Producing liquid drum and bass

Much appreciation for all the advice people, just finished building my studio, got a mac mini ready that i had i don't know if that will be much better than the samsung laptop I've been using, will be having a play over the next few weeks now I'm learning more and starting to get a feel for what i want to write, ill be putting some material up soon for constructive criticism, thanks for making me feel welcome on my journey :) much love!
 
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Hash'N'Tag said:
Warning: I'm about to piss off a lot of people with this post (but don't give a damn).
-- > Since when the essence of making music is about chord progression theory bullshit? Or about sub-genre codes or rules?

As much as I know about music (spent my whole life in music conservatory) and as much as I love liquid (hence my description), it really gets me on my f*cking nerves to see people - producers or not - blabbing about how things are done or should be done.
Here mate is the one and only advice you must have to begin with:
Make music from your heart.
Dont make music to imitate,
Nor to respect rules,
Nor from a specific technique,
Nor to please other people more than yourself.

You must know that the best tunes in any genre have been made by complete accident while trying NOT to respect rules or usual techniques.
If you want to find your sound, you just need your EAR.

Because it is your ear that will design your definition of 'beautiful', your definition of 'innovative', your definition of 'finished', of not 'good enough', of 'similar' to this or that (when trying to reproduce a specific sound design you heard).

What defines you as an artist is your taste for what you aspire to make.

And when I bitch about chord progression theory and producing tips, of course I'm not trying to be a nazi saying all of this is crap, but when giving advice to someone who's beginning, the only thing that should matter would be to keep this someone from getting LOST (like so many people).

Don't get lost in production skills learning or theory or sample tweeking, focus only on your EAR, your IDEAS.

I think when you begin you just need to MAKE music first and then make sound design, chord progression and samples fit the melody you have in mind, not the other way around.
Otherwise you will get lost.

Of course when you get (really really) skilled you'll be able to throw your skills at your DAW without any idea in mind and then your ear will spot some parts of what you have no idea you were doing at first to assemble it as a whole piece of music.

I think people are waaaaay too much forgetting about this progression path and trying too early to use skills they barely master on a complete lack of musical ideas. So they go learn chord progression or use sample theory crap to try and make it sound like actual music.
But c'mon fellas this is just bad. This defines bad musicians, those who didn't develop their EARS, and thought the fingers could do all by themselves. Maybe that's why we don't have that many good producers out there.

Hope it helps.
Sorry for the rage, but I'm very passionate about this.
Just don't be afraid of what your mind wants to create. Try try try try and one day this will finally sound how you wanted it to be or sometimes surprisingly even better.
;)
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I hear so many producers that don't know theory justify it to themselves as helping them be experimental (and yes often they do make great music) but I've never heard a single trained musician wish they didn't know theory. I agree that at the beginning it should be about fun and just experimenting though - I just already knew decent theory before I started producing.
 
Wasn't the point dude.
The thing is that people should consider making music from actual musical ideas instead of theory. What I mean is there isn't a recipe that people should follow to make 'good music'. This leads inevitably to unoriginality and imagination castration.
Theory is necessary to give life to your ideas, I'm not denying it at all, but it should stay a tool and not become a creative framework.
 
Hash'N'Tag said:
Wasn't the point dude.
The thing is that people should consider making music from actual musical ideas instead of theory. What I mean is there isn't a recipe that people should follow to make 'good music'. This leads inevitably to unoriginality and imagination castration.
Theory is necessary to give life to your ideas, I'm not denying it at all, but it should stay a tool and not become a creative framework.
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Of course music isn't about following a recipe but that's not the point of theory - it's about having a grounding in what you're doing. Otherwise Bach, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock etc would have made unoriginal, unimaginative music.
 
ifanmusic said:
Of course music isn't about following a recipe but that's not the point of theory - it's about having a grounding in what you're doing. Otherwise Bach, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock etc would have made unoriginal, unimaginative music.
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Haha man I think we completely agree but don't argue on the same subject :D
- I'm saying theory shouldn't be the primary source of inspiration but still is necessary to assemble your piece of music
- You're saying theory is important to work on your music
No contradiction. :rasta:
 
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