for all the producers on NC.....

[DLB]

im getting bored of attempting to make music cause fl studio as a interface is boring to me

finding samples aint fun anymore

i dont go to studios

i wanna know what ya'll do to spice this shit up, what u use

i want to be a music producer in the future fyi

[namix]

no doubt, tbh, that same shit happened to me

i just started teaching myself instruments...

i never mastered the 'deep' 'ish on the producing front though.... i can see how attention to detail can take someone REAL deep into the 'wave control' side of things... but after a bit of compression and fx my interest pretty much tapped out lol :)

[DLB]

word any tips?

i played piano and trumpet in HS, i was advanced on trump, novice on piano but i know lots about notes, names and fingerings

[namix]

Originally Posted by DLB

word any tips?

i played piano and trumpet in HS, i was advanced on trump, novice on piano but i know lots about notes, names and fingerings

ahh, you're already more advanced than me to be real lol....


i just learned to 'feel' the 4 count like 2-3 years ago....


if you know what i'm saying by 'feel' though... i can say one amazing tip is to learn through emersion bro. truly EMERSE yourself into music -- not by mastering any one thing, but by focusing on breadth before depth.


i.e. - i learned to become an actually pretty solid beat boxer, while just playing piano and guitar by ear....

as you know as a producer, it's all frequency... and then timing... so by learning multiple things at one time, you can learn exponentially faster, and perfect your craft in a way few can ------ it's attention to detail at the producer level man....



i know how it sounds, but I've become a better "drawer"/artist... and i'm talking like i was stick-figure person level artist before i learned to learn through emersion..... it's all relativity and proportion and harmony in the end :)



sorry if that's too deep - but i dont have much else to offer pawtna lol

[DLB]

idk how to play anything by ear, how can i improve?

i have the ear to pick up shit tho like kanye and timbo, but lack the current stuff to reproduce/produce it

[detour]

Originally Posted by DLB

word any tips?

i played piano and trumpet in HS, i was advanced on trump, novice on piano but i know lots about notes, names and fingerings

start experimenting with the processing fx

[DLB]

ok

how do guys come up with melodies if u do make them? i feel my melodies lack so then the harmonies around it also lack so then i get discouraged

[uh-oh]

i'd help but all i play is the bassline, note wise. that can be simple so its not like i go crazy

but word i'd help if i could. but it sounds like you wanna be a baker. i cook on the stove

we're both making food, my approach is just entirely different from what it sounds like you want to do

[Answer]

1) No matter what DAW you use, they're all essentially the same. If you're bored with the FL Studio interface, maybe you can change your background and move some shit around, but honestly it's the same shit

http://www.kaz.ph/blog/2012/12/06/customize-fl-studio/

you could go through the effort of trying to learn a new program, but it really won't make a significant impact on the output of your product

2) Download some VST's. You can find plenty of free ones on KVRAudio.com - or you can bootleg the free ones (which are generally better). But there's an endless supply of Sounds, Reverbs, EQ's, Distortions, Flangers, Choruses, etc.

3) I typically come up with the chord progressions before the melody. I feel like it's a lot easier to make a melody that goes well with a chord progression than the other way around. The concept behind constructing melodies is usually a "journey" in the sense that a melody starts somewhere, then finally reaches it's ultimate definition before going back home. If it's something fast-paced, I'll usually use more skips and leaps to keep it interesting - if it's something slow or emotional, I tend to use more steps

4) Mixing is 75% of the battle. My computer doesn't quite handle FL Studio as well when I've got a shit ton of distortions, reverbs, and EQ's all going - so I tend to do some of my mixing in Reaper. Just mix, mix, and mix some more.

Yeezus is actually a great example of a lot of really shitty, simplistic beats that were so well mixed that they sound amazing.

[Sharp]

Originally Posted by DLB

idk how to play anything by ear, how can i improve?

i have the ear to pick up shit tho like kanye and timbo, but lack the current stuff to reproduce/produce it

trial and error. just listen to tunes you like and try to figure out and single note lines and eventually chord progressions that stick out at you. that goes a long way

[DLB]

ok will work on that

uhoh, im cool hearing what u do tho to inspire myself

a baker can see what someone is cooking on a stove and be inspired by it

[uh-oh]

i just fuck with drummin yo

learn how to do anything you can possibly want to do with FL

i can't help you melody wise or none of that keyboard stuff, but if you need help just programming drums or sampling i can shed light there.

like me personally i've been in a slump. so what i do is just not worry about finding samples. i need them to make complete beats. right now it sounds like you need melodies and ideas to actually compose shit. forget about that for now.

just fuck with what you got. delete shit you dont NEED. i had so many frilly shit it harmed my creativity. its like giving a painter an easel or whatever with 99 thousand colors and he's just trying to draw a smiley face. you don't need most of that shit. i forget what the main colors are, but its only like 7 or some shit. with those you can make any sound you need.

so with drums you just need a few punchy kicks, and a few deeper ones. hats is the same deal really although i get up with those. like 3 different complete sets(open hihat, closed hihat, tip and lid variations from the same actual drumset) and then like i dunno 20 maybe random hihat sounds to keep it different

same with snares, i keep a decent number of those, that i could probably trim down to 20 essential snares.

but word just try and streamline your shit. these are the only types of drums i fuck with and how i use em

KICKS - the staple yo. i use the same kick in every single one of my beats since like 08. i just layer a different kick in with it. i got a punchy clear clean kick. i get the dirtiness from other kicks. whether it be a random one in my drums folder of which i only got like 10 different ones, or i layer it with a kick from a drum break i've chopped to incorporate for the dirt and soul and just AIR thats around it.

SNARES- this gets different i keep a decent number of snares. ones that slap upfront immediately, and ones that have that air/decay naturally on them. manmade reverb is the worst shit in the world. but word i find a good combination of a couple to a few snare sounds and layer them together (trigger them at once)

HIHATS- this one im fortunate enough to have whole sets for. a set being like a closed hat, an open hat, and different variations of how its being hit, like is it the footpedal, or is it the stick is it a light tap or a decent strike. then you got shit like the 808 and other sampler kits that will usually have a closed hat and an open hat. i try and keep the set together and just groove with what i got going

now other than that i consider everything else percussion.

RIDES- i barely use ride cymbals. but i keep a few in case i need them to help drive a groove. just a jazz ride and a rock ride cymbal is enough for anything unless you want a ride from a kit from a drum machine for some more computery shit

crashes- i use these alot sort of. these you dont need to many of but you need variation. look for real recordings of people who sampled them themselves. nothing worse than a shitty 808 crash or something like that when you need the reallll. but word just trigger them differently tho like if you got two crashes anywhere near eachother. like less than 4 bars distance between them, have a different one. you dont wanna trigger the same sound even at different velocities its wack and dehumanised.

toms- keep a few sets. theyre easy to find. want at least a high one a mid one and a low one, in case you get on your heatmakers/dipset and need a tomroll poppin off

tamborines - i use these alot too. very similair to the hihat in how i use em. i got the light shakes, the slaps, and the upshake of it. so i can triger one after the other, and it will sound like someone forreal shaking a tamborine, mix in the slaps with the snares and shit gets dope and crispy clean. but for the most part its easy to overdo it so when i do use snares alot of the time its just for the jangles and i use it under snares, like triggered with the snare

what else,

congas/bongo -honestly i dont use these much at all unless what im sampling has them, and then i will play out what the samples doing with the bongo's or whatever i got, and turn it down low so its not an upfront thing in the mix

thats pretty much all i ever use

but word. so what im doing now, is just making drumtracks fucking around, and then see how it sounds with some random shit i already chopped, to see if its worth pursuing. then i go back in to dig mode and try and find dope samples to chop up and play with some drumline im fucking with.


long post

but yo if i was you. i would download classic break beats. impeach the president, shit like that. lay it out in FL studio, im assuming you know how to chop and loop samples right? if not i can tell you how im not sure how long you been fucking with it. but once you got it laid out try and play/place your own drums over it. then when you got it close and or you basically remade the drum pattern, mute the break you were playing along too, and look at the placement, look where shits at and remember it and you can do that drum pattern whenever from that point on. just keep at that shit whenever your in a slump with melodies and that

work on drums.

after you pretty much have drums mastered the rest comes easy

if you put all the time i've put into digging for samples, learning to chop and re arrange chops and make new patterns out of shit and all that, if you take all that time and put it into you playing melodies, and learning chord progressions and basically composing in general, you will get nice with it

its all about time put in

[DLB]

word i got all them drum breaks uhoh

i think i'll do that with that and chord progression, link me to your soundcloud/soundclick/music, i would like to hear your old/new beats g

but i've been trying to work on synchronization of sounds, like having trumpets going w/ flutes, etc. just combining sounds for my ears

[Witty]

I'd say the best thing to do is probably bathsalts.

[DLB]

love this song from it's melody at the beginning on

just stumbled upon it today, thought i should share it

[Zen]

Originally Posted by Witty

I'd say the best thing to do is probably bathsalts.

Listen to this man.

[uh-oh]

the past 3 days i did these

http://limelinx.com/c4qv2
http://limelinx.com/dp6hu
http://limelinx.com/ebl3m

i dont see myself fleshing them out tho it was really me just warming up to the drum break. its the same in all beats but i chopped and reprogrammed em and shit how i wanted it to be for each sample in the back

but word i just found a dope drum break, chopped it up and i was putting random chops and shit over em so i could hear how i could use em over shit

now when i find an ill sample i know this break in and out, i can do any pattern involving the sounds know what i mean

but word heres some shit i actually fleshed out

soundcloud.com/uhohbeats
uhoh.bandcamp.com



did the first two beats in that vid^

[Ryan 12]

lmaooooo0

@ dlbitch makin beats



please give me a link to ur productions, b