How did you guys learn?

[Davias]

I've started at 15 with FastTracker II running on DOS ^^

No synths, no filters, no EQ, no choruses, no reverbs, no delays, no phasers and so on ^^

I couldn't read english, I had no manual (I don't remember from where came my version a floppy I think), and only samples that we used to rip of other tracks that we found on video games magazines I was with a friend and we had to learn everything from scratch, no internet too at the time ^^ We had to simulate all the fx, sweeping filters samples cutted to emulate a filter knob, multiples copies of same sample to simulate reverbs, delays, chorus and so on... Had to write bpm change everyline if we wanted shuffle. No mouse only keyboad and hex numbers to control things as volume, panning, pitch, glide...
Ha that was though and that made me learn a lot about the basics of sound and writing tracks.

Then Reason came out and a friend of mine got it, that was the revolution ! We used to hang all the time at his place and since Reason was so much more than a tracker with only sample-based abilities, but also so limited with only one synth, one sampler, a drum machine, a loop player and one copy of all the basic fx (disto, flange, phaser, filter, eq, compressor, reverb, delay)... Then finally after the first WOW impression we became somewhat limited again...

But then we only had to hit tab and the modular world opened to us and then thousands of new possibilies and much more important, the ability to understand by trying and error all the concepts behind fx processing, routing, modulating. The fx we didn't had (coz reason was closed to plugins), we had to build them by ourselves, by tweaking and experimenting, and the more we learned, the more we became good and confindent in what we were doing. And we didn't even opened the reason manual ! (ok maybe he has, but with the experience acquired in tracking world were everything is so hard to set up, it was like a breeze to experiment with Reason).

Then we realized that Reason was a great learning tool but just a toy, when we tried the Fruity Loops demo someday. Because even if we made crazy sounds and modulations in Reason, no matter what our mixes sounded like crap, and we were wondering why... till we tried this demo. In 5 minutes we made something that was punchier, rounder and phatter than everything we made during 5 years with reason... Something that had the grit of our older work with trackers. We understood Reason was lacking something in its audio engine, did some A/B tests to confirm and then we left. He went to cubase then to reaper. And I went to Renoise, back to good old days of tracking. Then I lost all my work in a disk crash, I had to work for food, and many other stuff and I stopped everything during 6 years till now because I lost my job thanks luck !

So that was a personal story but the point is : just do it, be passionate about it, make your brain work, my personal example proves that even with a few clues and no help, if you work hard about it, you can make it. (Ok I'm still a noob for many things but I consider myself not so bad in some domains)

Then a friend into music got Reason

Now I still can't read a partition and I don't know anything

[SayersWeb]

I started producing after being a huge fan of synthesizer music for most of my life. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

1) don't get too caught up in perfecting (production, mixing, mastering, etc) any track when you are first starting out... Just produce as much as you can. Each project will challenge you differently, and your capabilities will evolve with each one.

2) start with creating music that you like... It doesn't have to be perfect, just create sounds (whether it be short loops, partial tracks, or even complete works) that you enjoy hearing. And listen to your works often, and when you are in different moods... You will grow tired/annoyed with some, while others will remain enjoyable. That will help to evolve your style.

3) share your efforts and get feedback, whether online or with your friends. Ask for honest feedback, and don't take it too personally. Learn from the feedback and try new things based on it.

4) get a couple of software synths, and put the provided presets to work. Tweak them as needed, but don't worry about becoming a sound designer... At least until you become more experienced in the other areas of music production.

Probably the most important things to remember are to enjoy the experience, and to commit a lot of time for experimentation.

[Kaboom75]

Watch youtube videos

Free tutorials on here http://www.soundonsound.com/ such as how to EQ.

Read on KVR and Gearslutz forums

Read how to do stuff with my DAW from my DAWs forum

Read manuals that come with plugins and DAW.

Learn what works in a song by learning how to play the ones I like using digital music notes .http://www.musicnotes.com/?arp=2&ca=0&c ... haresearch

analyse songs such as thinking about the bass line dum dum dum di dum why is it like that , why does it work, what is the timing of the notes what effects are on the sound why does it go well with the other instruments.

Listening and analysing music I don't usually listen to such as classical Japanese music and the band Black Lace even analysing Bucks Fizz now :/

Just mess about guessing, brainstorming.

[psychoxkps]

everything is by my side try-fault method.. by that method you learn most....

[V0RT3X]

When i was 16 I got a demo for Propellerhead Rebirth, and I installed it on my first self-built windows computer and played around with it.

When i first used Rebirth I thought it was amazing, yet all i knew how to do was sequence drum loops and synth loops. I never even got past learning how to sequence a entire song. It overwhelmed me and intimidated me to the point of not wanting to keep trying so I sort of abandoned the idea for a bit.

I was never the type to read manuals, and in many ways I still am not so I never
understood the concept behind Rebirth.

My limited experience with Rebirth eventually led me to Reason which was a major step up. Reason was quite the system and frustrated me to no end because I had no idea how to use it apart from playing with redrum because it was like the rebirth system.

Eventually I would go back and forth playing with music software that I would get my hands on as a young teenager. For the most part my musical experiments would never be captured but played in real time and enjoyed only in the moment.

I remember my mom telling me to record, but I never would out of embarrassment because I thought i sucked. Most of my music I would play on

The reason I thought I sucked was because I never took piano lessons, or learned proper theory etc. My younger brothers eventually started taking music lessons, so I ended up taking a few piano and vocal lessons.

My first teacher was impressed that I caught on so quick and that I had a nice singing voice. I never practiced singing as much as i used to, but occasionally i would sing along to some pop music that I listened to.

At 18 I went to a local Film and Television school and was introduced to the soundtrack production booth. The music booth was a small part of the school and it seemed to almost be a sort of exclusive area to those that could use it.

Even though I never really knew much about how to use it, I found the booth amazing because I got reintroduced with a interest of mine, and everything I needed to make an album was right there in front of me!

Instead of thinking about how to make a cool drama movie, i sort of become obsessed with the idea of producing a music video. However due to my lack of experience with the technology and music itself I never really managed to create that idea.

So most of the time at a film school for me was in the music booth where I would do what I always did, which was just playing on the midi keyboard.

I liked their computer because it gave me access to the full program Reason 2.5. I would visit the barely used booth playing with Reason, triggering preset sounds from the synthesizers like I always did. Also as usual I was not the type to read a manual which I kind of kick myself over even to this day. I did create a few tracks but it was using the program Acid which the school also had and I made some of my first songs using pre-made loops.

After returning from my time at the film school, I remember we moved to a new city and got fast internet for the first time. This for me was amazing!

First off I could download demos of all the cool music software that was there so I started testing everything I could. I started buying some computer music magazines as well, and began learning about all the cool tools I could try out.

Whenever I would test a new program, I mostly just dialed up a pre-built sound and would play away on it making my own improvised songs. I remember then at the time I had no idea how a subtractive synthesizer worked, and the most I ever got out of them was a bunch of weird simple sounds. Eventually I would tweak knobs until I got the desired result without knowing what I was doing. The sounds I got out of synthesizers always blew my mind, I never knew how they worked but I was always blown away at the sounds i could make!

I remember when i used to load up the Reason Demo I had and think how amazing it was to see an electronic music song being played in real time on my computer. Everything was there that was needed and it was just mind boggling how the composers who made the song created it.

It was also incredibly frustrating to no end, because everything I needed to make my own music was right there in front of me, but i had no idea how to use it. Again my lack of self-discipline or direction limited me in achieving my goals.

One fond memory of downloading music program demos was trying out some of the new analog modelling synthesizers.

I remember demoing the Arturia software recreations extensively, thinking how amazing they were. Arturia were famous at the time for capturing the sounds of famous vintage analog synthesizers and bringing them to peoples computers.

If I had not checked the Arturia stuff out, I would have not probably known much about the classic synthesizers that i know about now.

As I began to learn more about the instruments that they recreated, it introduced me to classic electronic musicians who have used the real synthesizers that Arturia had emulated.

I remember playing with their entire product line and thought It was amazing how you could basically have a powerful recreation on the computer, it felt to me like the golden age for musicians.

lots more of my time was spent researching every awesome vintage synthesizer from the past up that my favourite artists used. I thought they were the coolest things ever, and I still do!

Hans Zimmer was a very influential artist for me, and it seemed kind of amazing that he also started on synthesizers too. I remember seeing him endorse products like CS-80V and I thought it was so cool that I was basically using some of the same products that Hans Zimmer was using.

All this fiddling around with sound and trying to figure out the concepts behind them was a constant battle for me. The keyboard instruments with the pre-configured signal paths were complex enough, but then I encountered the modular and semi modular products Arturia had and I was absolutely in awe of how they worked.

Another amazing thing I learned about the CS-80V was that it re-introduced me to one of my favourite sci-fi movies Bladerunner! I had no idea that the original Yamaha CS80 was used almost exclusively for the sounds on it.

Eventually after playing with the non-modulars I decided to try out the semi-modular and modular offerings by arturia. I had no idea what the wires did or even what CV stood for, yet the sounds that were saved in the preset banks were sublime. I was inspired but kind of scared of them at the same time, and i remember looking up stuff on the internet of real modulars only to find even more scarier pictures!

I mean walls and walls of modules with wires everywhere, and this is hardware so you never had the ability to save or recall those same sounds like you could with software. I figured for the most part that one of my life goals would be to understand how to use these strange machines.

As I spent more time with Reason again and again, I eventually learned the differences between CV and audio. Now I can sit behind a semi-modular or a modular and patch together stuff with relative ease, because I understand some basic modular synthesizer concepts.

It's funny because I learned how to work a synthesizer before i learned how to properly use a EQ or Compressor or even record a entire song.

In the end I taught myself everything! I never went to a fancy school, I never paid anything except the price of the software to learn this stuff. Youtube, wikipedia, forums like KVR and reading books have been my education so far and I think it is paying off. I also did pay for a few music lessons but nothing very extensive.

Now I can imitate sounds from artists that I really enjoy, and make up my own mind on why I want to use something instead of getting lost in trying to figure out "What is the best?"

I still need to learn more and I know with music production I will always be learning but I think now I can safely say that I am no longer where i was when i was a teenager.

I am still learning tons, and always want to improve on what I know. I now use Ableton live mostly and a bunch of plugins that I bought usually on the KVR marketplace. Maybe when im 70 i'll have a full album of music I will approve of.

[faun2500]

Overnight success takes about 15 years.

2 things you need to know: Dedication & perseverance.

If you want my advise stay away from FREE software. Buy the minimum amount of tools you need and learn them.

500000 gigs of samples won't make you a better producer; it will make you better at finding samples.

Know your audience/market.


Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Even babies like formulas.

[V0RT3X]

Overnight success takes about 15 years.

2 things you need to know: Dedication & perseverance.

If you want my advise stay away from FREE software. Buy the minimum amount of tools you need and learn them.

500000 gigs of samples won't make you a better producer; it will make you better at finding samples.

Know your audience/market.


Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Even babies like formulas.

It depends if you want commercial acclaim i guess. I personally do this for fun and the enjoyment it gives me.

I think if i wanted to be on beatport top 20 or whatever i'd subscribe to Computer music and learn how to produce EDM.

[wesleyt]

Vort3x,

Thank you for sharing your story. I am a few years into my mostly self-taught journey into music production, and a number of aspects of your story resonate with me.

Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement.

Regards,
Wes

[DuX]

After reading all these "confessions" I'm not going to write another one as it would be too long, since I've got a long history to share, too, but one thing I have learned throughout the years is that one learns the best through practice, not reading or watching videos about it. Knowing music and production both is a vast knowledge to grasp.

Well, that's what made it so interesting for me, since I always liked complicated things... as a teenager I wanted to be a theoretical physicist... I'm still in love with it, but music and production took over my mind decades ago. It's very similar. I guess I'm more inclined to do technical stuff than creative, but I feel like there is an eternal war going on inside me between the two... one moment I'm drawing with a pencil or making music, and the next I'm solving the great mystery of the neutrino... I'm probably bi-polar, or just your typical all-around loony.

But give me shit to mix or master, and you'll get a scientifically most correct and sound project out. Black holes not included, but some dark matter could be there... nothing has been proven, yet.

Cheers!

[Iostream]

I learned by starting small. I think it helped that back in the day, VSTs didn't exist, the computer was nothing more than a sequencer and a patch editor/librarian. I have expanded quite a lot since then, but by limiting yourself to one or two key elements, you can learn a lot. I recently did a track entirely using a single percussion kontakt library. synths were made by using various samples from that library into granular synths or changing the envelopes and filters in kontakt. The end result wasn't something I would have come up with without setting forth the limitations of using drum samples for every single instrument. You can learn a lot from happy accidents.

[Le Daniele]

The way I learnt is by reading Tweakheadz tutorials about production and gear. For the very beginners is difficult to get into music production because of the lack of proper documentation, complicated software interfaces (I remember the first time I opened FL in 2003 and thought WTF?) and general bad attitude in most forums against noob questions.

Tweakheadz tutorials tought me the most basic things about production, and from then I was able to go to forums and ask more civilized questions.

Learning synthesis? That's another story...people said to me to go and read the free Sound on Sound tutorials, but I used to think they were written in alien tongue.

I learnt on a Roland Juno 106 back in 2007 (when they weren't that stupidly expensive), and to this day, I still try to avoid complicated tools meant for sound design (like Alchemy, Omnisphere, Absynth etc), and keep it simple. The less time I spend learning and lusting after new gear, the more I spend playing!

[Davias]

I never learned synthesis, but I tweaked knobs many times on many soft synths, and after some time, I was able to predicate some results of what I was doing, I slowly learned what all the esoteric words meant... OSC, LP, VCF, VCO, ENV, and so on. After a long stop, I was thinking I forget it all, but thanks to KVR challenge (and some more other stuff just before), I was put back again into limited environment, and re-learn again super fast almost everything I knew about synthesis. It is like bicycle, even u stop for a long period, when u practice again it comes back very fast and in an unexpected way.

So my point is, keep struggling and enjoying, even if sometime you don't seems to progress fast, if you feel tired, take a break, and then when you a boring yourself not knowing what to do, try to come back at music, and maybe you will experience a jump in your skill... And what you learned, is never really lost forever if you stop for a period.

And be passionate, this helps more than reading thousand of manuals !

[DuX]

Roland Juno-106 is brilliant for learning how to program subtractive synthesis synths, which is like 90% of them, and if you can't afford hardware TAL U-NO-LX can teach you that in the same way. It also sounds rather good. It's a must have, IMO. However, it's not a really flexible synth... and I'm very bored these days with synths like that. I've been using them too much over the years.

I myself have learnt it long time ago on Jupiter-4, D-20, and later on Wavestation, ASR-10 and other synths, but a synth with knobs and faders per parameter is definitely the best way to learn it. Like Jupiter-4 or Juno-60, or pretty much every analog, and some "new analog" synths that have plenty of knobs and faders. They allow you to learn much quicker what all the various parameters do, so later on you can program other not so friendly for editing synths quicker, too.

Synapse Dune is also great for programming sounds.

[hansba]

I recommend watch tutorials like Sonicacademy has they have tons of Ableton live material like how to make house, trance whatever...also watck macprovideo and groove3 videos. All have youtube channel too. Learning to how subtractive synth works watch Rob Papen new CDs. And of course do your own stuff 1 hour and next day another hour but different song not the same one.

Im just learning and if talking about synths get SonicAcademys ANA synth (cheap and really good) and some effect sample cds. Ableton live is nice DAW even though I have now Sonar X2 I have learned also watching Youtube tutorials like Vespers they are really nice.

Learn also piano scales all and how chords consist of then play scales with music. Use example beatport.com so you know what is the key of song. Visit also here http://www.hooktheory.com/

[dg90]

Just follow this sure-fire 10 step plan to achieve musical success:

1. Buy lots of synths
2. Buy lots of presets
3. Buy lots of loops
4. Buy lots of sample packs
5. Buy even more synths
6. Buy even more presets
7. Buy every friggin' loop you can find
8. Throw it all together on a track
9. Fame
10. Fortune

It has worked perfectly for me so far although I seem to be stuck on step 7.

so true

I'm in the same "vicious circle" and I cannot even play a instrument. BUT it is VERY important to choose between thousands of DAWs, buying wonderful peaces of amazing loops and softsynth,...