How to star producing music?

José Reach, post: 11543 wrote: I second Eros.
However, now I don’t know which book I should choose!

I can’t buy like three books in a row and read them all. I’m currently doubting between the book “The Secrets of House Music Production” and “The Dance Music Manual”.

I’d go for the “Dance Music manual” as it covers a lot of the basic questions a beginner could have about the “basis” of what consists a dance track. You can apply what you learn from it on either house, techno or trance. Its more general and theoritical approach should be what a beginner wants to read. 😉

@eros Thanks for the kind comment man! I somehow feel I have to give back to the web,after all through the web I got all the knowledge I wanted (and still do) when I first started production. Couple that with the polite and nice mood of DDJT and you can understand why Im always happy to contribute to such discussions!

Deciding on a build-up/ break-down pattern that you like is a good start

When I started making my own music digitally I used a software program on my computer and it turned out great. It helped me learn how to put music together and make some awesome beats, and I was just a beginner. Now that I’ve had a couple tracks completed I made a mix tape to hand out to my friends. They think it’s cool, so I’ll continue doing this for fun. 🙂 See where I learned how to produce my own music at http://www.upbeatsongs.net

softcore, post: 11040, member: 243 wrote: +1 on the “the dance music manual” by rick snoman.

Generally, read, read, read, read, ….lol…. The more you study, and the more you become familair with terminology, the more sense the manual of Ableton Live (or any other DAW) will make. I dunno why but sometimes I get the idea people seem to think that learning to make music is simply learning a program- if you think so, this is not the case…I’d say dont actually bother learniing a music making program for a couple of months, just find books to read that will make you familiar with terminology and the ermmmm technical aspects of music. You see, I have realised that DJs even though they have a great skill of “listening” to music, they usually have huge problems to translate what they are listening, (and what their brain is listening) to production-wise meaningful notions. “I want my sound to be beefier, deeper, warmer” mean almost nothing in the world of a producer – its all frequencies and dynamics, balances and levels, tricks and techniques. Sometimes Djs in my area starting to produce ask me to give them tips to make their sound “this” or “that” and I honestly – even though I try – I dont have the slightest clue what they mean because they are speaking from the listener standpoint. There was this guy who was asking me how to make his synth sound dirtier and I was thinking like “distortion” and the only thing he wanted was a 8 – 10 khz low pass filter to roll off higher frequencies.

So my best advice would be, try and learn to translate sounds into meaningful, scientfic terms. What is causing that effect to be so spacey? perhaps the fact that it moves from left to right? What is causing that bass to be so dirty? perhaps that fact that it has also high frequencies in it? Sooner or later, and by studying and practising you ‘ll catch yourself listening to music from a whole other standpoint, seperating the instruments subcnsciously, actually listening how the track was made. After this point, its all a matter of using the tools provided by DAWs to “imitate” behaviours of sound.

From personal experience, the beauty of making music is that its endless…you can never honestly say to yourself you mastered it. Upo finishing a tune, you think so, then you go back and listen to it 2 months later and you are like “what the hell was I thinking? the mistakes are obvious, NOW I ‘ve mastered it” and it goes on like that in cycles (no Im not joking, seriously).
In all honesty, I got like 10 releases on Beatport and I still think Im just learning music production.

The truth is, being an electronic music producer means you pretty much have to master various skills which in other genres would be required from different people….I mean you have to, first and foremost be a composer (the easy part really cause dance music is pretty simple in structure and melodies), a performer OR DAW user (either you perform with your midi keyboard or you work your way through the editing features of your DAW, sometimes you do a bit of both), an arranger/orchestrator (you got this musical idea, but what kind of instrument will you use for it, will it be an organic sounding piano or a whacked out dirty synth sound), a mixing engineer (levels of sounds, balancing, etc) and finally a producer (with the traditional meaning of the word) , not to mention that in 99% of cases as a beginner you will also have to do the mastering of your track (unless you are willing to pay a masterign engineer to do it).

The faster you realise these different aspects, the easier for you it will become to focus on each of them and learn to know which one is “bugging” you in your first attempts of writing music. Like, you had this idea, and you dabbled with your software but the result is dissapointing. Why? Is the melody poor? Or is it brilliant but played on the wronf instrument? or is it the correct instrument but the arrangement in the track chokes it? And 1000002290830123 other things.

Dont be intimitated however, I can honestly say making music is a VERY rewarding process….take it one step at a time and enjoy the ride…I can guarantee you ‘ll never grow out of it, just because its so deep and never ending…there is always more to discover! 😉

anyone else picture Rocky running up the steps after reading this? lol…..well said!

lots of good advice in here everyone….thanks!! ….just bought the maschine mikro last month and there is alot to know, so this is great information to look into…i more interested though in using it with traktor and s2 for adding some variety to my mixes. The production side of things wouldnt hurt to know either!