Things you wish you knew when you started producing?

[Skrew]

My first mistake was jumping into when I couldn't play any instrument at all. Then came the compression/eq. After that was not understanding how vst's work. I hated going by presets.

[thelmbrjck]

To be entirely truthful, I had NO idea how to use automations when I first started making music in FL studio a couple years back. I'd spend hours drawing in each detail or the notes and come up with a lot of weird workarounds. Like using dbglitch for pitchdowns and wub noises. It'd sound like garbage and then I'd start again.

Next up was figuring out how to use compression right. Still working on that one, but after looking at it from a guitarists perspective it was a lot easier to grasp.

And then EQing and mixing. Before i'd just crank everything up to 11 and then slaughter the master with limiters and unneeded compression and try to pass off my overly distorted robot screaming while eating oatmeal as dubstep.

saving cigarettes as rewards when i'm done with something awesome or dissappointing rather than smoking while producing. I burned through so many smokes while learning.

It's definitely a constant learning process. Next year i'd imagine i'll have a new list of about 30 things I wish I knew.

[Skrew]

It'd sound like garbage and then I'd start again.

I always had a problem similar when I first started. Whenever I hit my first speed bump, I would start completely over instead of trying to solve it.

[Karma_blitz]

I wish i knew about this site. The people on here know so much more than them dumb uni teachers.Great post.

[Filthzilla]

That levels shouldn't go above 0db... :L I never knew this.

[skwiggo]

the two main ones i wish i had known about are:
1. RETURN TRACKS and automating them - they are so useful for adding effects to multiple tracks. i used to add inserts on every channel DOH! cue cpu hogging
2. SAMPLING - i used to try and synthesize everything (including drums to a large extent) which was disasterous as im not great at synthesis. now i sample a lot more using a diverse range of sources. i feel that it has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. now i try to use a combination of both.

also obvious ones such as gain structure, eq, compression (use to overuse and underuse it - still have problems with eq and compression tbh)

[Dankstep]

Added most of the really informative tips to the first post. Lets keep it goin.

Something i recently just starting realizing is a lot of times i would come up with a decent bassline or w/e. but then i'd be afraid to change stuff and get in there and mess with parameters more, paranoid that what i change im going to end up regretting. I realized this is stupid and getting good sounds is all about tons of automation/tweaking/processing your sounds further. so whenever i feel like "revamping" w/e im working on and trying to progress it, i just save it as another project. so if in the end i wanna just go back to what i had before i still have that project saved. dont be afraid to get in there and get crazy with it, some of my best sounds/lines came as a result of doing just that. plus its how you keep your songs progressive and less repetitive.

[leeany]

I wish I knew some scales, and some basic mixing (EQing, Compressing, Reverb etc). But yeah, I was 10 when I started, I tried to make some fucked up hiphop.

[Manic Harmonic]

Added most of the really informative tips to the first post. Lets keep it goin.

Something i recently just starting realizing is a lot of times i would come up with a decent bassline or w/e. but then i'd be afraid to change stuff and get in there and mess with parameters more, paranoid that what i change im going to end up regretting. I realized this is stupid and getting good sounds is all about tons of automation/tweaking/processing your sounds further. so whenever i feel like "revamping" w/e im working on and trying to progress it, i just save it as another project. so if in the end i wanna just go back to what i had before i still have that project saved. dont be afraid to get in there and get crazy with it, some of my best sounds/lines came as a result of doing just that. plus its how you keep your songs progressive and less repetitive.

Very true, my most recent song I have 21 different versions of the same project. I also save settings and then freeze the tracks and hide them a lot. Also, kind of related to this, when I'm done with the song, I go back and delete most of the extra project files, all the backups, and all the undo settings. I did this with my entire logic project folder and probably saved 5 gigs of space, no joke.

[Dankstep]

Wow! 21 different versions thats crazy, but then again thats a lot better than trying to deal with all if it in the same project thats for sure ahaha. I occasionally freeze tracks but when you say you save settings, what are you saving exactly and how do you do that? also i occasionally freeze tracks but how do you hide them? seems that would help me out tons with keeping tracks organized. but i use ableton though not sure if thats where you're doing it or in logic?

[Manic Harmonic]

i just save it as a logic preset. sometimes i dont save it at all, but if you freeze it, as soon as you unfreezing all the settings are still there. the only problem is for some reason when you freeze a track in logic, any sidechaining on that track doesnt work. like if i freeze a track thats a vocoder as an instrument, no sound comes out. or if i have a compressor on the track sidechained to a kick, it's not sidechained any more when i freeze it.