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In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:11 pm
by BeastModeForDummies
I just thought this would be a good post, pertaining to my intake on knowledge. I feel like I just overwhelm myself once I start digging and digging on a certain topic of production knowledge. So my question to DSF is where did you start? What was the first thing you thought significant enough to improving your production skillz that you just hammered into the ground learning?

inc how to modulate the lfo post!

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:15 pm
by Shum
Compression, inside and out.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:16 pm
by jrisreal
I started a few years ago using an online flash-based 2-bar looping crappy step sequencer as a daw. i soon realized how sucky it was and switched to ACID and then to FL Studio and was growing with all three and continue to learn...im still a happy FL user.

if you want to know what crappy flash-based thing Im talking about...go on over to http://www.sonicproducer.com it SUCKS and none of the tunes they advertise with are made with their software

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:18 pm
by BeastModeForDummies
Funny you should say compression, that's what I was digging and digging through last night. Started with a simple tut on youtube, 3hrs later I'm still digging lol

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:26 pm
by fragments
Gain structure/mix down

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:50 pm
by Fused Productions
I'm still in the major learning stages. But I would say, how to balance the different instruments in my tracks.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:51 pm
by BeastModeForDummies
Me too though I've learned alot in past months, thats why I thought this would be a cool post for points of focus.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:53 pm
by drokkr
Layering. That probably was the main thing that changed the gears in my head and helped my production standards the most.
A/Bing during mixdowns is a very close second.

Taking a break is something I learned, which is so important, but rarely do...

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:03 pm
by legend4ry
Proper time stretching/sample manipulation.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:30 am
by BeastModeForDummies
Keep em coming I'm going to save this thread and dig for info on probably most things said :) I think I made this post for direction I feel lost sometimes lol

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:41 am
by mks
I was just trying to learn how to make good music. I was listening to Funk, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Jungle records and trying to figure out how to recreate these sounds and vibes. I taught myself midi and synthesis, was studying jazz in school on the upright bass and patched together a primitive electronic studio circa 1995 consisting of a Roland Juno-106, Roland MKS-70, a Roland MKS-100 sampler, Alesis Quadraverb, TR-505 drum machine, a 1970's Tapco 6 channel mixer and an old Mac that was already obsolete then running Opcode Vision sequencing software. Then I just tried to figure out how to make music with that.

This was my setup for a few years, slowly adding bits here and there until I got a Mackie 1604VLZ mixing desk in 1998 and a proper sampler, an Akai S5000 in 1999. A few months after that, my first record came out.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:49 am
by DJ Crackle
fragments wrote:Gain structure/mix down
This, definitely.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:29 am
by BeastModeForDummies
Share!

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:38 am
by ChadDub
I'd like for Shum to give links to some helpful shit on compression.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:07 am
by Sine69
I'm still have a ton to learn, since I just started producing about a month ago. So for me, everything that I learn ends up helping me a ton :lol:

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:31 am
by Astrobear
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.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:41 am
by jrisreal
Astrobear wrote: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.
I agree with EVERYTHING you just said

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:54 am
by nowaysj
I've been wrestling with compression for a LOOONG time. I literally just cannot get it. I can do certain things with it, but I really do not feel like I've got it down. But I've been using a transient shaper lately, and that is doing more for me than most compressors will do in terms of shaping the envelope of the sound on the scale that I want.

So that one is still in progress.

Proper gain staging has completely changed everything for me. Nothing has made such a big difference.

These are recent concerns. In the beginning I was just worried about music and making interesting sounds, never really about documenting them in a tangible medium of expression.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:57 am
by BeastModeForDummies
I agree compression is just something I've recently been jabbing at myself, but there are still alot of unanswered questions.

Re: In the beginning..Remember?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:29 am
by Hoborg
very first thing for me was when I was like 12 years old (9 years ago...wow) my dad bought an m-audio mobilpre and syntrillium cooledit to try to record himself playing the guitar. he never really learned the guitar, but I took all his gear and started fooling around. been producing ever since, but I would say dubstep is what inspired me to take it to a truly professional level, and its been the past 4-6 months that I've been really focusing on bettering myself as a producer rather than just trying to be a musician