Best sites for music theory? and do you guys use templates for your productions?

westy70

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2016
Location
West midlands
Hi there people been on and off producing for a while (not made a lot I'm happy with yet but starting to find my sound!)

Now i hate to sound stupid and most will say google it but could anyone point me in the right direction of some good music theory websites or tutorials? (simple to follow....)

using fl studio and a m audio keystation 49 but been struggling a little bit and really want to bring my production to the next level!

Plus do you guys use templates for your productions or start from scratch? how do you start your productions? what do you place first?

Any advice and knowledge is highly appreciated! Thanks people
 
Search YouTube for some nice channels out there. You might want to aim your search for "Piano lessons". There are loads of channels with high quality teachers and some nice lessons as well.

Also, you only use templates if you wanna sound just like anybody, from the top producer to that guy producing with a 386 computer with his earbuds.

Music theory are just guidelines, they're not written in stone. Set up your aim, what you wanna achieve with the music you're working on and do it from scratch.
 
music theory for computer production is a good rea, free pdf online... not always the easiest to follow but stick with it and just use it as reading material. I bought the book as I liked the pdf so much :)
 
I would recommend taking a free music theory course on Coursera.org. It is a collegiate level course that you can audit for free or pay 45 bucks for a cert at the end.
 
thanks for the advice people,
I hate to sound so stupid,
But just want to be able to write good music. i understand it will take some time, been playing with jungle sounds and bass for a good while now and need to up my game! will defo check out coursera.org, do you guys have a certain way of starting your tune? like do you work on the drop as the root of the tune or start with your chords / intros first? just trying to get a feel, a decent work ethic and flow and i feel the best way of doing this is chatting to other producers, thanks in advance again boys and gals youve been great help so far and i really appreciate it
 
do you guys have a certain way of starting your tune? like do you work on the drop as the root of the tune or start with your chords / intros first?
Everyone has different approaches. I normally do a lot of research beforehand, because I want to achieve a certain "feeling" with my music (keep in mind I do not produce dnb on a regular basis). So, basically I end up reading loads of psychoacoustics stuff, how people feel about certain scales, chord progressions and such. That's a main thing in my work. After that, I just lay down some piano passages and develop the rest of the song from there.
 
My fish hooks are always sharp to guarantee you the best bass. :2thumbs:

EEEEEk

oQ1Dsx0.jpg
 
In regards to starting: do whatever you need to do to catch a vibe to continually keep rolling. Often for me its the intro and drums to begin working up tension towards the hook.
Don't get stuck on making shit fat yet. I do whatever is necessary in regards to very rough EQ at early stages because its quick, painless and natural to do so after practice.

If anyone cares, I have my own template (or default set) in Ableton containing:

Favourite reverbs/delays on sends that I can immediate mix anything into to breathe some life into it from the outset
A Drum Bus with parallel compression (turned off until/if needed)
Kick Group, Snare Group, Perc Group all turned down then routed to the drum bus,
Midi track with a audio effect rack splitting frequencies (again, turned off)
A sampler

Having the effects awaiting on start up is fantastic to my workflow, but ensure they are all off as to not immediately begin to colour things.
 
What sort of D&B are you wanting to write?

I've got a couple of pointers for you that will hopefully help! (Especially with you using FL).

  • Select a Key that you want to write in (i.e D#minor ....or everyone's favourite, Fminor ;)) - If there's a certain song you like, you can always find out the Key of it on Beatport.
  • Go on your master channel and load up "Pitcher" (it's a default FL plug-in) - And select your chosen Key. This will now show you all of the notes that you can play in the said Key. - TURN THIS OFF on your Master Channel though - you'll see why as soon as you press play.
  • Now open up a blank Sampler and open up the Piano Roll and put a midi note on each key that you can play - These are known as your Ghost Notes (I usually do them from C3 upto C6).
  • Lastly, select your chosen VST, click the Piano Roll - Now you have in front of you every single note you can play!
If any of the above has confused you then drop me a PM and i'll help you out! (y) This is a great tool and will 100% help your writing, especially for Arps & Chords. The only downside is that it is heavily Midi based and doesn't really help you to play a piano...

Which leads me onto my second pointer ..Learn the piano or guitar! There's a million and one free online classes out there. Don't worry if you have to take 6 months out of the studio just to learn it, you will never look back!

Another good tip, especially for writing Leads is to find a few tracks with really powerful leads. I use Sub Focus, Metrik, Netsky, Pendulum etc. Learn how to play them, write down the Midi and really look at what they are doing. This will hopefully give you a better insight when it comes to writing your own Leads (and also gives you the chance to reverse engineer their Synth work now that you have the Midi).

Listen to different genre's outside of Drum & Bass, hundreds of the top D&B songs have been inspired by other musical genres. House, Funk, Reggae, Rock, Classical, Jazz etc.


As for "where do you start a track" - There's no real set way, some people are inspired by Drum loops, some people are inspired by Samples and others start with Chords. That part is really down to you. However, to speed up workflow I would recommend creating a new Default Project with some custom settings.


I hope that some of the above will come in use for you. Above all though remember that it takes A LONG time to be able to write music that you are happy with. Try not to compare your music with others around you, even if someones making better tracks than you in less time. I go by the saying "A Master has Failed more times than an Apprentice has Tried". - Even if you go a whole year without writing anything half decent, don't give up ...you never know just how close success is! Drop me a message if there's anything else I can help with :).
 
What sort of D&B are you wanting to write?

I've got a couple of pointers for you that will hopefully help! (Especially with you using FL).

  • Select a Key that you want to write in (i.e D#minor ....or everyone's favourite, Fminor ;)) - If there's a certain song you like, you can always find out the Key of it on Beatport.
  • Go on your master channel and load up "Pitcher" (it's a default FL plug-in) - And select your chosen Key. This will now show you all of the notes that you can play in the said Key. - TURN THIS OFF on your Master Channel though - you'll see why as soon as you press play.
  • Now open up a blank Sampler and open up the Piano Roll and put a midi note on each key that you can play - These are known as your Ghost Notes (I usually do them from C3 upto C6).
  • Lastly, select your chosen VST, click the Piano Roll - Now you have in front of you every single note you can play!
If any of the above has confused you then drop me a PM and i'll help you out! (y) This is a great tool and will 100% help your writing, especially for Arps & Chords. The only downside is that it is heavily Midi based and doesn't really help you to play a piano...

Which leads me onto my second pointer ..Learn the piano or guitar! There's a million and one free online classes out there. Don't worry if you have to take 6 months out of the studio just to learn it, you will never look back!

Another good tip, especially for writing Leads is to find a few tracks with really powerful leads. I use Sub Focus, Metrik, Netsky, Pendulum etc. Learn how to play them, write down the Midi and really look at what they are doing. This will hopefully give you a better insight when it comes to writing your own Leads (and also gives you the chance to reverse engineer their Synth work now that you have the Midi).

Listen to different genre's outside of Drum & Bass, hundreds of the top D&B songs have been inspired by other musical genres. House, Funk, Reggae, Rock, Classical, Jazz etc.


As for "where do you start a track" - There's no real set way, some people are inspired by Drum loops, some people are inspired by Samples and others start with Chords. That part is really down to you. However, to speed up workflow I would recommend creating a new Default Project with some custom settings.


I hope that some of the above will come in use for you. Above all though remember that it takes A LONG time to be able to write music that you are happy with. Try not to compare your music with others around you, even if someones making better tracks than you in less time. I go by the saying "A Master has Failed more times than an Apprentice has Tried". - Even if you go a whole year without writing anything half decent, don't give up ...you never know just how close success is! Drop me a message if there's anything else I can help with :).

Absolutely awesome dude, Just the help i was looking for, and im looking to write liquid as its my main passion, also jump up (which seems it has been abit easier to play with and learn).

And to everyone else, really appreciate the help and thanks for making me welcome, one thing i was confused about on those comments was the ''hook?'' does this mean the drops on my tracks?
 
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No worries mate, and in regards to your question "what is a hook?"

A hook can be anything from a lead Riff, a Vocal or a Bass phrase ...It's essentially what "catches" the ear of the listener. Hence the term "Hook".
 
Just wanted to reply to this and say I really recommend the pdf file "music theory for computer musicians." really helped me to start learning and understanding music theory when I was struggling and i recommend it to any new producer!
 
Here's a guy's youtube channel about music theory. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I kinda dig his style: https://www.youtube.com/user/Rhaptapsody

With music theory, learning at least chord inversions will make it so much easier to arrange your song as it's easier to fit a certain instrument in its own frequency niche.

And about templates: I don't use them for tracks, but for some specific fx chains like mid/side processing. And why not use them, if you find yourself doing the same long processes often?
 
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