I want to be a hit producer but . . .

B

BTMM

Born To Make Music
Hey Guys,

Like most of y'all, I've been into music at an early age. 17 to be exact.

Since then and now, some time has passed.

It's cool though because I've finally managed to just work on the day job
and work on music when I can find time (I wish I had more time for music though).

My work though I feel like keeps getting in the way.

Like I said, I want to make music my career (Not a hobby), however, it's hard as sometimes my work takes my time at home too (Internet marketing, bla bla). Then I get pissed off because I would rather spend that time spending more time working on my craft.

Is anyone else here in the same shoes?

Like you live on your own, pay your own bills, but are SERIOUS about
doing this music thing as a career but day job blues kind of get to you?

Maybe it's getting to me more as only now I'm taking learning my tools
seriously so the learning curve gets to me.

I'm in my early 30s which doesn't really help. However, Benny Benassi didn't come up
until 36 or so.

I'm using Logic X Pro (Super fun) but trying learn Massive, etc (If any professionals are here I would love to have a Skype tutorial on Massive).

So yeah it's just annoying balancing a job where you are not sure when you are going to get fired from and then trying to learn music tools from pretty much the beginning and on your own . . . How do you guys deal with it and keep moving on?

So to sum it up.

Afraid of getting fired from my day job? (Boss keeps avoiding probation review)
Afraid of the age thing (Music taste is still super relevant. I love music)
Getting frustrated with the learning curve of Logic and especially making proper EDM Synths.

How would you deal this if you were in my situation?

Like I want to make PROFESSIONAL music. Feel free to be as honest as possible.

:) Thx!
 
The only advice I can give is make beats and stuff if it's fun. There's dozens of massive tutorials that cover massive, although It'd be best to learn the overall basics of synthesis instead of a synthesizer so that it applies to all synthesizers :/

That benny benassi, I think that fella uses sytrus in fl studio them sounds sound exctly like sytrus lol but beside the point most synths have the same knobs but laid out [and some are even used] in a different non linear way like zebra or parsec and massive/ sytrus these are the "more abstract not traditional way", while the normal synths [2xosc, tal synth, any freeware synths etc]
 
Age does not matter! Dont think in those terms.. F**K the age thing, if you truly love making music then time is not a factor at all. There are tons of celebs that didnt make it in television until late 30's or 40's. Spend the time perfecting your craft and zero in on every aspect of it you can. Dont look at having a job as a reason not to make it. Let that job fuel your hunger for success, and understand that the job is temporary. Understanding that your situation is temporary and that it is not your future is the key to having the mindset to be successful in any industry.

Let that job create hunger pains in your stomach for success brother.
 
I'm 35 and been making music since I was about 15.
I have a job, wife and 2 kids; the youngest of which is 14 weeks old so I can absolutely emphasise with you on the constraints of time...
I think the key is to use what little time you have as productively as is possible.

That might mean splitting your time between music making tasks.
Eg. The next hour I get in the studio will be sample selection (by this I mean listening to the vinyl I've collected during my lunchbreak digging trips) for my next couple beats... If I'm lucky I may get chance to chop up a sample...
But laying down chops drums & bass guitar will be the session after that...
I'll most likely leave mixdown til I have a few beats together and do them as a batch.

But wife, kids and job (much as I'd love to quit and make tunes all day - I have a mortgage and bills and we gotta eat) have to come first. Everytime. Everytime. Everytime.
So right now, studio time is precious and I go up there (attic) knowing exact what I want to achieve in the time I have.
Small goals. Achievable small goals.

Next BeatTape by October
 
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Awesome advice guys. Appreciate it. The best though is the last one :) - Much love and respect to you all.
 
Yea man I agree with the above responses. And I feel you I was in the same predicament (still am). But I learned that sometimes you have to do what you have to do so you can do what you wanna do. So in the meantime keep your job if it puts food on the table, but also treat your music as a second job and give it your all! I know the limited time thing sucks, but you still can make it work while taking care of business.
 
I'm 30 years old and starting to make beats, who cares how old you are. I was watching a video on youtube, the channel is seamlessR, he was talking about it could possibly take 6 months (not all cases) to pump out somewhat decent beats. I have time, i'm not working now, so I am going to be putting in hours upon hours.
 
Thanks guys!

BeatBassBanger said:
I'm 30 years old and starting to make beats, who cares how old you are. I was watching a video on youtube, the channel is seamlessR, he was talking about it could possibly take 6 months (not all cases) to pump out somewhat decent beats. I have time, i'm not working now, so I am going to be putting in hours upon hours.
Click to expand...

100%. Much appreciate the responses here from all. Time to go hard and then go HARDER - I'm almost done with a tune I'm working on Logic Pro X. Yeah let all this fuel the desire as someone mentioned earlier. GO TIME! THANK YOU ALL - Much love and respect. U guys are the best!
 
Well, I work on a full-time job (9 hours and a half);
Im graduating student in law (4 hours);
Need to share my time with my girlfriend (the rest of my time, lol);
Live by my own too, pay my own bills and dont have a single money to spend with music, sadly.

I have less than 2 hours per day (when i'm in good form) to make music, so yeah, you are not alone :D
The secret is to not give up!
 
BTMM said:
Like most of y'all, I've been into music at an early age. 17 to be exact.

Since then and now, some time has passed.

It's cool though because I've finally managed to just work on the day job
and work on music when I can find time (I wish I had more time for music though).

My work though I feel like keeps getting in the way.

Like I said, I want to make music my career (Not a hobby), however, it's hard as sometimes my work takes my time at home too (Internet marketing, bla bla). Then I get pissed off because I would rather spend that time spending more time working on my craft.

Is anyone else here in the same shoes?


Like you live on your own, pay your own bills, but are SERIOUS about
doing this music thing as a career but day job blues kind of get to you?

How would you deal this if you were in my situation?

Like I want to make PROFESSIONAL music. Feel free to be as honest as possible.
Click to expand...

We are around the same age. I moved out of the house at 15 or 16, with a job, my own place and was still in high school. I made music in my spare time as well.

I think you have it a little easier with your job being at home, depending on how well you manage your time and all. I had to travel to and from work, to and from school, no car as I couldn't afford it. So when you talk about time being sucked up by everything but music, I know what you mean.

I pushed to finish homework in class and used lunch breaks to work on my craft. Weekends, I spent most of them working on my craft. I dedicated 2 hours before school/work to work on my craft.

One thing that may have given me an edge over you is the fact that I was using a very simple setup. Mpc 3000 and a workstation. I didn't tools with tons of knobs and functionality.

Transitioning it into a career.

This wasn't hard for me. Some people will tell you focus on the craft, not the money. For me, it was the other way around (for the most part). I didn't seek out creative situations, I sought out profitable opportunities. What this forced me to do was focus on what I needed to know in order to get the job done. Meaning, I would learn what was needed to get the client to write checks. Sometimes this required me to learn on the job, other times, I had time to prepare and really get the technique or style down before approaching a new client.

One hurdle that you'll run into is creating music that you like him versus creating music that other's like. Some people only work on projects they find inspiring or challenging. Others take projects that pay regardless of what they are.

I've been making a living from this craft since I was 17 or 18. I Started off with local artists, that was 100% of my income, then transitioned into music licensing in the early 2000s, that's where my most of my income stems from now, the rest is endorsements and sound design.

I'd say in order to succeed in this industry, you need have a a true appreciation of music or only find projects that cater to what you like doing. Know your tools and understand the business.



BTMM said:
Getting frustrated with the learning curve of Logic and especially making proper EDM Synths.
Click to expand...

Not to sound mean, but it shouldn't be that hard. There's tons of youtube videos and training material online. Learn synthesis, this will make you can catch onto any type of synth as they all pretty much work the same

Sound generator (oscillators) → Filters → Output → Final sound. Modulators will affect the filters, output and oscillators. Some synthesizers are a bit more complex where they have multiple isolators multiple filters a multiple things that you can modulate, fx, dynamic control etc. But it all comes back to the basics; Oscillators filters, output.
 
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