Hello, my name is DoubleWatson, nice to meet you r/edmproduction!
I really hope this post is allowed, as I understand that motivation posts are typically not allowed here. I hope to provide more than just that with these posts though. I suppose we will see what the mods do.
I hope to do 3 things with this post, as follows:
1.Document how my skills improve week by week from the beginning. I feel as if this has multiple purposes. First off, I think it will give beginners a sign post to where they "want to be" with every week. I understand that the common idea here is "you should not compare your music to others, you should just make music you like". I can understand this sentiment, however, when one is just starting out it is difficult to make music that you like, as the stuff you do like and have been listening to your whole life has been professionally done. I just think having a goal for learning each week will be beneficial to anyone trying to improve themselves. Eventually, when read in succession, these posts will answer some common questions absolute beginners have and will create a general sort of "course guide" that other beginners may be able to follow. What is nice is these questions should come from someone in the exact same spot that these beginners are. I also think that it'd be nice for beginners to not feel so alone and see someone as thoroughly confused as they are at times on this subreddit.
- I think these posts could be a good place for beginners to listen to each others terrible music, encourage each other and get advice from people slightly above their skill level without having to resort to using technical terms, at least at first. I can promise a minimum of 90 seconds of music that I am personally proud of each week. Perhaps others can match me on their journeys. I cant guarantee I'll listen to everyone's music that comments, but that's where others come in.
3.Lastly, this may be able to provide some perspective for many veterans when giving advice to absolute beginners. I feel like some of these posts I have seen have been, if not condescending, then at the very least a little out of touch for what it is like to be completely new not just to production, but to music in general. Hopefully by seeing how terrible my music is to start, and how simple and basic my questions are, it may help a bit with that.
With that out of the way, let me give a basic idea of my background to show at what level of a beginner I am.
My Background: I understand how to use my DAW decently competently(FL studios) from youtube videos and literal clicking about for around 6 hours total. I took a music theory 101 course in college and got a D+, I remember names of notes, and that there is no sharp between B-C and E-F(I think) past that, I really don't remember much. As far as EDM is considered, the main things I listen to are Experimental Bass, Bigroom(this term is basically a lable for any generic festival edm right?), Dubstep, and Happy Hardcore. I really don't know much about genres in general, but I've been listening for a while now.
All in all, I'd say I'm pretty close to zero as you can get.
Now finally, lets get onto what I want to make my posts look like each week.
First, My Music I made this week
https://soundcloud.com/user310727/hahahaha
https://soundcloud.com/user310727/drop
https://soundcloud.com/user310727/brush-brush
This week, almost the entirety of my music was made using presets. The noise for the main bass on brush brush I made on my own. I'm rather proud of it :). I know very little about sound design or composition so this week was mostly about toying around and getting to know the process of making music. I tried to play around with different styles of drops, I quite liked the abstract sort of one in brush brush. I'll keep toying around with that sort of almost "scary" sort I feel I get from it.
What I learned this week other beginners may find useful
Play with automation. In FL right click something to automate it. Figure out how to do it in your DAW. It really helps with certain effects, drops, and getting some layers to stick right.
When you cant quite figure out a way to "fill" your music, there's probably a way to put some kinda white noise in there to help. Not that this is a golden rule at especially higher levels. I wouldn't know. But I do know for me it has been really helpful to play around with quickly automating white noise sound upward or downward.
It's ok that your melody is just made out of playing with three keys right next to each other on the keyboard. Most of my good sounding melodies I made this week were from doing that.
Another thing too I found out is that if I cant find the note on the keyboard I want to play, it may actually be that same note you just played, even though it sounds different. The note before the last note you played seems to change how you hear it.
Questions I still have
I tried learning some basic music theory, but none of it really helped me with adding layers. Sometimes the two sound played on top of each other would clash, make static, make it sound like one or both sounds were disappearing, or it just sounded funny. I'd like to find some information on how to make "layers" in the track sound good so that the track sounds more "full"(I think that's a meme around here right?). Not in just a sense of "my stuff doesn't sound professional" but when I listen to other edm, I hear a new variation, typically new sounds in the backround, in every 4-8 counts of some kind. I have to figure out how to add more sounds and make it not sound off beat or stick out. My current guess is it has something to do with sub-bass
It also seems like a lot of people here crap on Big room like It's an easy genre to make or something. I couldn't at all figure it out. I'm not sure if I just didn't have the right sort of preset or if I just couldn't figure out how to make the melody line up with percussion. From what I have listened to, it seems to have something to do with kicks hitting at the time of a bass sound going off. My bass might not be heavy enough, because that sort of stuff happens in post?
My goals for this upcoming week
Figure out what post is. I think it may have something to do with the EQ or "Mastering" I'm not entirely sure what either of those things are. I know I used the "fruity waveshaper" in EQ when I tried to make a hardstyle sounding kick, but the kick just distorted all my sounds when it played on or around them.
I also plan to figure out how to start "layering" stuff better. Both my percussion and the extra filler background noises. I'll try to learn some music theory and that should help, but if it doesn't(the little bit I have looked up so far hasn't) I will just start watching other people make tracks and hopefully pick up on their magic through osmosis.
Peace out, have a good day and PLURR to those of you into that sort of thing.
Submitted February 03, 2017 at 05:09AM by DoubleWatson https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5rspxc/the_beginners_path_week_1/?utm_source=ifttt