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Hey guys,


So I have been Dj'ing (hobby) for about a year and a half and very recently (over this past summer) I took on producing music.
With the complexity that it takes to understand exactly what you're doing on every knob and effect, Synthesis, mixing and Eq'ing, i find myself at a very bad road block. Now I don't know is this is the terminology of music production but I'm finding it supremely upsetting that i have amazing synthesizers but once I start planning out the song and everything, it just doesnt fit in and then i end up trashing the whole project and starting over...I also find it amazingly hard to figure a good opener (intro) and then the buildup...i have the chorus or the bass drop and the drums..its just the opening and buildup im having a lot of trouble with. Any suggestions, guides (ive looked at the production bible), mentoring, whatever...


Second...this is going to sound a little even more weird.

But i feel some of my block is because im doing it all by myself, my friends dont know what im doing and i haven't found anyone who produces in my area...I live in Boulder, CO and im really just looking for someone who would like to collaborate, give each other tips and have someone to teach me while i teach them

Sorry pretty frustrated (tried making another song about 20 mins ago) and hit that block again....

I hope this made sense, if not i can clarify.

Thanks in advance for any type of help..have a good one guys!


Adam (Looking/\Up)

Don't worry man synth's are just flat out difficult. They're very tricky. I'm very new to producing too and have had no prior experience. What DAW/synths you use?

its not the synths im havign trouble with, just the direction of the song and the intro...how to make it lead to the ill sounding synths i make.

Personally I like to start with a nice simple drum beat... build a synth while listening to it... instant intro. Then slowly add more instruments/more complex patterns to craft the rest of the song. Your way I would prolly just tweak your badass synths to a mellower version... then simplify some of the main parts of the song for an intro. I dunno.. everyone works differently so its hard to make any suggestions. Good luck, man.

I usually like to poop on my laptop and see what happens.

If that doesn't work then you are incapable of music production and should go home.

Honestly it just takes time, I have been producing for about two years now and I would still consider myself a beginner, but I can definitely notice an improvement in my tunes...just keep at it, you've got the right idea with reading the production bible, that has helped me in ways I couldn't even begin to describe here. Keep listening to other peoples tunes that you like, search for tutorials all over the internet, and most importantly keep practicing, put the work in and you'll see results, good luck to you!

you gotta really start listening to tunes you like for ideas. When i went from DJ'ing to producing it started to listen to music in a different way... hard to exsplain, but im sure you get what im talking about. Once you start producing you listen to tunes very closely, far more than you used to before. You can even load a tune you like into your DAW and keep turning it on and off to referance the tune your working on with it.

And like someone said before... take the elements from your song after the drop and strip it down. Start off with just a pad and hit-hat. then slowly start to add more and more to make it progress and build up to your breakdown\drop. Just takes time (sure you've heard that before). I like to start with a pad or some kind of atmospher... get some spaced out hi-hats going, then have a nice stab every 32 or 64 with a sweep just before it. Then take a few elements of your track and sprinkle them in there.... that should mos def get you a good start to work from. Also, looks for some nice sample pack of atmosphers, drons, and textures (think there's a good one called
"twisted textures" out there)... there good for insperation. NI's absynth is also grate for intros. There's a tone of way to go about it. Once you find your groove and work flow you'll knocking them out like nothing.

Sorry for the bad spelling.... kind of fadded

No offense man but if you just started producing your patches wont be 'Ill' producing and synthesis both take a lot of time and hard work to get decent at and you will never be at a point where there isn't more to learn. You can't expect to buy some expensive software and suddenly be emalkay or whoever. It's gonna be a long and hard road to get the sound you want and although there are various tips and tutorials people can point you in the direction of the best way to get better is to practice as much as you can and pay attention to what sounds good and what doesn't.