Sonic Academy Online Tutorials

fluff_daddy

Anyone recommend these ?

Not sure how the subscription works - I assume think its for 35 pound a month you can access all tutorials

Looking into Learning Ableton to produce House music [Electro/Progressive]

Splinters

They're very good, very informative, up to date and worth every cent. It might be an idea to invest in Sylenth if you want to follow the tutorials exactly as they use that a hell of a lot. I believe they've also released their own soft synth now (which is quite good if the reviews are to be believed) so they'll probably be using that heavily from now on too. Saying that, you can probably get by by Operator or any of the decent free subtractive synths out there with similar functionality.

One word of advice, dont dive in with any of their genre specific tutorials until you have a reasonably solid understanding of Ableton Live first. They have plenty of introduction courses on there for Live that will get you up and running in no time. The genre specific ones are great but they'll be a lot more valuable to you if you know what exactly you're doing and why you're doing it.

fluff_daddy

Cheers mate - great description. And Sold!!

What about the packages/subscriptions craic. Better off just going for the 35 pount one me thinks

Splinters

Yep the £35 a quarter option is great value. It works out cheaper overall to go for the yearly subscription, and I can safely say you'll be doing well to have gone through the entire site within one year. Either way you'll be covered. Be sure to check on the forum too. I found that just as helpful as the courses for get hints/tips and feedback on tracks I was working on. Best of luck with it.

fluff_daddy

Legend!

paulo6891

Have a look around their tutorials and see if that's the kind of knowledge that you are willing to pay for. They seem decent. I looked at some trance one that they have, and it has a 4 minute (simple) breakdown, there's no need for that! Luckily for you, Ableton and House music are very popular, and there are a load of tutorials on youtube. I would recommend checking them out first!

fluff_daddy

paulo6891 wrote: »

Have a look around their tutorials and see if that's the kind of knowledge that you are willing to pay for. They seem decent. I looked at some trance one that they have, and it has a 4 minute (simple) breakdown, there's no need for that! Luckily for you, Ableton and House music are very popular, and there are a load of tutorials on youtube. I would recommend checking them out first!

Yea I had a look through some of the free tutorials and it seemed to be what im looking for. Im doing a actual production class in a studio aswell [once a week] but want to do more in my own time as I have found it tough to get to grips with it

Splinters

Free tutorials are great too, with the likes of youtube its never been as easy to pick up extra tips and tricks on various bits of software, techniques etc. Most of them are 10 - 15 min long, and while they can cover a whole lot in that time theres a lot to be said for having that extra depth and detail from a good training series like Sonic Acadmemy.

Haha I probably sound like Im on commision for them now, not at all. I just found their tutorials very beneficial compared to some of the alternatives like lynda.com, groove3 etc. Im pretty confident with Ableton Live and can safely say I know it well but it was still great to watch a full series on something like making a Dubstep track (or any other genre you might be into) and see how somebody else approaches it, using different techniques to your own and end up with great results. As much as Im confident with my knowledge of Ableton I never want to get to a stage where I feel I dont want to learn any more. Plus £35 a quarter isnt much, works out around 15 euro a month. For the sake of potentially 3 less pints a month I think its well worth it anyway.

paulo6891

That's fair enough! I do see the point in paying for tutorials such as this, I just haven't found anything worthwhile yet. I may sign up for a month just to have a look at stuff like sound design, mastering etc. Not interested in their project examples (House/Trance etc) as I don't personally find the songs that great. I use a mac myself so want to get a month's subscription to macprovideo so that I can learn how to use omnisphere! you don't see any youtube tutorials on that!

Dead Man Walking

Might also be worth having a look at the Groove3 tutorials. Haven't used them myself but a lot seem to recommend them. There is also one there for omnisphere for the above poster.

They're doing 5 days for $5 at the moment, good if you're into doing some cramming.

Dramatik

Pointblank online are also worth checking out, each week the tutor will review your work and send you a personal video of them editing your track and going through things you can do/change to make your track better. This's really usefull as if you're doing something wrong (compression, eq ect.) they'll show you how to fix it and also more importantly the reason why it needs to be changed. That in itself is worth the money in my opinion.

paulo6891

Have you done the point blank course before? I was looking at it but it seems way too expensive. I would rather save the money and just put it on the internet for someone to give a critique on the mix. I may try the groove tutorials!

fluff_daddy, what course are you doing at the minute? Is it any good?

Dramatik

paulo6891 wrote: »

Have you done the point blank course before? I was looking at it but it seems way too expensive. I would rather save the money and just put it on the internet for someone to give a critique on the mix. I may try the groove tutorials!

fluff_daddy, what course are you doing at the minute? Is it any good?

Yeah I've done both the minimal tech and the deep & soulful house couses, both courses you learn seperate techniques without much overlapping, you also chat once a week online with your class mates and your tutor, so any further questions can be asked there and the tutor will make a video and send it to you if there's not already one covering the topic. The only thing I didn't like about them was you can only access the tutorials for a year or two after, which I thought was a bit scabby considering the price.

fluff_daddy

paulo6891 wrote: »

Have you done the point blank course before? I was looking at it but it seems way too expensive. I would rather save the money and just put it on the internet for someone to give a critique on the mix. I may try the groove tutorials!

fluff_daddy, what course are you doing at the minute? Is it any good?

Just Abelton Live beginners [in class] course. 12 weeks. 3 hours every monday night. Just started but looks like its well structured anyway

paulo6891

I'm after signing up to the 5 day Groove3 trial so we'll see how that goes

fluff_daddy

paulo6891 wrote: »

I'm after signing up to the 5 day Groove3 trial so we'll see how that goes

good man - let us know how you get on

Mr. Grinder

I like the groove 3 tutes personally.

I've only seen a couple from Sonic Academy, so I can't really comment on the whole, but what I did see, I thought they were just okay and nothing special.

The DMP or Dance Music Production Tutorials are very good imo. And although he uses Logic, they're not DAW specific.

Highcontrast1

Pointblank are the best IMO
Stay away from sonic academy
I watched the dnb tut and it was appalling
For a rough guide go with Pointblank but most of the genre tricks u will
Learn from the computer music producer masterclasses
Those are all over YouTube

Mr. Grinder

Gotta' agree with op, the Sonic Academy DnB tutorial was pathetic. :mad:

You'd learn 10 times more from watching Icicle's Master Class (if you can find it).

This guy does some good stuff:
http://www.cosm.co.nz/

eeloe

Tom Cosm is an animal when it comes to Ableton.

Literally hundreds of hours of tutorials from him online

Mr. Grinder

eeloe wrote: »

Tom Cosm is an animal when it comes to Ableton.

Literally hundreds of hours of tutorials from him online

Aye, and they are top quality too, he really knows his stuff.

paulo6891

Did you ever sign up for any of the tutorials?

I am currently considering a course from trancemusicmastery.com on sound design, because I feel that I am actually getting nowhere with sound design! Mixing and all of that is decent, Im pretty good with the daw, but sound design lets me down...

300 squid though. Maybe if I have a few Euro2012 bets click...

Omega28

Hey

I have a subscription with Sonic Academy and I'm looking at cancelling to see what else is out there, does anyone recommend any online courses? I've been looking at quantize courses, pointblank, groove 3 etc

Looking to get the best value for money really.

LabMan_

Has anyone done the Point Blank Ableton Deep House or Electronic Music Composition courses?

Cheers

Thecon21

Before anyone goes to purchase a subscription for tutorials, like the guys said, check out Tom Cosm. You will learn some very useful tips and tricks with him, really does know his stuff well..

Mr. Grinder

Tom Cosm is really good - Even if you didn't use Ableton, as his work process is excellent.

Yeah to echo, I'd stay away form a subscription personally. Unless you need to learn loads of different applications, etc. Just buy the tutes you need. Which would probably be a lot cheaper in the long run anyway.