A bit of advice/tips/facts etc for those just starting out

[mr echo]

This is just a little post giving a bit of advise to people facing the daunting task of learning to make electronic music. Please add as much as possible but try to keep arguments to a minimum. Share ideas, experiences etc.

Here is some of the stuff I have learned over the last 3 years or so:

1. DAW's:

- They pretty much all do the same thing. The main difference is usually the way they look and their workflow. If you are able to try a few out before spending money on one, do it. Spend as long as you can on each (days/weeks etc) untill you decide one works for you better than others.
- No DAW is perfect and I imagine there is a lot more to come yet from all of them. Just learn one well and try and stick to it.
- Any DAW worth anything will come with it's own FX (EQ's, compressors, reverbs, delays etc), although you may want to look at some VST's (which we will look at next).

- Some DAW's I have experience with and would recommend:
-Studio One V2: This is the one I've stuck with. It is very basic looking, but like I said earlier, does pretty much what all the others do. Workflow wise it is a beast. Incredibly easy to learn and use. I've never got a tune together as quick as I have with S1.
- Cubase: I've only used Cubase 5 (it's up to 7 now) but again, it is very powerful. Feels quite cluttered to me, but it is by far one of the best out there.
- Ableton Live: Live does things slightly differently. I won't go into it here but there are plenty of youtube videos out there on it. A lot of electronic producers swear by it. Myself, I've used it in the past but it just didn't do it for me.
- FL Studio: I learned on this. I don't like it's workflow much. But again, many people swear by it and tbf, it's easy to learn.

2. VST's:

- First of all, some people think that they can find VST's that will make their music sound amazing. This is not the case. However, there are many out there that are highly creative. Some make it easier to do certain tasks. Some will have the capability to get to sounds that would be either extremely difficult to get to or sometimes even near impossible with other plugs.
- Many VST's will colour the sound. This is sometimes used to get a similar sound to some highly sought after and respected vintage hardware units. For this, I would recommend looking at some Waves bundles, but they are very expensive.
- As with DAW's, shop around for VST's and if you can, get to know one before giving out money for it. Ultimately, an EQ is and EQ and a Delay is a Delay. But, like I said before, some will have slightly different ways of doing things and some will offer features that others don't. What is really important is that you research what these effects do, how they work and what they are used for. Once you know this then you can start putting these extra features do use. |
-some I recommend looking at:
- Soundtoys - Echoboy - (very powerful, easy to use and creative delay)
- Fabfilter Pro-Q - (An EQ with the capability to satisfy pretty much all of your EQing needs. Its has a very cleansound and is extremely flexible).
- Cytomic - Glue - (A very warm sounding compressor. Adds a lot of colour to the sound)
- Lexicon Reverbs - (I think the bundle I'm referring to is called the Native Bundle. The Chamber reverb sounds very natural to me, but it takes up a lot of CPU)
- Fabfilter - Saturn - (A very flexible distotrion VST. Lots and lots of top notch features. To be honest, I still havn't found a distortion plug that I'm 100% happy with yet. But this one is very popular and pretty much does most jobs you're gonna want it to).

Ultimately, I would suggest learning the FX that come with your DAW first. Get to know them and learn how they work and what you are going to use them for.
I'm not going to go into how each of these work here, there are loads and loads of posts on here, youtube, google etc. Read, watch, listen.... its takes f**king ages but it's worth it!

Creativity:

- Try not to copy others for too long. Do it at first. Everyone does. But it is unlikely you will a)completely get the sound of someone else, and
b)really be satisfied with your music.

This is all about being creative. I like a wobble bass as much as the next guy but honestly I'm only impressed by one when it's used in a new context these days. I don't think the wobble bass has much more potential progression now. Some amazing sounds have been made but there are only so many amazing sounding wobble basses one can hear before they all sound generic. And there are probably millions of people working on a meaty wobble bass every day. That being said, there is still a place for it.

Basically what I'm saying is take inspiration from the things you hear. But rather than trying to recreate a tune, recreate a sound with your own touch to it and place it in your own world of creativity.

Collaborate:

I learnt more in 6 months of collaborating once a month with a guy I met in the pub one night than at any point over the last 3 years. We are now good friends and the music we make keeps getting better and better. It is also completely different from what each of us make on our own and we are both happy with what we are coming out with.
It is also lots of fun!

Other's opinions:

Basically, for the next couple of years you are going to be posting music up and at times it will get ripped to shreds by your peers. This is not a bad thing, most are just trying to give some professional feedback. Others are just being d*cks because it's not their thing.
But, my advice would be take the feedback with a pinch of salt. If you are trying to do something different, some may not get it. This is not a bad thing though. It just means that you are not there yet. Don't be downhearted about it. Accept that some people will not like what you are doing, others can see potential and are trying to help you along the way, some just want to let you know which direction they would have taken it, some will love it, some will hate it and some will just want to let you know how much better, more knowledgeable and succesful they are than you!

Finally, it's going to take YEARS. I've been at this for about 3 years at maybe 30 hours a week (sometimes more, sometimes less) and have so much more to learn. You will never stop learning. You may spend 3 months scrapping tune after tune until you get one you are happy with. This is good, because it means you are learning.

Try and finish tunes even if you don't keep them. Force yourself you get out of those main 16 bars, again, even if it doesn't sound as good as you want. Eventually it will all fall into place.

Learn to EQ, compress and effectively use delays, distortions and reverbs.

Slice, dice, mix up, reverse etc etc . There are so many possibilities.




Please add to this if you have anything to offer. I know all of this can be found on google, on here etc, but I'm just trying to give a bit of a heads up to those just starting. God knows, I, and I'm sure many people on here at first spent a lot of time following false beliefs that the more VST's the better it wil sound, Live is better the FL etc.

Hope this helps some people

[Tettrah]

I got some things to add. USE YOUR EARS, train them and learn how to pick out details. You should know the difference between 300hz and 1k by using your ears. Furthermore you should know what a major and minor scale & chord sound like. DO,RE,MI,FA,SO,LA,TI,DO <- learn the shit out of that and you will be able to transcribe melodies by listening to them, which will help with remixes Most importantly good ears will help you analyse other people's music and learn from it just by listening.
Don't overdo it with effects. My audio engineering teacher was always saying "if I can hear the reverb there's to much of it." Sometimes you do gotta drench a sound in a ton of reverb though, what I'm saying is know when to use it and how much, the same thing applies to just about any effect or "sound shaping tool."

[Capture pt]

100% Agree to it all other than this:

Try and finish tunes even if you don't keep them.

Total opposite for me. Learning to say "fuck it, move on." was THE biggest contributor to me having fun producing again.

Previously i'd get stuck for 3 - 6 months trying to force a track that wasn't really working, and was ultimately a waste of time.

Learning is important, but having FUN is equally important.

IMO learning and having fun go hand in hand, can't have one without the other!

Now i'm doing 1 - 2 tracks a month with quick 16 bar sketches of tracks that don't really work in between. Much better for me

Otherwise, good/great post.


One thing I would add that is such a large part of my creative process is RESEARCH. Research everything, you will always be surprised where you find inspiration or what knowledge you end up picking up - and also what knowledge sources you will find. Blogs, sites, forums, magazines - visit them all, build up a bookmarks folder. When you've got downtime at work go hunt some new knowledge - so many people on the internet are willing to share their knowledge - don't just bash buttons wonder why it's not jamming - go find someone who already knows how

[mr echo]

USE YOUR EARS, train them and learn how to pick out details. You should know the difference between 300hz and 1k by using your ears. Furthermore you should know what a major and minor scale & chord sound like. DO,RE,MI,FA,SO,LA,TI,DO <- learn the shit out of that and you will be able to transcribe melodies by listening to them, which will help with remixes

I agree here, mostly. I agree that it is important to use your ears, however, I think specifically with scales and chords it is not a complete necessity these days to know each by ear. The reason I say this is that your DAW will do it for you. What is REALLY important is that you can hear when something is wrong!
From my experience, as long as you let them, your ears will become very responsive to what is going on over time anyway.

The only reason I'm saying this is that as it is pretty much as beginners beginners post, I basically don't want to give the impression that you will need to know chords and scales by ear before even learning to draw in a midi note or pitch a sound up or down.

I do plan on updating the post as much as possible as things come up. So I may add in something like the importance of using ears as much as possible and not always relying on what's on the screen.

I will also add what you said about realising how much fx to use and when.

That is if you are ok with me adding those? I will of course stick your name on there as a contributor

Like I said, basically what I'm aiming for in this post is to make such a daunting venture slightly less daunting.

Thanks for your input!

[mr echo]

100% Agree to it all other than this:

Try and finish tunes even if you don't keep them.

Total opposite for me. Learning to say "fuck it, move on." was THE biggest contributor to me having fun producing again.

Again, I agree with this, but am thinking maybe putting it slightly different. It is definitely very important to know when to say "fuck it, move on". However, I was thinking mainly of issues I've had myself where I had 16 bars and could not for life of me take it anywhere. After researching places like here I found that this is often a common problem for lots of people. The majority of advice suggested that turning 16 bars into a 5 minute tune is a skill in itself that needs PRACTICE. I took the advice and to be honest, it really helped me move forward.

Also, thinking about it being "fun". Again, I completely agree. But, at times you really need to knuckle down and do some of the nitty gritty. This, for me is usually a 3 - 4 hour period where I have everything down, the tune is done. Most of the mixdown is done. This is where I make tiny little adjustments that just seem to take forever. It is probably the least fun part of the whole process. But! No-one will ever make any tune worth a scratch if they do not enjoy making it.

So perhaps I will update with something like - "If it is not working and you're just not feeling it when you're working on a new loop, don't be afraid to scrap it. However, learning to take a 16 bar loop and turn it into a tune can sometimes be half the battle. If you don't attempt it, you will never win. So if you have a really good loop going on, try to spend some time making it happen. It can take time, just like everything else in this game." - something like this perhaps?

One thing I would add that is such a large part of my creative process is RESEARCH. Research everything, you will always be surprised where you find inspiration or what knowledge you end up picking up - and also what knowledge sources you will find. Blogs, sites, forums, magazines - visit them all, build up a bookmarks folder. When you've got downtime at work go hunt some new knowledge - so many people on the internet are willing to share their knowledge - don't just bash buttons wonder why it's not jamming - go find someone who already knows how

I 100% agree with this and will add a whole section relating to research, maybe with some links to useful places.

Again, that is if you are happy with me updating with this? I will of course name you as a contributor

I basically just want to get as much of the very very "basics" in as well as some heads up on the kind of mental approach it takes for those who are feeling as confused as I did when I started.

Thanks for contributing!

[Capture pt]

Crack on init, anything that makes the forum a better resource is a winner for me. I've gotten so much from here it's about time I gave something back :p

[Echoi]

Sounds simple, but, try and concentrate on the levels of hats, cymbals and such. I have spent many hours on SC listening to the lesser experienced producers and for some reason hats and cymbals are always far too loud in the mix, which I too was guilty of. If you can get the hang of getting those levels right early on, should stand you in good stead for more balanced future mixes.