4 Tips for Beginning Producers
4 Tips for Beginning Producers Posted on: 15.04.2011 by Yolanda Aschim Hi Guys I am new to the community
, just thought I'd start off with a thread beginners may find interesting. Hope you enjoy | |
| Verona Fashbaugh 19.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by MattM
Studio monitors and/or a pair of decent headphones are definitely a worthwhile investment if you're serious. |
| Breana Singerman 18.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by MattM
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17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Breana Singerman 18.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ctrld
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| Yolanda Aschim 17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ctrld
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17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Verona Fashbaugh 17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
All I'm saying is that I wish I hadn't been so focused on one genre when I started. Everything I learned was genre-specific and didn't translate well to others. You argue that not focusing on one genre could inhibit overall knowledge, and for me the exact opposite was true. Could just be me, but I'm just sayin. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 16.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Anglea Kasi 28.04.2011 | I'd recommend picking up a copy of Mixing audio... concepts, practice, and tools... and for mixing.. id say.. start by focusing on EQ, Compression, and Reverb |
| Mora Romandia 27.04.2011 | If I had a tip for beginner producers it would be to learn how to eq properly. Many starting producers don't realize the importance of it, or ignore it completely in their first couple productions and get discouraged because of it. In my opinion eqing is what seperates a good track from a mind blowing one. |
| Love Greico 26.04.2011 | Totaly agree with all of this |
| Breana Singerman 27.04.2011 | I don't believe you can have TOO much fun, just have to be disciplined is all. Maybe separate your studio time into two different sessions i.e. a creative sound design one, and then another would be taking those ideas and then making a track out of them. You obviously don't have to go back and forth everytime you're in the studio. If you're not feeling in the "creative" mood, you can still work on producing a track with idea's you already made in your other sessions. I'm a big believer in time spent in the studio is time well spent, regardless of what you accomplished or not as it's building up your studio chops. |
| Sheba Rostas 26.04.2011 | the 10,000 rule really puts things in perspective. that's spending 4 hours a day for 10 years! @__@ and the thing about having fun... sometimes you can have too much fun and end up with nothing. which is what happens with me sometimes. i get sidetracked so easily (especially with ableton) following the cool looking/sounding butterfly/idea and then i realize im completely lost in the meadows. for me itd be very useful to have a plan of action, just like what mattsearles says about having objectives. |
| Hang Postman 25.04.2011 | ^^^ under this novel here.... but hopefully this helps (probably not) a big tip is just have fun and dont be afraid to get your hands dirty and explore new things, go on youtube and find tutorials on your DAW, and just practice makes perfect! |
| Anglea Kasi 26.04.2011 | I guess I kinda have a different take on things. For me, or may way of believeing, the essential thing is "the art side" of things.. and for that the essential thing is.. listening to and developing your own inner voice. So.. as a result.. doing what other folks say you should.. is not the thing you want to do... not if this is the thing you're giving the most emphasis to anyway. so On what tools to use.. I believe it's a real mistake to do something like.. go from Cubase to Digital Performer to Logic to Pro Tools cause you're insecure and some famous producer fellow said, each time, that you had to go use this other tool. But... how wide versus narrow and deep you should go? I believe it ought to be up to you. I'll give you a for instance... I've been making music on computers since dinosaurs walked the earth.. and.. most of what I've been interested in has been like.. using computers to explore certain kinds of compositional ideas.. and then into stuff like sound design a little bit... a whole lot of mix engineering stuff.. and rebelieveing how to believe about work flows and all this crazy stuff.. But in all of this.. I barely ever seem to work with audio channels. Now in a way, you look at that and you go.. well if that's the case there's lots of tools I haven't learned from top to bottom.. because I've skipped bothering to learn about how to deal with recording and audio editing.. I mean I've done it, I know about it.. just.. for a long time didn't do it. Or in mixing.. for a long time I didn't use EQs or compressors... Well, you could say I didn't learn which ever software deeply enough.. but on the other hand.. one can control performance dynamics in midi and in your virtual instrument patches.. So in a way it's like I went deeper in other areas.. and entirely skipped some.. but where I went deep, where I went wide, where I went shallow.. it all was just my own inclinations.. it was what I was passionate about, it was my sense of purpose.. Now listen... When you're starting out.. seriously.. how much crap can you afford anyway? You know you need a computer, good audio monitors, might want to believe of acoustic treatment.. audio interface.. if you wanna record there's all those microphones and pre amps.. and then like.. a DAW.. and what about plug ins and... And its like just to get the ball rolling.. there's a lot to go and spend money on.. so it's hard for me to imagine.. if I were starting out today to be jumping between a lot of production environments.. cause how the hell could I afford them? I mean.. you know.. I'd recommend.. Pick one DAW, and by DAW I don't mean fuit loops or Ableton or Reason + Record.. I mean Logic, Cubase, Sonar.. whatever.. but a full featured traditional DAW.. cause at least in my view.. there kinda all the same.. and then.. knock your self out with if you wanna add Ableton, Reason, and whatever else to your tool kit.. Still.. it isn't really about the technology, is it? So I kinda thing this is the wrong place to come at it from... I believe there's subjects.. like.. there is "sound synthesis." Sound synthesis is something it can take a long time to become a real master of.. and i suppose the turbo-masters of the subjects are kids designing there own instruments in Reaktor and MSP... and whatever. And you know.. you can run down the list of all the crap there is to learn... and for each one of them.. you can go so freaking deep.. just from a technical perspective.. and then on top of that there's the artistic depth.. which is like your ability to make the technical stuff a part of your creative vocabulary... And so what I believe it's like is.. for me.. the first thing is.. "how can I do something." Like.. I probably don't need to learn sound synthesis cause there's probably a lot of patches I can pick.. but somehow I need to create MIDI data to drive that synth.. and I probably have to be able to mix that with that drum machine and... So its like you start and you only need to learn anything as deeply as you need in order to realize whatever your objectives are. I mean I believe there's room to critique people's objectives.. but.. So I believe maybe we should start talking about what the objectives for a beginning producer might be? On the subject of genera.. Its funny that I never learned that stuff and now feel like "I should probably learn about that stuff." I don't really see why it's at all important.. accept.. if you want it to be important.. or if there are reasons you have that make it important. Another thing we might say is.. that fundamentally when you start out.. what you ought to be doing is building a strong foundation for what you might be doing in the future. Err, well that's some of my thoughts anyway |
| Karry Sappington 19.04.2011 | dont go by 1 genre or a bit of all, create your own. ha! |
| Verona Fashbaugh 19.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by MattM
Studio monitors and/or a pair of decent headphones are definitely a worthwhile investment if you're serious. |
| Breana Singerman 18.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by MattM
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| Marya Romaine 18.04.2011 | I would like to add to compose your tracks using a good set of over the ear headphones. At least it helped me with sounds that pan left or right... or both. I could tell in very good detail which way it was panning and if it sounded right. or maybe my desktop speakers just suck |
17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Breana Singerman 18.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ctrld
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| Yolanda Aschim 17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ctrld
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17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Yolanda Aschim 17.04.2011 |
You argue that not focusing on one genre could inhibit overall knowledge, and for me the exact opposite was true.
|
| Verona Fashbaugh 17.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
All I'm saying is that I wish I hadn't been so focused on one genre when I started. Everything I learned was genre-specific and didn't translate well to others. You argue that not focusing on one genre could inhibit overall knowledge, and for me the exact opposite was true. Could just be me, but I'm just sayin. |
| Yolanda Aschim 17.04.2011 | But what I was trying to say, is that for beginners I would try and go for one genre at first and learn it throroughly rather than skimming each genre and only learning bits of each one. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 16.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Ashirumatic DJ 16.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
The comment about finding features in one DAW that are not in another is an unfortunate reality. Case in point since moving to Mac I use Logic and Ableton mostly. I start with Ableton. However I miss Fl Studio. The workflow was alright but the real power I enjoyed was its internal controllers (ie... Peak Controller, and Formula Controller) to which you could map to any knob, slider or button within the software and apply mathematical formulas to. Gold there! |
| Yolanda Aschim 16.04.2011 | Yeah exactly and now that you know Ableton inside out you tend to find a range of other DAW's that have elements that Ableton doesn't and you then use them to further develop your music production. |
| Andree Ganas 16.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Lula Falconburg 17.04.2011 | I agree with everything, as it applies to just starting out. Later in the game, it definitely helps to experiment with other styles of music (including no particular style). I learned a lot by experimenting with the DAW Renoise, it's a refreshing perspective at approaching computer music. I've learned more on that than anything, though I now use Ableton. |
| Yolanda Aschim 16.04.2011 |
Really it is all just practice, learning your DAW and Synths and developing your personal sound.
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| Ashirumatic DJ 16.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by AndrewC
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| Danyell Mcneeley 16.04.2011 | ya ya definitely |
| Yolanda Aschim 16.04.2011 | Yep everyone will have different opinions, this is just from what I have experienced |
| Breana Singerman 16.04.2011 | Half of these are good, and the other half are not so good I'd say |
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