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.