by Neko » 29 Nov 2018, 12:54
Awesome to see someone interested and seeking out for some help here.
I'd second what jordan already said.
First, get a DAW (Digital audio workstation, like Fruity Loops, Cubase...). It doesn't matter which one. But keep in mind, that you will probably use the one you choose for a long time, they all work different and you really need to learn the programm. What everyone says about adobe photoshop for example also is true for all daws. being able to do everything comes with the price of complexity. But basically all DAWs can do everything, they just all take a different path.
I'm pretty sure there are some youtube videos which compare all daws to eachother. I picked FL and never looked back.
Then you gotta learn the program. Jordan already said, that there are plenty of tutorials for every DAW. I feel like that there are more FL tutorials than tutorials for other daws though.
First I would focus on general tutorials for that DAW and not gerne-specific tutorials because those genre-specific tutorials require some basic understanding for the DAW. I didn't do that at first and was scared off plenty of times by some higher-end hardstyle tutorials where I had to look up every second word basically. Thats what I'm trying to prevent for you here.
Well, assuming you are following my steps here, you didnt have much of a succesfull experience as just learning something and not using it properly isnt that rewarding. You wanna produce something finally.
I'd start with doing bootlegs or remixes actually.
Because you have plenty hurdles technically with your DAW (You're still learning), incorporating your cerativity on top which is sometimes the hardest part, can make everything really complex again. Remixing or bootlegging something really helped me out there because remixing something includes certain rules and boundaries which are helpful at the beginning. For example, you already have that melody, you don't really have to work on that. Thats a "finished" element you can use, you only have to put work into the synthesizer which plays the melody. Doing a solo track at first leaves you with both building sites, the melody and the synth.
You don't have to follow everything I just rambled about. For me, those things I stated helped me, your workflow may vary and my tips may not be much useful anymore. You gotta see that for yourself.
Just try and be not overwhelmed and demotivated by the complexity this all brings onto the table. I hope for you, not understanding a certain thing motivates you to try to understand it rather than leaving it untouched.
There's a reason many producers are perfectionists.
Before I started to produce music, I wouldn't have considered myself being a perfectionists, that came with producing actually.
One tip left: get yourself to learn about music theory. For real. I see many beginner producers just trying to realize their ideas and their tracks sound really off. Music theory helps a lot more than you would think.
Building chords in major or minor, building a topmelody on top of that and such things helped me stay within the boundaries of sounding good. I didn't know shit about it and my tracks were sounding exactly like that.
I wish you good luck! I'm happy for you that the feeling of finishing your very first track and being so proud about yourself still lies in front of you. Thats the best feeling ever.