music Music Production

[Zoop 8,384]

So I've got this friend, right? Great guy, I love him to death; let's just call him 'V' for now, that should be nice and anonymous-ish, right? Couldn't possibly fit anyone on this forum. Nope.

 

Anyway, this V guy is obsessed with getting into music production - electronic, to be specific - but he's completely and utterly clueless about how to go about it. I told him that there were a lot of talented folks around these parts that might be able to give him some pointers, but he is apparently shy as all hell when it comes to asking for help and the like. I jokingly offered to ask for help in his place - surprisingly enough, he asked me to go through with it.

 

So, with that wall of text out of the way...

 

Anyone here ever dabble in any sort of music production? Is there any particular software you used that you found to be fairly easy to start with, or any tutorials and/or instructional videos that you found helpful? Any pointers, tips, hints, suggestions, space monkeys, or ideas that might help a newbie along?

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Legit101 300]

Fruity loops is good entry level.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,528]

What kind of musical background, if any, does your friend have, Zoop? Naturally, he's in a better position to get into music production if he is familiar with music theory, for instance.

 

I make all of my music using Finale and the third-party Colossus library. I have around a decade of experience with music theory, so I feel right at home working with staves, notes, and traditional musical notation in Finale. Colossus's instrument samples sound absolutely amazing, and I'll shamelessly repost one of my pieces, Grim Tellings, as a demonstration of what can be achieved with these two software packages by running a very simple render.

 

http-~~-//mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_11_2011/post-1-0-30782300-1321417273.ipb?.mp3

I also posted some screenshots of Finale and Colossus over here, if you're interested.

 

Because I have a background in music theory and classical music (my mother is a professional piano teacher), I feel right at home writing music up in Finale, then running it through Colossus to get that realistic, acoustic sound. And although I've only actually done it once, it's awesome knowing that I can print out sheet music directly from Finale and hand the parts out to a real band or orchestra to have the music performed. You can't really do this with software that doesn't use staves.

 

Lastly, while Finale is designed for putting scores and parts together, you can use it to write music for any General MIDI or VST instrument, so electronic and other genres of modern music are within its realm of possibility as well. That said, it may be necessary to do some post-production work on Finale's renders if you want to achieve specific aural "special effects".

 

If your friend isn't familiar with music theory, I would strongly suggest that he takes a few courses in the field if he is serious about getting into music production. Not only do you learn how to notate music, but you also learn how key musical elements like intervals and chords work, with which you can write much more complex and powerful music.

 

There is a wealth of software available as well that does not use music notation, like Fruity Loops Studio, GarageBand, and Cubase. I don't personally have experience with any of them, as Finale has covered all my needs perfectly well so far, but they have merits of their own. I do want to warn against putting music together using pre-made loops like GarageBand's - to me, it's a bit of a copout way of creating music as someone else has probably already made something using the exact same melodies and rhythms. Entire pieces put together from loops are remixes at best, and not true original compositions.

[Zoop 8,384]

You know, I had forgotten all about Grim Tellings.

 

What kind of musical background, if any, does your friend have, Zoop? Naturally, he's in a better position to get into music production if he is familiar with music theory, for instance.

I'm uncertain to be honest, but I don't believe he has any prior experience with things like music theory and the like. I expect him to start posting in here himself tomorrow; hopefully I won't have to bully him into it.

 

At any rate, I appreciate the post.

[Viscra Maelstrom 3,718]

V here.

yeah. real surprise, or whatever.

 

so anyways, i might as well direct my full attention towards Feld0's post. to which i will say: i have absolutely no interest in studying musical theory. at all.

 

let me clarify. i have autism, thus my ways of thinking are drastically different from how most people perceive thoughts and such. this might sound like a cheap cop-out coming from me, but it is not. this is how my brain works, and i cannot help it. i have no prior interests at all in studying musical theory and everything Feld0 has listed as his prior experiences. it works for him, yes, it works for other people. it does NOT work for me.

 

i am more interested in aural design, sampling, beats and such, than i am about Feld0's background in music. i already have a copy of FL Studio on this computer, but what that is keeping me from opening it is because of bad experiences with it in summer.

 

i had no idea what to do with the program, and i still was pretty novice in everything about music then. so i, foolishly, jumped head-first into a software i was completely unable to handle. now, a half year later, i know i am able to do it, because i have friends helping me pursue this, and i've seen a bit how it works now from a friend of mine, plus, i've been mixing, cutting together audio and such, and dabbled in programs such as Audacity and Virtual DJ, which has given me a better understanding about the music i want to create.

 

the problem is, i am AFRAID to pursue this, because of bad experiences. nevermind the fact that i have had bad experiences with FL Studio, but i also completely lack self-confidence, which has made me stray from this for so long. i just want some help from people experienced in what i want to produce, i.e. electronic music, so i can finally pursue this dream of mine.

 

and Feld0, that last paragraph of yours i find insulting.

what does it matter if the music is produced in a tracker or sequencer, as opposed to your traditional ways of making it? it doesn't make it any less damn original for that.

you're making it sound as if there's only one 'true' way to create music, and that sequencers and such aren't. let me ask you why you are thinking like this? music is music, no matter how you go your way through creating it, it's still music, and it's still as original the way you are creating music.

...i'm gonna stop here, because this is making me angry.

 

anyways, any help at all with this would be greatly appreciated!

[fluttergal 21]

Music technology student at your service!

 

Well, it's great to hear that you're into Music Production. I say you're off to a good start, but you are making the same mistake that hundreds of other who wants to be a music producer do. LEARN YOUR MUSIC THEORY. Trust me, I am taking music technology courses and too many people fail to realize how important music theory is. I know this first hand. Even the very basics of music theory will help. How can you make beats if you know nothing about meter and tempo? Are you just gonna make everything in the standard 4/4? Are you just gonna play everything in the same key signature without adding modulations to add interest? That's gonna be boring easily, but then again that is why modern pop songs are so crappy nowadays.

 

But I think I am jumping the gun. I feel that you are more of an audio engineer, NOT music producer. Audio engineers are those who handles the recording, sampling, sequencing, etc. They don't necessarily take part in the actual making of the music. Then again, music producers/audio engineers are very interchangeable.

 

I will still give you advice on getting into "music production." Finale is a great program to compose music, but I only suggest it if you're writing music so it can be performed live. If you want to do live recordings, you gotta learn to write scores so the performer will know what to play. You can use fruity loops, Cubase, Logic Pro, Sonar XL, etc for the actual recording though. However, if you want to do strictly MIDI recording, then you don't need to worry about getting someone to play for you. xD Logic Pro, Cubase, and Sonar XL have a notation editor if you eventually learn to read music. You can also use the piano roll or step sequencer! Really, there is no right way to insert the notes. Just do whatever works for you. I read music, but I actually prefer the piano roll because it's just easier to customize.

 

In music production, there are two things: MIDI and audio recording. Sometimes when you make music, you may want to add a vocalist or a live instrument. Well, you need to get a decent microphone and you can use the music sequencing program of your choice to do the recording! You can edit the audio and add effects after. If you're doing MIDI recording, then you gotta know about samplers and synthesizers. Samplers basically lets you record sound so you can input MIDI. Synthesizers lets you make sounds from scratch. VSTS works the same way. Colossus is based on sampling. The Synth1 vst is based on synthesizer.

 

Now, to get into the actual music production field, you gotta go to a school of course. xD There are many different names for this field and not all of them are the same. Basically, you can find it as audio engineering, music production, music technology, or audio sciences. There are probably more names, but those are the ones I generally see. It's great because the schools can help you get internship. Of course, once you're done with school you gotta work your butt off to get a job. You won't get the ideal job the first time, but just keep trying. It is indeed a tough business to get into, but you just gotta work hard and know your technology!!

 

I wish you luck into the music production field. If you want to ask questions, please PM me. I can help you a whole lot! I'm a music education major, but I'm gonna do music technology for graduate school so I'm learning about the field itself.

[Jonke 3,743]

Music technology student at your service!

<Good read>

 

You are definitely good at your stuff my yellow yoshi friend.