notice them once you get to grips with EQ and hear the difference! You have to make room for the sounds you are bringing into the mix.
I hope this clears the EQ thing up a bit for you? But seriously, if you ain't been at this long then don't worry too much about it. It will come!
Regarding the structure thing.... you and me both man! Trust, you ain't gonna learn all this stuff over night. It comes tiny bit by tiny bit. The more time you put in the quicker you will progress but honestly dude, it takes years and years of constantly grinding at it to get good. In a year from now you will be 10x better than you are now, in 2 years 20x better. You will never be 100% and you will always have to keep learning. Even if you become the biggest and most respected producer in the world you will still be learning. There is so much to take in and a lot of it is much simpler than it first seems, but it takes a long time to realise how simple a lot of this stuff is. And some of it is actually damn right complex!
So yeah man don't beat yourself up. If you are really into music and want to create something good then just keep at it.
Also, collaborate as much as possible. I learned more in 5 sessions collabing with a random guy I met in the pub 6 months ago than in the 2 and a half years before!
Good Luck!
P.s - those tracks you posted are actually sounding ok. How long have you been at it. They don't sound ultimate noob level?
