just don't know where to begin

I

iamdjkirk

New member
hey guys, so i've watched all the massive tutorials, watched a good amount of youtube videos on making bass, but when i sit down at my computer, i just don't even know what sounds good together.. it's like all creativity is zapped from here... i'm listening to a track right now, should i try to find bass presets that sound similar and just build off of that? i just get lost so easy and nothing ever sounds good...

like awhile back, i tried doing a 2 hour consistent practice each night and made a few basslines with just the root note... i had about 32 different basslines but nothing ever sounded good...

any pointers to get me moving? i just feel stuck and hard to get motivated... i love djing, but i know production is such a huge part of that and want to get better...

thanks
 
iamdjkirk said:
hey guys, so i've watched all the massive tutorials, watched a good amount of youtube videos on making bass, but when i sit down at my computer, i just don't even know what sounds good together.. it's like all creativity is zapped from here... i'm listening to a track right now, should i try to find bass presets that sound similar and just build off of that? i just get lost so easy and nothing ever sounds good...

like awhile back, i tried doing a 2 hour consistent practice each night and made a few basslines with just the root note... i had about 32 different basslines but nothing ever sounded good...

any pointers to get me moving? i just feel stuck and hard to get motivated... i love djing, but i know production is such a huge part of that and want to get better...

thanks
Click to expand...

when i want to design a bass for example first i listen to some songs like 10 songs

then i make the bass and listen back other 10 songs again

the reason i do that is i want to compare so at the end i will not be surprised how bad my sounds are, how bad my melodies are
 
What I usually do for bass is create a chord progression/melody first and then add the bass on around that, using the root notes of the chords. I rarely make the bassline first.

Maybe that's all you need, just to change your workflow and develop the track in a different order. It is tough being in a 'musical writers block' just keep practising and eventually something will sound good

Also a good thing to do, is mess around in the plugins and create a library of custom made basses, so that you have some good 'go-to' sounds to use when creativity strikes
 
Iamd,

I'm having trouble understanding your issue.

- Have you been training too heavily on technology and sound design, and not enough on music?
- Is it a matter of attention span when you're actually sitting down to work?
- Is it that you have good musical ideas, but they just come to you when you're not working?

All three seem different. But all are approachable.
 
Recreate your favourite beats,melody,kicks,snares and bass,but don't be too hard on yourself,when you feel your brain is fresh try to come up with a melody,make simple kicks and snares then the bass..always try to keep it simple and listen to the type of beats you are making..soon you will be liking what you make...thats the advice i was given too..cheers homie
 
elvissango said:
Recreate your favourite beats,melody,kicks,snares and bass,but don't be too hard on yourself,when you feel your brain is fresh try to come up with a melody,make simple kicks and snares then the bass..always try to keep it simple and listen to the type of beats you are making..soon you will be liking what you make...thats the advice i was given too..cheers homie
Click to expand...


hey guys thanks so much for your suggestions! ok, so a bit more in depth...

i'm big on discipline... so i've created 2 hours a day to work on production, but i'm a bit ocd so I'm always worrying if i'm wasting time sitting in front of a computer making no sense of a bassline, mind you just the root note too... that's what my mentor told me atleast... so then, i'm like, how much time should i be watching tutorials, navigating help etc...

put that all together and i feel hopeless, there's so much info out there and so many massive presets, but none of them sound good... i've watched the entire masterclass on massive, i understand chord structure, rhythm, was in music theory in college, played trumpet, i get music... but trying to create just a good pumping sounding bassline sounds so daunting, it's like i never know what sounds go good together... is there a formula to all this?

thanks guys!!
 
Am thinking tutorials are great,but i think it won't help just by watching dozens of them,have a map to your production,like set an effect or technique that you want to master and watch that only tutorial,then go to your PC,make a ridiculous beat that is in good rythm though and apply the effect/technique,my order was love philter,scratching effect,bass glides,panning etc,one step at a time then try making "so and so.."type beats and do exactly as they do in the tutorial then add the effect you learnt above..melodies take time,sometimes a week,sometimes an instant,sometimes you must stay away from production equipment and never stress yourself coz you don't have a melody yet,know it will come coz melodies never run out...am not saying this coz am a perfect producer but i have people that motivate me and help me out..cheerz mate
 
I would recommend the Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers. by Dennis de santis. It really helps with some creative concepts.
 
elvissango said:
Am thinking tutorials are great,but i think it won't help just by watching dozens of them,have a map to your production,like set an effect or technique that you want to master and watch that only tutorial,then go to your PC,make a ridiculous beat that is in good rythm though and apply the effect/technique,my order was love philter,scratching effect,bass glides,panning etc,one step at a time then try making "so and so.."type beats and do exactly as they do in the tutorial then add the effect you learnt above..melodies take time,sometimes a week,sometimes an instant,sometimes you must stay away from production equipment and never stress yourself coz you don't have a melody yet,know it will come coz melodies never run out...am not saying this coz am a perfect producer but i have people that motivate me and help me out..cheerz mate
Click to expand...

hey thank you man, i'll take this and go with it... just hard knowing what all sounds good together you know? what i'm doing right now is listening to tracks that i'll play usually in my set and go from there... but the difficult thing is i'm just staying on the tonic and it's like still calculus, not because i don't understand theory, it's because i don't understand what goes good together etc, etc...
 
It's very common for people to over-research and under-do. Especially for the type of people that spend a lot of time on forums. My recommendation is to spend 80% or more of your daily two hours simply creating. Don't research more than 20%.

As for what sounds good, let's assess the real question:
- Are you really suggesting that at your age, with your trumpet and theory experience and with your tastes, that you haven't identified what kind of music you like?
- Or are you not confident that you have the qualifications to create?

30 years ago, there were no degrees on how to be an author. And there certainly no degrees on how to be an audio engineer. Does that mean nobody wrote books or created music? Of course not. You didn't go to school to learn those things, you just ... did. You learn these things by doing, not from education.

You have all the qualifications to make music. But this doesn't mean you have the skill to make music up to your tastes yet. You gain that skill by doing, not by reading or watching. Make ten songs. Listen to them. Listen to a few songs you like in the same genre. Listen to yours again. What do your songs lack? Make ten new songs. Repeat.

Do and do and do and do and do.

Ed Sheeran addresses this perfectly in this short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDyg_41QF1w
 
I think its wrong when people say you shouldnt comment on forums, you shouldnt watch tutorials .. thats wrong to say

I know people who have never watched tutorials and they did not make any progress, people who watch tutorials stand more motivated make more progress they get better so they make more music at the end so the time was worth spending

Composition, sound design, mixing and all that is not about just doing something and dont watch tutorials

You got to have that basic information about arrangment, sound design, chords, drums, mixing and all thst

And that kind of information doesnt come from not watching tutorials and you sit there try to make a song you dont eben have an idea whats something like fills, bridge, sidechain ,

Without of these basic information you dont know where to start, even if you have cool ideas about melodies or whatsoever you will not finish the project and so all that is waste of the time so better spend time on turorials learning thr basic things

But when you start to go on details like really deep, you have to think critical about that because we can discus about years of technical things and end up not making music and someone else who maybe dont even know the basics do something really cool without all that effort that you may do
 
Learn music theory and learn other peoples songs. Generally become a musician, just because you have ableton or w/e installed doesn't necessarily make you a producer. I know a lot of people who own guitars that can't play them. There is no easy answer to any question like this, ever. So the best thing to do is embrace it an figure out what works for you, because that's what everyone else has done. However learning music theory will point you in the right direction.
 
a&hps said:
Learn music theory and learn other peoples songs. Generally become a musician, just because you have ableton or w/e installed doesn't necessarily make you a producer. I know a lot of people who own guitars that can't play them. There is no easy answer to any question like this, ever. So the best thing to do is embrace it an figure out what works for you, because that's what everyone else has done. However learning music theory will point you in the right direction.
Click to expand...


thank you guys for all your help!! but seriously, i have a good understanding of music theory and have done some remixes over popular songs i know... i'm just trying to create a baseline from the tonic to sound good... and i'm really struggling with that... so that's why i'm asking, is it just time or do i need to watch some tutorial that i haven't been able to find as of yet... everyone seems to take on music theory and i'm working solely on the tonic...
 
Hie mate,am thinking the more the beats you make,the more you know what most of the instruments sound like especially in your DAW and which would fit in the beat you are making,am still on that path too of being able to tell at the spot which instrument flows best with the beat am making,otherwise have some time where you don't make beats but study your beatmaking equipment,instruments,presets,just sampling around,doing that will subconciously save the sounds in your head and with time when an idea comes up you will be like "i need a cube for this melody"....hope it helps,cheers mate.
 
hey man! thank you! so humbled and appreciative of each response! just trying to get in 2 hours each day! thank you guys!
 
Bassline synthesis is hard. You need something incredibly tight but something that also sounds good, packs a punch and has a fairly wide frequency spectrum without having too many dodgy harmonics. Then you've gotta think about parametric EQing, sidechain compression etc..

What I'm trying to say is don't worry too much about basslines for now, sure they can be a hell of a lot of fun to make, but in terms of your theory, it's much easier to start with chords and create a bassline, then to even take them out later seen as you're going for a darker vibe. It's hard to start building a track, and everyone's got a different process, but you should generally start building a groove with a drum beat first, and consider using some samples first to copy them. When I was starting out a friend said to NEVER use loops (same friend has just been picked up by some MAJOR labels - Sony & Warner), and while he has a really good point that you'll never learn to do it yourself if you only use loops, I think they can help, but don't ever rely on them.

Don't pressure yourself, just play around, don't stick to only one thing at the start - make chords, drums, FX, sliced vocal jams etc.. and remember this should be fun!
 
One last thing, having read more of your replies in this thread I'd say move away from purely copying tracks you know and love, as well as play out. That's all fine and well but I'd take a gander that the reason you're not inspired is you're trying to copy. Throw out every single pre-conception you have and just make music YOU want to make. Sure, use influences but don't let it take the front seat. Later on, when you've got your production techniques down you can take a proper crack at making music that sounds like it. Remember that the guys releasing in your genre are likely at the top of their game, but they all had to start somewhere..
 
Piggy-backing off of all of the above, I'll mention something I haven't seen in the above thread-- You have to be able to _define_ what you mean by "good," and/or "It does/doesn't sound 'good'."

What do you really _mean_ by that? It's great to be focused, disciplined, and in some instances, introspective and somewhat self-critical. But if you are trying to attain a goal, and you have no idea what it really is, or what it would sound like if you did attain it, you're just spinning your wheels. That's where the listening and "copying" comes into play-- defining what you like, and what a "good" sound means to you. Then you can take some examples of "good" sounds and "reverse engineer" them. So spend some time not only listening and copying, try to actively listen, and to use your powers of meta-cognition (thinking about thinking) to understand what it is that you really like. Then you can blend various elements together, and try to take that sound out of your head, and make it a reality.

As for general inspiration, I'd say "start at the beginning." Whatever that is for you, and whatever that means to you. Some people can only start with a melody, others can start with a bass-line or some chord changes. Others can actually write from a drum groove, rather than adding that on as a last after-thought. Start wherever it is that you _feel_ the music, not just hear sounds that aren't quite "good enough" in relation to your as-yet undefined standard...

GJ
 
Response to Laureat:

I don't intend to say that it's wrong to watch tutorials, or that it's wrong to ask on forums. Not at all. But don't let that dominate your limited creative time. Don't spend more time studying than doing. I know from experience that it's easy to get paralyzed by research, and then I never create what I am spending all this time learning to create.

It's all about finding the balance that's right for you. My sweet spot is about 15% research and 85% creating.



Response to James:

I think purely copying tracks is a useful exercise for the times when you feel stuck or don't know what to do next. For example, I made a clone of a Calvin Harris song in my DAW. Just the chorus, actually, and without vocals. But in doing that, I learned a lot about synth design, I learned that his balance of instruments is significantly different than what I would otherwise choose, and that just about every element is swimming in more reverb than you'd expect. I learned things, and it gave me ideas. Ideas on how to be more like Calvin Harris, but also ideas on how I can be different, how I can go in the opposite direction.

Did I publish my clone song? Of course not. Do I spend all my time making clones? Of course not. But it is a nice teaching tool that is way more hands-on and mentally stimulating than listening to someone drone in a YouTube tutorial. There is a time and a place for it. But, as above, activities like this shouldn't take up too much of one's creative time.



For the original poster:

Every track needs a place to start. Sometimes I start by finding drum sounds I like, arranging them how I think they sound best, determining the tempo of my own performance, then recording them. Once the percussion is in place, I see what other instruments fit. Synth pad? Synth lead? Electric piano? Bass?

Other times, I start with a melodic idea I had while driving. Which instrument best fits the melody? What is the tempo I imagined? Get it down as quickly as possible, then see what kind of percussion adds to it, what kind of bassline enhances it, etc.

Other times, I just scroll through presets in a virtual instrument I don't know very well. Maybe a synth, maybe an electric piano, etc. When I find a preset I like, how does it ask to be played? Once I play it that way, what tempo fits? Set the tempo, record it. Now what other instruments support it? What style of drums and what style of bass?


Everybody needs a place to start. Maybe I'm unusual in that I have multiple? I'm not sure. U2 has one member that throws together hastily made guitar and drum parts as an audible scratch-pad. Then the rest of the band chooses which ideas they like in order to turn them into songs, and which ideas get thrown in the trash. I imagine that nearly all Victor Wooten songs start with him messing around on the bass, then a song is built around that foundation. Because bass is what he does. Probably a lot of rap songs start with percussion. Figure out where you need to start for your genre and your process.

Do you find it hard to start with a bassline? So do I. Try starting from a different place, then add the bass that fits using the notes that fit.

But if bass is central to your genre, don't wait too long. Make it first, or make it second, while the bass still has a chance to determine the sound of all the instruments that follow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top