Dubstepforum.com

Now, before you tear and rape me alive, I've read through the production bible. I've read a load of guides and info, I've browsed these forums etc. I'm an amatuer, so please bear with me.

Ok, so for a while now I've been familiarising myself with music production. At the moment I'm using FL Studio and it's pretty extensive. Now, I've experimented a lot, and created a couple of amatuer tracks etc, and have learnt a lot of the concepts involved in music production. Stuff that you will all take for granted (Patterns, Filters, VSTs, Mixing etc) I've only just recently got my head around. Previous to this my only music production experience was messing around in Garageband at school.

So I was wondering if some of you guys could just help me understand how to do a few key things in the program. I tried googling, but I wasn't sure what to search for. If you could at least point me in the right direction that'd be great.

Ok, so, when I create a bass synth in something like Sytrus (yeah, I know, I've heard you guys chastising it enough already) I program the LFO to go at a speed of say 1 wub/cycle/whatever per beat/bar/whatever. To control the speed in the track I can "Edit Events" the speed controller, which will edit the speed for the individual pattern I have selected. I understand this much, but how do I actually do it? How do I create a bassline which changes in speed, or pitch, or anything over the course of the pattern? When I Edit Events I have to draw a sort of curve which is relative to the speed and the time, but I have no way of judging how fast it's going. Do I just have to guess, listen, and then adjust until it sounds right? I feel like I can't really progress until I know how to produce basslines that arent at a monotonous set speed.

The drums are something I think I'll just have to improve over time. Practice is the best way to go about this right? I should just produce tracks and try to learn new things, new concepts that apply to not just dubstep, but music as a whole?

The thing is, I have some great ideas. I'll have a good idea for a bassline, and a beat for it to go over, or I'll hear something I want to sample and mess around with, but I lack the actual knowledge of how to do it. I understand that I have to practice, but I literally don't understand how to do certain things. It's like I've been handed this incredible toolset which I have no idea how to use properly. I mean, there's only so much a begginer can work out on his own. Saying "practice" or "experiment" doesn't really help when I physically don't know which buttons to press to create the sound that I want to experiment with. I like understanding the concepts behind the buttons I'm pressing, but I need some sort of direction.

So yeah, anyway, help would be much appreciated. I hope you can tell I'm not one of these guys who's like "HOW I MAKE WOBBLE LIKE SKREAM?", I want to understand what I just did to create that wobble, and then learn more through experimentation.

Thanks in advance,
- Tactful.

tactful wrote:
Ok, so, when I create a bass synth in something like Sytrus (yeah, I know, I've heard you guys chastising it enough already) I program the LFO to go at a speed of say 1 wub/cycle/whatever per beat/bar/whatever. To control the speed in the track I can "Edit Events" the speed controller, which will edit the speed for the individual pattern I have selected. I understand this much, but how do I actually do it? How do I create a bassline which changes in speed, or pitch, or anything over the course of the pattern? When I Edit Events I have to draw a sort of curve which is relative to the speed and the time, but I have no way of judging how fast it's going. Do I just have to guess, listen, and then adjust until it sounds right? I feel like I can't really progress until I know how to produce basslines that arent at a monotonous set speed.

Synchronise the lfo to track tempo? Then use automation to change the speed of the lfo for more variation.

tactful wrote: Saying "practice" or "experiment" doesn't really help when I physically don't know which buttons to press to create the sound that I want to experiment with. I like understanding the concepts behind the buttons I'm pressing, but I need some sort of direction.

I think the best way to learn what a button does IS to experiment and practice. If you then want to learn what is actually happening go read up on different types of synths.

sad state of affairs on dsf when I cannot tell when someone is being sincere and really wants help, or a thinly vieled pisstake hidden amongst a lot of words...

He seriously wanted help (i think) , and wrote in a well presentable way

yeah..

like I said...

sad state

back in the day, I would have jumped in there and helped him out but now, I am cautious

I used to be a really active internet forum user, but I sort of gave up a while back. I'd forgotten how complex things could get. I'm being sincere, I really want to learn. Not quite sure how I can prove it to you.

I understand how suspect a new guy with no posts is, that's why I typed a long-ish opening post. Trust doesnt really work across the internet, but if anyone could just point me in the direction of a good guide that'd be fine, unless of course you actually want to jump in and help me. I know the rules don't allow me to post/promote in this section of the forum, but I've got one of my amatuer tracks up on soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/tactful/fail-with-me). Uploaded it a while back, maybe that lends me some credibility?

For that I used the 3xosc which comes with fl studio, and put a low pass filter on it. As you can see, it's very basic, and I want to expand.

So about this synchronization; I havent tried yet, but how do I do it? After I finish typing this post I'm gonna go experiment a bit more, but It'd be great if I could cut that ten minutes out. It's really difficult producing music when everything I try to do takes an extra 20 minutes of exploration, and googling, and experimentation. What is automation? How do I use it? The only automation I've used is on the waveform samples you add in (vocals etc).

Another question; slicing beats. I hear the phrase a lot, do you just export a pattern, then import and literally slice and play around with it? Is that what you mean?

All the help is really appreciated, I'm not trying to troll you or anything. I thought if I was as direct and honest as possible, you guys might take me more seriously than the hundreds of other threads in which the main reply is "go to the production bible" which if I'm honest, didn't help me as much as I expected it to. I'm lucky enough to live in a pretty dubstep-heavy city (Bristol, UK) and I really want to get out there and start producing some worthwhile stuff.

Thanks again.

ahh man.. I'm a paranoid old c**t...

ignore me

good luck on your quest for knowledge

Thanks man, no worries. It would be a pisstake if you spent ages helping someone who turned out to be a huge trollish tnuc.

How did you guys learn all this stuff? Dubstep is my first musical genre, I didn't move here from DnB like most other producers. There's only so much that experimentation, and then google, and then further experimentation can teach you.

ok then...

what I'd do (in this order)

1. get some drums, even of you have to go and buy a "dubstep drums sample pack"
2. figure out "your" synth. Pick one.. and learn the basics on it. what oscillators do, what filters do, etc... they are all the same (once again, youtube tutorials o'plenty)
3. make a beat (or loop said drums)
4. put bass sounds over the beat.

that is going to be your first step and will give you a feeling like you are getting somewhere

and read the dubstep FAQ's at the top of this subforum when you get stuck

cheers, hope you find this helpful

tactful wrote:It would be a pisstake if you spent ages helping someone who turned out to be a huge trollish tnuc.

it's happened a few times man... trust me

I agree with you dude it is fucking hard to get the hang of, and sadly the only way to figure stuff out is to fuck around with it, there is no easy way, the only thing people can tell you is their techniques of how to do something that they figured out, but there are tons and tons and tons of different ways to do things in music production, it really just boils down to how many hours you spend sitting there fussing with it. and dont be afraid of wathcing fl studio tutorials, there are so many fucknig good ones on warbeats and youtube, you shouldnt have aproblem figuring stuff out. Plus the people on this forum are for the most part friendly and willing to help you so long as you use the search function.

Also might i add that if you can find somebody who knows a lot about music production I would highly suggest spending some time with them just watchingand asking questions, I can say that watching my roommate work is an incredible learning experience every time.

Thanks, that's the plan. The problem for me is I have big ideas which are beyond my skill level. Start with the basics I reckon. It's just the matter of controlling the speed of the lfo, I'll experiment some more and see how it goes. Expect to see some shitty tracks from me around here soon. Also, thanks for actually going out on a limb and trusting me. The anonymity of the internet is both a blessing and a curse.

that you're even asking the questions is a great sign. yes, just keep at it-- and ask more questions.

(and put yr tunes and works-in-progress in the right threads )

Thanks. I've got the easter holidays off college, so I've got shit loads of practice time. Any moment I'm not out will be a moment invested in Fl studio I think!

word fuck college interruptin mah beatmakin time

man if youre just starting out, you should get it right early at ditch FL for ableton

i'd say pick up the fl studio bible just so you can have a qrg for when you have issues learning a prog in and out

tactful wrote:
Ok, so, when I create a bass synth in something like Sytrus

To tell you the truth, the other day I tried going back to FL's Sytrus to make a wobble(Ive moved to albeton) and I have no clue how to map the cutoff to an LFO correctly haha. Id say get albino or predator, they work wonders for me.

All synths are not the same. Sytrus is an AMAZING synth. Makes insane subbass, crazy robot sex bass, and everything in between. BUT, it employs a fairly complex form of synthesis, and maybe isn't the most straightforward in the graphical user interface department.

Something like predator, albino, massive, zeta, any of those subtractive type synths will be much easier to learn.

You absolutely can learn music production by yourself. Many of us oldtimers learned this shit before there was an internet. You can do it. I've been learning this stuff for 13 years, and am just getting started. You are young and from a generation that measures time's passage in milliseconds. Learning to produce will take time, a lot of it. Years.

But there is an internet now, so if you do have specific questions, you will get answers very quickly (around here).

FL's forum is an excellent resource for learning flstudio.

Mate...i can safely say i'm in the same position as you...i have so many ideas in my head, but as you said, the toolkit is too complicated. I'm definetely gonna bookmark this and hope the answers you get can help me too. I'm 16 and after I got into dubstep last year, its become that genre that you've always wanted to hear in life :L

Anways in fruity, when you go to 'edit events', click the wrench tool then go LFO. From here its pretty much setting up the automation (which is basically getting things automatically, e.g. programming the cutoff frequency to slowly decrease throughout the song or something). Play around with the knobs to see what you can get.

I'll keep an eye out on this thread. You seem like a producer worthy of help