quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Yes, and it shows - while they may have the technical skill but they have no vision or direction whatsoever, they're just doing whatever everyone else is at the moment.

point taken...and i of course agree...


but i think you know what i meant. it doesn't take 15-20 years of experience to make great music. what you're refering to is something you either inherently have or don't...what i'm talking about is the ability to actually turn out a professional product provided you have the good ideas to begin with.

quote:

Originally posted by Floorfiller point taken...and i of course agree... but i think you know what i meant. it doesn't take 15-20 years of experience to make great music. what you're refering to is something you either inherently have or don't...what i'm talking about is the ability to actually turn out a professional product provided you have the good ideas to begin with.

Exactly - a product.

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Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
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quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Yes, and it shows - while they may have the technical skill but they have no vision or direction whatsoever, they're just doing whatever everyone else is at the moment.

For a lot of them, yes, but for people who already have experience or talent in related areas (music, computers, audio), not necessarily.

I had several years of formal musical training, and just learned most of the production-related concepts by a combination of trial-and-error and reading. Since I like to combine several different styles in my own productions, it's also a requirement to listen to a lot of music from different genres (not just EDM). Not that this helps at all in coming up with original material, it's just important if you want to target a track into a specific genre.

I'm not going to argue the following point in any subsequent replies, but I will say this: even for people who are very talented, the musical aspect is a lot harder to just pick up as you go along than the technological one. It can be done, but it takes a lot longer than with formal training, and is not nearly as easy to pick up as the "sound engineering" concepts are for people with technological competence. The reason for this is mainly that composition is an exercise in the totally abstract, it's in the pure thought domain, whereas the technology is something concrete and has already been simplified for us by the engineers and programmers who made it.

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My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

Back in the day, I use to play a lot of saxophone. I learned how to read music to some degree, and general musicianship. Those days passed when I moved away from Colorady.

I taught myself rudimentary piano skills with a keyboard that my parents bought me for Christmas. They're crappy skills, but I learned how to mess around with chords, somewhat keep time, and melody experimentation.

Fruityloops taught me the vast majority of what I know (some of you are like: "figures"...) Trial and error, reading the F1 files, looking at example .flps. It's alot of fun.

Rick Snowman's "Dance Music Manual" gave me a nice set of technical vocabulary and general words of wisdom. That book is my Bible of Confucious Sayings.

Production/Musicianship Magazines (electronic musician monthly among others).

I still kick my own a** for no longer playing saxophone, but I really couldn't find any piano teachers while I was in highschool, so I really can't blame myself for that. To me, trained musicianship has been a blessing to what I do even though it doesn't directly apply.

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...On college-driven hiatus...

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut For a lot of them, yes, but for people who already have experience or talent in related areas (music, computers, audio), not necessarily. I had several years of formal musical training, and just learned most of the production-related concepts by a combination of trial-and-error and reading. Since I like to combine several different styles in my own productions, it's also a requirement to listen to a lot of music from different genres (not just EDM). Not that this helps at all in coming up with original material, it's just important if you want to target a track into a specific genre. I'm not going to argue the following point in any subsequent replies, but I will say this: even for people who are very talented, the musical aspect is a lot harder to just pick up as you go along than the technological one. It can be done, but it takes a lot longer than with formal training, and is not nearly as easy to pick up as the "sound engineering" concepts are for people with technological competence. The reason for this is mainly that composition is an exercise in the totally abstract, it's in the pure thought domain, whereas the technology is something concrete and has already been simplified for us by the engineers and programmers who made it.

I was actually talking more sound-wise than idea wise but yeah, I pretty much agree with all of that.

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

Back in the days it was Music X2 on Amiga 500 with a Emu ES-32 or something and a Casio CZ-1 combined with listening to old skool hardcore (obviously not called old skool then lol) then happy hardcore as me and mate tried to copy what we heard on the records we brought.

As I progressed it was using futuremusic and soundonsound stuff as there was no internet back then!!!!

And since the internet / web it's been using forums like this combined with some articles from good music production magazines.

I don't know what I'd do with no internet now it would be weird.

FJ

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery while they may have the technical skill but they have no vision or direction whatsoever, they're just doing whatever everyone else is at the moment.

you just described me.

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https://soundcloud.com/ghostea stuff

reading the ableton manual between customers while working at blockbuster

ive recently gone down the rabbit hole of reading new and even very old books on mixdown and mastering.

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quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Trial and error.

Probably the millionth person to quote this but in the first 2 years this is pretty much what I did. I narrowed down the amount of errors by reading internet resources but beyond a certain point trial and error just became a humongous waste of time so for the last year or so I've been going at it from the sound design level and thinking through every process. Otherwise things get flukey and I hate that.

Big problem with that is that I've taken out a year to do the learning - I haven't actually mixed anything in all that time. Its been pretty much all sound design but I feel I understand the mechanics of music production in a way that I couldn't before.

Soon I'll have to take a year out to work on my mixdowns because I'm totally gimp at it right now.

i skull fucked mozart, bethovan, van gough, wagner, and bach.... just like an std i caught the things needed?

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quote:

Originally posted by ZxZDeViLZxZ i skull fucked mozart, bethovan, van gough, wagner, and bach.... just like an std i caught the things needed?

you mean Mozart, Beethoven, Van Gogh (the artist?), Wagner, and Bach?

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Without music life is a journey through the desert.