quote:

Originally posted by shadowsthatmove If you were me...

I'm not you, so it's kinda hard to answer the question without knowing where you're currently at in terms of knowledge and what you're struggling with.

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik I'm not you, so it's kinda hard to answer the question without knowing where you're currently at in terms of knowledge and what you're struggling with.

if u were starting over what would you learn first? Music theory, compression, eq, etc.

Just looking someone to point me the right direction. I know abit of everything but i want to focus on one thing at a time and master that before moving on. I think that would be a better way to learn?

Then, I guess my advice would be to take a two-pronged approach and tackle both the creative and technical aspects.

Learn just enough about music theory to know your major and minor scales, chords, and how the two are inter-related. Work on your ear-training skills until you are able to listen to any mainstream or dance music and be able to play along with the chords and melody by ear. This is an invaluable, but often overlooked, skill that will help you get ideas from your brain into your DAW. Last and most important, learn to play an instrument, particularly piano. I have never in my life met a person who regretted learning to play an instrument and it will make music creation far easier. Give yourself that advantage.

From a technical standpoint, learn your primary tools inside and out so that they are not an obstacle to you. Learn your DAW and take advantage of the shortcuts. Learn about busses, automation, inserts/sends. Start with the four most essential effects and make them second nature: EQ, reverb, delay, compression/limiting. Pick one plugin from each of those categories and understand every function before moving on to other versions. After that, start moving on to more advanced techniques and other processing types.

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Or do what I did and spend 4 years blindly dicking around until you amass enough knowledge to fully realize how clueless you still are.

I agree with cryo, just try to learn your tools inside and out. Don't ever put a program into the mixer if you have no clue what it's doing or how to use it. And if you use presets at least play around with the parameters until you get a basic idea of what each knob/button does. Google it if you're unsure. I still use presets but only as a starting point, they usually sound very different by the time I'm done with them.

Strongly agree with what Cryo said about mastering one of each thing.


I can't seem to find it but somebody posted a very useful and succinct guide to mixing, something like 20 pages that covered all the basics.

also tutorial master list http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...37#.T5WQAo5XS2w

thanks for the advise taken on board

Understand mixing first, with all the tools it includes.

After you got that, you'd have a clear idea of what sounds right and what wrong. And this is the first and most fundamental thing of the process.

Then, when you understood how to marry various elements, learn synthesis.

For last understand track structure.

Meanwhile of course learn your daw in and out.

Learn how to pick out good sounds, compose, and arrange.

The better you are that those three the less mixing you will have to do and the less frustration there will be to try and fix things with mixing tool.

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

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Originally posted by meriter I can't seem to find it but somebody posted a very useful and succinct guide to mixing, something like 20 pages that covered all the basics.

Might've been me, I posted the Guide to Mixing by Nick Thomas a while back:

http://ebooksgo.org/music/mixing.pdf

It's a pretty good resource, very easy to understand.