This forum is a huge source of information. However, I feel like most of that information requires some sort of prior knowledge of production. I don't know what it is that I'm missing, because I've been messing around with FL Studio for a couple of years and still can't produce anything worthwhile.
How do I get past this point? How do I actually gain the knowledge required to start making tracks? Every tutorial or resource I come across seems to think that I'm already knowledgeable about production.
I know this is kind of a shitty thread, but asking those who have the experience is the only thing I could think of doing in order to get past this hole.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:59 am
by python453
well what anyone is going to tell you is practice... and they're right.
even if you're making bad tunes, chances are you're going to pick something useful up with each one, so you just gotta keep working at it.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:12 am
by Plazzy
Yeah, I got that, but I lack the knowledge required to make decent tracks. Messing around in FL Studio without knowing what I'm doing won't help me make "radio quality" tracks.
It's not that I don't practice, it's that I don't have the correct knowledge, and it's so spread out that I'm not sure how to connect it.
I had a friend who's experienced in producing non-electro music help me understand certain things such as ratio, threshold, and what is actually happening in a mix. You can read up on the technical bits but it's going to come down to your preference and your ears.
As far as melody goes, what's been stated prior is true. Practice practice practice listen listen listen
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:27 am
by fragments
I dunno what to tell you man. About two years ago all the info on this forum was a god send that got me set on a good path. I've probably made 100+ shitty to OK tunes since then and IMO they get a little better each time.
You say you've been "messing around with FL Studio for a couple years" well what the fuck is "messing around"? I've easily put in thousands of hours to get my tunes sounding OK.
I find the info on this forum really straight forward and as basic as one could want. I don't want to tell you to give up and I can't just hand you the drive to keep going. So...what do you want? Decide. Move forward. /thread.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:28 am
by RandoRando
OP did you have any previous musical experience? playing an instrument or anything like that?
also try stepping out from the current genre your makin and make something completely different from what your used to
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:32 am
by Electric_Head
Do you know what you like?
Go do it.
When I started out I had no knowledge other than being able to play a djembe.
I put samples in a sequencer and had fun.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:08 am
by RandoRando
Electric_Head wrote:
When I started out I had no knowledge other than being able to play a djembe.
I put samples in a sequencer and had fun.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:14 am
by Ficticious
I don't know what came over me, but yeah when I started it was about 4 months ago now. I've learned SOOO much. I promise you all a good tune if I can't reach amazing level. Promise PROMISE!
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:39 am
by adover
Look for any tutorials on FL Studio related stuff, the more you find out about stuff the more you'll be able to do!
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:43 pm
by Plazzy
Yeah, thanks for the responses. I guess it's one of those things you gotta just keep at.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:31 pm
by __________
Plazzy wrote:Yeah, thanks for the responses. I guess it's one of those things you gotta just keep at.
What exactly do you feel is holding you back, or preventing you from getting to a point where you're happy with your music?
Broadly, without knowing more, my advice would be to not force yourself in to one particular style, sound or process. I think this is what holds back a lot of beginners.
When I first started making beats in my school days, I used to spend a lot of time trying to emulate (in a loose sense) DJ Premier or Madlib or Jah Shaka or Jean Jacques Perrey. To quote you, it was rare I came up with "anything worthwhile" while I was in this mindset. Only since I started doing my own thing, without any particular style or end-goal in mind, did I find myself able to get inspired by my OWN music. It started feeding itself rather than sapping vibes from producers I looked up to.
Similarly, I used to spend a lot of time using formulas, techniques, plugins, etc, which were 'the done thing' or 'industry standard' or 'it just makes sense/is easier to do it this way'.
IMO getting YOUR shit together is all about doing YOUR thing. Fuck what anyone tells you about your music. Criticism and praise should be taken very lightly. Unless you're truly deluded or have a god complex, you will be able to tell deep-down if a piece of music you've done is worthwhile and you're on a good path, or if you're just going around in circles doing meaningless shit someone else could do for you.
Sorry, I know that's a bit open-ended but there is no right answer to your question anyway. Just remember making music is not a race and nowadays it's not even about technical knowledge or good music theory. If you keep working at YOUR style on YOUR terms, you are bound to create something meaningful eventually.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:37 pm
by narcissus
i really don't know what any of us could possibly tell you....... i struggled through years of depression with the help of my music, it was my guiding light and only joy, my only love, so that, in a way, I didn't have a choice whether to learn it or not. i HAD to learn it. i kept learning, and just last had the most amazing and beautiful music-related epiphany of my life. literally was jumping up and down from realizing that if you multiply the fundamental frequency by the natural numbers, you get a perfect representation of the natural harmonic series found everywhere in nature. i can throw this simple pattern into a mathematical function and generate beautiful natural tones from digital nothingness.
it took me over 10 solid years of studying music and 3 solid years of math and physics to come to this blindingly obvious, yet simply miraculous result.
so i don't want to hear that you can't piece it together, that you don't have the right information, because all the right info is right under your nose. how do you think people originally came up with that 'info'? that is thousands of years of human learning.
i would say that nobody is going to put it all together for you, *but at this point in human history,* there ARE those people! there are tons of books on theory of audio, theory of music! seriously man stick with it if you really believe in it. you have the info. as you read this, you are amidst the largest collection of data in the galaxy.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:57 pm
by Triphosphate
Quick someone post the ill.gates video!
^ Absorb it, you can thank me later
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:43 pm
by Jizz
rather than spending all your time trying to just gain knowledge on how to produce you should spend the majority messing around with actual production; most knowledge comes with practise and experience, and before you know it shit will start coming together
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:55 pm
by didi
Read the manual.
edit: of your daw
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:51 pm
by ehbes
remember that its music..its not about numbers and all that shit
though you will need to learn all that stuff
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 11:24 am
by 1stfiest
Not to hate on fl or anything but i personaly found it really hard to make anything proffesional sounding on it, especialy if your only using the software that comes with it. My advice: switch DAW. Cubase if windows, Logic if apple. Torrented versions should do for now. Buying a few computer music magazines should help too.
Re: Production - How to Get Your Shit Together?
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:39 pm
by ehbes
^ FL is fine op, no one daw us better than another