When to Stop watching Tutorials and Start making Music

N

nilsiism

New member
Hey there,

I'm new to this forum and I would welcome every feedback to my questions :)
First of all excuse my English. I still hope everyone can understand my problem.

I play guitar since a year and I'm new to music production. Music is a really big part of my life, but so far I just spend hours every day listen to music and going to gigs. I know exactly where I want to go and what my taste is, but I have no idea how to get there.

I'm a mechanical engineering student and in the last couple of years if learned to work myself in the theory of stuff really fast. I'm definitly far away from knowing a lot, but I think I know already far too much, then a beginner (who hasn't finished one track yet) should know.
I read tones of articles and tutorials about:

  • My DAW (Ableton Live 9)
  • Synth, Sound Design, Drumprogramming
  • Compression, Reverb, Delay, …
  • Music Theory, Arrangemen, …
Every time I talk to my friend (who produces techno), I know so much more about the theory and commands then him, but he’s actually finishing one great track after the other and I'm not.

I'm really into

  1. Electro and synth pop and electronica. I love bands like Banks, Sylvan Esso, CHVRCHES, Made in Heights, Purity Ring, FKA Twigs, Klo.
  2. Experimental electronic music, like Darkside, Chrome Sparks, Shigeto, Shlohmo, Emancipator, Cashmere Cat

And this is where my problem starts. There is little to no guidance in the internet how to start making this music. All my friends who make music make either house or techno, so there is also no one I can ask.
I would love to make electro pop. But vocals are a big part of this genre and I know no one who can sing and I doubt that anyone who can sing, wants to make music with me, as I have no idea how to make it.
So I thought it’s maybe a better idea to concentrate on one instrumental genre first?? (so I can do it alone) I like and try to make music like Chrome Sparks and Shlohmo.
But every time I try this I’m completely over challenged. There nearly no four on the floor beat and the sounds and the rhythms are so weird that I have no idea how to start. Everything I make sound like way too much and not even close what I want it to sound like. I also spend already a couple of hours actively listening to this music and trying to hear the different layers.

My question is:
What is the best way to tackle this problem, so that I finish tracks that actually sound like this kind of Genre? I’m not talking about the same quality.
I feel like watching more tutorials is a really stupid idea, isn’t it? Watching 10 more tutorials about house music isn’t an advantage.
Is there anyone how had the same problem or has an idea how to close the gap between my knowledge now and finishing a first (shitty) track in one of this genres?

All the best
nilsiism
 
i am going to answer your question by asking another one: how did you learn to play guitar? (answer: trough playing it right?)

just sit behind your computer and make something, you need to make 300 shit songs before you know how to make an allright song. you need to make 1000 shit songs to know how to make a nice song. get where i am going? you wont learn to swim without going into the water.
so get out there and make some really shit music :)
 
Exactly ^^. When I first started, of course I created some pretty horrendous stuff, terrible melodies, terrible sound design etc. But if you're struggling on how to actually know how to start the track, go on youtube and look up how to start track, you'll get ideas and you'll get yourself on track so you don't end up looking at your screen without a clue. :)
 
You both are absolutly right. Thank you so much for the feedback! I already spent the evening making music with my internet turned off, so I could just focus on making stuff by myself. Its probably the best if I limit myself to just one synth and a small amount of samples isn't it?
 
Actually, the more samples and the lesser plugins the better imo. But how many plugins and samples shouldn't be based on a specified number, but simply the plugins and samples that you use/need. It wouldn't make sense to get a bunch of plugins you know you'll never use, but it's also super nice to have a few plugins you know all sound great so you have different ones making different sounds, etc.
 
I don't know if it's what you want to hear but it might be a good idea (at least to start with) to not stress about sounding like anything.

It's good a learning process to try to replicate some other thing, but it's the process that's effective not the result.

Try exploring instead of searching.
 
Thanks again for the great feedback.

Coleman1: I thought its better to get to know one synth really well at the beginning instead of knowing just a little bit about a lot of plugins. What are you thinking about that?

MarcDHall: I think thats exactly what I wanna hear. I think thats my biggest problem. I stress so much about the fact that I wanna sound like them that Im super annoyed that this is not working. I will try just make music without thinking about this in the next time. I think thats a great idea. Thanks
 
nilsiism said:
Thanks again for the great feedback.

Coleman1: I thought its better to get to know one synth really well at the beginning instead of knowing just a little bit about a lot of plugins. What are you thinking about that?

MarcDHall: I think thats exactly what I wanna hear. I think thats my biggest problem. I stress so much about the fact that I wanna sound like them that Im super annoyed that this is not working. I will try just make music without thinking about this in the next time. I think thats a great idea. Thanks
Click to expand...

And you're right, you should learn one plugin really well, but then there's times where you need another plugin dedicated to a certain sound. I use Sylenth and know it inside and out, can make any sound really. But then if I want a nice piano sound, I can't use Sylenth1 obviously, so I use either Nexus or TruePianos. I don't like Sylenth's pads/strings? I might reach out for Kontakt. That's basically it, learn a subtractive synth, like sylenth, inside and out then if you're looking for some other specific sounds like a piano or strings, go for them. There's no point having sylenth, z3ta, zebra all these other subtractive synths though because they all really do the same thing, especially if you know how to make any sound out of them :).
 
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