Starting small

[Dogma]

Hey everyone, it's a pleasure to be here as a newcomer. Now, I'm absolutely new to this, but I did do my background research - I know this takes months of practice (even years) to perfect, and who knows, right now it's just a hobby, I'm only planning to play with some sounds around to see if I can get my knowledge on this subject up a little.
After searching the web a bit I found out that FL Studio would be a good place to begin (like I said, I just want to fool around for now, see what happens), so I got it, and now I'm ready to, well, mess around a bit I guess!
I also came across this forum while searching for tips and it seemed like a good community that could give me some useful advice now and then in case I decide to put my head deep into it.
Obviously I'm not going to bother you guys with anything in detail right now, I just wanted an overview prespective: is it VERY hard to master? Am I doing the correct thing so far? Any advice for the absolute newbie?
Thanks

 

[W3st]

shhhhh. youre using words you dont understand and already complicating yourself.

Check out my super short tut on FL studio 10 and then start experimenting:

cheers and good luck, youll need it

 

[Mason John]

Congrats man; I've been at it two months shy a year now, and it's JUST starting to "click" with me. It's a feeling, can't put it into words; it's basically when your technical skills no longer suck bad enough to hamper your creative ideas, tho you still need to push yourself here and there to realize a few crazier thoughts. I just spent the past 3 hours working on a sub-bass, so yeah time will be a serious requirement.

I recommend you see what you can do with the pre-packaged plug-ins, synths (I hear FL has great ones), get a cheap mini-usb keyboard for starters and pick one or two synths you like to focus on for creating most of your sounds. Preferably a good subt-synth, a good FM synth, and a good granular synth, but there are many that do all of that pretty well. Get a few sample packs and sample-based vst-i s, and then....don't even focus on trying to create a tune yet. You won't be good enough starting out, so save yourself the frustration and focus on making quick little sounds and loops, save them into a collection and you'll start generating ideas with them from there. Once you're ready to go all-in, you'll know when the time is right.

Also, get the amen break. Not all DNB makes use of it, but it's like the godfather of it and Jungle, and you can use it as a solid starting ground to building more complex breakbeats (you'll have a ways to go before making killer breakbeats tho xD).

Also, keep this series of articles at hand: SoundonSound . Fantastic set of articles discussing the fundamentals of sound. You'd be best off reading it in small chunks and letting the material absorb with you as you experiment hands-on, or just in case you're stuck and want to get some raw info. You'll be a better sound engineer if you peep into it every now and then.

 

[ApeCat]

I know this takes months of practice (even years) to barely get started at all unless you're living at home, all expenses covered and have no obligations to tend to, whatsoever and can spend all day, every day, all week doing nothing but working out how to make choons.

FTFY.