New to Producing...

S

SmokeyMadPot951

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
34
Producing Music has always interested me, and i always wondered how they did it. So i downloaded the Fruity Loops demo because it seemed highly recommended along with a few other. So i open up the program....and wow what a big surprise, i dont know how to do ANYTHING. Its been only about a few days with about a good 10 hours into the program, but i have made some good progress. I watch tutorials on you tube and thats about the most help i can get. Since i know no one to teach me. I know i need a lot of dedication and patience.... and weed :).

My questions are...

How long did it take for you to use and understand your program?

How did you learn?

Any tips?
 
1) I still don't fully understand everything that's possible in Ableton/Reason/Fruityloops/Renoise after about 2-3 years producing!

2) I can't really detail how to start sequencing in Fruity Loops without screengrabs and it taking me absolutely ages so I'll give generic advice instead...

RTFM, it's a pain in the arse, but the amount of stuff I overlooked just cos I was too stubborn to Read The Fucking Manual. Also check out any tutorial songs they may have and have a look at how they are put together. Trial and error is also essential! If you make something cool, no matter how bizarre, try to save it and give it a unique and meaningful name. I have hundreds of cool beats and sounds in files with names like 'new tune' and 'cool beat', which is useless when you are trying to find an old piece to recycle or for inspiration. Now I always come up with a proper title, no matter how silly. Track names like 'wangmaster 2000' might be stupid, but I have no trouble finding them months later.

A great deal of patience is essential, and the ability to kinda go 'well that's not what i was aiming to make, but it's bloody cool so I'll roll with it.' Collaborate with the machine basically.

Youtube is full of producer tutorials/masterclasses from all kinds of people and these can give you excellent tips, particularly if you can find a producer who makes what you want to make in your software of choice. Also, there are written tutorials everywhere.

Learn what compressers, gates, redux, reverb, chorous, limiters, eq's etc do and read up on how to use them best. Take this on board, but always use your ears, the guidance people give you on these is not set in stone.

Also learn what things like LFO (low frequency oscillation), filter cut off and frequency are and what they do. Have a play basically.

An understanding of musical theory can help, but it can also hinder. The rules of keys and scales can help you write an excellent melody, but they can hinder if you are trying to write an evil detuned drum n bass bassline. Learn the rules but don't be afraid to bend them or ignore them entirely. This will help you make a bit of sense of FL's piano roll.

In fruity loops, use the 3xosc synth, and play with the LFO's on it, that thing can be an absolute weapon when used well.

Perservere, experiment and try other software too. I started in fruityloops but found it wasn't for me so moved to Ableton and Reason instead. However a couple of dubstep producers i know produce in fruityloops and they make awesome, really well produced tunes.

Try to get yourself some decent headphones or monitors. You can produce on shit speakers or headphones, but when you take your tunes out 'into the wild' they will sound very different. Some recent sets I have played, the bass has been enough to loosen bowels, but has muddied the mid and treble frequencies, drowning out drums and melodies cos I produced the tracks on crappy cans...

most important thing is to enjoy it and not give up!

Oh and get high if that's an option, you are going to listen to the same fucking loop for hours on end sometimes. :D
 
Good to see another bluelighter up this late. but wait, You mean i have to read? lol. Ill def. try and learn what u recomended. YouTube works wonders. It seems im on there more then the program.

also I Was thinking if i really get into it... I want to save a buy a computer designed for Producing. Is that really necessary? Do i really need a good sound card and a lot of memory?
 
You don't need an amazing PC at all really. I met DJ shitmatt (UK breakcore hero) a few weeks back, and he is producing and performing on some antique Dell laptop! I recently bought a swish new laptop, fast as fuck, loads of ram, graphics card and an external soundcard and tbh it's not helped a great deal over my bag of shite ancient desktop, mostly because it came with Vista on it.

Vista is a producer's nightmare so avoid it like superAIDS: audio crackles and pops, it won't talk to my USB soundcard properly (keeps failing to use it, creating white noise during songs, stopping play and freezing, none of which happened under XP), and Vista uses far too much processing power and RAM to sit there and do nothing. This all means that while i can produce more sophisticated stuff on my new laptop without maxing out the CPU, I have a problem as Vista cannot be trusted to not fuck it half way through my set and stop talking to the soundcard or blast the crowd with horrific white noise... Solution for me is to get XP back and use that instead.

Obviously a better machine and decent soundcard will help a lot if you want to do really complex stuff with loads of VSTs and reslicing and such, but they are not essential if you are keeping it simple, and anything new will come with Vista in all likelihood, which is shit!
 
^Yep, you need a good computer if you wanna run lots of MIDI tracks/data etc....For what its worth, I've used Reason and various programs for years and still discover new things to do with them. Fruity Loops never impressed me much...
 
silentscience said:
use ableton man, use ableton.
Click to expand...

I try to avoid biasing new producers, but yeah ABLETON all the way!!

Simple UI, amazing sample engine for stretching, repitching and stuff making it great for remixing, and you can rewire Reason and FruityLoops as slave devices/channels anyway, + great VST host and even the factory libraries are pretty awesome...
 
where do i get good samples from? Im having a hard time making melodies.... and creating patterns with the hats and snares.... the bass is pretty simple lol.

Any tips?
 
tbh, finding decent samples is a real time eater. I used to use soundsnap.com, but now you have to pay to get the content people uploaded for free! erm, I also use archive.org and the freesoundproject (i think it's called that). There's other places where you can get some free samples from but it's just a matter of trawling and most places will want to charge you if they can get away with it.

With making melodies, just mess around until notes sound ok together, or learn some scales. I mostly use my own synth and melody lines now, just because i cannot be arsed spending more time looking for samples than I do producing, plus you get something unique out of it.

maybe it'd be worth starting a sample resource thread if there isn't one already? I could certinaly do with some samples sites but without the hours spent searching!
 
Make your own samples, if we're talking drums etc. Using other peoples music is epic fail....;)

BUT:

This list will be updated over time. Feel free to PM me if you find anything out there worth adding to the list (or to pull any off that are terrible).

Note: I wont be putting links to torrent sites and such on here for obvious reasons.

SAMPLES
>A thank you to Satori for putting the samples links together<

http://www.sampletorrents.com/
Sampletorrents.com

http://www.sampleswap.org/filebrowser-n ... b4a66258c1 da2bb520dfa4
SampleSwap - both music and FX samples

http://www.killerbeats.com/sounds.asp?intMainId=3
KillerBeats

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusicdat ... ndex.shtml
BBC collection -quite good ! Watch the categories date �

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~spufus/
Loopasonic - well organised site. Login (free) required.

http://www.tplm.com/samples/boucles/groove/home.htm
Tout Pour La Musique ! - Beats labelled with BPM but not style.

http://www.djsamples.com/djsamples/free ... &CFTOKEN=3 6022132&samplepack=
Djsamples.com - big collection, SEARCHABLE.

http://www.dorumalaia.com/
Doru Malaia World - free sounds and useful links lists

http://www.superloops.com/listen.htm
Superloops : check those crazy categories

http://meanbeat.cjb.net/
Mean Beat - click "Samples"

http://www.breakbeatsonly.com/preview1.htm
Breakbeats only.com - prof site with some freebies.

http://www.zero1media.com/samples.htm
ZeroMedia - Short hits & some loops

http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/
NS Kit - acoustic drum kit and other instruments, high quality and mega MB

http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html
Uni Of Iowa- 'Classical' instruments

http://www.sonichound.com/
SonicHound - drums and synths samples

http://www.electronisounds.com/Wav_CDs.html
Electronisounds - prof. Sample CD site with demo packs.

http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/index.html
Hollow Sun - vintage keyboard and synth sounds

http://www.modarchive.com/waveworld/
The Mod Archive - synthesiser focus.

http://www.loopmasters.com/WAV-Downloads.asp
Loopmasters

http://www.dorumalaia.com/links.htm
Doru Malaia World - samples, soundfonts and more

http://www.manytone.com/downloads.html
Manytone Music - some drums and percussion

http://www.proloops.com/freeloops.asp
Proloops - professional site with some free loops

http://www.analoguesamples.com/
Analoguesamples.com

http://www.meinlcymbals.com/cymbal_seri ... eries.html
Cymbal samples

http://www.angelalanis.com/freedownload ... e/wavaiffs ounds.php
Classic drum machine samples

http://www.akaipro.com/int/mpc1k/arc_kotw.html
Classic beatboxes (AKAI)

http://cosmod.em411.com/show/blog/2942
Cellos

http://www.glooped.com/
Guitar samples

http://www.herman-witkam.com/raw/
R.A.W. - unusual instruments

http://www.dancemusicshop.com/software/ ... mples.html
DMS free sound samples

http://www.studiothirteen.com/Sample_Page.htm
Studio 13 - ecelectic collection

http://patternbased.com/samples_drums.html
Pattern Based drums

http://www.loopmasters.com/WAV-Downloads.asp
Loopmasters

http://www.djsamples.com/djsamples/freesamples/
DJSamples.com


MUSIC SAMPLES - LINK/SEARCH SITES

http://www.audiofill.com
AudioFill - search for soundfonts, WAVs etc.

http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Mu ... es_and_Loo ps/
Google Directory link page - BIG !

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Sound_Files/ ... and_Loops/
Dmoz - really really big list

http://forum.midiaddict.com/viewtopic.php?t=31429
Biggerer and biggerer list on a Computer Music forum

http://www.loops.net/
Loops.net - good link site, also for software

http://www.midiworld.com/sounds.htm
MIDIWORLD Links list

http://ln.hitfm.ua/~nekrasov/tps_module ... _links.htm
More!

SOUND FX SEARCH SITES

http://www.findsounds.com/
FindSounds.com - good search engine. Try 16 bit 44100 kHz if possible/

http://www.musicrobot.com/cgi-bin/windex.pl
Music Robot : "Let music robot find your sounds" POPUPS

http://WavCentral.com/search.htm
WAV Central : 'FX' section and 'search' section are useful.

http://www.audiofill.com
AudioFill

SOUND FX LINK SITES

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/
Freesound Project. Creative Commons License

http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html
Stonewashed : Link site for various SFX sites. POPUPS

http://www.soundhunter.com
Sound Hunter : Click "Sound Effects Links" for the link page.

http://thefreesite.com/Free_Sounds/Free_WAVs/index.html
The FreeSite : Links to free WAV sites

http://www.echovibes.com/Autorank/autorank.html
"Echovibes Top 50 Sound Sites" Let the popups begin

SOUND FX SITES

http://www.grsites.com/sounds/
Absolute Sound Effects archive

http://www.hollywoodedge.com/the_acb/we ... Page_ID=16
Hollywood Edge : Some free effects - good quality MP3s

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.html
Partners In Rhyme : Has sound effects section.

http://www.soundamerica.com/
Sound America : 'Sound effects' section is low quality, but where else are you going to find a vomiting cat ? MAJOR POPUP WARNING

http://www.acoustica.com/sounds.htm
Acoustica - smaller collection

http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/noflash.htm
A1 free sound effects

SPECIALIST SOUND SOURCE SITES

http://nauticom.net/www/mudhut/game.html
Some gaming FX
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/index.html
Classic speeches from the History Channel
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/38 ... ounds.html
English tube underground voices - "Mind the gap"
http://www.dailywav.com/
Daily WAV - TV dialogue etc
http://www.thebotsonline.com/GWBushSampleArchive.htm
George Bush samples
http://www.archive.org/
Archive.org - open-source movies, speeches etc.
http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php
Prelinger Archives - educational films etc
http://www.open-video.org/
The Open Video Project
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/
Sounds of space

unchecked

http://www.futurewaveshaper.com/
http://go.to/samples4u.net
http://www.sonomic.com/
http://www.stormtronic.co.uk/loopfish/ *
http://www.samples.de/
http://www.looperman.com/
http://www.samplecity.net/
http://www.analoguesamples.com/
http://loops.net/
http://www.djsamples.com/
http://www.oneshotsamples.com/
http://www.samplenet.co.uk/
http://www.sectionz.net
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Sound_Files/ ... and_Loops/
Loops for Acid -
hxxp://wxw.sonicfoundry.com/loop_librar ... asp?cid=-1
Anologue Samples - http://www.analoguesamples.com/
Findsounds - http://www.findsounds.com/ISAPI/search.dll
Synthzone - http://www.synthzone.com/
Wavcentral - http://www.wavcentral.com./
Wavsamples - http://www.wavesamples.cjb.net/
Samples to download -http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx/index.shtml
Analog Bank - http://users.chariot.net.au/~lucas/bankflash.html
Analoguesamples - http://www.analoguesamples.com/
Apocalypse Sound - http://www.apocalypse-sound.com/
Audiowerkstatt - http://members.liwest.at/web/audiowerk/apw.htm
Bass and Trouble -
http://bassandtrouble.com/sounds/wavs3000/wavs3000.htm
Bass Culture - http://www.bassculture.org/
Cybergroove - http://www.cybergroove.de/e_index.htm
Breakbeats.co.uk - http://www.break-beats.co.uk/
Deltaz Samplez - http://www.deltaz-palaze.de/
Digital Improvization - http://www.digimpro.com/samples.html
DJ Acid Underground -
http://members.tripod.com/adm/interstitial/remote.html
Dogbeats - http://www.dogbeats.co.uk/
Dooley Drums - http://www.dooleydrums.com/
Looza - http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/~ajoscht/...oops/loops.html
Drum Loop Central -
http://www.geocities.com/~junebugtd7/drum_loop_central/
Phat Drum Loops - http://www.phatdrumloops.com/old_site/
Echo Vibes - http://www.echovibes.com/
E-Drummer - http://www.e-drummer.net/
E-Lab - http://www.e-lab.se/
Electronisounds - http://www.electronisounds.com/
Factory 42 - http://www.cpaterson.clara.net/
Findsounds - http://www.findsounds.com/
Soundwaves - http://tilt.largo.fl.us/samples/free.html
Funk Station - http://x-stream.fortunecity.com/kingsrd/58/
Future Wave Shaper - http://www.futurewaveshaper.com/
Ground Loops - http://www.groundloops.com/archive.htm
Hello Synthesizers - http://hello.to/synthesizers
Ignite - http://www.geocities.com/ignite_music/
Kalava Drum Archive - http://hem.passagen.se/lej97/kalava/
Loopasonic - http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~spufus/
Mean Beat - http://meanbeat.cjb.net
Moonman's Synth Place - http://synthplace.freeservers.com/
Musical Drugstore -
http://www.skip.informatik.gu.se/~a...store/menu.html
Music Machines at Hyperreal -
http://machines.hyperreal.org/samples.html
Musiksamples.de - http://www.musiksamples.de/
Nexus - http://digilander.iol.it/Geecko1/Index.html
Orchestra Samples -
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/p...eng/sampls.html
Pinknoise - http://www.soundbank.hu/
Raw 42 - http://www.raw42.com/samples/
Rob Papen Sound Design - http://www.robpapen.com
SampleNet - http://www.samplenet.co.uk/
Dysmusax' Samples - http://www.dysmusax.cz/eng/
Skevens Music - http://titan.spaceports.com/~upbeat/
Sound Central - http://www.soundcentral.com/
Soundsproz - http://www.soundproz.com/
Speakerboy - http://www.thespeakerboy.com/
The Sample Shack - http://www.wyze.com/sampleshack/sampleshack.html
Tribe - http://mp3-tribe.com/
US r*ves - http://us-r*ves.com/
Waveform.dk - http://www.waveform.dk/
WaveSamples - http://www.wavesamples.cjb.net/
Wave World - http://www.modarchive.com/waveworld/
Joor - http://www.joor.com/
Drummachine.com - http://www.drummachine.com/newpages/sounds.html
Bizarre Ambient FX - http://sonikmatter.com/sounds/
Korg Wavestation Sounds -
http://sonikmatter.com/sounds/wavs/cowzar_Jan01/
Hakachukai's Samples -
http://www.members.tripod.com/hakachukai/samples.html
Innards - http://perso.respublica.fr/innards/...es/samples.html
Jaspertronic Synthesizer Sounds -
http://www.trayfulloflabmice.com/synthsound.html
Mellotron Samples -
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/aphex/113/index.html
Maldoror - http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~maldoror/
Oberheim Matrix-12 Samples - http://matrix-12.tripod.com/home.htm
Oneshot Samples - http://www.oneshotsamples.com/
Reelsounds.com - http://www.reelsounds.com/sounds.htm
Samples4U - http://go.to/samples4u.net
Zoolab - http://www.zoolabmusic.com/
Xelenio - http://www.xelenio.com/
http://www.littlemusicclub.com - Nice "real" soundeffects
http://biobonsai.com//exs24/exs242.html
Mr Nigel's vocal samples:
http://www.cruelcutz.com/samples/mr_nigel/download.html
http://www.dorumalaia.com/
http://www.samplerealm.tk/



LINKS
Most links here are for free resources at this stage. Links to particular commercial companies will be looked at later. Please forward me any links you would like added. --Dazrae

Also. Im starting with the basics (tutorials to get started etc). Tutorials on mastering/compression techniques and other stuff to follow soon .
-------General-------

http://www.tweakheadz.com
Tweakheads electronic musicians hangout
-Tips/Tutorials/Gear Reviews
-Affiliated with ZzSounds (US based)
-Excellent resource for frank info and advice, especially on gear

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php
John Sayers - Recording studio design forum
-Huge resource on acoustics
-Studio design
-Monitor positioning/room treatment
-Anything physics of sound, 1st stop.


-------Software/Plugins------ (note OSX/PC tag)

http://www.modernplugins.in-tw.com/ (PC)
Selection of free plugins. Thx to upsydown.

http://www.vstcentral.com/ (OSX/PC)
Searchable database of VST/AU plugins
-Has just about everything

http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/ (PC/OSX link)
Selection of free plugs by Smartelectronics
-link to AU versions on site


-------Software Specific Links-------- (coming soon, please forward links)

http://www.audioforce.net/
AudioForce. Valuable resource for specific tutorials/links/guides for most of the renowned sequencers.
-Tutorials for each package
-Tips Tricks


--Sonar--
--Logic--
--Cubase--

--Fruity Loops--
http://fruity--loops.blogspot.com/
Beginners guide to Frooty

--Audacity-- (freeware audio editor)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/tutorials
Official tutorials pages

--Soundforge--
http://www.alice.org/bvw03/Sound_Forge_ ... torial.htm
General tutorial for users of Soundforge. Basic audio editing


This thread is intended as a growing resource and such I encourage anyone who finds quality information out there to ask it to be added to the list. Group effort.

Any other sections that you wish to be added, sing out.
 
awesome list there mate, I will be raping and pillaging those links for all they are worth!

Thanks very much :)
 
^Theres quite a few dead links so if you find them, put them in a post and just re-edit when you find more.... Peace....
 
Some things:

-There's no wrong way to do things. Screwing up and things sounding like ass are probably actually good.
-Use the gear that you have. Spending big money on new toys will not make things better. Sometimes used gear or really cheap things used in creative ways sound great.
-Remember your ears get tired so working for 3+ hours straight isn't great.
-Learn what drums do. Live drums. It almost pays to rent a kit and muck about to understand what a drum kit does. Listen to records. REALLY listen. Make beats. Listen some more. Repeat.
-Production is hit or miss. Some tracks can be done in like 3 hours. Some tracks take weeks. Your results may vary.
-Flat frequency response. What you are listening to has to be heard unEQ'd. No disco smile. Be it with monitors or with decent headphones.
-Synths are magic. And are very hard to learn. Don't get daunted by these weird beasts.

-Make different shit. Make ambient breakbeats. Weirdo Techno. Porno Trance. Whatever. Change styles. Often.
 
i've been producing since 06, always been a fan of hardware. i'm on a mpc1000 jjos right now with a kaossilator, miniak, and tt200+djmixer. i'm getting a sampletrak and sp-303 in the mail today to mess with. i started on an electribe. i've been through a few other pieces of hardware however, i do use ableton to track stuff out and master it. i use soundforge and recycle to edit and chop samples before loading them in the mpc.

get IZOTOPE vsts, particular ozone and alloy, to make your tracks shine if you can't afford to get stuff mastered professionally. also izotope has a free piece of software called vinyl that's pretty dope.

my favorite effects are PSP nitro and some CAMEL stuff.

i could never get into fruityloops, i own it but something about it just turns me off.
 
SmokeyMadPot951 said:
where do i get good samples from? Im having a hard time making melodies.... and creating patterns with the hats and snares.... the bass is pretty simple lol.

Any tips?
Click to expand...

Get a nice field recorder and record your own samples. Day-to-day, listen for interesting sounds and noises and record them. Check out Zoom's product line for some good stuff.
 
SmokeyMadPot951 said:
where do i get good samples from?
Click to expand...

The internet. Recording your own. Buying sound libraries.

SmokeyMadPot951 said:
I'm having a hard time making melodies
Click to expand...

Musical theory. Trial and error. A MIDI controller helps with piano keys. Even fooling around on a guitar and then transposing the notes.

SmokeyMadPot951 said:
.... and creating patterns with the hats and snares
Click to expand...

Trial and error. Look into musical theory and drums. Remember that hihats are a mechanical device with several ways of creating a sound.

1)Closed hihat - the tick
2)Open hihat - the sound of the two hihats vibrating against each other, a heavy punk rock sound or a loud rock sound
3)Opening and closing the hihat with a strike on the hihat - the standard disco, house sound
4)Hitting the hihat while open and then closing the hihat - Usually done on the 2 measure in downtempo, rock, creating a zssshhh sound.
5)Doing a LRLRLR etc. on the hihats with a hit on the snare (with variations on opening and closing the hats), popular in new wave, rock, dance, disco

Plus tons of other ways like just opening and closing the hihats without a hit on the hihat, using the bell of the hihat, most hihat setups have different methods of setting the angle of the bottom hihat, or setting the distance between the hats, or even using the foot to set the distance between the hats for a variation of effect

Snares are a different beast altogether. I swear to god there's another production thread lurking and this is all some weird deja vu or something.
 
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