I completely suck at producing

[ztrauq]

Another approach, if you have some target tracks that you want to examine and learn from, is to get a music analysis program like DeCoda, or possibly "stem-splitter" software that allows you to pull tracks apart into instrument, drums, vocals, etc. This way you can take a more informed look at how the different parts of the track work and play into each other. Not an approach I use all the time, but it can be very helpful when I want to work on music "in the style of" a particular song, or learning how a song utilizes a particular chord progression that I can then use as a base to iterate on.

[Avorand]

So many good suggestions in this thead! I was sitting in the same boat as the OP. I had no feel for rhythm nor was I able to manage good sounding combinations of musical elements like bass, kick, hats, etc. but I kept at it and now after 10 years of hobby fiddling with FL Studio, Ableton and Studio One my tracks don't suck as much anymore. But I guess they still suck in a way. Anyway, now that I got me a Midi Controller, it feels so much easier to translate ideas to the DAW and to control the rhythm. I wish I had saved all the money that I spent on gaming stuff and bought some useful music equipment instead.

[VSKZ]

I can recommend you to look up how your favorite artists do stuff. That helped me a lot, more than any random YouTube tutorial. Also, experiment and just trow stuff together without a plan was really helping me.

[machine_spirit]

Most people don't attempt making music (or art in general). Out of the few people that actually sit down and try to write a track AND record/save it - much fewer still reach a point where someone else would be interested in it beyond simply listening once to critique it and then move on.

The typical "electronic producer" scenario where someone with no musical background sits down with a DAW with a blank sequencer staring back at them, is especially difficult. Possibly the most difficult thing one could try that could still be approached merely as a hobby. The demands between learning the DAW itself, sound design, synthesis, modulation, the endless complexity of FX and dynamics etc, mixing, melodies and harmony, writing and structuring actual music and so on... It's ridiculous. I would not be surprised if 95% of the people that reach even that point - get filtered out there and then. At least if you have a bit of guitar or piano background or similar, you will know some basic music theory and have some amount of dexterity that will help out with the MIDI keyboard/controller you no doubt should have, so you're not starting with close to or absolutely nothing.

When i started out i had no MIDI controller and didn't even know what chords were, it was something i had to figure out in the Fruity Loops piano roll. It actually went something like "man why does these melodies sound so bland and thin" - which led to me quickly realizing you could stack notes vertically to make interesting things happen. My point is that it is easy to forget just how difficult these things are to someone with - zero - experience. After a certain point you just have no idea how it is for a beginner unless you REALLY start thinking about it, so much is subconsciously automated and filtered by relevance according to your particular workflow and so on.

Why are there often several "volume" knobs all over the place for each thing? Why is there like a billion different things that affect the longevity of a sound? What is the real difference between a reverb and a delay, they both seem to simulate sound bouncing back from things, somewhat? How do i get a massive reverb sound without bloating everything? How do i get an intimate reverb sound that doesn't sound like a bathroom? How do i make transitions between sections of my tracks without the subtle flavor of falling flat onto a concrete floor? I made a nice chord progression but it loops poorly because the first and last chord mix like wine and toothpaste? Why does this filter even have an envelope? Why does my synth sound slightly different every time it's played? Why does my synth only play one note when there's a chord in the piano roll? Why does this synth preset sound like a chord and how do i make it "normal" and not sounding like a house or rave stereotype? Why can i move my melody up and down the piano roll and it sounds like the same melody even though it uses different notes? Why won't this (FM) synth sound like a Rank 1 trance lead? I bounced something to audio but it loops awkwardly? How do i know which velocity curve on my MIDI keyboard is best suited for what i am doing? I have this bass sound i like but it only sounds good in a certain range of notes that doesn't work with the rest of my synths and the same goes for them? How do i make percussion that sound like these soaring groovy Vengeance loops instead of some variation of an old disco/house drum machine? Why doesn't my DnB drum pattern sound like actual DnB and more like 90s pop ballads with higher BPM even though the beat is a straight clone of my favorite DnB track? How the f**k could you possibly "compress" something "upwards"? I use 192KHz like that guy on the forum told me to but is it really the best? How do i mix without compromising? Do i need to tune my kicks? Should i put OTT before or after Soundgoodizer? Why isn't Ishkurs guide to electronic music ever updated? I made a thread about which is the best synth and all i got was 20 pages of people laughing at me?

Madness

[classic]

First question comes to my mind was " Why do you want to make music?"
Second thing comes to my mind was " No theory will give you any pleasure, making music"

To explain my first question and my second "wisdom"
I started playing piano and make music with 10 years and it lasts 40 years now.
My first musical attempts sounded really really REALLY horrible.
But, no matter how it sounded, I loved every sound I made on this keys, until now.
I want to say, If you can not get any pleasure out of your creations, no matter how they sound, you will continue to fail.
Not because of missing theory but of getting no pleasure out of anything you do. So you may give up at the end.


Start simple things and improve from there.
Find pleasure in mastering this and then the next on.
Dont look for theory.
First thing you need is fun in making noise at all.
It will become music after a while. Most of all, it will become YOUR music after a while.

Ruling your creations into music theory at the start, will kill your creativity at the very beginning, and you will continue to have the feeling of failing making music.
Start lerning what your vst do and how they sound. This theory would be usefull to shape what you have created and gives you fun in creating noise.
Let it be yours, all the time. It may sound strange, funny or "bad", but love it anyway and THEN improve it step by step.

[T-CM11]

I made a thread about which is the best synth and all i got was 20 pages of people laughing at me?

A forum (like this one) shouldn't be the place to get a kindergarten education. I don't even remember at what (very young) age that I learned the distinction between subjective and objective.

[Nimrod7]

You suck at producing!

[machine_spirit]

A forum (like this one) shouldn't be the place to get a kindergarten education. I don't even remember at what (very young) age that I learned the distinction between subjective and objective.

It was a joke like some of the other things i mentioned before that, as the post descended into madness. With that said, something more specific like "Which is the best trance synth?" i think deserves some respect. I've seen people here dismissing such threads too which is ridiculous.

[T-CM11]

It was a joke like some of the other things i mentioned before that, as the post descended into madness. With that said, something more specific like "Which is the best trance synth?" i think deserves some respect. I've seen people here dismissing such threads too which is ridiculous.

I understood the "spirit" of your post.

Why does it deserve some respect? To me, it sounds as silly as "what is the best rock guitar".

[jamcat]

Les Paul.

[machine_spirit]

I understood the "spirit" of your post.

Why does it deserve some respect? To me, it sounds as silly as "what is the best rock guitar".

There aren't exactly strict boundaries between different genres but generally there are some defining themes. Synths vary greatly in design and capability so here i would definitely say that some are more suited than others. Though, the amount of synths capable of doing almost anything with some efficiency, seem to be ever increasing. Might explain in part why so many genres (especially in the electronic sphere) seem to be converging into one, to some extent.

"Guitar" is alot more specific than "synth", so i think the rock guitar comparison is a bit unfair. I am utterly ignorant about guitars though so there's that.

[BertKoor]

Do i need to tune my kicks? Should i put OTT before or after Soundgoodizer? Why isn't Ishkurs guide to electronic music ever updated? I made a thread about which is the best synth and all i got was 20 pages of people laughing at me?

Brilliant, trye

[BertKoor]

I was in rather a hurry this morning. True! Not trye.
You wrote the index of a FAQ. To a lot of these I have written an answer if a member asked it, and I thought it was worth to answer.

There's too much thing to learn. One cannot expect to do that in weeks.

[mixyguy2]

Making music doesn't have to be some manner of all-consuming pseudo-mystical/quasi religious calling, as some infer.

Some of us just enjoy it as a diverting hobby to pass the time. Yes, we like to improve and get better, but the existential hand wringing and psychobabble all seems a bit much. Practical advice - good. Faux psychoanalysis/philosophical angst - bad.

Exactly, thank you.

That said, it sounds like the OP wants to make music, but doesn't have a clue how to do so and is looking for the "easy button." Doesn't exist; sorry. If you don't play an instrument, I would start there...take some lessons and see how it goes. If you don't mesh with that instrument, if you have the time and money, try another one or three. The first thing I ever tried was a guitar and it was like wtf how does anyone ever learn to play this bizarre thing. Then I tried keyboards and it was totally different, took right to it.

But if you have no interest in that or you feel like it's too much work...and make no mistake, it is a lot of work...then realistically making music for you isn't happening. I guess you could grab some free loops and string them together and tell yourself you're "writing music," but IMO that is a joke, and likely so will be anything that comes out of it.

[machine_spirit]

Brilliant, trye

I was in rather a hurry this morning. True! Not trye.
You wrote the index of a FAQ. To a lot of these I have written an answer if a member asked it, and I thought it was worth to answer.

There's too much thing to learn. One cannot expect to do that in weeks.

Honestly a couple of these questions are still to some degree a mystery to me, like the trance percussion loop thing. I think it's some magical combination of percussion samples, white noise, pitch shifting and filter tricks. I can create something that sounds similar but not anywhere near as good.

Yeah there's an overwhelming amount of knowledge required and unlike some other genres you can't just ignore things like compression in EDM (or alot of other modern genres) as it is often fundamental to the sound. There's a crazy amount of information available in manuals, forums and youtube etc, but it's so spread out and there's a high degree of conflicting answers and people just promoting products and so on. I've considered trying to make some sort of hybrid FAQ and general music production basic guide, would be a great learning experience for me and the end result would hopefully be useful to others. I believe Ableton published a book looking at the basics of electronic music production, seems decent enough from the few pages i've seen, though i believe it would need to be many times longer to include most of the issues someone would encounter during even the first couple of months in music production.