Helpful videos only go so far...

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 08 May 2012 23:22

Hey, im getting my DAW in the mail in about 5 days, and i am continueing to practise on how to make my own beats and sounds, but i have no idea how to, watching the tutorieals only help for so much without copying their sound, and i have taken around 6 years of music so i know bars, pitches, rests and the like. any advice?

BTW DAW: FL sig. bundle

colortwelve · **Posted:** 08 May 2012 23:36

That video is amazingly helpful in terms of workflow and organization. Basically, spend extra free time working on sound design and getting samples and watching tutorials and stuff like that, and take entire days to work on music.

Of course, an idea can come at any time, so be ready (I imagine it's much easier if you actually know how to write down a melody, but I manage, I guess). And when it does come, don't worry about what synth you're using, just grab a preset and work. If you're inspired, get it out of your system and make sense of it later. (And as for actually coming up with melodies, what I usually do is play one I already know over and over in my head, replacing one or two notes each time it plays until I have something new. Of course, sometimes something just pops into my head.)

Beats... Yeah, get loops and slice them up with the Fruity Slicer. It's a very convenient tool, and for your first few tracks it can actually save you from making a purely original beat. But later, when you get a hold of processing drums and that sort of thing, you can make an original beat, then slice up a loop and layer it over your beat - I tend to do that for most of my percussion.

As for sound design, it's just something that you pick up over time through a combination of watching tutorials and randomly screwing around in synths. But you might want to check out Image-Line's videos of all of FL's native synths on Youtube, they give you an overview and then show off a few sounds you can make with them.

Expy · **Joined:** 08 Feb 2012 15:20 **Posts:** 93

colortwelve wrote:

Beats... Yeah, get loops and slice them up with the Fruity Slicer.

Just a note - Fruity Slicer is fine, but if you got the Signature Bundle you'll have Slicex, which is a much better alternative.

Everything colortwelve said is really good advice though, I just wanted to recommend Slicex over Fruity Slicer.

From my meagre experience, the creative part of music production only comes with practice. You won't really work out how to make an interesting melody from videos, you'll need to experiment yourself (Implying I can even write anything decent...).

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 17:14

Quote:

Beats... Yeah, get loops and slice them up with the Fruity Slicer. It's a very convenient tool, and for your first few tracks it can actually save you from making a purely original beat. But later, when you get a hold of processing drums and that sort of thing, you can make an original beat, then slice up a loop and layer it over your beat - I tend to do that for most of my percussion.

As for sound design, it's just something that you pick up over time through a combination of watching tutorials and randomly screwing around in synths. But you might want to check out Image-Line's videos of all of FL's native synths on Youtube, they give you an overview and then show off a few sounds you can make with them.

Okay, thanks ill check that out, its REALLY REALLY hard to keep working and learning this when im struggling in school and finals are comming up, along with work and vacation, its a lot on my mind but ill try and hopefully one day be decent

Kyoga · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 17:57

Sinn Ick wrote:

Quote:

Beats... Yeah, get loops and slice them up with the Fruity Slicer. It's a very convenient tool, and for your first few tracks it can actually save you from making a purely original beat. But later, when you get a hold of processing drums and that sort of thing, you can make an original beat, then slice up a loop and layer it over your beat - I tend to do that for most of my percussion.

As for sound design, it's just something that you pick up over time through a combination of watching tutorials and randomly screwing around in synths. But you might want to check out Image-Line's videos of all of FL's native synths on Youtube, they give you an overview and then show off a few sounds you can make with them.

Okay, thanks ill check that out, its REALLY REALLY hard to keep working and learning this when im struggling in school and finals are comming up, along with work and vacation, its a lot on my mind but ill try and hopefully one day be decent

make sure you work hard at it, or else you might end up falling behind.
don't wanna forget anything. =/

BronyTuber · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 18:57

Kyoga wrote:

Sinn Ick wrote:

Quote:

Beats... Yeah, get loops and slice them up with the Fruity Slicer. It's a very convenient tool, and for your first few tracks it can actually save you from making a purely original beat. But later, when you get a hold of processing drums and that sort of thing, you can make an original beat, then slice up a loop and layer it over your beat - I tend to do that for most of my percussion.

As for sound design, it's just something that you pick up over time through a combination of watching tutorials and randomly screwing around in synths. But you might want to check out Image-Line's videos of all of FL's native synths on Youtube, they give you an overview and then show off a few sounds you can make with them.

Okay, thanks ill check that out, its REALLY REALLY hard to keep working and learning this when im struggling in school and finals are comming up, along with work and vacation, its a lot on my mind but ill try and hopefully one day be decent

make sure you work hard at it, or else you might end up falling behind.
don't wanna forget anything. =/

And just as my two cents, never give up on it. I had somewhat of a breakdown a few days ago where I was just about to quit music, but I came to the forums and asked for help and received it. Now I'm almost done with the song that I was so frustrated with and I'm actually happy with it.

You've probably heard this a million times before.

Kyoga · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 18:58

XD you kiddin, I have a breakdown every saturday!

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 19:50

Kyoga wrote:

XD you kiddin, I have a breakdown every saturday!

I have breakdowns every time i try and make music, because it sounds like a elephant stomping on an amp

I'm trying very VERY hard to get something for Balloon party ( i want in super bad) but like i said, cant make or creat for shit.

Kyoga · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 19:56

dude. I suck just as hard if not harder.
What's important is that you stop giving a crap about sucking.

the more confident you are in yourself, the better you'll be when you finally make a huge subscriber base.
the only way to get good with whatever tools you have is to actually use them. and use them often!

BronyTuber · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 19:59

Kyoga wrote:

What's important is that you stop giving a crap about sucking.

I second this! What caused me to have my breakdown was the fact that I thought every project I'm working on blows. Cuz it does

But when I just said "Screw it, I'm going to finish this song anyway" I'm a lot happier with it now and am enjoying it again.

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 09 May 2012 21:08

Kyoga wrote:

dude. I suck just as hard if not harder.
What's important is that you stop giving a crap about sucking.

the more confident you are in yourself, the better you'll be when you finally make a huge subscriber base.
the only way to get good with whatever tools you have is to actually use them. and use them often!

Trust me, you don't. You have songs out i bet, i don't.... bah, ill keep trying but yeah, i always am very hard on myself.

the4thImpulse · **Posted:** 10 May 2012 00:49

Sinn Ick wrote:

Kyoga wrote:

dude. I suck just as hard if not harder.
What's important is that you stop giving a crap about sucking.

the more confident you are in yourself, the better you'll be when you finally make a huge subscriber base.
the only way to get good with whatever tools you have is to actually use them. and use them often!

Trust me, you don't. You have songs out i bet, i don't.... bah, ill keep trying but yeah, i always am very hard on myself.

Being hard on youself isn't a completely bad thing, its been said previously but its always worth saying again "always finish songs". Its the best way to improve and you certinly don't have to like what you created but as long as you finish it, put it behind you and never look back at it you will get better. I only recently started to enjoy hearing my own tracks so I know the feeling.

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 10 May 2012 15:50

the4thImpulse wrote:

Sinn Ick wrote:

Kyoga wrote:

dude. I suck just as hard if not harder.
What's important is that you stop giving a crap about sucking.

the more confident you are in yourself, the better you'll be when you finally make a huge subscriber base.
the only way to get good with whatever tools you have is to actually use them. and use them often!

Trust me, you don't. You have songs out i bet, i don't.... bah, ill keep trying but yeah, i always am very hard on myself.

Being hard on youself isn't a completely bad thing, its been said previously but its always worth saying again "always finish songs". Its the best way to improve and you certinly don't have to like what you created but as long as you finish it, put it behind you and never look back at it you will get better. I only recently started to enjoy hearing my own tracks so I know the feeling.

Yeah but theirs a problem with that too, i can't get a simple melody together without hating it and it doen't sound good, not even remotely... oh well, pratise i guess..

Kyoga · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 16:18

you don't want to be too hard on yourself or you will literally cripple your ideas before you can get them out.
I've had so many occasions where I didn't write an awesome idea down because I thought it sucked. Fortunately I was able to recover some of those ideas when I got my confidence up.

My suggestion is you take whatever stabs at it that you can, and send the WIPs that you have to the "music" thread so the rest of us can critique it and help you out!

if for some reason noone is saying anything about your piece, feel free to PM me about it and I can help.

I personally am not the most experienced in actual DAW work, but in particular I have SOOO much music theory under my belt that I can tell you what keys you're in, whether or not you change them, give you ideas on where to go in your chord structure, arpeggios, etc. etc. etc.

I can help you if you're not feeling confident in your music writing ability and am MORE than willing to put some serious time into it.

feel free to pm me!

the4thImpulse · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 16:28

Sinn Ick wrote:

Yeah but theirs a problem with that too, i can't get a simple melody together without hating it and it doen't sound good, not even remotely... oh well, pratise i guess..

I still struggle with that every day, I find that when I first start a track I have this idea that I get into the DAW but by the end of the track that idea will be something completely diffrent. Instead of erasing what you have (which is what I use to do) try to keep evolving it, changing notes, changing the pattern, whatever it takes until your happy with it. Thats my best advice.

Kyoga · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 16:38

the4thImpulse wrote:

Sinn Ick wrote:

Yeah but theirs a problem with that too, i can't get a simple melody together without hating it and it doen't sound good, not even remotely... oh well, pratise i guess..

I still struggle with that every day, I find that when I first start a track I have this idea that I get into the DAW but by the end of the track that idea will be something completely diffrent. Instead of erasing what you have (which is what I use to do) try to keep evolving it, changing notes, changing the pattern, whatever it takes until your happy with it. Thats my best advice.

also, to add to that, make sure you don't sit and try to milk out an idea that you just can't push further at the time.
If you've been sitting at the computer for the last 4 hours trying to make one melody that's just not coming to you, take a little bit of time off the comp so you can walk around, eat lunch, whatever works best for you and then the idea might eventually return to you once you stop focusing on it.
Btw: this term is called "presque vu" so if you want to look it up, feel free to.

you'll learn even more.

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 18:12

Kyoga wrote:

the4thImpulse wrote:

Sinn Ick wrote:

Stuff

More Stuff

STUFF.

Yeah... Now i can't wait till my FL comes in so i can try some of these tips

Kyoga · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 18:20

I have to refer to the video that colortwelve posted earlier on this thread.
It's a fantastic look at, not exactly HOW to write music, but HOW to get yourself to be able to even START to write music.

That's an important thing to look at. Not just knowing music theory and knowing song structure, but KNOWING how to calibrate yourself to be ready to write music.
Things like
Keeping a journal
removing the internet and other social media from your workspace (to keep you on track)
Not droning/brooding on one part of a song you're stuck on.

things like this are covered in the video, and it's a fantastic video to watch. Totally worth the time.

Sinn Ick · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 21:20

Kyoga wrote:

I have to refer to the video that colortwelve posted earlier on this thread.
It's a fantastic look at, not exactly HOW to write music, but HOW to get yourself to be able to even START to write music.

That's an important thing to look at. Not just knowing music theory and knowing song structure, but KNOWING how to calibrate yourself to be ready to write music.
Things like
Keeping a journal
removing the internet and other social media from your workspace (to keep you on track)
Not droning/brooding on one part of a song you're stuck on.

things like this are covered in the video, and it's a fantastic video to watch. Totally worth the time.

Humm alright, once my music comes in ill give it a look

the4thImpulse · **Posted:** 11 May 2012 22:42

Sinn Ick wrote:

Humm alright, once my music comes in ill give it a look

That video is well worth your time trust me, I have seen it twice now and will likely watch it again with some producing buddies tommorow night. There isn't a chapter two to it yet but the first video cover a lot of ground I don't know what else he would add.

Helpful videos only go so far...

Who is online