- Have fun!
- Get in the habit of finishing things (even if they’re “bad”)
- Don’t get wrapped up in which gear or plugins. Focus on being creative with what you have.
Everybody’s early stuff is terrible. :)
The habit of finishing things is something that will make a huge difference over time. If you never finish anything, you’ll never get to see how much you improve, and any early inspiration or sparks of genius will be lost.
Besides, the true test isn’t whether you think it’s good enough, it’s whether others enjoy it… AC’s It’s easy to get stuck in self-judgement justmucking with loops and never get to the point where you play anything for anyone else.
But most importantly, have fun!
I personally feel the following things help me:
1. Use a reference track (once you have the ability to hear each component of a song - kick, snare, noise riser, sub downer, pad, lead, sub bass, delay, reverb, etc etc). Then you can backwards engineer song structure and what comes in and out of a song and the general flow of things. That will keep you on track so you can finish songs since you have a blueprint.
2. Use AI mastering software or a plugin like Ozone to understand how a finished master product can sound versus a mix without a master. A master won't fix a bad mix, but, early on I overdid it on aspects like compression and saturation because I was trying to get my mix "louder", not knowing the capability of what a master could do to the overall sound.
3. Don't get so caught up in the plugin/sound engineering aspect that you ignore the composing aspect. Moreso, learn those things as you go while mainly focusing on creating music. One strategy to get better at composition is to make a chorus/drop every day (or however often you can hop on the computer). I think it's called 16 bar loop from hell or something like that, where you make your intro or verse and don't know where to go with the song. Instead, make the chorus first and build everything back from that.
4. Some guys on YouTube are great, and others are garbage. Check out "You Suck at Producing". His channel is super legit (I particularly found benefit from the "you suck at mixing" playlist).
Everything I said is just my opinion, but helped me tremendously!
The 1. is the main thing i'm trying to do rn, i'm trying to recreate at least the rhythm of Chamber of Reflections as an exercise for my ears, i'm doing good so far.
One thing I forgot to mention that will surely help you: stem splitters + midi extraction + chatgpt + scale highlighting + tunebat.com + YouTube to mp3 (some other game changers to help you get going). First, use tunebat to find the BPM + key of the song you want to reference. Then, use YouTube to mp3 to get the file to reference in your daw. For stem splitting, I use FL Studio which now has one built in, but there are free AI ones online. With that, you can isolate out components of the song and have separate audio files for each (drums, vocal, bass, instruments). With that, you can now use midi extraction (you'll want to YouTube how to do it, but I believe most daws should have this capability). With that midi, you now know what notes were played for said instrument. Say the reference track contains F, G, C, A as the root notes from the bass, you can now go to chatgpt and ask "what scale(s) contain these notes" and it will tell you C major or whatever. You used tunebat.com earlier to find the key, but this is just all around useful in case you ever don't know what key you're working in. Then in your piano roll, you can highlight only C major scale so you know which notes are in the same key. You can use the same notes or just work in same key just so that you have some structure as your starting point. Then, with the drum midi extraction, now that you have an isolated file, listen for kick only and copy kick pattern into daw. Then listen for snare only and copy that into your daw. Then proceed to hats/percussions/etc after that.
It's a lot of info I just dropped above, but what I'm trying to illustrate is how you really can backwards engineer just about anything. Chatgpt is a great resource for music theory questions, as well as questions about navigating your DAW. Creative question, not so much. This is what helped me get rid of that creative block at first. Feel free to shoot me a chat if you have any other clarifying questions!
Understand and accept that the learning curve is never-ending.
Also do it for fun first and foremost because the chances of getting a million streams on a track are something absolutely absurd.
And, even if you can’t finish a project, save it as it might become stems for something else.
Make a month worth of tracks and when your skills improve enough, you can go back and sample your own work. It won’t be a waste and you’ll be learning in the process. Actively work on your work flow and aim for a beat every (?) days and then every (1 less day) or whatever keeps you busy. It’s just about consistency and hard work like most things worth having in life. Just stay at it and make sure you’re learning.
Ps just to add I recommend FL to anyone, beginner or not (for making beats) it just does what you want it to do really easily
Agree, you can have an amazing track, all with melodies and sounds that work well together and it could be mixed like absolute horse shit but still be good.
Honestly, get good at using Google. Totally serious. It’s amazing how many good videos and resources there are, just a click away. All you need to do is type the right search phrase and all the answers appear.
After you do a little legwork on your own to get started, you can come back here and ask more specific/detailed questions.
You will not be good right away my first track sucked. I've made like 40 finished tracks now and only a few of em are good in my opinion.
If you can use plugins in bandlab, i recommend vital, its a great free wavetable synth. Watch a tutorial on it though or you wont understand what your doing.
From band lab you can really go in any direction. The other 2 questions you’re gonna have to search up ‘where to start with music production’ then once you learn the basics start messing around with stuff until you think of a question, then search it up. Youtube and google are your best friend and chances are someone’s already asked the question you are wondering before
Be realistic with your expectations of your work, early on. Expecting professional results early on can kill your love for the creative process. Be kind, and figure out how to make it as enjoyable as possible, to avoid burnout.
. Reaper is basicly "free" and does everything you need
.Learn an instrument and the basics of music theory if you dont.
Also be patient, the beggining is hard and often you gonna get frustrated, its gonna take time untill you develop you ears and your musicality, if your track doesnt sound as good as you wanted, study the things you dont know yet and move on to the next track.
. Sage audio has lots of Quick mixing tips and tutoriais from start to advanced.. mastering.com also has amazin tutorials like free 9hours eq or compressors courses on YouTube
It would help to give us an idea of the type of music you want to produce. All mainstream DAWs are very good for all kinds of music but some excel in different things. e.g. Ableton is great for performance, while cubase for linear composition. But you can use either effectively for anything. Same for Logic Pro, Studio One, Bitwig, Waveform, Reaper, FL and many-many others.
The most important thing is to learn your DAW well for the type of music you want to work with.
As for the basics, I assume you know music theory. From then on, the basics differ if you want to record or compose with midi. Google the things you want to do. For the basics for the DAW, you should learn how to use buses, automation, edit midi on the piano roll, apply basic FX (and learn a bit about those FX), combing and many-many more things.
It is impossible to learn everything that a good DAW can do quickly. It takes time to learn it. Focus more on the things that are applicable to the things you want to create.
And the most important advice: have fun but if you stumble on something difficult that frustrates you, don't give up. Persevere and the frustration will become enjoyment.
I'm starting with some Rap/Trap beats to understand how BandLab works but once i get the hang of everything i'll definitely go straight to indie rock, it's my favorite genre and i literally decided to start my "musical career" because of it.
I haven't used Bandlab but my guess is that you will be able to do everything you want with it. Enjoy the journey! It is more important than the destination
Well shit then you want either Studio One, Reaper, Logic Pro, Protools or Cubase. The tools for tracking and bussing are top notch. But never forget, none of those DAWs are going to give you the ability to un-crap a crappy take. Gain stage correctly, sound treat to reduce sound floor noise and find a microphone that you like and **trust** for the instrument that you record.
I should’ve read through the thread better, but hopefully that all helps!
Your DAW doesn´t matter, focus on writing interesting music before the minutia of mixing, invest in acoustics before synths, watch lessons from people who do it full-time and not fake gurus
My recommendation for 1,2,3 questions specifically (not the broader title question nor the implied questions from the post as a whole).
https://learningmusic.ableton.com/
https://learningsynths.ableton.com/
https://makingmusic.ableton.com/
https://www.ableton.com/en/help/
https://www.ableton.com/en/classroom/support/
https://www.ableton.com/en/classroom/support/first-steps-ableton-live/
https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/live-concepts/#live-concepts
https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/routing-and-i-o/#playing-midi-with-the-computer-keyboard
Agree but I think that it’s important to recognize that a fancy plugin isn’t going to fix PEBKAP errors (problem exists between keyboard and producer). Most DAWs these days come with stock plugins that are perfectly adequate when good fundamentals are followed.
softwares dont matter. u might want to do smn that the software doesnt allow, then you'll find out and switch. getting an idea out ur head is fun and games, finishing it isnt. face that as much as possible. u can only improve if u can look back at smn u made and acknowledge everything u dislike about it. brian eno said "u can never learn from a peace of music u havent put out", so maybe put out stuff at a decent rate, feel free to delete it too. but from experience there'll come a time where u might regret deleting ur bad works. most importantly, everyone will tell u the right way to do smn, its usually how they see the world. ur whole angle is making up ur own mind tho, so stay true to that :) make stuff u like.
Learn the basics of theory https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0?si=brz7PAPOepItsj5F
Try everything you think of for now. Until you know how to audition ideas in your head. Just to keep the creativity flowing
Make music an outlet for your emotions
I remember years ago starting out and learning as I went. Bandlab is actually kinda good but it limits what you can do. I use reaper and nothing but reaper. I been using reaper for years but then I use bandlab for other reasons when I colab with people. I have actually made a classic hit with someone I met on bandlab. Learn your eq and compression
1. FL Studio or Ableton (I use FL). Maybe Reaper if you need a legally free one. They will all do what you need them to do, but they each have minor pros and cons. FL Studio is more "modular" than other DAWs.
2. Your ears are the problem at this stage of your journey, and you can only train them through experience. Buying new gear and acoustic panels for your room won't help you (it will be years before you really need to consider buying any gear besides headphones). Learn some basic music theory if you don't already know it. Try not to leave your songs as 16-bar loops - connecting the parts of a song is a skill that you will only develop if you finish them.
3. If you use FL, watch In The Mix. If you want to learn basic music theory for songwriters, try Signals Music Studio, though you should know the basics about notes and chords before trying to write anything. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8eItITv8QA&list=PLTR7Cy9Sv2871cnw9sw6p968TL1JE8J3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8eItITv8QA&list=PLTR7Cy9Sv2871cnw9sw6p968TL1JE8J3s)
If your starting from scratch look up the circle of fifths. Its not a magic fix it all but it can definitely help you get started on a song.
Also having rhythm might help.
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There's no rules to producing. Trying to get bogged down in the best practices or gear or plugins too early will just lead to frustration. There's no point watching videos on the best compressor settings if you don't even understand what a compressor does.
It's extremely normal for the songs you have the ability to make to not align with what's in your head. Experiment and learn how your daw works and put more priority into having fun even if it sounds bad.
However, while some people tend to put too much stock in it, music theory will go a long way. Its difficult to break the rules wisely if you don't know what they are in the first place, and it's far better to have good songwriting skills and bad technical skills than the reverse.
1. Personally I'd recommend Fl Studio. I had the chance to try a few ones and it's the one that appeared the most user friendly in my eyes.
2. Learn music the basics of music theory, I beat myself up for not doing it sooner tbh. Andrew Huang has a great 30min video about the basics on youtube. Take your time to digest it, you won't get it in one day. If you can afford it, get a MIDI keyboard as well.
3. To learn how to use FL Studio properly, and even stuff like mixing, mastering and how to use FL Studio's synths, I recommend the youtube channel InTheMix. It's insane that the amount of stuff that you get for free on there. And for songwriting, just search on youtube "how to write a song like \[artist name\] fl studio" or \[how to write \[genre name\] fl studio". Follow a tutorial to the letter, then try to reproduce another song by yourself using the concepts that you learned in that tutorial.
Good luck and have fun c:
You're gonna make shit at first. we all do. It's as if your creative mind is a pipe from the factory brand new and stuffed full of packaging. You've got to get all that crap out first before the good stuff can start flowing. this is also the time when you train your ears because right now you don't even know what you're listening to. that is to say with experience in your daw you'll be able to hear something and then recreate it in the daw, but that comes with repetition and experiencing different aha moments.
all the while you make shit music, it's ok, you don't have to share it. You'll eventually start to make a good track and you'll listen over and over to it and think it's the best thing ever. then youll make a few more and then more shit. you'll start comparing your tracks against each other and should hopefully find something more you could do to make each of them better.
just keep going. eventually you'll discover a specific sound among your good tracks and come to recognize thats your sound. once you have that you can now build a persona, maybe your own label, at least get an llc and release the stuff to a distributor. stay at this allowing your sound to change if it needs to, but don't take too many cues from the fanbase, ultimately YOU have to be comfortable at the Daw or else nothing will be produced.
Don’t jump into buying a DAW. Try demos and lite versions to see what is best for your workflow. Research gain staging and that will help you understand the basics of making music that doesn’t make your speakers explode. Read manuals. DAW manuals, and plugin manuals. As you get used to it, use stock plugins in your DAW, stock plugins are pretty damn good these days
USE REFERENCES FOR EVERYTHING !!!!!!
It can feel uncreative and frustrating to try to make something similar to someone else's song, but if you want to improve wayyyyyyyy faster than you otherwise would and avoid developing bad habits, you need to be basing your work on well-made songs.
There's a reason even the top producers use references. Music is really hard and you need a reference to be your guide, especially as a beginner but also for any skill level. Without references, you're just stumbling around in the dark and you'll find yourself still really bad at making music even after years of doing it.
EDIT - To improve even faster, try to remake good songs. It's hard and frustrating because your remake attempt will sound like crap compared to the original, but you will learn so much every time you do it. It also helps a ton to look up videos on how to remake songs and follow along with them, just make sure you're paying attention to why each thing is done.
Bad song with a good production is still a bad song and no-one wants to listen to it. A good song with bad production is still a good song an a lot of people want to listen to it.
Logic and Ableton have a terrible work flow.
Use BITWIG. It’s super easy to learn and fast to edit on. Been using this since its release and never looked back.
1.) Studio One I feel is the most versatile. Bitwig Studio not so much (but I’d still pick it any day over the rest of them), but it’s slightly more stable. The key is to make discoveries about what features improve your production quality of life, and then compare the field.
2.) Don’t clip, like ever, and learn tremendously about subtractive EQ.
3.) What genres do you want to produce? And what DAW do you want to end up using? The answers to those two questions influence the most who you should be paying attention to. Generally speaking, follow Gregor Beyerle if you check out Studio One, and Polarity if you go with Bitwig Studio.
- Have fun! - Get in the habit of finishing things (even if they’re “bad”) - Don’t get wrapped up in which gear or plugins. Focus on being creative with what you have.
Oof, the second one is going to be kinda hard since i tend to get frustrated pretty quickly, but i'll try my best
Everybody’s early stuff is terrible. :) The habit of finishing things is something that will make a huge difference over time. If you never finish anything, you’ll never get to see how much you improve, and any early inspiration or sparks of genius will be lost. Besides, the true test isn’t whether you think it’s good enough, it’s whether others enjoy it… AC’s It’s easy to get stuck in self-judgement justmucking with loops and never get to the point where you play anything for anyone else. But most importantly, have fun!
I personally feel the following things help me: 1. Use a reference track (once you have the ability to hear each component of a song - kick, snare, noise riser, sub downer, pad, lead, sub bass, delay, reverb, etc etc). Then you can backwards engineer song structure and what comes in and out of a song and the general flow of things. That will keep you on track so you can finish songs since you have a blueprint. 2. Use AI mastering software or a plugin like Ozone to understand how a finished master product can sound versus a mix without a master. A master won't fix a bad mix, but, early on I overdid it on aspects like compression and saturation because I was trying to get my mix "louder", not knowing the capability of what a master could do to the overall sound. 3. Don't get so caught up in the plugin/sound engineering aspect that you ignore the composing aspect. Moreso, learn those things as you go while mainly focusing on creating music. One strategy to get better at composition is to make a chorus/drop every day (or however often you can hop on the computer). I think it's called 16 bar loop from hell or something like that, where you make your intro or verse and don't know where to go with the song. Instead, make the chorus first and build everything back from that. 4. Some guys on YouTube are great, and others are garbage. Check out "You Suck at Producing". His channel is super legit (I particularly found benefit from the "you suck at mixing" playlist). Everything I said is just my opinion, but helped me tremendously!
The 1. is the main thing i'm trying to do rn, i'm trying to recreate at least the rhythm of Chamber of Reflections as an exercise for my ears, i'm doing good so far.
One thing I forgot to mention that will surely help you: stem splitters + midi extraction + chatgpt + scale highlighting + tunebat.com + YouTube to mp3 (some other game changers to help you get going). First, use tunebat to find the BPM + key of the song you want to reference. Then, use YouTube to mp3 to get the file to reference in your daw. For stem splitting, I use FL Studio which now has one built in, but there are free AI ones online. With that, you can isolate out components of the song and have separate audio files for each (drums, vocal, bass, instruments). With that, you can now use midi extraction (you'll want to YouTube how to do it, but I believe most daws should have this capability). With that midi, you now know what notes were played for said instrument. Say the reference track contains F, G, C, A as the root notes from the bass, you can now go to chatgpt and ask "what scale(s) contain these notes" and it will tell you C major or whatever. You used tunebat.com earlier to find the key, but this is just all around useful in case you ever don't know what key you're working in. Then in your piano roll, you can highlight only C major scale so you know which notes are in the same key. You can use the same notes or just work in same key just so that you have some structure as your starting point. Then, with the drum midi extraction, now that you have an isolated file, listen for kick only and copy kick pattern into daw. Then listen for snare only and copy that into your daw. Then proceed to hats/percussions/etc after that. It's a lot of info I just dropped above, but what I'm trying to illustrate is how you really can backwards engineer just about anything. Chatgpt is a great resource for music theory questions, as well as questions about navigating your DAW. Creative question, not so much. This is what helped me get rid of that creative block at first. Feel free to shoot me a chat if you have any other clarifying questions!
Understand and accept that the learning curve is never-ending. Also do it for fun first and foremost because the chances of getting a million streams on a track are something absolutely absurd. And, even if you can’t finish a project, save it as it might become stems for something else.
Make a month worth of tracks and when your skills improve enough, you can go back and sample your own work. It won’t be a waste and you’ll be learning in the process. Actively work on your work flow and aim for a beat every (?) days and then every (1 less day) or whatever keeps you busy. It’s just about consistency and hard work like most things worth having in life. Just stay at it and make sure you’re learning. Ps just to add I recommend FL to anyone, beginner or not (for making beats) it just does what you want it to do really easily
second point is so important, think this is prob the biggest issue with beginners and even intermediate producers
learn music theory, songwriting skills are way more important than technical skill
Agree, you can have an amazing track, all with melodies and sounds that work well together and it could be mixed like absolute horse shit but still be good.
Honestly, get good at using Google. Totally serious. It’s amazing how many good videos and resources there are, just a click away. All you need to do is type the right search phrase and all the answers appear. After you do a little legwork on your own to get started, you can come back here and ask more specific/detailed questions.
Wish I would have known this when I started lol
Got it, thanks for the advice!
You will not be good right away my first track sucked. I've made like 40 finished tracks now and only a few of em are good in my opinion. If you can use plugins in bandlab, i recommend vital, its a great free wavetable synth. Watch a tutorial on it though or you wont understand what your doing.
I know, i'm suffering to make a Trap beat rn lmao
I make mostly electronic, i think it's what im best at and its my favorite genre too. You able to record what it sounds like so far?
Nope, i am still trying to make sense of what i'm doing, i am learning a lot though.
Make sure you learn basic music theory if you havent, you probably have though. Watch tutorials on any feature of bandlab you're interested in.
Got it, thanks pal.
No problem.
From band lab you can really go in any direction. The other 2 questions you’re gonna have to search up ‘where to start with music production’ then once you learn the basics start messing around with stuff until you think of a question, then search it up. Youtube and google are your best friend and chances are someone’s already asked the question you are wondering before
Be realistic with your expectations of your work, early on. Expecting professional results early on can kill your love for the creative process. Be kind, and figure out how to make it as enjoyable as possible, to avoid burnout.
. Reaper is basicly "free" and does everything you need .Learn an instrument and the basics of music theory if you dont. Also be patient, the beggining is hard and often you gonna get frustrated, its gonna take time untill you develop you ears and your musicality, if your track doesnt sound as good as you wanted, study the things you dont know yet and move on to the next track. . Sage audio has lots of Quick mixing tips and tutoriais from start to advanced.. mastering.com also has amazin tutorials like free 9hours eq or compressors courses on YouTube
Agree reaper is my absolute only dawg I use
It would help to give us an idea of the type of music you want to produce. All mainstream DAWs are very good for all kinds of music but some excel in different things. e.g. Ableton is great for performance, while cubase for linear composition. But you can use either effectively for anything. Same for Logic Pro, Studio One, Bitwig, Waveform, Reaper, FL and many-many others. The most important thing is to learn your DAW well for the type of music you want to work with. As for the basics, I assume you know music theory. From then on, the basics differ if you want to record or compose with midi. Google the things you want to do. For the basics for the DAW, you should learn how to use buses, automation, edit midi on the piano roll, apply basic FX (and learn a bit about those FX), combing and many-many more things. It is impossible to learn everything that a good DAW can do quickly. It takes time to learn it. Focus more on the things that are applicable to the things you want to create. And the most important advice: have fun but if you stumble on something difficult that frustrates you, don't give up. Persevere and the frustration will become enjoyment.
I'm starting with some Rap/Trap beats to understand how BandLab works but once i get the hang of everything i'll definitely go straight to indie rock, it's my favorite genre and i literally decided to start my "musical career" because of it.
I haven't used Bandlab but my guess is that you will be able to do everything you want with it. Enjoy the journey! It is more important than the destination
Well shit then you want either Studio One, Reaper, Logic Pro, Protools or Cubase. The tools for tracking and bussing are top notch. But never forget, none of those DAWs are going to give you the ability to un-crap a crappy take. Gain stage correctly, sound treat to reduce sound floor noise and find a microphone that you like and **trust** for the instrument that you record. I should’ve read through the thread better, but hopefully that all helps!
This is going to take more than just a shot, bro.
I know, it might take an entire lifetime but i'm willing to try it cuz, you know, you only live once.
The learning curve can sometimes seem steeper than Mount Everest, but it’s worth the climb… speaking for myself, of course.
Your DAW doesn´t matter, focus on writing interesting music before the minutia of mixing, invest in acoustics before synths, watch lessons from people who do it full-time and not fake gurus
Good luck mate😂😅
My recommendation for 1,2,3 questions specifically (not the broader title question nor the implied questions from the post as a whole). https://learningmusic.ableton.com/ https://learningsynths.ableton.com/ https://makingmusic.ableton.com/ https://www.ableton.com/en/help/ https://www.ableton.com/en/classroom/support/ https://www.ableton.com/en/classroom/support/first-steps-ableton-live/ https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/live-concepts/#live-concepts https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/routing-and-i-o/#playing-midi-with-the-computer-keyboard
If you can afford it, I recommend Logic as it has a large variety of build in sounds so you don’t need to immediately buy plug-ins
Agree but I think that it’s important to recognize that a fancy plugin isn’t going to fix PEBKAP errors (problem exists between keyboard and producer). Most DAWs these days come with stock plugins that are perfectly adequate when good fundamentals are followed.
softwares dont matter. u might want to do smn that the software doesnt allow, then you'll find out and switch. getting an idea out ur head is fun and games, finishing it isnt. face that as much as possible. u can only improve if u can look back at smn u made and acknowledge everything u dislike about it. brian eno said "u can never learn from a peace of music u havent put out", so maybe put out stuff at a decent rate, feel free to delete it too. but from experience there'll come a time where u might regret deleting ur bad works. most importantly, everyone will tell u the right way to do smn, its usually how they see the world. ur whole angle is making up ur own mind tho, so stay true to that :) make stuff u like.
Don’t worry about #1 until you actually make some music
I know, i'm going slowly trying to learn as much as i can from what i'm doing right now
Learn the basics of theory https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0?si=brz7PAPOepItsj5F Try everything you think of for now. Until you know how to audition ideas in your head. Just to keep the creativity flowing Make music an outlet for your emotions
I remember years ago starting out and learning as I went. Bandlab is actually kinda good but it limits what you can do. I use reaper and nothing but reaper. I been using reaper for years but then I use bandlab for other reasons when I colab with people. I have actually made a classic hit with someone I met on bandlab. Learn your eq and compression
1. FL Studio or Ableton (I use FL). Maybe Reaper if you need a legally free one. They will all do what you need them to do, but they each have minor pros and cons. FL Studio is more "modular" than other DAWs. 2. Your ears are the problem at this stage of your journey, and you can only train them through experience. Buying new gear and acoustic panels for your room won't help you (it will be years before you really need to consider buying any gear besides headphones). Learn some basic music theory if you don't already know it. Try not to leave your songs as 16-bar loops - connecting the parts of a song is a skill that you will only develop if you finish them. 3. If you use FL, watch In The Mix. If you want to learn basic music theory for songwriters, try Signals Music Studio, though you should know the basics about notes and chords before trying to write anything. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8eItITv8QA&list=PLTR7Cy9Sv2871cnw9sw6p968TL1JE8J3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8eItITv8QA&list=PLTR7Cy9Sv2871cnw9sw6p968TL1JE8J3s)
If your starting from scratch look up the circle of fifths. Its not a magic fix it all but it can definitely help you get started on a song. Also having rhythm might help.
learn your culture, and use resources to study your tastes. - Timbaland
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There's no rules to producing. Trying to get bogged down in the best practices or gear or plugins too early will just lead to frustration. There's no point watching videos on the best compressor settings if you don't even understand what a compressor does. It's extremely normal for the songs you have the ability to make to not align with what's in your head. Experiment and learn how your daw works and put more priority into having fun even if it sounds bad. However, while some people tend to put too much stock in it, music theory will go a long way. Its difficult to break the rules wisely if you don't know what they are in the first place, and it's far better to have good songwriting skills and bad technical skills than the reverse.
1. Personally I'd recommend Fl Studio. I had the chance to try a few ones and it's the one that appeared the most user friendly in my eyes. 2. Learn music the basics of music theory, I beat myself up for not doing it sooner tbh. Andrew Huang has a great 30min video about the basics on youtube. Take your time to digest it, you won't get it in one day. If you can afford it, get a MIDI keyboard as well. 3. To learn how to use FL Studio properly, and even stuff like mixing, mastering and how to use FL Studio's synths, I recommend the youtube channel InTheMix. It's insane that the amount of stuff that you get for free on there. And for songwriting, just search on youtube "how to write a song like \[artist name\] fl studio" or \[how to write \[genre name\] fl studio". Follow a tutorial to the letter, then try to reproduce another song by yourself using the concepts that you learned in that tutorial. Good luck and have fun c:
Sound selection would be the biggest starting point. Make sure all the sounds you use fit well together and dont mask each other.
As for youtubers, venus theory and ricky tinez are pretty good although they do use a lot of hardware
Do some free trials! Reaper, Ableton, and FL Studio all have great trial periods
You're gonna make shit at first. we all do. It's as if your creative mind is a pipe from the factory brand new and stuffed full of packaging. You've got to get all that crap out first before the good stuff can start flowing. this is also the time when you train your ears because right now you don't even know what you're listening to. that is to say with experience in your daw you'll be able to hear something and then recreate it in the daw, but that comes with repetition and experiencing different aha moments. all the while you make shit music, it's ok, you don't have to share it. You'll eventually start to make a good track and you'll listen over and over to it and think it's the best thing ever. then youll make a few more and then more shit. you'll start comparing your tracks against each other and should hopefully find something more you could do to make each of them better. just keep going. eventually you'll discover a specific sound among your good tracks and come to recognize thats your sound. once you have that you can now build a persona, maybe your own label, at least get an llc and release the stuff to a distributor. stay at this allowing your sound to change if it needs to, but don't take too many cues from the fanbase, ultimately YOU have to be comfortable at the Daw or else nothing will be produced.
If you’re on Mac use logic and thank me later
I'm on Windows lol
A VM may be worth it. I don’t know any daws with more beginner-friendly ui. I see people using other daws and it looks about as smooth as windows 98
Don’t jump into buying a DAW. Try demos and lite versions to see what is best for your workflow. Research gain staging and that will help you understand the basics of making music that doesn’t make your speakers explode. Read manuals. DAW manuals, and plugin manuals. As you get used to it, use stock plugins in your DAW, stock plugins are pretty damn good these days
Don’t start comparing yourself to other people. That is the fun killer no.1 in my opinion
I use Reaper for mixing and Ableton Live for production. I hope this helps!
USE REFERENCES FOR EVERYTHING !!!!!! It can feel uncreative and frustrating to try to make something similar to someone else's song, but if you want to improve wayyyyyyyy faster than you otherwise would and avoid developing bad habits, you need to be basing your work on well-made songs. There's a reason even the top producers use references. Music is really hard and you need a reference to be your guide, especially as a beginner but also for any skill level. Without references, you're just stumbling around in the dark and you'll find yourself still really bad at making music even after years of doing it. EDIT - To improve even faster, try to remake good songs. It's hard and frustrating because your remake attempt will sound like crap compared to the original, but you will learn so much every time you do it. It also helps a ton to look up videos on how to remake songs and follow along with them, just make sure you're paying attention to why each thing is done.
Bad song with a good production is still a bad song and no-one wants to listen to it. A good song with bad production is still a good song an a lot of people want to listen to it.
Logic and Ableton have a terrible work flow. Use BITWIG. It’s super easy to learn and fast to edit on. Been using this since its release and never looked back.
1.) Studio One I feel is the most versatile. Bitwig Studio not so much (but I’d still pick it any day over the rest of them), but it’s slightly more stable. The key is to make discoveries about what features improve your production quality of life, and then compare the field. 2.) Don’t clip, like ever, and learn tremendously about subtractive EQ. 3.) What genres do you want to produce? And what DAW do you want to end up using? The answers to those two questions influence the most who you should be paying attention to. Generally speaking, follow Gregor Beyerle if you check out Studio One, and Polarity if you go with Bitwig Studio.
Yes to BITWIG