Donkey

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Yotta2r wrote:
Thanks, I'll read it right away. This is the kind of stuff I'm interested in.
You'll probably still have to read some of those old mens manuals to learn how to implement some of that stuff.

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Donkey
Last edited by Yotta2r on Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Yotta2r wrote: The manuals are the bible of the plugins, right?
No, unlike the bible manuals tend to contain useful information and aren't full of contradictions and lies.
NOt just good for plug ins either.

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Yotta2r wrote:It's not like I have insulted you or anything.
No you haven't, and I didn't insult you either.
Yotta2r wrote:you were judging me instead of trying to understand.
I am judging your statement, indeed. Not you as a person. I don't understand people who don't use what they already have. It's one of my shortcomings.

Yotta2r wrote:Where can I learn to add reverb, delays, compression, EQ, make synths and techniques?
Adding EQ, reverb,delay and compression is a mixing thing, so I advice you to search for mixing tutorials.

Like these:

https://www.udemy.com/mastering-synth-pop/#/

https://www.udemy.com/mastering-electro-house/#/

Both mixing tutorials are done in Ableton, but there's nothing you won't be able to do in another host.

More mixing tutorials:

http://www.groove3.com/str/mixing-electronic-music.html

http://www.groove3.com/str/Mixing-with- ... g-Ins.html

I don't know what genre you create but this electro house tutorial can maybe teach you a thing or two about work flow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2fW-U6ls4E

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manducator wrote:
Yotta2r wrote:It's not like I have insulted you or anything.
No you haven't, and I didn't insult you either.
...
Oh, sorry, I mixed you with the other person.

I'll definitely check it out. Thanks :)
Last edited by Yotta2r on Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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manducator wrote:
Yotta2r wrote:Ofc I didn't read the manual; i'm not an old man.
So how can we help you if you don't even use the resources that are available to you?

If reading is for old people, maybe you are to young to make music. Come back in 20 years or so.
Quoted for truth.

You learn by reading things, nothing has changed in this matter since 3000 years or so.
Blog ------------- YouTube channel
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

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Mushy Mushy wrote:There's no substitute for hard work and talent.
Talent is mostly a myth. Or rather, it's probably a synonym of "affinity", which shows itself in form of the willingness to put in the hard work and the effort, no matter how frustrating or boring it may seem at times.

It's not unusual that beginners overspend and buy a lot of different things that they don't need, but that they hope will help them learn, provide motivation, or assist them in finding out what works for them. It doesn't make him a pirate or "an idiot". It's pretty standard behavior, in almost all areas, not just music making. We're not talking about tens of thousands of bucks here anyway, and most people could buy five Zebra licenses every month if they wanted to. GAS is rampant among not only beginners. :)

Anyway, I don't believe there is a "best way". Even if something works for someone else, it may still not work for you.

The general recommendations are usually: Listen to music, not just the genre you want to make music in, pick up some basic music theory, look into song structure, analyze songs (take them apart, learn to listen like a musician, not like a recreational listener).

Above all, experiment. Try to copy (don't distribute it) what you hear. Be curious about how something is done, then look specifically for that information. Break the whole learning down into manageable pieces. If you try to learn everything at once, you'll feel overwhelmed (you already do). Pick topics, then research them. It's easier now than ever before in humankind's history.

Groove3.com is excellent. Spend the $15 for a 30-day all-access-pass and look at everything that interests you. They have series for specific software as well as specific tasks and topics. It will save you a lot of time and gives you exposure to consistent quality material. You'll eventually want to buy specific series so that you can download them, but for now it's good to browse and look what's there.

I'll second what the others said: Focus on the software you have. I know it's hard, and I understand the hope or desire to find something new that just "clicks" with you and makes everything easier. It won't happen. You'll scratch the surface of whatever you get, feel excited and playful and relieved for a bit, and then you hit the same wall again. It'll make you feel stupid, dumb, hopeless, and above all: incompetent.

Retail therapy doesn't help with that. Trust me. I have four DAWs and sold the license of a fifth, and if they did anything for me, it was to confuse me and make me bounce back and forth. I was more busy learning DAWs than making music. So, focus. Pick a tool or a DAW and tell yourself that you'll stick exclusively with it for, say, two or four weeks. Then do it. Try to finish something, even if it's "bad". Finishing things is important.

I'd also recommend to learn an instrument. Something you can touch and that makes sounds. Doesn't matter which you pick. Guitar and ukulele are relatively affordable, a synthesizer (not just a MIDI controller), a recorder or another wind instrument, or a kalimba/mbira. Anything will do. This obviously isn't strictly necessary, but I feel it really helps to "connect" with music and making music.

Very importantl: Don't give up. You'll probably never be famous or create music that anyone but you cares about, but it's a good outlet and great for self-expression. Make noise that you like. :)

(And when you work on music, do it in full screen.)

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Mivo wrote:Lots of valuable info
Some great advice there. I do take back my idiot comment. Apologies to the OP. Think I still hadn't had my morning coffee by then :oops:

However, his manual comment did infuriate me no end. I stand by that one.

As you also say, I can't stress enough the importance of picking one thing and learning it inside it.
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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Yotta2r wrote: Oh, sorry, I mixed you with the other person.

I'll definitely check it out. Thanks :)
Forgive, forget and let's move on. :)

I just wanted to point out that learning to make decent sounding music is hard work. It needs dedication. Stuff like reading the manual is part of that dedication.

Mivo explained it really good, no need to repeat him. :clap:

And yes, take 1 step at a time. There's lot to learn, like music theory, sound design, mixing, mastering, song arrangement,...

Don't try to do this all at once, you will get demotivated.

Make some music with the knowledge you got at this moment. Save it, learn some stuff and compare your future music with the first piece you ever did. The progress will be your motivation.

EDIT: And of course; there are people who learn faster by looking at video tutorials than reading.
Last edited by manducator on Sun Aug 10, 2014 5:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Mushy Mushy wrote:However, his manual comment did infuriate me no end. I stand by that one.
Yeah, that was a little silly. :) I loved manuals when I was a young man (back then, things actually came with printed, ring-bound handbooks!), and now that I'm regrettably a middle-aged man I still love good documentation!

I understand the appeal of videos (probably a more natural way of learning), but not understanding how something works, or what it does, and then not wanting to read the manual... that just doesn't cut it. You either want to learn or you don't -- everything else is just excuses, laziness and procrastination. Not like you have to read the whole thing from back to back. Just ask a question, then look at the manual's index and scroll down. It's also effective.

By the way, for FL Studio, I recommend the channel of Seamless on Youtube. He has dozens of tutorials for FLS, by topic. The basics course includes some 60 videos. He also has hours of "making a song from scratch" videos. I only watched a few, but he's fun to listen to and he explains things well. (Groove3's videos are more efficient, but Seamless is very personable and that may help with learning.)

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I LOVE MANUEL! :love: *




* Sorry, I meant "manual"...

Seriously, the best way is reading good books, for example the "Dance Music Manual" by Rick Sno(w)man, and to listen to electronic music to analyze the songs, Rick Sno(w)man calls it "chicken scratching" (nonetheless, you don't have to copy the Avicii lead 1:1 :lol:)

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Someone already mentioned these, and I will second:

Sonic Academy has a ton of tutorials that walk you through the entire production of a track, from start to finish. You can pick up a ton by watching how they process tracks and get patches to fit with each other, etc. Sonic Academy is mostly about "how to do X genre" or "how to sound like X".

AskVideo/MacProVideo have a ton of "how to use X" tutorials. They are much more product-focused, and the quality of their classes is generally excellent. (Same for Groove3, but they have a fairly small catalog.)

The magazines Computer Music and Future Music always have a bunch of good tips, and they often include video tutorials on their discs.

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I think the best way is to be self-taught, learning how to get what sounds good to YOU. I doubt any of the big picture changers like Aphex Twin developed their sound by reading Computer Music articles. These kinds of articles and literatures are useful, though, as a secondary source (experience being the first source) - I use them to (a) bolster and go over what knowledge I do have and (b) focus in on problem areas.

Grab a good suite of signal analyzers: an oscilloscope and a spectrograph. Have them running all the time (a big monitor helps, I originally did this on a tiny box monitor, it wasn't that fun, but it got the job done). Then just experiment with everything, look at the patterns they produce, and note the correlation between the patterns and the sounds, as well as what you find pleasing and inspiring.
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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Thanks for all the new answers :) Greatly appreciated, ya donkeys.
Last edited by Yotta2r on Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Donkey
Last edited by Yotta2r on Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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