getting better at producing?
getting better at producing? Posted on: 26.09.2012 by Lavona Farling i have seen alot of posts about people asking things like "how come my music doesnt sound very professional?" or "any tips with this or that?" and most people answer with "you need to practice" and then i wonder what about a music course or music school? would that help? cause i have been producing for a while now and i did make some progress but i lack knowledge in example understanding VST's or why things happen when for example i tweek a knob things like that how did you guys learn that? | |
| Terra Merigold 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by ThinkAboutIt
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| Garret Phadke 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by elliot1106
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| Monserrate Rupnow 03.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by alchemy
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| Luciano Hyppolite 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by Tarekith
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| Luciano Hyppolite 02.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by ThinkAboutIt
awesome tips! thanks for sharing the video it has really changed my approach! |
| Bradford Grafer 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by crakbot
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| Terra Merigold 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by ThinkAboutIt
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| Garret Phadke 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by elliot1106
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| Linda Chavda 04.10.2012 | Sounds nice, keep it up! |
| Garret Phadke 04.10.2012 | Motivation = practice! When i started doing music for the first time , i didnt understand alot of stuff und was rly disappointed. My sounds were rly bad, my mixing is still crap I was not motivated enough to continue.. I did a break for a year. After 1 year i saw a video tutorial which was rly understandable and sounds rly nice! I was motivated enough to give it 1more chance. The sounds started to sound abit better, but it was still too bad. I practice practice practice prectice for about 1 year. I Started with FL studio and ended with Ableton live, the music programm was more simple for me as FL studio and i could do there much more stuff with(EQ,copresors, efects). I dont want to say that FL studio is bad, i just had alot of good understandable tutoial video with Ableton live! My bro helped me out alot cos i was too lazy to read the stuff Cooperate with somebody, lern from each other, stay motivated and you will always get better! You can hear what i do in yotube : http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDreadMonkey?feature=mhee im looking forward for good critik. if you got any questions, wirte me a mail Im open to any kind of cooperation! Have fun! |
| Monserrate Rupnow 03.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by alchemy
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| Celine Surico 03.10.2012 | The older I get, the more thankful is that i have dabbled in classical music (basic training), rock bands, DJ:ing, doing dance music, jazz, playing whatever instrument is around and especially *listening* to the *whole* body if music that is around. Me believes the main reason a lot of contemporary dance music is so boring and copycat like is that the producers don't go outside their comfort box resulting in productions that all mostly sound the same and will not exactly bubble up the producer(s) from all the other me-too-ones. The nice thing, however, especially with the U.K based producers, is that they nowadays have this holistic approach to take anything and make it sound interesting. I'm very happy minimalism is over. |
| Layne Koop 03.10.2012 | I would not recommend a specific course on musical "production"...at least not yet. I do recommend that you take a "music appreciation" class. The specific genre of the class doesn't really matter...classical, blues, jazz....you are there for the theory, not the music. Classical might be the best place to start with music appreciation. This class will give you some background on music theory, structure, and it will rapidly expand your vocabulary about music. You can not believe about ideas when you lack the vocabulary to hold the discussion. There is (almost) nothing in ANY music that does not already have a term from classical music (and it will probably be an Italian, German or French word). |
| Luciano Hyppolite 04.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by Tarekith
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| Monserrate Rupnow 03.10.2012 | Dylan has some great ideas in that workshop, I saw him in person in Seattle doing it a couple of years ago and was impressed. Motivating if nothing else. I definitely agree with what rdubs said too, start with great sounds in the first place you don't need to worry about all this work to polish things and get them sounding good later on. If you're not happy with something, don't expect you can drastically change it later in the production process. |
| Luciano Hyppolite 02.10.2012 |
Originally Posted by ThinkAboutIt
awesome tips! thanks for sharing the video it has really changed my approach! |
| Cindie Brodskaya 01.10.2012 | This is the biggest piece of advice I can give to make things sound more "professional" as you say. I notice a lot with people starting to produce, that they use a lot of processing and effects on weak sounds to try to achieve powerful professional sounds. I see a lot of people giving people advice and just saying: "Oh man, more sidechain compression and some sausage fattener dude!" This is not how it works, the chunkier and fatter your sounds are coming out of your synths, the less processing you need, and the better overall sonic quality you will achieve. With distortion, reverb, delay, whatever it is, you want to apply it in small quantities to enhance the already beautiful sounds you have synthesized, sampled, or whatever. If your starting point for any given sound is shit, the result will be shit as well no matter how many plugins you throw on the channel. |
| Linda Chavda 30.09.2012 | I guess modern is the key there. Personally I quite like it that way though, suits the way I believe and stuff. |
| Bradford Grafer 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by crakbot
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| Georgianna Eurick 28.09.2012 | Watch this carefully and buy the rest if you have the cash. It's legit |
| Jaqueline Manteiga 28.09.2012 | Practice Makes Perfect. |
| Berta Baie 27.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by crakbot
We live in a time when anything can be found online, if google is already your friend then make it your partner. Youtube is your son.
a) Unless you've been doing this for years and years this shit is VERY tedious, but thats to be expected starting out. Like anything else, the only way it becomes not tedious is because you've done it a 1000 times before and its second nature. b) Youtube is the best thing ever for various techniques etc. providing you know how to phrase your question. Imo, that IS your school. You can do it formally if u have the time and money but there is a lot of good stuff on there already. I've spent hours and hours watching youtube clips on everything from side chain compression (which i now have to go back and add to my first track because that makes a HUGE difference) to the theory behind how a synth works, and I'm in no way even close to finished. There are still a ton of tracks i listen to and say "how the hell did he get that sound?" Personally, what i've been really digging lately is the youtube series "In the studio with" by future music magazine. Some really, really great insights by top producers on how they do things in the studio, and what they use, check em out. |
| Monserrate Rupnow 26.09.2012 | I believe just doing it over and over and over is the key. Some might call it practice, but practice doesn't have to be so well defined and goal oriented. If you want to get good at ANYTHING, you need to do it a lot, there's no short cuts or secrets that will bypass that. Can school help? Sure, if you're the kind of person who enjoys learning like that. Personally I always found classrooms tend to be paced at the level of the slowest students, so for me it's a waste of my time and money. Everything you need to know to spend a lifetime learning about music and audio production is out there free online, but you have to enjoy the process of hunting for it, or you're going to get frustrated. Some people don't have the patience or desire, so for them a rigid classroom curriculum is well worth it. Personally I always tell people to be honest with themselves about how much they enjoyed learning their favorite subject in a high school setting. If you enjoy the interaction and discussions, and never got bored by the pace, then by all means look into one of the many schools out there. If you struggled to pay attention or got easily annoyed by fellow students or your teachers, then likely it's not going to be that much different for audio production. School is school, no matter the subject IMVHO. |
| Celine Surico 26.09.2012 | It's a life-long learning experience to acquire musical taste. |
| Linda Chavda 26.09.2012 | +1 ^^ |
| Frieda Swoboda 26.09.2012 | Some people disagree with me, but modern production is very tedious and not very musical. The result is musical, but the process isn't. If you aren't into the the tedious stuff, your stuff will not sound "pro". Of course, different genres vary regarding this. But decide if you like the tedious software manipulation in order to get the sound you want. If you like that, then really the whole trick is researching and trial and error. A formal school would be far to slow. A few searches on google and some trial and error can teach you a ton of new tricks since you can skip over stuff and follow your own path. Don't get too bogged down is specifics until you find out exactly what it is you want to learn. Also, a lot of guys get lost in their own tweaking and don't realize they aren't even producing anything good anymore. You hear a lot of guys on producing boards talking about frequencies and getting all technical, but they forget that's not the reason nobody likes their music. They sound like engineers, not producers. You need the knowledge, but you also need to produce stuff that sounds cool. If your stuff sounds cool, you can get away with a lot of mistakes or imperfections. Just like any other skill, the trick is to learn it all, then forget it and just start doing it. But I would say, focus on making stuff that SOUNDS COOL before you get worried about the super technical stuff. You can make an awesome synth line or beat with very little technical knowledge. In the old days, a producer and an engineer were separate jobs. Now they are sort of the same jobs and some producers fall into the trap that being a great engineer will lead to great music. |
| Linda Chavda 26.09.2012 | I've being producing for about four/five month and all I can say is believe of it as something academic, in relation to sounding professional as opposed to musicality. If you were doing a maths course you wouldnt try and try to figure out how to do calculus by yourself that would just be crazy! We live in a time when anything can be found online, if google is already your friend then make it your partner. Youtube is your son. Google the genres you like and hate followed by 'production tips'- they all can be applied in someway. Subscribe to point blank and other music schools youtube channels. Instead of twisting a knob and hoping for the best search for a youtube tutorial on a sound, watch what they do and most importantly listen to what they do. Synths aren't THAT complicated in their most basic form. Watch shit on mastering. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, if you have a tendency to over compress your stuff you'll realise in a track or two and you'll have learn from that. Try to dissect tracks every now and then. Use tracks for inspiration... steal the layout if you're shitty at arranging. Recreate their drum beat and make it yours. You're just starting out you can't just conjure up 'your style.' However, most importantly instead of asking people for advice, go and search for advice yourself. Production isn't really for lazy people, however I'll be nice because nothing makes me happier than well produced music. Enjoy your day. |
| Merideth Garnder 26.09.2012 | A lot of it is trial and error.....just like DJing. The real fun part is when you get that sound just right and what you had envisioned. Try deconstructing some of your favorite producer's songs and see how they use effects and other techniques to get their signature sounds. That's how I first got into it and I'm really starting to finally have a little bit of fun with creating sounds! |
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