advice for production virgin

copeyhagen

as title suggest!, been djing for about 10 years more or less, always been talking about getting into the production end of things but never really knew where to start! have acquired a fair bit of software, reason 3 (and maybe 4?), ableton live 7, fl studio 8, few other bits and pieces.

for djing i use a laptop and midi controller, but the software above is all on my desktop (which i would like to keep there as the 26" screen is nice and large)

would like to get to grips with reason and fl8, is there any definitive guides or beginners "bible" videos or guides out there i should be checking out?

also, would like to pick up a midi keyboard, can anyone recommend me a decent priced keyboard?

also, would i be better off picking up a set of monitors than using my seinnheiser headfones?

really really wanna get started but anytime i put an evening aseide and have a quick look at fl videos on youtube, i end up getting frustrated / overwhelmed and go back to playing games!!

thanks in advance for advice.

rob

Android 666

I used these to get started in Reason:

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=575

Very concise and easy to follow. Helped me to dive right in. Unfortunately they don't have anything for Ableton or FL Studio but it might be a good starting off point.

copeyhagen

thanks for that android will deffo have a look later.

any ideas on a cheap enough midi keyboard?

cheers

rob

Android 666

Well, I only use a Korg Nano Key USB Keyboard which does what I want (kind of) but I think somebody else would be able to give you a recommendation on a fuller keyboard.

flyswatter

Some good FL tutorials here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ste1438?blend=2&ob=1
http://www.youtube.com/user/nfxbeats?blend=1&ob=4
http://www.youtube.com/user/KevWillow7

Sky King

I strongly advise you to learn a little music theory. Get keyboard lessons or whatever.

electrogrimey

More for Ableton, but covers everything like panning and effects too, which is universal. Hour long tutorial, walks through making a track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix2IErEHa7A

http://findremix.com/ableton-live-tutorial-how-to-write-beats-by-tom-cosm-part-2/

copeyhagen

cheers for all the advice.

regarding musical theory, i played the recorder for the elaving, does that count haha

lazyatom

i think Ableton is probably the easiest DAW to work with. intuitive (to a degree) and loads of online help (from fans etc). hugely flexible and perfect for both DJing and Production.

i was going to recommend the M-Audio Ozone midi keyboard controller, but it looks like they don't make them anymore...

the handy thing about it is/was that you could plug a mic through it and record vocals 'n' stuff.

and, yeah, monitors over headphones any day. but honestly, there's no need to fork out huge money initially. get to grips with the software, learn a few tricks and see what you come up with.

Sky King

I use Ableton with the M-Audio Ozonic. It's cheap and cheerful control surface with plenty of mappable knobs and an audio interface for jack out and xlr in etc.

Regarding the recorder in school, I did it too and it was taught very badly, so unless your teacher explained what key your recorder was in and how the notes related to each other in that key to make the tunes sound the way they did, i would suggest you look into it in slightly greater detail.

The relationships that notes have with each other is the absolute cornerstone of melody driven music (less so for minimal etc) and in my opinion if you want to compose something half decent you need to have a half decent grasp of what is happening.

ICN

kilkenny flyer wrote: »

The relationships that notes have with each other is the absolute cornerstone of melody driven music (less so for minimal etc) and in my opinion if you want to compose something half decent you need to have a half decent grasp of what is happening.

hey Man - In advance - Dont want to start a row / debate over this at all - :cool:

But I dont agree with that.. Surely every form of "Music" is all about frequencies & as a result, concerned with the relationship between notes.

I understand where you are coming from & agree with the 1st part of that. No probs.

Minimal - Tuned Tom Basslines / Melody lines.. Bass Drums, Snares / Claps, Hats, Stabs and Risers - They all have a logical common relationship.. 100% Fact, otherwise it just wont sound good.

Even if the person has no musical training.. & the Sound / Note choices are by ear or happy accident.. something that stands out as being good will be because its musical.. otherwise it'll sound bad.

Minimal mightnt have huge stand out in your face brainless melodies - but its not to say that its producers use some sort of unmusical sounds in their tracks.

The Motifs might be repetitive & slightly hypnotic in nature, slowly evolving over the course of the track.. but to say that it doesnt rely on the relationships between notes is not correct.

Cheers,

J

Sky King

I don't want to get into a debate on this either... I said 'in my opinion' and that's what I meant. Disagree all you want!

In my experience people who have no theory compose a riff that 'feels right' through trial and error over the course of an hour which turns out to be just a bog standard chord progression that would have taken a musician 2 minutes.

You arrive at the same location either way, I just happen to believe that formal training makes the process easier. And it's not just about 'brainless melody' to use your own expression. Knowing which chords provide which colour is also a big help. There are some crazy jazz chords which really make things intesting.

I have no formal DAW training to speak of, and I found trying to get the right sounds and effects was absolutely painstakingly laborious before I got help and pointers and discovered the wonders of youtube video tutorials! An experienced producer will know exactly what to do to fatten up a bassline or remove the harshness from a sound, etc etc. I had to figure it all out myself which was a disaster. Sitting someone with no theory in front of a synth's keyboard and telling them to compose a melody is, in my opinion, doing the exact same thing.

.ak

I'd agree with both ICN and Killkenny Flyer... I produse tech-house with some minimal elements, and I find it does take my a loooong time to make a 'minimal' track sound appealing to ears. Longer than it would take to write a melodic bassline for a house track. With so much space and percussion emphasized by reverbs and delays, anything that sounds bad will sound really bad...

But like I said, it takes me AGES.. I figure I could write percussion in key with the other elements of the track if I had some formal musical training. It would defo help speed up the 'experimenting' stage. I think I may even look around Dublin for some courses...

-A