Introductory questions from a beginner.

[Drayde Wernick]

Sorry, but I'm about to throw a few thousand letters at you.

I have been a somewhat active member of the brony fandom for months, and you may or may not know about me and my few contributions to community, but I am using a completely different name at this site. I would rather keep my music side and my Internet-nonsense side distinct from one another. For that reason, my participation at this site will be strictly music-oriented (and it should go without saying that the music I eventually do create will be pony-related in some way).

I have been interested in electronic music for years but it's never been anything more than an interest. I have no musical history whatsoever (unless one year of reluctantly playing alto sax in grade 7 counts). But recently, with all this pony craziness taking hold, I guess I've been motivated to start pursuing this idle interest with greater enthusiasm.

I have come up with many great ideas over the months (shorts melodies, mostly), but I've lacked a creative outlet to put these ideas into physical form and create something larger and solid. For a couple weeks I've been casually messing around with a simple music making app on my iPhone in my spare time (it's called iMaschine, easy for anybody to pick up and use). It's pretty much on the remedial end of the spectrum as far as music production goes, but the simplicity allows me to quickly compose rough sketches of my ideas into a listenable form, compared to the more advanced desktop programs in which I can't even wrap my brain around the task of forming a simple one-track melody. So despite it's obvious limitations, iMaschine has been an invaluable tool that just lets me relish in the fact that I am capable of creating tunes that sound good.

That being said, I know that producing music is not easy. It seems that many amateurs in my own position just jump right into it without any preperation, no background research, and they think it will be a walk in the park. They just want to create cool noise and ain't nobody gonna stop 'em. Sure, motivation and self-confidence is necessary but it's only one piece of the puzzle. Anybody can want to accomplish something, but desire alone is not fruitful. This is a rule of thumb for life in general, I think.

So I'm prepared for extensive study and a lot of stress to accompany my actual creation of music. In fact, judging by the odd glimpses of the process that I've had so far, this will be the most difficult learning experience I've ever endured. Luckily, if there's one thing I have an abundance of, it's patience. Heck, I've been waiting a couple months just to join a site like this and begin talking about it because I wanted to do some very general background research to figure out just what the hell I'm getting myself into. :p Of course, I soon found out how complicated the music production world really is, and it's clear that my study of music will be forever ongoing, so it's time to start the next phase of the journey; seeking the advice of other people.

First off, I am curious as to whether anybody can provide me with some form of learning device or program. I refuse to believe that I will become a good musician by randomly experiementing with programs until things just start to make sense. I have a demo version of FL Studio 10 but it could just as well be made in another language because I just don't understand anything in it. I'm juggling an endless amount of questions in my mind all the time. What is a VST? What is a soundfont? What does "attack" mean when referring to notes? Did my last question even make sense? What is portamento? What is legato? Was Mozart rich and famous or just famous? Why do "gain" and "velocity" both seem to affect the volume of sound? What makes them different? What the hell IS a "decibel"? If a decibel can be negative or positive, does that mean it's a relative measure of sound rather than absolute? How the hell does a synth work, how do people create the specific sounds they want from it when there are so many parameters to consider, and why do all the knobs and sliders and numbers make me feel like an airline pilot? The list goes on and on. I can try to look up the answer to one question, but then I will need to look up seventy two billion more things just to understand the answer.

There has got to be some way to go through everything step by step, from the basics to the oh-my-god-I-think-my-brain-is-inside-out, I just don't know where to start. Any advice and motivation would be greatly appreciated. Just a hug, even.

I won't dare make this post longer than it is, so I'll just leave it at that for now. Hopefully my future posts won't be so long-winded as this; large, serious write-ups aren't my usual format. :p

Thank you for your time and I look forward to corresponding with you all in the future.

[Tiaaaaa]

Hello, welcome to the forums! I'm still new to music myself so I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I can answer some of your more basic questions.

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. I'm probably going to explain this poorly, but it's essentially a plugin used to make sounds. You tweak the settings inside of a VST in order to change what the 'instrument' you're working with sounds like. Also, if you haven't heard the term DAW before, it's a Digital Audio Workstation. If you're using FLStudio then FLStudio is your DAW.

A soundfont is a lot like a text font. But instead of changing how a font looks it changes how a midi instrument sounds. I could be wrong about the specifics, but basically a soundfont is a file format.

Attack is how long it takes for a sound to reach it's peak volume. Essentially, an instrument with a high attack will sound like it's slowly getting louder. Think of a stringed instrument like a violin. It takes the instrument a bit to reach the full volume for a note. Related terms you might want to look up are delay, hold, sustain, decay, and release.

A decibel is essentially a measure of loudness. It can be positive or negative, but it's a set value, not relative. Think of it as just a unit of measurement. For example, in physics you can have negative forces, negative work, or even negative energy.

I could be wrong but I think most people create sounds using VSTs, although I also suppose it mostly depends on what kind of music you want to make. I've found myself mostly using soundfonts because I like the sound of real instruments (and totally not because I can't make VSTs sound good, totally not). As for how you learn, tutorials, messing around until you find something you like? It's a sow process.

As for a step-by-step process, there isn't one as far as I'm aware. Because if there was one I'd be all over it. Essentially, make music. Then make more music. Then make even more music. Don't stop and don't ever be satisfied with what you've done. Always work to improve and eventually you will.

Although if you don't have any experience with music theory then reading up on some basic stuff might help. It really helped me considering that I was really stupid where music theory was concerned. Seriously, picking a scale and sticking with the notes in it didn't even occur to me until after I read it.

Aside from that, best of luck and plenty of support! Also, hugs for you, because hugs are awesome. Hope you enjoy your time here!

[CrimsonEpilogue]

I totally know that feel. I joined about two months ago and I still don't have a clue what I'm doing. I've been messing with Reason, however I recently pirated a copy of Ableton, and I'm tryng to learn how all of it works, in hindsight, the questions I should have asked shouldn't have been how the DAWs work, but in fact most of the questions you asked. The only thing I can tell you is don't give up! I've been at this for two months and I'm still at square one. Mainly because I've been messing with all this on my own....

It can be discouraging but look at some tutorials and such, and pay attention to everything in the music you listen to, you'll notice things you didn't before. Oh, and as the others told me, never stop experimenting, you may come up with something! Also contact with others helps a lot I've been told, so if you have a Skype, get as many people's usernames as possible.(Mine is CrimsonEpilogue, I'm about the same area of skill as you though, but it can't hurt to have a friend to learn with, right? )

This probably wasn't a very helpful response, but I tried my best! Nice meeting you, and I'm looking forward to you making awesome songs way before me.

Regards,
Crimson.

[Calamus_Dash]

I don't really have a helpful response either, but I'm interested in this too. Someone mentioned making a series of youtube video tutorials on how to do stuff, but I haven't seen any yet

[MichaelA]

Do you have a Skype? I can teach you all I know through skype.

[Makkon]

Welcome to MLR, Drayde!

I felt, not too many months ago, how you felt. Utterly overwhelmed, but determined. If there's one piece of advice that I can give you, it's this.

"Line upon line; precept upon precept; here a little, there a little."

Learning how to create music is a journey, not a destination. I was forced to open up a musical sequencer, knowing absolutely nothing about the technollogy, and attempt to do something with it. I tried a few knobs, dragged a few files, opened a crap load of example songs and WATCHED THEM as they played. I kept messing with things until something worked. Little by little, I got it. I didn't have the luxury of having a constant internet connection, if I had I know the resources offered on youtube and other sites would have been invaluable to me at the time. But I was forced to do everything based on sheer willpower.

Just keep at it, man. We're here to help you. I'll have to leave some of your questions to the more experienced musicians here since they'll be able to explain things to you in an informative way.

[Dr_Dissonance]

I don't think I'll be much help as:
a) most of your questions have been answered and,
b) I'm a classical composer and you said you're interested in electronic...

But here we go!

Portamento is when there is a bit of a slide between two pitches...not a glissando, which is a full on slide, but almost like a slur!

Legato is when you play multiple notes smoothly together!

Mozart was just famous, he was a bit of an idiot with his money and his parents were rather controlling...

A decibel is a unit of measurement for sound pressure BUT only in relation to another! So, the typical one outside of music programs is relating it to the lowest threshold of human hearing...
In music programs, it's in relation to the loudest sound without clipping!

My advice for writing is to brush up on a bit of theory, nothing crazy special, just enough to give you an idea on what might be wrong with a harmony you've made...then, experiment! Or give yourself exercises to do, such as 'I'm going to use this bass, lets base everything else around it!'
Or, 'lets make a drumbeat to Twilight saying "I don't know!" and build more of a song from there!' etc etc

I hope we've all helped!

[Jamesse]

Welcome to MLR!

First of all, Mozart was just famous. He was a silly pony as far as being able to spend wisely is concerned

Second of all, I don't know much about production, but I love trying to teach people theory and it's practical uses. (especially when I get to use peoples own songs as a good example to explain to them a theoretical concept)

recently I've been trying to teach people that say things like "I have music in my head, I just don't know how to put it down"

It made me REALLY think back to all of my early experiences with music, and I think I've figured out some good ways to help with helping people to know how to put down what they want to put down, instead of derping around in a piano roll.

Anyway... you don't have to have ANY previous experience with music, and I believe I can help with anything musical. (just don't expect me to know much about software)

if you don't have any problems with that, then you are on the right track! just find someone to help you get your computer to do what you want it to do.

I'm with Mr. Pickle here too. Add me on skype - james.lolius.

[PhillyPu]

Now that all the technical questions have been answered, I guess I'll flesh out the answer to the "where to start" question.

WARNING: EPIC WALL OF TEXT

If I were you, I'd start learning an instrument. This may not be essential, but I feel like by learning an instrument, you also learn a lot in terms of music composition (and production in general). If anything, you could just buy a cheap keyboard, and go from there. Practice easy songs, maybe classical, maybe modern. But the point is to, in the case of the keyboard, get a working understanding of what a song on the keyboard sound likes. i.e. Left hand does accompaniment like so and so, right hand provides melody like so and so. Learning how to read music would be a huge plus as you get to analyze what's going on in the music.

And now we double the fun.

Make up a melody. Any kind would do. Short one, long one, doesn't matter. You don't even have to remember it perfectly (at least I don't). If you could write it down: even better. Then you play it again, and add some notes that accompany your melody (writing a left-hand part for a right-hand melody, for example). And now you have, essentially, a skeleton (or even the entirety) of a song. You can flesh out the song with even more notes, or you can use that melody, put it in your chosen DAW, and play with chords (something you should probably get acquainted with if you are into electronic... or music in general).

This would be how I start music composition. The instrument and the melody. Having a working knowledge of music theory would be great, but that's something you have to learn over time (but the internet is a great resource for basic music theory. Google that shit). There are lots of tutorials that talk about "how to make a (simple) song," especially on YouTube. These should be great starting points for information: you get introduced to all the basics you need to get you started on making songs. Tutorials are a great resource for anyone that wants to improve/enrich their composition. Personally, I can't remember anything that happens in a tutorial unless I actually do something that involves that tutorial, so I would compose along side tutorials.

I mean, we're all on skype chat, so you can just ask questions there. However, if you live near composers or would-be composers, contact some of them. On a college campus, there's always the music department where you can direct your inquiries toward (it would be more classically oriented, but the more theory you learn, the better). It's so much nicer to have an audience who can not only comment on your composition, but give you tips on how to improve (which is what we're also here for, btw).

Okay, now that I think about it, maybe learning an instrument isn't essential to music production. But it certainly helps to have an instrument around with which to play your tune on, though.

Oh wait, another thing. Listen to music. Listen to diverse range of music if you want to compose a diverse range of songs. For example, learn about some essential things about dubstep before you compose dubstep (they're not all about wubs). Gain a working knowledge of the genre you want to compose. Ask people who compose the genre you want to recreate how they did it.

So, a quick recap:
Things you should do other than actual composition
1. (Strongly recommended but optional) Learn an instrument
2. (You really should do this) Learn music theory
3. Listen to music (bonus points if you analyze it)
4. Read tutorials

Actual composition:
1. Make melody
2. Make accompaniment
3. Listen to melody+accompaniment
4. Repeat all of above

Don't know if this is too overwhelming. I know how to play an instrument before I dove into composition, so I had an easier time. But regardless, stay strong, my friend! We're all here for you!

[Drayde Wernick]

Wow, I'm blown away by the quality of your feedback. (: Thanks for the support. It would be inefficient to respond to everybody individually, so I'll just give a general response.

Motivation really helps. I'm a very anxious person so when I know that I have a huge amount of work ahead of me I can get easily flustered. There is a history of mental illness in my family, mostly with things like borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder, so it is possible that I have been affected by it as well (but to a relatively lesser extent). Hearing your words of encouragement is a big boost to my morale. And I guess I'm glad that learning music is a slow process; it would be detrimental to rush myself.

I suppose I downplayed the importance of experimentation in my first post. I do understand how vital trial-and-error is when composing a song. I have to be willing to test any idea that I come up with and see what it's worth. My problem has been that I did not have the proper setting or equipment to easily play around with my ideas. Luckily the iMaschine app that I mentioned previously has served as a testing ground for all my ideas in place of some better alternative. The best alternative I can think of would be to learn to play an instrument. Luckily, I've wanted to learn the piano for years and I'm finally trying to get that ball rolling as well. I should have an appropriate keyboard for someone of my level as soon as Christmas or shortly thereafter. I am going to attempt to learn proper playing techniques through internet tutorials and resources alone, but I will be ready to seek out real hands-on lessons with another person if that doesn't work for me.

I guess I can accept that there really isn't a sequential, structured process of learning. The real process is to just pick one place to start, it doesn't really matter where, and branch out from there. It will be a desperate and perhaps agonizing journey at first, but given enough time I will start to get the hang of things until I can finally handle some music composition on my own. I could still view it as a step-by-step experience, but I influence the order that the steps are completed in. And like Makkon said, learning is not a destination but a journey. I will keep that in mind.

When it comes to music theory, I already do know a few basics (mainly terminology regarding scales, difference between major and minor, harmony, never really applied this knowledge though) and I do plan to learn much more about it. As well, I could easily re-learn how to read sheet music to catch up to where I left off in grade 7 band class, and then continue beyond that. When I enter university next year I'll look into taking some music related classes. I don't even know what's available at the moment but I'm sure there will be something for me.

I'm gonna keep messing around with my demo of FL Studio 10 until I make something that sounds alright. Eventually I'll work up the courage to pay the hundreds of dollars for the full program (I do not pirate). I also might try out different DAWs, but right now I'm thinking that sticking to just one is more conducive to learning. I can always broaden my horizons once I'm a little more confident that I can handle it.

As for Skype, it simply will not be an option for me at this point. I live in a very busy household (busy in the sense that there's always a few people home), so I just don't have frequent access to the Skype-capable computer. It's not my computer so I have no precedence on it. And even when that computer is free, that is the only computer that can run FL Studio 10, or any other programs involved with music creation. In other words, if I have the opportunity to get on that computer I'll be making music with it, not Skyping. I will be buying my own desktop PC at some point, but for now I hope we can stick to the forums to communicate.

Lastly, I have a SoundCloud account where I directly upload every good idea that I make in iMaschine, no matter how much or how little potential I think it has. None of them actually have the specific sounds that I would use in a real song, but iMaschine has a very small library of sounds to choose from so I have to make do with that. Structurally, though, I am very proud of the ideas I come up with and I hope to refine and utilize them later on in my journey. Most are simple few-second loops, but here's a link if you're interested:
http://soundcloud.com/drayde-wernick