How to demistify production for a singer?

[DSmolken]

I recorded a few songs for a singer/pianist who seems genuinely interested in how to put dubstep basses, supersaw leads, kicks, claps etc. into her songs. She's messed around with recording in Garageband a little, but I get the feeling she's intimidated by things like the hundreds of synth presets available in FL, or by the massive size of Sound On Sound's "Synth Secrets" series which I told her is worth reading.

We spent a couple of hours yesterday tweaking the piano and adding some synths to one of her songs, and along the way I rambled about a few things like low-pass filters, compression, trance gates and the A in ADSR. I think it really helps make this stuff less mysterious when she can hear how the sound changes when I move a knob, but I get the feeling it still all seems overwhelming. Besides, I don't really know what I'm doing either - I'm mostly a bassist, my understanding of anything electronic is shallow.

So, what's a good way to get her started? Following some non-intimidating video tutorials on making basic electro and trap beats, maybe?

[DuX]

As with all, it helps *doing* it, tinkering for hours and hours. I don't think reading or watching videos can help as much as just tinkering with sounds. But as always, to be realistic, some combination of all three and lots of patience and persistence will help.

[tetsuneko]

Don't drown her with too much info in the beginning. Best is to do it one instrument/effect at a time. If you want fast results, teach her how to utilize a sampler/drumsampler. For learning synthesis, some simple VA like Synth One might be a good starting point. No point in going too deeply into processing (compression etc) before sound generating basics are down IMO. Give it time.

There are lots of good tutorial videos on youtube if you don't have the time to teach yourself (sorry can't recommend any myself as they are not really my cup of tea though).

[Sendy]

I wouldn't recommend a beatmaking tutorial to a beginner. Just a good simple synth with good sound and a one screen interface and plenty of quality time with it. Teach her what you know and let her have at it.

"Synth secrets" is probably also too advanced for a beginner. It runs the gamut and is essential reading but on average I'd put it at the intermediate difficulty rating, venturing into some pretty complex subjects.

[DSmolken]

Thanks, that's good advice. She seems to have much more interest in tweaking and mixing sounds than any other singer I've ever worked with, somebody just needs to make it seem like a collection of simple, digestible building blocks and not like a scary mountain of information, theory and math that she'd have to spend years memorizing.

Maybe I'll program some part in one of her songs using a simple synth, then tell her to mess around with the knobs till she likes the sound and gets a feeling for what the knobs do. That should be a good way of starting with one specific compartment, and it will also let her hear how the sound changes in the context of one of her own songs. Seems like a reasonable first step, no?

[thecontrolcentre]

Make some tracks with her. She'll pick it up (or not).

[DSmolken]

Definitely, working on tracks with her is the most important part of the plan. We did some of that yesterday. But it ends up being a lot to take in at once.

I'm pretty sure she'll pick it up. I just need to convince her that this isn't scary, esoteric or overwhelming. And I think I'm not terribly good at that.

[xoxos]

my fave advice for beginners is "spend a while using no processing but eq".

stick with a 1 osc synth like a bass station for a while.

[debra1rlo]

Make some tracks with her. She'll pick it up (or not).

This. And make her sit at the computer and make the mouse clicks, etc.

[DSmolken]

We spent two and a half hours changing stuff in one of her songs today, probably didn't really make this stuff look easy or logical yet because she really knows what she wants and had a long list of stuff she wanted changed but she's picking things up, doing some clicking herself and so on.

I'll see if she wants to set up a soundcloud and put that track up to get some feedback.

She wants to do a cover that's just piano and vocals next, so while that won't give her a reason to play with synth knobs, at least it will be simple enough to grasp what's happening and will let her learn about mixing vocals.

[tomtom185]

Just an idea for visualizing the sound, it could be helpful to use a spectrum analyzer on the synth to show her how the filter works and what exactly it is doing to some of the frequencies. Also, it's helpful to show what the LFOs are doing.

To visualize the actual waves she is making, possibly an oscilloscope, so she can see the what each waveform looks like and how turning the knobs change them

Just some ideas, good luck!

[DSmolken]

Spectrum analyzer is a great idea. I also sent her to a friend to show her the basics of DJing on a laptop, cause she's interested in that too.

Should have her first song finished soon, too, as we're both running out of ideas for things to change in it. Got piano and vocals recorded for another song, I think I'm gonna make her do all the clicks for one of the synth parts in that one.

[michael2]

i have only been doing the engineering end on my music for 6 years now. my wife was pregnant and asleep on the couch, so I had to do something.

I remember being overwhelmed and also knowing exactly what I wanted (i have been playing music forever). I pretty much focused on levels and EQ at first. or on nothing but just getting the song down. as I became more comfortable with the process (and more clear about what sucked in my recordings), I began to research on my own. stuck to things I was comfortable with and then got comfortable with doing things that seemed "hard."

I would say, get her started and let her go. she'll hit you up with questions, and you can point out some resources. half the fun is figuring the stuff out.

But definitely EQ first.