Timmo617 Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Does anyone have any tips for how to take the next steps in producing music? I'm at a stage between beginner and intermediate but have been stuck here for a while. Does anyone have any advice on which direction to go from here. I have a basic hold on synthesizers such as NI Massive and a few tricks in production but am no where near professional. I use FL Studio. I can create tunes (from notes) but can't great a good sound (from synthesizers) and end up using presets. My mixing skills aren't very good and basically have no mastering skills. All I have is motivation and would like ebooks/videos/advice on mastering, mixing, mastering synthesizers etc. I know this takes time and effort and that's what I'm willing to give. Cheers for any help!! :) Link to comment
Beautiful Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 what are you producing? what is you feel you need help with specifically? what is you are trying to accomplish exactly? Link to comment
andius Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 It sounds like you already know what you need to focus on. Sound design and mixdowns. Don't worry about mastering yet imo. Mastering should only come into play when you have really solid mixdowns. I think mixdowns are one of the most important aspects of achieving a more 'professional' sound. The main culprate of poor mixdowns is poor workflow imo. Improve your workflow, pay attention to gain staging. Post some examples of your current work though. Link to comment
z00q Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Does anyone have any tips for how to take the next steps in producing music? I'm at a stage between beginner and intermediate but have been stuck here for a while. Does anyone have any advice on which direction to go from here. I have a basic hold on synthesizers such as NI Massive and a few tricks in production but am no where near professional. I use FL Studio. I can create tunes (from notes) but can't great a good sound (from synthesizers) and end up using presets. My mixing skills aren't very good and basically have no mastering skills. All I have is motivation and would like ebooks/videos/advice on mastering, mixing, mastering synthesizers etc. I know this takes time and effort and that's what I'm willing to give. Cheers for any help!! :) my best advice bro... where it comes to using massive... forget about mastering ect atm, its important... but the final step. open a new project. don't try to make a tune don't put a load of drums in... just the kicks in standard positions so you can form a rudimental pattern. and play. try everything. mess about with it. become intimate with it haha. it comes bro.... even use presets. and change them, fuck about with them... see what they have done to get a specific sound. and work on it. anything you get that sounds good... fits your style, save and use em another time :D. Link to comment
dethangel Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) get a pro to master your material, don't do that your self, in fact, get someone else to mix it until you are comfortable with multiple daws and workstations. in most all other forms of music, the artist rarely does the mixing, even less often, does the mastering. its only in electronic, that people tend to take these roles on themselves, which is often a mistake, easiest way to make it sound professional, take it to the pros Edited January 11, 2015 by dethangel Link to comment
andius Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I think learning to mix on your own is really important for electronic music though, different mixes radically change the vibe of the tune and I think the artist should in control of that or at least have the knowledge to direct someone else to do it for them. Not just hand them them a bunch of stems and say "make this do good". :) Link to comment
dethangel Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) "make this do good". :) It should b good before it gets mixed, :D but I do take your point. doing a rough mix your self makes plenty of sense, and so does seeking and learning from professional help. Edited January 12, 2015 by dethangel Link to comment
Timmo617 Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Cheers for the advice guys. I guess what you all are trying to say is take time to get comfortable and "intimate" with what I'm doing? I probably should take my work to a professional to get it mastered, I just figured if they could do it I can learn it too but most professionals have got quite a few years on me ;) I will just watch a ton of YouTube videos and tutorials to learn more, I'm definitely further behind then I thought. I'm not at a stage of a full song yet though. I tend to make a tune then move on to another tune and never really add anything to it. It's really quite annoying because it's gonna take me ages before I can make a full song ready to be mastered. Anyway, thanks for the advice, anything else you guys wanna say feel free to post. thanks a bunch (ganja3) Link to comment
Timmo617 Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 It sounds like you already know what you need to focus on. Sound design and mixdowns. Don't worry about mastering yet imo. Mastering should only come into play when you have really solid mixdowns. I think mixdowns are one of the most important aspects of achieving a more 'professional' sound. The main culprate of poor mixdowns is poor workflow imo. Improve your workflow, pay attention to gain staging. Post some examples of your current work though. This is a little sumthn I made a while back. http://www54.zippyshare.com/v/ucvSvAQJ/file.html The main synth is a nexus preset and the hihats are loop from vengance essential house Link to comment
vallegs Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Depends on how u use your workflow! I like to make my entire track at -6db on every track. This way i have better mix down than when i adjust the db's on the fly. Also, use your own presets. Presets are fun and all, but u get your own sound from making your own patches. Presets are very useful to extract data and waveforms that are used to get a certain sound, but try experimenting on making your own sounds. Also try to make samples (bass, leads, keys, drums and everything) when u have free time and ur not feeling very creative. I like to make a track from my own samples, but do all of this within a day, or my creativity on a certain track drops immensely. Hope u got something from this. (sorry for my english, i'm dutch and a little drunk :D) Edited January 15, 2015 by vallegs Link to comment
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