I wrote this to post in another subreddit later on, but I see this problem a lot when browsing /r/edmproduction, so thought I would try post it here also.
So I posted in a thread the other day where a guy asked advice on how to get cool vocal samples, and gave some examples. I came home from work later that night to see there was more comments in the thread. Thinking it was gonna be something interesting I opened it to find upvoted comments like “this question is dumb as fuck”, and the thread & account deleted. Then last night while browing new there was a dude asking if anyone had any cool melody loops or knew where to get any. Now granted he used shitty grammar, and didn’t explain why he wanted them in an overtly nice way (not in a bad way either). But it was comments like “Make your own”, and when he said he wanted inspiration, he got lectured on the important part of being is a musician is making your own shit.
Firstly, why the fuck are some of you just so mean to others on here asking for help. I can understand the extremely low effort posts like “How do I produce”, “What’s better Ableton of Fl Studio” etc. But just downvote, leave a comment saying that the question is far too broad, or much better with a quick google. Or if you really are feeling nice and like talking a bit, go into the merits of Ableton vs. FL Studio. But a thread like the examples I gave of what I saw recently aren’t places for that tbh. Yeah there’s tonnes of those threads, but I love them, because there might be a fresh approach, or a fresh sound pack that I aint heard of yet, and I always check them out in case of something new. But if people keep talking down to the people posting them, people are just gonna be afraid to ever post here. Not every post needs to be an in depth niche question. And yeah, you know what, you can go and find things on youtube, or google things, but people post here because they spend a lot of time on reddit, want to be a part of the community and oftentimes, a realtime reply is far more valued than a few varying articles they found on google. Especially when they can follow up with more questions to said replies. There is one exception to all this though, if the question is covered in the beginners guide and the person hasn’t read that yet, then direct them towards the relevant section and tell them to read and come back if they have any additional questions.
Secondly. At the end of the day 99% of us are doing this for fun. We’re all at different levels, I know when I was first starting out, I would often put in melody loops and build a beat around those, cause I had no idea what I was doing. And I learned so much, because I could see how a professional loop went from sounding so plain, to sounding dope once it all fitted together. Especially the first time I had a melody loop, with a few other loops layered over it, and started cycled through drum loops, it really drove home to me how differently things can sound, and how some drums can just fit in, whereas others may work, but don’t actually add anything to the overall beat (along with a bunch of other lessons tbh) Plus, even if you are that good at writing your own melodies, maybe you hear a dope loop that you just wanna work on, because not everything we’re doing is there to be released. There’s no need to be all high and mighty, giving yourself a pat on the back because you’re more grass roots than everyone else. Kanye West is moving more towards a Rick Rubin/Dre role these days, where he gets musicians together to create cool shit, and he picks what he likes, and works it all together to be something amazing. I doubt anyone’s gonna start hating on him because he didn’t create every single element. It always makes me think of this quote:
I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I haven’t made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all.
Lastly, I think we all got into this because at its core we love music. You shouldn’t be bagging on other people or discouraging them unless you’re insecure with yourself. I ain’t tryna hinder anyone or put them down, I wanna see people succeed because if they do, I’m blessed with more music, and I get to see someone get good at what they love. Quite frankly if someone wants to know something, and I’m feeling up to it, there’s no reason to not tell them. If they are just lazy, then they’ll never make it far anyway, and hopefully someone else can learn something from the thread and replies. I give out as much advice as I can whenever I’m feeling the energy to do it, and when I feel I have knowledge on it. We shouldn’t be shitting on people like this. At worst write a nice reply explaining to the person why you think their post isn’t a good one and what they should be asking or looking for with their post instead.
Sorry for the colossal essay. I just got really annoyed last night after going into a thread yet again and seeing so much hate, I hope everyone agrees with me. If not though, probably just hit me with a quick comment saying “This thread be shit, seriously how fucking lazy are you, just google it”
Submitted October 06, 2017 at 03:57PM by neonnature https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/74pqpq/can_we_stop_with_the_hate/?utm_source=ifttt