Total begginer in music production and mixing! Please help me with my dream :)

J

Julinko

New Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2011
I am 19 years old and I have been listening to dnb music for long time and I just feel powerless only listening to tracks. I want to have the power to change them or to create something own! I have so many ideas!
can you please give me some advice with programs? do I have to study at music school to become good producer? I am also buying used Pioneer cdj 100s and mix DJM 300 is it a good idea? All of you were begginers when you started with music please help me with your experience :) thanks a LOT!
 
I recommend you use one of the following programs: Cubase 5, Live 8, FL Studio 9, Logic Pro, Reason 5,

These are good DAW's for making electronic music. You dont have to study at music school to become a good producer there are many talented producers who have had no formal training. The equipment you are buying is good for DJing but will be useless for production. When producing, the first thing you should buy is some good quality monitors. These are speakers designed for production. You should also follow some basic tutorials on how to make certain sounds and use the software.

You'll also need some VST's. I recommend 'Massive' as a drum n bass VST. Just google it to find out more :)
 
I have played around with FL studio and cubase, although cubase has a lot to offer in terms of convenience, I find that FL studio has a much more suitable layout. I am pretty sure they all have demos, so just go to their site and try it out first. Don't go ahead and break the bank getting Massive first, look up free vst's if you need to expand beyond the ones supplied in the daw. Also, get yourself some drum samples. The ones supplied within the daw are very few. I disagree with buying monitors. Learn composition first, and then once you have a solid product buy the monitors for mixing. Music school isn't necessary at all. It all depends on your drive. My best advice is to listen to as many dnb artists in different branches as you can. Everything from neurofunk to liquid to minimalistic. Listen closely and carefully, and pick out each individual noise. Once you start making music you'll begin to understand everything going on.

It takes a while to learn! So if you are really hoping to make your dream come true (I am likewise), aim to make the best song you possibly can each and every time.
 
Focus first on the mixing, the more and more you get into DJ'ing and spending time perfecting your mixes, the more you realise you want to be playing your own tunes out and not other people's. I'd recommend investing in better decks than CDJ 100's. You ideally want a CDJ which has vinyl mode (350, 800, 1000 etc), look around on ebay for cheap deals.
 
Nautilus said:
I disagree with buying monitors. Learn composition first, and then once you have a solid product buy the monitors for mixing.
Click to expand...

If he wants to know what equipment to buy for production, then obviously he should be buying monitors. They're the most important for producing tracks.
 
i think it helps alot if you start out djing first, getting to know how dnb works, how the tracks are arranged, the intro's, build ups, drops etc. knowing this can help alot with producing. listen to dnb all the time
 
yup, listen all the time. try and hear what the drums are doing, how hard the maracas were, and figure out why your tune doesnt sound like that. djing helps but you dont have to dj to listen to music.
just got to put the hours in basically, there are no shortcuts to getting good.
well there are, in a way, cos these days they have video tutorials for most anything
which nearly qualifies as shortcuts cos all we had back before youtube was our balls and talking like this on forums which in no way is a substitute.
 
This forum can be quite helpful though, I learned how to sidechain from the FL tricks thread :P

Julinko, before you choose which sequencer you want to roll with, maybe go to a store where you can try the different ones and see which ones suits you the best, as they all have different workflows. I started out in FL Studio, and the other ones I've tried just don't feel right, so I'm sticking with it. I did start producing before I got decks tho, but I had been listening to music a lot so spinning vinyl was mostly for pleasure. Like everything else, practice makes perfect. I've had lots of practice now, and I still suck, but if you're a little more determined than me when you work, the sky is the limit.
 
circle six said:
i think it helps alot if you start out djing first, getting to know how dnb works, how the tracks are arranged, the intro's, build ups, drops etc. knowing this can help alot with producing.
Click to expand...

This is good advice. It will help you no end.

circle six said:
listen to dnb all the time
Click to expand...

This is bad advice. You should listen to many different types of music for inspiration. Listening to only drum & bass will mean you are much less likely to ever produce anything original.
 
Before you start, you need a good setup of software and VSTs obviously. My personal favorites are FL Studio 10, Ableton Live and Reason on the software side, and Massive and Roland TB 303 on the VST side. But there's millions of combinations! Some of the most popular are: Logic, FL Studio, Reason etc. If you're a hardware kind of guy try looking for AKAI, M-Audio, Roland or Yamaha products.
 
Thank you ALL a LOT! I am going to try out sth in fl .. going to look through Fl tricks here :) thanks again!
 
These are all good tips so far! The absolute best thing you can do is practice. I know it sounds lame but practice making music all the time, several hours a day.

Some more advice: Read interviews and "in the studio" videos of some of your favorite artists, find tutorials and get good at the programme and synths you are using.

And always remember that it's not the equipment you use, it's how you use it!!! I'd advise against buying any equipment until you know more about it. Studio monitors should be the first thing you get! I would recommend looking into KRK's as they are good monitors to start with.


Lastly, it takes a long, long time to make music that you are truly happy with so don't ever give up :D put it the hours and it will pay off.
 
Last edited:
Practice practice practice. Even if the song you are making sucks balls, dont stop until youre completely out of ideas.

listening to dnb helps you find out how dnb songs are structured, and gives you the idea of how the backbone to a song should sound.

listening to other types of music will help inspire you with making different melodies, and making your tracks mor einteresting.

all music takes from each other.
 
djing will help you with structure of music and rythm which is great!
advice wise...
Personally i think you will need to know quite a few things like.

-Basic knowledge of synthesis (Creating your own sounds , not using premade samples)

-Effects and what they actually do to the sound (reverb , distortion , phaze , bit crush , filters , compression ,the list goes on)
and all thier knobs (What is wet and dry?, cutoff, resonance , threshold ect)

-Drumming and timing (Having a sense of direction where you want to drum bits to go , creating your own patterns and styles)

-Equalisation (why the hell doesnt my bass stand out? , why does this sound so quite?) (make sure that all your layers within your song have a chance to breathe and be heard)

-the Frequency spectrum (what is sub bass and how do i achieve it?) (to understand that different parts of the track must resonante round certain frequencies to create that timbre)

- music theory (why does my song sound out of tune and doesnt fit with the bassline?) (have a basic understanding of what notes go with others)

From my past experience , create what ever you want to make , dont look at your music you should always bounce it and listen to what you have made, try it on different systems.

ultimately practice and patiences , its going to take longer than a couple of years for you to be happy in what your doing!

goodluck
 
Dont start on fruity loops The plugins on the interface are pretty poor try getting cubase or logic, you can pick up one mackie mr8 of ebay for 150£ brand new this is what you need to produce a midi keyboard will help but not essential, good luck
 
First off get a decent computer no one has yet to metion it. You cant run a decent set up with out a hefty computer. Cubase is good to start FL is not really whats class as industry standard. Just research going to a good college and studying music tech will help u alot. Just remember treat it as a hoobie. Trying to force tracks out never works. AND LEARN DRUMS! that will help you ALOT! trust me.
 
Back
Top Bottom