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Get started making music

learningmusic.ableton.com

31–40 of 152 posts

Re: Get started making music

#31

A small anecdote: Back when I was still a little kid I had an awful music teacher in school. He would throw all the theory on the whiteboard but never explained how it actually relates to the music itself. I would've loved to know so I asked how this strange mathematical stuff of 4/4ths makes music and he told me to learn it or I'd fail but nothing actually relating to my question. So I always had a bit of antipathy…

Sometimes teachers have a negative net value huh?

Brings up the point that if the education system can't properly teach a subject, maybe we're all better better off with it just not teaching the subject.

Re: Get started making music

#32

I always liked listening to edm and when I first got to know that you just need a laptop and DAW to make tracks the idea of becoming an edm artist sounded exciting and glamorous to me. (like alan walker, martin grx) I installed FL Studio and tried my hand on making some beats ( https://youtube.com/channel/UClKt2vzomuegCDA45SU6FbA/videos ). Before I spent too much time on it I released it's actually less about making…

> I installed FL Studio and tried my hand on making some beats (https://youtube.com/channel/UClKt2vzomuegCDA45SU6FbA/videos). Before I spent too much time on it I released

From 1990 to 2007, I owned a (vinyl) record store (B&M then ecomm) that catered to DJs. I got to listen to quite a bit of "dance music". The early, mid, and even late 90s was jammed packed with creativity and innovative sounds.

Eventually things changed (as Ableton and similar became popular). More and more tracks were "half baked". As you noted, workable / good enough, but the extra time to create magic was not being invested. As digitl came along, it got worse because non-vinyl releases lowered the bar further. In a addition that noise, that glut made the good stuff hard to find.

I'm not a snob. Taking anything more accessible is generally a positive. That said, for "dance music" too easy cause problems. The higher bar of the 90s was a form of quality control. If you invested in gear, you generally did your best to get the most out of it. The culture was quality. Then ease and a lower investment bar put the emphasis on quantity.

Re: Get started making music

#33

I always liked listening to edm and when I first got to know that you just need a laptop and DAW to make tracks the idea of becoming an edm artist sounded exciting and glamorous to me. (like alan walker, martin grx) I installed FL Studio and tried my hand on making some beats ( https://youtube.com/channel/UClKt2vzomuegCDA45SU6FbA/videos ). Before I spent too much time on it I released it's actually less about making…

That's a pretty common beginner's trap, to have your motivation be to release music rather than in creating music itself. For basically any beginner you need many years to get to the point where that should be a consideration. Your main motivation should be fun and enjoyment of making the music. Ironically this is what actually differentiates the greats from those that struggle: the former make music primarily for th…

> Your main motivation should be fun and enjoyment of making the music.

It's much like brain surgery. People assume you should start out treating people's illnesses and curing them, but the successful brain surgeons know that you should spend your early years just having fun and enjoy playing around inside people's skulls. It's such a rush the first time you probe someone's central gyrus and see their arms twich. Don't waste your time planning for "in network" glory and how to calculate billable hours, just power up that bonesaw and start shredding.

Re: Get started making music

#34
post #30

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these together and release a track? Should it be “hard”? I’m sure most producers have fiendishly complex arrangements. But do some producers basically paint by numbers?

Not sure what "paint by numbers" means in this instance, but making beats is ridiculously easy nowadays. Go listen to the top 10 singles right now. If you have a good ear you'll notice that most of the arrangements are very simple - indeed something many home producers could put together in a couple of hours with just a laptop.

But that's just what the genre requires.

Re: Get started making music

#35
post #30

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these together and release a track? Should it be “hard”? I’m sure most producers have fiendishly complex arrangements. But do some producers basically paint by numbers?

Here's a taste of how (good) producers can take a given sample and create something completely unique...

https://youtu.be/7JUNnmehy8k

Re: Get started making music

#37
FWIW, the notion that Ableton is just for dance music is very far from the truth. Sometimes they don't help themselves with their marketing, but the software suits all kinds of music making from dance to classical to ..whatever.

Also FWIW, it's without doubt in my mind the best DAW by a long stretch. For me there are many reasons for this but the killer one is that the time and effort from idea to laid track is miniscule.

When you're dealing with initial ideas, they're extremely fragile. I've had so many of these slip into the abyss in the face of crap software. Ableton - once you've learnt the basics - has you getting stuff down within seconds of booting. That's immensely valuable IMO.

Re: Get started making music

#39
post #30

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these together and release a track? Should it be “hard”? I’m sure most producers have fiendishly complex arrangements. But do some producers basically paint by numbers?

Today a lot of the hard work is done for you. Many people who produce hip hop or electronic music take advatage of pre made loops and beats, so yes people do actually publish tracks based off of pre made sounds and thats ok. The tricky part then comes into mixing it all together and getting it to sound the way you like it or just different from others. Sometimes simplicity just sounds good. For me mixing and mastering is the hard part, but even that is becoming automated with software like iZotope.

Music has almost become like successful No-code, where you can just click everything in without even touching the keyboard. However you need a good understanding of what you want and how its done based on music knowledge to get something complex done. Also you might find transitions a little challenging.

Tastes have changed and the bar seems to be set lower, but still the sound has to be interesting or the appeal will be limited.

I believe that whatever enables you to make music that YOU like to hear is the important part. Forget the audience and make something that makes you feel, evokes your emotions, or just helps you relax. This is your advantage to be able to create something that is tailored to you.

With that said, sometimes its better to put a project aside or listen to it in your car and see how you feel about it then, your opinion may change.

Hope this made sense.

Re: Get started making music

#40
post #30

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these together and release a track? Should it be “hard”? I’m sure most producers have fiendishly complex arrangements. But do some producers basically paint by numbers?

If you're using well known loops, people will notice. I hear GarageBand's old loops sometimes to this day! Man, I really have to get around to extracting the ones from 1.0...
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