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So I have no idea what Im doing,,,, Ive never made music before, Ive never been around people who DJed or produced.....
All I have is ideas in my head, and and the passion and desire to learn how to make my own music....

Is there anyway that I have a chance to learn? I mean Ive NEVER done this before and have no knowledge in it, plus im 23.

How long would it take me to seriousaly make my first song?

I have ableton live 8 suite right now, the trial verison.

Ive been messing around with it for about 2 weeks or something like that.....
Havent really picked up anything.... struggling horribily.

I just need to know if I am wasting my time, or do I have a chance to make some good music???

What are your thoughts, how can I learn this faster and , do I even have a chance to know what all these "slang terms" are for different things about the sounds and program.

I really wanna make own shit, but I have no idea what to learn first.. everything is thrown at me at once, and so many things going on at once, its hard for me to study each thing, each sound, each sound format, ect. How can I break all this up into sections I can remember?

justarandom wrote:So I have no idea what Im doing,,,, Ive never made music before, Ive never been around people who DJed or produced.....
All I have is ideas in my head, and and the passion and desire to learn how to make my own music....

Is there anyway that I have a chance to learn? I mean Ive NEVER done this before and have no knowledge in it, plus im 23.

How long would it take me to seriousaly make my first song?

I have ableton live 8 suite right now, the trial verison.

Ive been messing around with it for about 2 weeks or something like that.....
Havent really picked up anything.... struggling horribily.

I just need to know if I am wasting my time, or do I have a chance to make some good music???

What are your thoughts, how can I learn this faster and , do I even have a chance to know what all these "slang terms" are for different things about the sounds and program.

I really wanna make own shit, but I have no idea what to learn first.. everything is thrown at me at once, and so many things going on at once, its hard for me to study each thing, each sound, each sound format, ect. How can I break all this up into sections I can remember?

You're never too old. With that said, I wouldn't suggest using ableton as your first instrument. Pick up a guitar or mess around on the piano a bit, without some sort of music knowledge your productions will be really bland

Do it Kode9 styles, play a banjo.

Seriously though, just like Honey said, getting a feel for an instrument and music in general will help you immensely.

So your saying I should give up trying to produce and stick to guitar instead?
Your saying guitar would be easier to learn then Ableton live 8 ?

If your really good at putting your ideas into what you want, learn how to do things on DAWs like time stretch.

I don't think the guitar, I'd say learn a few scales on the piano so when you come to production you can play in the chords and melodies on a midi keyboard, and instead of starting on Ableton maybe use Logic? But maybe i'm biased cos I swear by Logic. Just think it has a really simple layout but is an incredible program, and there's plenty of tutorials everywhere about how to use it. Pretty cheap too.

You are definitely not too old to start learning. Nobody here can say whether or not you have a chance to make good music...that is all up to you man. If you have the passion and dedication to deal with the frustration (which you say you are already facing) and keep going then you can do anything. As for advice, try different DAW's. Learn the most basics first like how to use a piano roll and how to put your ideas down in their most basic rudimentary form on a DAW. Good luck!

OP DAW-Digital audio workstation aka all the different music programs

shoot2stun wrote:You are definitely not too old to start learning. Nobody here can say whether or not you have a chance to make good music...that is all up to you man. If you have the passion and dedication to deal with the frustration (which you say you are already facing) and keep going then you can do anything. As for advice, try different DAW's. Learn the most basics first like how to use a piano roll and how to put your ideas down in their most basic rudimentary form on a DAW. Good luck!

I really love music and always have, and this advice really helps. I havent used any DAW but ableton live, and I have 13 days left or so on my free trial, and I havent even put anything together yet. I dont want to give up, I just want a new way to learn ........ I dont really know how to TEACH myself how to use Ableton.

all the sounds and samples and clips on the left are soo confusing, the little squares where the "clips" go, are so weird to understand, i try to play one sound, and another one together and it never works...

Maybe when my free trial expires I will try a different program..... but I dont want to work on a program thats not good quality..... i rather start out hard then stoop way low .... and use the generic program u know what i mean?

sometimes i feel like im too old to learn any of this because im already 23, and the awesome dj's and producers that are makin the big hits right now have been djing since they were like 15 n shit, so Idk... i just have no idea what im doing, and i dont know where to begin to even starttttttt!!!

i mean where does a person start learning how to DJ? where do they even begin?? do they need all the midi keyboads and audio interfece? or can they do without that, and just with a so so laptop, and ableton live suiite 8???

justarandom wrote: Your saying guitar would be easier to learn then Ableton live 8 ?

apples and oranges... u could learn Live and it would be useless unless you also played something... like guitar. or synth, drum machine, turntable, trumpet, voice... err, slicex? u kno it isn't anything like an instrument, it's the core of the operation to produce a 2track... and this one contains instruments u could learn to play, like Operator

just a random

-[2]DAY_- wrote:

justarandom wrote: Your saying guitar would be easier to learn then Ableton live 8 ?

apples and oranges... u could learn Live and it would be useless unless you also played something... like guitar. or synth, drum machine, turntable, trumpet, voice... err, slicex? u kno it isn't anything like an instrument, it's the core of the operation to produce a 2track... and this one contains instruments u could learn to play, like Operator

Okay that makes a lot of sense.. but..how would live be useless if u didnt know how to play other instruments, when with live you can make your OWN sounds and beats and music?? like what if i dont want to use live instruments, cant i just make my own stufff ?????/

You're never to old to learn. I know people who didn't start playing an instrument until they were well into their 40s. When it comes down to it, learning how to make music on a computer with synths is no different than learning how to play an instrument. You still need to learn how everything works before you learn how to play it.

Just to ease your mind a bit, I'm 25. I didn't really start trying to produce until about 2 years ago and I'm doing alright for myself. Still have a long way to go though. I've also never played an instrument.

I would suggest grabbing up a DAW that you think suits you, and then stick with it. Jumping from one program to another will hinder your learning quite a bit as it does take awhile to learn the ins and outs of each one. The same goes for synths. You don't need 100 different synths to make good music, and constantly using different ones in every project you make will also slow you down. Take the time to learn how 1 or 2 synths work.

JBE wrote:You're never to old to learn. I know people who didn't start playing an instrument until they were well into their 40s. When it comes down to it, learning how to make music on a computer with synths is no different than learning how to play an instrument. You still need to learn how everything works before you learn how to play it.

Just to ease your mind a bit, I'm 25. I didn't really start trying to produce until about 2 years ago and I'm doing alright for myself. Still have a long way to go though. I've also never played an instrument.

I would suggest grabbing up a DAW that you think suits you, and then stick with it. Jumping from one program to another will hinder your learning quite a bit as it does take awhile to learn the ins and outs of each one. The same goes for synths. You don't need 100 different synths to make good music, and constantly using different ones in every project you make will also slow you down. Take the time to learn how 1 or 2 synths work.

great advice, that assures me quite a bit.


what synths do you recommend?

justarandom wrote:So I have no idea what Im doing,,,, Ive never made music before, Ive never been around people who DJed or produced.....
All I have is ideas in my head, and and the passion and desire to learn how to make my own music....

Is there anyway that I have a chance to learn? I mean Ive NEVER done this before and have no knowledge in it, plus im 23.

How long would it take me to seriousaly make my first song?

I have ableton live 8 suite right now, the trial verison.

Ive been messing around with it for about 2 weeks or something like that.....
Havent really picked up anything.... struggling horribily.

I just need to know if I am wasting my time, or do I have a chance to make some good music???

What are your thoughts, how can I learn this faster and , do I even have a chance to know what all these "slang terms" are for different things about the sounds and program.

I really wanna make own shit, but I have no idea what to learn first.. everything is thrown at me at once, and so many things going on at once, its hard for me to study each thing, each sound, each sound format, ect. How can I break all this up into sections I can remember?

Dude im 15 now i been producing for 3 years...it takes practice to get good and not just 2 weeks. Dont worry if its not working for you...for the first thing, just try a simple drum beat and progress from there.

I think the best way for you to start out is to use a REALLY basic program that can't do much but is really easy. THat is how I started out...using the 2-bar looping online "DAW" called sonicproducer.com ... it really sucks but it will show you the basics of the step sequencer and then from there you can move on to good software like Ableton, Reason, FL Studio, Reaper, etc. (personally I like fl studio the best). Another thing is that once you learn the inside and outside of your DAW, you shouldn't switch daws, they all do the same thing, just look different. If you don't want to pay for sonicproducer, they have the test thing and I could give you my user/pass

justarandom wrote:So I have no idea what Im doing,,,, Ive never made music before, Ive never been around people who DJed or produced.....
All I have is ideas in my head, and and the passion and desire to learn how to make my own music....

Is there anyway that I have a chance to learn? I mean Ive NEVER done this before and have no knowledge in it, plus im 23.

How long would it take me to seriousaly make my first song?

I have ableton live 8 suite right now, the trial verison.

Ive been messing around with it for about 2 weeks or something like that.....
Havent really picked up anything.... struggling horribily.

I just need to know if I am wasting my time, or do I have a chance to make some good music???

What are your thoughts, how can I learn this faster and , do I even have a chance to know what all these "slang terms" are for different things about the sounds and program.

I really wanna make own shit, but I have no idea what to learn first.. everything is thrown at me at once, and so many things going on at once, its hard for me to study each thing, each sound, each sound format, ect. How can I break all this up into sections I can remember?

Take a look down the line of incredible artists who only made their name later in life.
The list is endless.
Hell, some artists only became famous after their 40s.

I actually laughed when i read this post. Im 27 and have been producing for about 6 months so if you're too old then i should give up now lol !!!! If you want to make music then just stick with it. At the end of the day its all about having fun.

I think part of your problem is that learning any DAW takes a while and you have so many options it's hard to know where to begin. My advice would be to not worry so much about making a serious song but just fucking around with some presets and enjoy learning and exploring.

I think the reason people are saying you should learn the piano or guitar is because it makes you focus on just one thing as opposed to trying to tackle music theory, synthesis, and audio production all at once . When you play "Mary had a little lamb" on the piano, you don't have to worry about eqing the kick drum.

The first stuff you do probably won't be that great but you gotta start somewhere.

Also, age don't mean shit.

Why not start with sample libraries.
It`s an excellent starting point.
It allows you to get to the crux of what you want without battling for beats.

nowadays with such amazing amount of information on internet, it is possible to make great tunes in like a year or so, if you have lots of time for that ofcourse