In the beginning..Remember?

[AllNightDayDream]

I usually watched general tutorials on devices, synths and how to use different oscillators/filters.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

The most important thing for me really is not any of the technical stuff but how to arrange a track. For so long i could make 16 bar loops like no tomorrow but turning them into a track? Different story all together. So yah, Composition theory is deffinately up there on the important things to learn. Next on the list would be music theory itself. Stuff like understanding scale interactions and chord sequences, what they 'feel like' in certain arrangements and how to use that knowledge to give form to your newest musical inspiration. Its not so much that it allows you to play around with music creation in its purest form more deeply, but that this knowledge creates a framework around which your ideas can feed off and become manifest rather than fizzle out through a lack of having any way to get the ideas out of your head and into the real world, which, for me was the biggest problem for the longest time.

[Ldizzy]

Where to find samples, and how to treat them as for layering.

these days panpots are my friends.

[BeastModeForDummies]

See hoburg I'm in a similar boat. I really couldn't relate more, very musical bacoground and now it's like ok, the creativity is there but the production knowledge not so much. So I've just been sponging as much as possible so to speak.

[thor_beatz]

I spent years just doing my thing, ripping vinyls etc. Then I got into sound design, and starting learning bit by bit, synthesis, mixing, etc - and those years of working without manuals or tutorials actually helps me still today - everyday. Experimenting is the first thing I did. Blatant youthful optimism but nonetheless a great way to think outside of the box.

[-[2]DAY_-]

Money shot
Sub + proper layering. Still working on it, probz always will be

[flatfaced]

http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.ph ... did=507671 - Compression 101 : Teh Basics
http://tarekith.com/tutorials-and-reviews/
http://kimlajoie.wordpress.com/
http://thedspproject.com/kick-layering- ... ncellation
the moneyshot
most of the Q&As
and all the threads about resampling, layering, stereo imaging and monoing, EQing, background and foreground elements and how to achieve it etc...

edit : and something that am realising : light drums + notsofat bass = fat everything !

[bRRRz]

In the very beginning it was how EQs work and the importance of EQing correctly!

[-[2]DAY_-]

In the very beginning it was how EQs work and the importance of EQing correctly!

You were way ahead of the game then!

[Ldizzy]

no wait.. ill have to take my post back :

the very first thing that shook me is that u could put sounds between beats...

so pockets, for me... opened up a whole world that is still very open...

[futures_untold]

Gain structure, inside and out.

Fixed.

And learn what the basic controls of a synthesiser do. Once you've learned the basic controls, you'll be able to use almost any synth that you lay your hands upon.

[JBE]

If we are going to go back to the beginning, the first thing that really improved everything for me was really digging into my DAW. For a long time I thought I knew my DAW, and I learned on the fly and never bothered with the manual cause I was an idiot. Opening up my manual, opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Particularly how to utilize automation.

I never realized it, but my workflow back then really hindered my progress. Everything took forever to do, and it would discourage me from doing certain things because I didn't want to go through certain processes over and over again. Just learning simple shortcuts would leave me thinking, "You mean I could have just hit these 2 buttons and it would have been done!? ". To this day there are still things in FL that I run into that I didn't even know were there, and still have that same thought. I still watch different FL tutorials of different people just using the program because there are neat little tricks that people come up with that the manual doesn't cover, but end up making a world of difference in how you do things.

[bRRRz]

Also gain structure really was difficult to get right in the beginning now that I think of it.

[jrisreal]

no wait.. ill have to take my post back :

the very first thing that shook me is that u could put sounds between beats...

so pockets, for me... opened up a whole world that is still very open...

if thats what were talking about, I have to take mine back too.

First thing for me was the existance of midi/piano roll/etc.
At the very beginning, I was making my drums using a crappy webcam mic and the single drum kit my old keyboard had on it...it sucked and the beats sounded really bad.
and the synths...just sounds from the same keyboard recorded the same way.

[anotherday]

Gain structure/mix down

this for me too definitely. I found this forum and all the knowledge on here, especially from macc. Made my tunes so much fatter, I got all excited and think it made me put more effort into learning about more things

[Kodachrome]

I'm still at the beginning man.

[street_astrologist]

The very first technical detail that ever made me go "What on earth is going on here, and how can I fix it?" was the click you get when you sample something where the waveform does not start at 0.

That was on Music Generator on the PS1, more years ago than I care to remember. You got something like 2-4 seconds of sample time depending on quality. In Music Generator there was no waveform editor, so the only fix was to resample by swapping the game disc out for the sample source CD again, and pray for better luck.

Ahh, memories... I still have the tapes.

[Big Freq]

modulation matrix.

[makemerich]

always learning more, always getting better.
probably lfo to cutoff

i sat overwhelmed on and off reading the bible for a few months before i actually joined the forum and tried it.

[TheBassTest]

I don't think I really focused on one thing when I was starting out... Like I don't remember being like, "This song is going to have a really nice use of a compressor and that is it" For better or worse I don't think I started focusing on certain parts of my production until much later when I had the knowledge and ears to know what needs the most work. Right now what I need the most work on is mastering, I get kind of pissed off when people say to just "leave it up to the pro's" when it comes to mastering because everything I am doing in production from start to finish is being an amateur learning and mastering is one of the things I want to learn. I know my mastering is not as good as a mastering studio and that is why I want to learn, with practice I will be just as good.

I think the most important thing I have learned though is the physics of music. Since I am a concepts guy I like to know what is actually going on and how my sound is actually being affected as well as how to manipulate that to make it sound good.

Perfect