Don't ask why or how, but I've got myself engaged in a personal project that mainly involves music production, and need the help of the more savvy people around here.
First, where I am starting from: Although I listen to *a lot* of music (I'm not overestimating myself here, trust me) and am quite capable of identifying different instruments, effects and whatnot on pieces of various genders, I totally understand that doesn't help much the fact that I am somewhat of a noob when it comes to playing or composing.
I've got 2 guitars - an acoustic and a classical. I've never really tried to play any of them. I plan on buying a keyboard soon, but am kinda short on money at the moment, so that will wait a few months.
I've got FL Studio 10 during the second semester of 2013, but haven't messed too much with it. I know the basics, but am totally clueless about using plugins or from where to get samples.
So, in the past few days I've been searching around YouTube for lessons and tutorials so I can start making arrangements on FL Studio. Thing is, I am kind of at a loss. I am a really fast learner, and most of what I've found were music lessons which were either focused on teaching children or at a really slow pace for me, resulting in loss of interest.
That's why I need you guys' help. I need tips or guidelines; What should I learn? Do I need to study music theory to make arrangements, or can I compose/play by ear? Would learning the guitar be useful? Would studying other topics help? Which approach should I take to learn music production? Do you have any series of videos/lessons that you would recommend? Also, if any of you have used FL Studio before, can you recommend me any good tutorial series?
Mind you, since this is a personal thing, I don't have a deadline, and I've got tons of free time that I can devote to studying and learning (though, as I mentioned, I tend to lose interest whenever I feel I'm taking too long to progress). I would rather not get too much into the details of the project, but feel free to ask any questions. I am totally open to any kind of recommendations, tips or whatever you might have to offer.
Requesting help from any musicians or composers
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TheGroovyWorkshed
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:53 am
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Full disclosure: I learned to play the piano first, then guitar, then anything i could bring myself to spend money on. Everything I have done is amateur (although I did do the terrible old theme tune for the mindcrack podcast before I fell out with them) so don't trust me basically.
I don't know how skilled you are with music theory or the piano but I believe learning music theory through learning to play the piano is a pretty solid route to getting good at arranging. You've then essentially got the knowledge and ability to play most parts of an arrangement on the same instrument at the same time. This also puts you in good stead for arranging on a computer because you can just get one of those keyboard input devices for playing rough stuff in. Also it is incredibly easy to map playing the piano onto playing other instruments, especially guitar.
If you do go down the keyboard route I suggest learning in a fairly classical fashion but getting some music books of bands you like and setting yourself targets of learning enough to play thoses songs because, believe me, fur elise can get surprisingly grating when you've been playing the same 5 bars over and over again to get them right so breaking it up a bit is vital. My growing stack of radiohead, muse and qotsa music books kept me going when doing piano grades and since they had guitar tab too it helped with transferring the theory onto the guitar.
When it comes to arranging, if it's all about the structure and uses traditional instruments I tend to do it via sheet music (electronically) while for textural or electronic pieces I use cubase when it doesn't crash. I've never had the equipment to record properly so I only really use virtual instruments and DI guitar/bass so I can't really help much there.
I have no idea if anything I have said is at all useful but if you've got any music theory or piano questions feel free to ask.
I don't know how skilled you are with music theory or the piano but I believe learning music theory through learning to play the piano is a pretty solid route to getting good at arranging. You've then essentially got the knowledge and ability to play most parts of an arrangement on the same instrument at the same time. This also puts you in good stead for arranging on a computer because you can just get one of those keyboard input devices for playing rough stuff in. Also it is incredibly easy to map playing the piano onto playing other instruments, especially guitar.
If you do go down the keyboard route I suggest learning in a fairly classical fashion but getting some music books of bands you like and setting yourself targets of learning enough to play thoses songs because, believe me, fur elise can get surprisingly grating when you've been playing the same 5 bars over and over again to get them right so breaking it up a bit is vital. My growing stack of radiohead, muse and qotsa music books kept me going when doing piano grades and since they had guitar tab too it helped with transferring the theory onto the guitar.
When it comes to arranging, if it's all about the structure and uses traditional instruments I tend to do it via sheet music (electronically) while for textural or electronic pieces I use cubase when it doesn't crash. I've never had the equipment to record properly so I only really use virtual instruments and DI guitar/bass so I can't really help much there.
I have no idea if anything I have said is at all useful but if you've got any music theory or piano questions feel free to ask.
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
To be really honest, I did feel that the videos teaching theory through the piano were way easier for me to understand and maintain interest in opposition to the other stuff I've found. I'll saving some money and getting a keyboard once I have enough, so I can actually start practicing instead of simply studying.
Thanks for the advice, that really helped me a lot.
Thanks for the advice, that really helped me a lot.
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
A keyboard is a good way to go yes, since you can easily play all instruments with it through connecting with your PC and the use of plugins. A guitar is pretty one dimensional and limited in what you can do with it unless you practice several hours a day for years on end :)
As for approach, I would suggest a narrow focus to begin with. This is especially important in these times when you have every conceivable instrument and effect at your fingertips. So try to learn and compose tunes with a piano sound only to start with.
Perhaps look into getting a keyboard with weighted keys, so you get that true analog acoustic feeling. It connects your muscles to the tones you are producing and your music will sound that much better from it. Always start simple and build slowly from there. Learn to play songs that you love, and you will find it easier to develop your own style from that.
On that note, try to balance learning music, to build up your musical language, with the all important act of personal experimentation. Make room to forget everything you know and what everybody else has told you about what music is supposed to be. Just sit down, press some of those keys and see what happens. That's the quickest way to becoming able to create something original. Music theory, harmonic structures, arranging and all that is good to know and better to forget. Always use your ears as your guide.
As for music software, I've always used Logic Pro. In later years it's become easier and easier to work with, but you can still dig really deep and bend it to your will in every detail if you'd so choose. I like the idea of picking a professional software from the start and then sticking with it, because they all take a good amount of time to learn. ProTools, Cubase, Ableton are other good choices I know of.
Have fun :) Music is medicine for your mind
As for approach, I would suggest a narrow focus to begin with. This is especially important in these times when you have every conceivable instrument and effect at your fingertips. So try to learn and compose tunes with a piano sound only to start with.
Perhaps look into getting a keyboard with weighted keys, so you get that true analog acoustic feeling. It connects your muscles to the tones you are producing and your music will sound that much better from it. Always start simple and build slowly from there. Learn to play songs that you love, and you will find it easier to develop your own style from that.
On that note, try to balance learning music, to build up your musical language, with the all important act of personal experimentation. Make room to forget everything you know and what everybody else has told you about what music is supposed to be. Just sit down, press some of those keys and see what happens. That's the quickest way to becoming able to create something original. Music theory, harmonic structures, arranging and all that is good to know and better to forget. Always use your ears as your guide.
As for music software, I've always used Logic Pro. In later years it's become easier and easier to work with, but you can still dig really deep and bend it to your will in every detail if you'd so choose. I like the idea of picking a professional software from the start and then sticking with it, because they all take a good amount of time to learn. ProTools, Cubase, Ableton are other good choices I know of.
Have fun :) Music is medicine for your mind
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
That's actually really interesting. When I got FL Studio and messed around a bit with it, one of the first thoughts that came to my mind was how it looked really easy to get stuck into a "structured" way of thinking. Good to know that wasn't just a wild guess of mine.hawkstrom wrote:Music theory, harmonic structures, arranging and all that is good to know and better to forget. Always use your ears as your guide.
Regarding the keyboard...Do you (or anyone else, really) have any advice or tips on what kind of keyboard I should look into getting? I've started searching around the web and, man, there are *a lot* of them. As I don't have much knowledge on the subject, I get kind of worried that I might be searching for something that isn't really adequate to my goals.
Anyway, thanks for the tips. That was really helpful =)
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Happy to offer some inspiration :)
If you go for the weighted keys, look for a stage piano. I recently got a new one myself that I'm surprisingly happy with, it's a Casio PX-130. Great to play, light weight and easy to hook up to the computer. I was looking to get a Roland or Yamaha since those are the established names on the market when it comes to quality, but this one sounds and feels better than their equivalents in the same price range. They released a newer model fairly recently, so you should be able to pick the PX-130 up at a good price too. Don't be afraid to buy second hand, people usually take good care of their instruments.
If you go for the weighted keys, look for a stage piano. I recently got a new one myself that I'm surprisingly happy with, it's a Casio PX-130. Great to play, light weight and easy to hook up to the computer. I was looking to get a Roland or Yamaha since those are the established names on the market when it comes to quality, but this one sounds and feels better than their equivalents in the same price range. They released a newer model fairly recently, so you should be able to pick the PX-130 up at a good price too. Don't be afraid to buy second hand, people usually take good care of their instruments.
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William the tuba
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 11:28 pm
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Though I can't help you with fruityloops and production, I can help you with music. I'd recommend learning music theory and piano, in conjunction with learning to use the electronic tools.
You need a good knowledge of theory to understand what's going on in the music (which is important to know what you can change to improve your arrangements), but depending on what you're arranging you'll need to research a lot of more recent areas (as you generally start theory in the western classical tradition, 1725 to 1885) after you've got the basics of notes, scales, intervals, triads, 7th chords, roman numeral analysis, harmonic progression, voice leading and chromatic harmony (ie: a university level theory class) down. There's a lot more to theory than that, but you can probably get by just knowing those and copying what you see in other music. You probably want to look at some orchestration textbooks too--I can't recommend any, but it'd be worth looking.
Piano will help too as not only as a time saver, allowing you to play the melodies on the piano into whatever software you're using, but it'll also help with theory as you can explore the intervals, chords, and harmonies you're reading about. Guitar is probably not as useful, but learning to play those too will probably help with theory and reading music.
As for doing things by ear, good luck. Ear training (and its counterpart, sight singing) is like learning another instrument, which is hard enough on its own. There's software available to help with that (GNU Solfege is free, the horrible MacGAMUT is $40, etc) but it comes down to practice. Essentially: sing the things you're learning in theory, and practice identifying them on piano, or using some software. The other parts of ear training are dictations, where you write out rhythms, melodies, and harmonies as you listen to them, which is probably what you want to focus on if you don't have access to sheet music.
One of the ways I've seen people practice using trackers and melodic dictations at the same time is by covering NES tracks in something like Famitracker or Milkytracker (You can find the ripped NSF's (NES sound files) online, and then use something like VirtuaNSF to listen to them and edit the channels playing). I don't know the specifics of fruityloops, but that might be worthwhile to try doing that to practice. Theory helps here too--if you can hear what the part is doing, it's easier to write it out.
Musictheory.net looks like a good place to start--just be sure to do the exercises too, as the practice will help your reading and transcription skills.
You need a good knowledge of theory to understand what's going on in the music (which is important to know what you can change to improve your arrangements), but depending on what you're arranging you'll need to research a lot of more recent areas (as you generally start theory in the western classical tradition, 1725 to 1885) after you've got the basics of notes, scales, intervals, triads, 7th chords, roman numeral analysis, harmonic progression, voice leading and chromatic harmony (ie: a university level theory class) down. There's a lot more to theory than that, but you can probably get by just knowing those and copying what you see in other music. You probably want to look at some orchestration textbooks too--I can't recommend any, but it'd be worth looking.
Piano will help too as not only as a time saver, allowing you to play the melodies on the piano into whatever software you're using, but it'll also help with theory as you can explore the intervals, chords, and harmonies you're reading about. Guitar is probably not as useful, but learning to play those too will probably help with theory and reading music.
As for doing things by ear, good luck. Ear training (and its counterpart, sight singing) is like learning another instrument, which is hard enough on its own. There's software available to help with that (GNU Solfege is free, the horrible MacGAMUT is $40, etc) but it comes down to practice. Essentially: sing the things you're learning in theory, and practice identifying them on piano, or using some software. The other parts of ear training are dictations, where you write out rhythms, melodies, and harmonies as you listen to them, which is probably what you want to focus on if you don't have access to sheet music.
One of the ways I've seen people practice using trackers and melodic dictations at the same time is by covering NES tracks in something like Famitracker or Milkytracker (You can find the ripped NSF's (NES sound files) online, and then use something like VirtuaNSF to listen to them and edit the channels playing). I don't know the specifics of fruityloops, but that might be worthwhile to try doing that to practice. Theory helps here too--if you can hear what the part is doing, it's easier to write it out.
Musictheory.net looks like a good place to start--just be sure to do the exercises too, as the practice will help your reading and transcription skills.
(@Will on the discord)
Parents of young, organic life forms are warned that towels can be harmful if swallowed in large quantities.
Parents of young, organic life forms are warned that towels can be harmful if swallowed in large quantities.
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Hi, I'm a (former) DJ that has produced some (bad) music, and I have friends that are professional music producers.
Here's some tips to get started.
Get this book:
http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/en/US/ ... ductDetail
It breaks down the basics of audio engineering in really simple terms, using lots of images to help you imagine what you're doing. It's not going to tell you how to produce, but it'll give you a nice overview of the terminology and general philosophy behind production and mixing.
You don't need a lot of music theory, but you do need to have listened to a lot of music. You should know which notes are which on the keyboard. You should know what chords and scales are, and some basic chord progressions -- get a keyboard and play around on it, and maybe buy a 'music theory for dummies' book and read the first few chapters.
If you're just getting started, just hyper-focus on one genre and do every tutorial you can for it -- if you like dubstep, then look up every single dubstep tutorial video you can find -- look for tutorials about how to mimic specific producers sounds.
If you're serious about it, it'll take you about 10 years to start doing professional-quality work -- it'll probably take you a year before you make anything that even sounds like a legitimate song. Most of that time is just practice and developing intuition and familiarity with the tools. One of my best friends started producing around 1998 with Reason, and it wasn't until last year that he had any success -- he released 5 songs and remixes last year, got playlisted by big name djs all over the world and is touring europe. Everyone in his particular scene thinks he's some kind of prodigy that came out of nowhere, but he's been knocking away at it, producing mediocre-to-good tracks in his bedroom for a decade, and just now found a sound that matched where the scene was going.
So I guess what I'm saying is, is start playing around with any sequencer you like, start reading a bit on music theory, mixing and sound synthesis, and mostly just practice, practice, practice, and don't give up just because everything you make sucks, because it probably will, but almost everyone's early stuff is terrible:
Case in point, did you know Daft Punk were in a terrible rock band in the early 90s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-ZDI-MmaA
Melody Maker trashed it, calling it 'some kind of daft punk'... inspiring a name change... but they didn't quit.
Here's some tips to get started.
Get this book:
http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/en/US/ ... ductDetail
It breaks down the basics of audio engineering in really simple terms, using lots of images to help you imagine what you're doing. It's not going to tell you how to produce, but it'll give you a nice overview of the terminology and general philosophy behind production and mixing.
You don't need a lot of music theory, but you do need to have listened to a lot of music. You should know which notes are which on the keyboard. You should know what chords and scales are, and some basic chord progressions -- get a keyboard and play around on it, and maybe buy a 'music theory for dummies' book and read the first few chapters.
If you're just getting started, just hyper-focus on one genre and do every tutorial you can for it -- if you like dubstep, then look up every single dubstep tutorial video you can find -- look for tutorials about how to mimic specific producers sounds.
If you're serious about it, it'll take you about 10 years to start doing professional-quality work -- it'll probably take you a year before you make anything that even sounds like a legitimate song. Most of that time is just practice and developing intuition and familiarity with the tools. One of my best friends started producing around 1998 with Reason, and it wasn't until last year that he had any success -- he released 5 songs and remixes last year, got playlisted by big name djs all over the world and is touring europe. Everyone in his particular scene thinks he's some kind of prodigy that came out of nowhere, but he's been knocking away at it, producing mediocre-to-good tracks in his bedroom for a decade, and just now found a sound that matched where the scene was going.
So I guess what I'm saying is, is start playing around with any sequencer you like, start reading a bit on music theory, mixing and sound synthesis, and mostly just practice, practice, practice, and don't give up just because everything you make sucks, because it probably will, but almost everyone's early stuff is terrible:
Case in point, did you know Daft Punk were in a terrible rock band in the early 90s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-ZDI-MmaA
Melody Maker trashed it, calling it 'some kind of daft punk'... inspiring a name change... but they didn't quit.
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Whoa, quite a few replies. Thank you, guys!
I've been searching around the web and stated watching a few basic series of lessons on YouTube. Once I get confident I know enough of the basics, I'll go for some producing tutorials.
As for the keyboard...I'll have to do some research on the prices where I live (Brazil). Importing is probably out of question, as custom fees might be really nasty around here depending on what you buy (to give you an idea, sometimes you can end up paying up to an additional 50% of the product's original value). Regardless, I'll probably end up being an used keyboard, as I don't really have a problem with that. I'm not sure of what models I might find, though, so please do suggest any specific features/characteristics that you consider important or relevant.
I've been searching around the web and stated watching a few basic series of lessons on YouTube. Once I get confident I know enough of the basics, I'll go for some producing tutorials.
As for the keyboard...I'll have to do some research on the prices where I live (Brazil). Importing is probably out of question, as custom fees might be really nasty around here depending on what you buy (to give you an idea, sometimes you can end up paying up to an additional 50% of the product's original value). Regardless, I'll probably end up being an used keyboard, as I don't really have a problem with that. I'm not sure of what models I might find, though, so please do suggest any specific features/characteristics that you consider important or relevant.
Man, that track is actually really cool. Right up my alley. I love Daft Punk's work, though, so I'm glad they took a shift on direction.johnt wrote:Case in point, did you know Daft Punk were in a terrible rock band in the early 90s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-ZDI-MmaA
Melody Maker trashed it, calling it 'some kind of daft punk'... inspiring a name change... but they didn't quit.
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
I agree with TheGroovyWorkshed, if you want to arrange your own music, best go with the piano. In my opinion it's easier to learn theory in conjunction with it. But to be honest, I don't think music theory is necessary to make some good music: A friend of mine is making pretty awesome tunes even without any real knowledge ;) And when I look at some examples of modern music, I'm convinced that this knowledge doesn't make you a good musician...
I think with Fruity Loops Studio you've made the right choice:
Almost everything you need to know about it, comes with time. And of all the DAW's I tried, (Cubase, Reason, FL Studio) it has by far the best workflow.
What I can tell you about arranging music and constructing you own sounds and music is: EXPERIMENT and have some fun, you'll learn fastest by that!
At least that's what really worked for me and my friend... and a few Producer streaming their work, that said that over and over again ;D
But should you have any questions regarding FL Studio, I can probably help you with that :)
I think with Fruity Loops Studio you've made the right choice:
Almost everything you need to know about it, comes with time. And of all the DAW's I tried, (Cubase, Reason, FL Studio) it has by far the best workflow.
What I can tell you about arranging music and constructing you own sounds and music is: EXPERIMENT and have some fun, you'll learn fastest by that!
At least that's what really worked for me and my friend... and a few Producer streaming their work, that said that over and over again ;D
But should you have any questions regarding FL Studio, I can probably help you with that :)
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
I've played guitar for about 10 years now and piano to a lesser extent. I've composed a few songs that aren't brilliant, but they're compositions none the less. The one thing I've learned is that there is no one definitive way to go about producing music.
Producing great music is something that just comes with practice (unless you're a freakish child prodigy of course, French producer Madeon came out with this when he was 16 for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTx3G6h2xyA) and musical theory is definitely not essential. For instance, I remember watching an interview with James Hetfield of Metallica and how he came up with Nothing Else Matters. He said he was on the phone to someone, had his guitar in one hand and by chance played the opening notes to the song. He then goes on to describe how he was flummoxed when he was asked to lead the string accompaniment for the song. He said he didn't even know what the specific notes on the guitar were...and this is Metallica we're talking about. A lot of purists also think that focusing on theory leads to a lot of music that is too technical and 'perfect'. So this is definitely something I wouldn't worry about.
Two things that I think that are essential however are listening to a lot of music and playing a lot of music. Learn an instrument for sure. Learning the basic scales and chords of an instrument will help immensely. Also take some lessons. There's a lot of basic things that you'll get taught that aren't immediately obvious and will help you out greatly (for instance it took me 5 years before I learned that I was holding my pick the wrong way.) Piano is probably the most versatile, but I actually find playing guitar to be a lot easier. It'll give you a really good sense of how songs are structured. What you'll slowly start to realise is how much music revolves around a few basic chords, scales and arrangements, whether it's heavy metal or electro-pop, there isn't a massive gap between all the musical genres (for instance, Beyonce's Irreplaceable was originally written as a country song, just let that sink in for a bit.) Keyboards are good for live performances, but a Midi keyboard/controller is probably better if you want to produce music, especially if you're using something like FL Studio.
Then, after a while, whether you're practicing with a piano accordion or bashing some tin cans together, you'll slowly start to think of ways you could do this uniquely. So then you put something together and guess what? It'll probably sound just like everything else out there.
It can be really hard to write a melody thinking it's something completely unique without suddenly going 'hey wait, isn't that just the theme to Dr Who?' It takes even longer than that to come up with something that is truly unlike anything else people have done before. But, like with the above example, yeah Daft Punk used to suck, that song sounds like a demented Iggy Pop cover, but look at them now. It just takes time, practice and the production of a lot of crap before you get to something good, no-one hits a home run on the first try.
I mean, I've been playing for ages and I still struggle with the fact that I'll sit down and listen to a song, then suddenly think 'wow, how the hell did they think to put that instrument or melody in there? That sounds amazing, I could never do that.' It takes a lot of time and work, so don't get discouraged.
Think about the type of music you like and want to produce and go from there. Hope this helps!
Producing great music is something that just comes with practice (unless you're a freakish child prodigy of course, French producer Madeon came out with this when he was 16 for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTx3G6h2xyA) and musical theory is definitely not essential. For instance, I remember watching an interview with James Hetfield of Metallica and how he came up with Nothing Else Matters. He said he was on the phone to someone, had his guitar in one hand and by chance played the opening notes to the song. He then goes on to describe how he was flummoxed when he was asked to lead the string accompaniment for the song. He said he didn't even know what the specific notes on the guitar were...and this is Metallica we're talking about. A lot of purists also think that focusing on theory leads to a lot of music that is too technical and 'perfect'. So this is definitely something I wouldn't worry about.
Two things that I think that are essential however are listening to a lot of music and playing a lot of music. Learn an instrument for sure. Learning the basic scales and chords of an instrument will help immensely. Also take some lessons. There's a lot of basic things that you'll get taught that aren't immediately obvious and will help you out greatly (for instance it took me 5 years before I learned that I was holding my pick the wrong way.) Piano is probably the most versatile, but I actually find playing guitar to be a lot easier. It'll give you a really good sense of how songs are structured. What you'll slowly start to realise is how much music revolves around a few basic chords, scales and arrangements, whether it's heavy metal or electro-pop, there isn't a massive gap between all the musical genres (for instance, Beyonce's Irreplaceable was originally written as a country song, just let that sink in for a bit.) Keyboards are good for live performances, but a Midi keyboard/controller is probably better if you want to produce music, especially if you're using something like FL Studio.
Then, after a while, whether you're practicing with a piano accordion or bashing some tin cans together, you'll slowly start to think of ways you could do this uniquely. So then you put something together and guess what? It'll probably sound just like everything else out there.
It can be really hard to write a melody thinking it's something completely unique without suddenly going 'hey wait, isn't that just the theme to Dr Who?' It takes even longer than that to come up with something that is truly unlike anything else people have done before. But, like with the above example, yeah Daft Punk used to suck, that song sounds like a demented Iggy Pop cover, but look at them now. It just takes time, practice and the production of a lot of crap before you get to something good, no-one hits a home run on the first try.
I mean, I've been playing for ages and I still struggle with the fact that I'll sit down and listen to a song, then suddenly think 'wow, how the hell did they think to put that instrument or melody in there? That sounds amazing, I could never do that.' It takes a lot of time and work, so don't get discouraged.
Think about the type of music you like and want to produce and go from there. Hope this helps!
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
Thanks a lot for the replies, guys. I haven't been able to respond in the last couple of days, but I've been reading them, and I appreciate a lot the fact that you guys take your time to help me with this.
Heh, that happens a lot to me, too. In the last few years, I've developed unconsciously the habit of "separating" everything I hear and organizing the instruments in my head. While it might be useful for learning, I guess it is sort of a curse, too, as I am sometimes unable to listen to a song as a whole. But I suppose this happens to everyone. And, obviously, I have this "shit, this is brilliant" moment regularly.Daisjun wrote:I mean, I've been playing for ages and I still struggle with the fact that I'll sit down and listen to a song, then suddenly think 'wow, how the hell did they think to put that instrument or melody in there? That sounds amazing, I could never do that.' It takes a lot of time and work, so don't get discouraged.
I've been messing around with it, and I guess my biggest issue right now is that I don't really know where to get started. What plugins would you suggest me to download and tinker with as a total noob? Also, do you have any sites you would recommend for me to get samples/sounds to start expanding my library?Redux wrote:But should you have any questions regarding FL Studio, I can probably help you with that :)
Re: Requesting help from any musicians or composers
This guy knows his stuff. Seriously, everything he's said(can't attest to specific programs or websites) here will make you a great composer if you do it. You're going to learn basic chord structure and a few other things just by messing around with different notes anyways, so you might as well make a complete study of it. It actually ends up becoming kind of enjoyable after a while and you end up practicing while you walk around during the day. If any brass players are here, they've probably heard of saying 'red leather, yellow leather' repeatedly, and as fast as you can manage, in order to practice double tonguing accuracy. It also helps to sing it to the tune of Carmen, and I catch myself singing 'red leather, yellow leather' to the tune of Carmen out of habit a few times a day. I end up getting practice in without even taking time out of my day.William the tuba wrote:Though I can't help you with fruityloops and production, I can help you with music. I'd recommend learning music theory and piano, in conjunction with learning to use the electronic tools.
You need a good knowledge of theory to understand what's going on in the music (which is important to know what you can change to improve your arrangements), but depending on what you're arranging you'll need to research a lot of more recent areas (as you generally start theory in the western classical tradition, 1725 to 1885) after you've got the basics of notes, scales, intervals, triads, 7th chords, roman numeral analysis, harmonic progression, voice leading and chromatic harmony (ie: a university level theory class) down. There's a lot more to theory than that, but you can probably get by just knowing those and copying what you see in other music. You probably want to look at some orchestration textbooks too--I can't recommend any, but it'd be worth looking.
Piano will help too as not only as a time saver, allowing you to play the melodies on the piano into whatever software you're using, but it'll also help with theory as you can explore the intervals, chords, and harmonies you're reading about. Guitar is probably not as useful, but learning to play those too will probably help with theory and reading music.
As for doing things by ear, good luck. Ear training (and its counterpart, sight singing) is like learning another instrument, which is hard enough on its own. There's software available to help with that (GNU Solfege is free, the horrible MacGAMUT is $40, etc) but it comes down to practice. Essentially: sing the things you're learning in theory, and practice identifying them on piano, or using some software. The other parts of ear training are dictations, where you write out rhythms, melodies, and harmonies as you listen to them, which is probably what you want to focus on if you don't have access to sheet music.
One of the ways I've seen people practice using trackers and melodic dictations at the same time is by covering NES tracks in something like Famitracker or Milkytracker (You can find the ripped NSF's (NES sound files) online, and then use something like VirtuaNSF to listen to them and edit the channels playing). I don't know the specifics of fruityloops, but that might be worthwhile to try doing that to practice. Theory helps here too--if you can hear what the part is doing, it's easier to write it out.
Musictheory.net looks like a good place to start--just be sure to do the exercises too, as the practice will help your reading and transcription skills.
As far as programs go, MuseScore is a nice free one that you can play your composition as a midi on. I've used it to mess around with some ideas in the past, and it's served my basic needs fairly well.
FlowerChild wrote: -----
A short while later:
FlowerChild: What is this pussy shit?