What advice would you give to beginners?

[wormcode]

To be honest I would say to stay away from production forums as much as possible.
Don't get me wrong, places like this and the production bible etc can be amazing resources, but if someone spends too long on a production forum, sometimes they will lose out on developing their own style and techniques, which are really one in the same. So read manuals, and experiment experiment experiment. Don't rely on tutorials for everything, especially youtube videos.

Also I would say give it at least a year or so before they start flooding the interweb with clips and half finished ideas. Send them to friends sure, but I don't think there's a lot to gain from people uploading early works everywhere. Unless they turn out to be one of the ~5% or so who have a natural ability to turn out quality music immediately.

[majiika]

My best advice - whether it is for a hobbyist who wants to do well, or a professional in the making ....


is this:


KEEP YOUR ASS IN THE CHAIR.


It is easy to get started, it is hard to see things through. Make small little goals for yourself ("I'm gonna get this snare drum sounding right" or "I need to get this bass to sit right in the mix" or "i need to get a better melody" etc etc etc)... and then KEEP YOUR ASS IN THE CHAIR until it happens. You will go through ALL of the levels of Dante's Inferno - but it will be worth it.

always appreciate your posts.

- work harder than you think you should be
- realise you're gonna make a lot of bad music, even at a "pro level"
- there are a hundred different ways of doing the same thing, dont let this confuse you
- a lot of people on forums dont know wtf they are talking about, try things yourself
- poverty can be extremely detrimental to creativity
- dont post up unfinished ideas on the internet
- you're gonna have to sacrifice things you really enjoy, if you're serious
- reference your tunes on different soundsystems
- find a mentor
- when your friends tell you your stuff is good, a lot of the time they just dont wanna hurt your feelings, get feedback from people with no bias

[Mad_EP]

always appreciate your posts.

- work harder than you think you should be
- realise you're gonna make a lot of bad music, even at a "pro level"
- there are a hundred different ways of doing the same thing, dont let this confuse you
- a lot of people on forums dont know wtf they are talking about, try things yourself
- poverty can be extremely detrimental to creativity
- dont post up unfinished ideas on the internet
- you're gonna have to sacrifice things you really enjoy, if you're serious
- reference your tunes on different soundsystems
- find a mentor
- when your friends tell you your stuff is good, a lot of the time they just dont wanna hurt your feelings, get feedback from people with no bias

Cheers Majiika- your points above are spot on as well...

Dave-Sharmaji dropped great science as well.


At the end of the day - tutorials and asking shit on messageboards is great... but NOTHING ever substitutes the endless hours in the chair. Sweat it out. I remember when I was working on my first album, I was working 50 hours a week... then coming home and working on my tunes for another 4-6 hours per night. Everyone spends time in the chair - doesn't matter if it is convenient, or even feasible... you just gotta do it.

[fuzion]

And just keep going dont lick any arse in the scene because you'll always be considered as a lesser producer by other artists if you act like that.

I don't care if someones a lick arse if their tunes are good. Everyone needs to suck a bit of bum to get a break... People are more inclined to remember to play your tune if you stay within the vicinity of someones presence, enough to not be annoying but enough to be remembered.


That statement is void.

I don't think you understood, of course sending tunes to people and stuff is fine just don't mail them constantly saying your so amazing check me out, omg check out my tunes like a lot of people do, nothing wrong with sending tunes professionally maybe asking for the producers AIM or EMAIL.

[wub]

• Learn one synth inside and out
• Sample everything you can get ahold of to build up an individual sample library
• Listen to as much music from outside of the genre you are producing as possible
• Get a core group of about 5/6 different producers who are competent, know what they're talking about, and will provide honest & useful feedbak

[Basic A]

DOnt worry about what other producers think of your music... know the rules and how to break em with style.

[Pedro Sánchez]

You need a Mac and you need Logic.
You need SL1210 and Serato, yes, even for making tunes.
Always test your tunes on ipod earphones or beats-by-dre headphones, if they sounds good on them, biggest DJ's will tump them, standard.
If you ain't making tunes with some sort of financial gain in mind, fix-up.
If you can't make tunes like Skrillex after a week, then this shit ain't for you fam.
Anyone that tells you that they don't like your tunes, is a Hater, pure and simple.
Originality is for people who ain't learnt how to emulate yet, pussyoles.

Follow these simple rules and you will be headline festivals and have a major record deal on the table in 6 months.

[serox]

My advice would be "dont read music forums". It can confuse you and send you down the wrong paths.

[Sharmaji]

actually forums were really handy for me back in the day; i learned a TON about mixing and gain structure from gearslutz. Then again, you don't get a lot of dumbassery like you do on other forums; show up in gearslutz and say "you're supposed to do it X way, but i've never actually done that" would essentially get you tossed out.

(which is a good thing)

sharing ideas and knowing when you're in the midst of a "learnable moment" is another one. Just last week i watched a co-writers assistant begin to mix a tune; he approached some stuff far differently than i would, and the end result was really exciting.

but yeah-- hard work, hard work, hard work. don't expect it to be easy and let yourself suck... cuz you're gonna suck a good 40-60% of the time. good ideas come out of the shitty ones.

[Mad_EP]

Another one -

There may come time after you have worked on a track for a while that you really think it just isn't gonna happen... Pro-Tip: Archive it, do NOT throw it away.

At the very least, you may find yourself able to cannibalize bits of it for other tracks (I do this all the time)... But you never know when you will find a gem in your old project folders, that you might have thought was useless when you were in the middle of it all - but with fresh ears realize what can be done to make it much better.

This just recently happened to me - I was going through my old folders (stuff I barely even remember writing) and came across a tune that was in a style I rarely write in, and having been distanced from it awhile... realized I actually quite liked it. So I dusted it off, sent it to a couple people, it was immediately played on a few radio/podcasts that same week & was signed live in the SubFM chatroom before the track even finished playing. It's coming out on Threnody's UK Trends label in 2012.


**Addendum - the same works in reverse too. I know that as soon as you finish a track, it is exciting and you want to send it off to loads of people. Pro-Tip: Don't. Lock it in a drawer for a few days - maybe even a few weeks... then take it out and listen to it again. Is it as good as you thought it was at first? Often times the answer will be "No" - not that the track is bad, but that there are some very clear ways it can be improved. I almost always sit on tracks for a while before I send it out to anyone outside my inner circle (I think it was Wub who mentioned the importance of having 5/6 producer colleagues who like you enough to give a good listen, but are also honest enough to be straight up - So True!).

[Anne Droid]

Read books/manuals/tutorials on YOUR daw
read/watch tutorials on synth programming
listen to the drums of tracks, you dont notice how much drums carry a track
dont focus too much on one part of making music
practice practice practice
when you make a track, FINISH IT! learning to make a cool 4 bar loop is useless if you cant make a track that gets to it!
^ going off this, practice intros, builds, drops, outros,breakdowns, each part of the track

[akema]

If your mates are serious about making some music why not show them the basics of how to use your daw and vsts. Sometimes reading from a book or viewing youtube views is extremely boring and more often than not a hands on approach will teach them more and be enjoyable. You might also end up making some tunes together which is always fun.

[__________]

Don't send your shit out til you've slept on it

Don't draw for Massive

Don't buy any gear til you NEED it

Don't bother if you ain't enjoying it

[billybuxton]

Get a note pad and write down what you plan on doing the next time you open your DAW and stick it on your computer screen

[Pedro Sánchez]

Get a note pad and write down what you plan on doing the next time you open your DAW and stick it on your computer screen

Or embrace the digital era and make a text file called 'track ideas' and set to open at login.

[billybuxton]

Get a note pad and write down what you plan on doing the next time you open your DAW and stick it on your computer screen

Or embrace the digital era and make a text file called 'track ideas' and set to open at login.

Na i find if i write things down im much more likely to remember

[Sharmaji]

TapeOp-- subscribe to it, it's free. The amount of knowledge shared about audio in there is just tremendous, and even if you don't understand all of it-- who would, just starting out?-- it'll whet your appetite for more. ReALLY excellent magazine.

[erratech]

(IMHO)
The most important thing you are doing when learning to write music is refining your taste. Really its about working out what appeals/draws you and what is inside you, and then learning the skills to express that. Unless it elicits some kind of response, in yourself first - then others as you progress (whatever that response is - emotional, mental, physical etc) you are not doing the music you create justice.

Then I would get told to "fuck off hippy" I imagine

(Non hippy-bullshit)
Your first few tunes are going to be absolutely terrible, accept this and just keep going and learning.

If you need to explain a track its not finished, if you know what needs to be done then do it.

Noone on the internet will ever care about what you do, noone in general will care about your music like you do
(This may be a lie but treat it as truth to avoid future dissapointment)

There is no substitute for practice. There is no substitute for developing your own tastes.

Find plugins and synths that work well for you and focus on them, having ten thousand plugins is not a positive. Having ten thousand samples is, start digging.

Try reading a tutorial and following the instructions instead of following a youtube video, they are more likely to explain things and you might actually learn what you are doing instead of just clicking knobs.

Try and make different genres and experiment, if you say "X genre is easy because Y" I will slap you. It is easy to do anything badly, remember that above all else.
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[RandoRando]

LEARN SYNTHESIS.

i mea sure when i was selling rap beats for 100 bucks a pop. It was all good and all, but i used presets. thats ALL i used. only thing i made from synthesis was a sine wave for bass. now that im into dubstep, i can only imagine how my beats could have been back then years ago.

[hutyluty]

To be honest I would say to stay away from production forums as much as possible.
Don't get me wrong, places like this and the production bible etc can be amazing resources, but if someone spends too long on a production forum, sometimes they will lose out on developing their own style and techniques, which are really one in the same.

i failed here lol

think i might try quitting dsf fdor a while, its probs detrimental to my production now