Music maker feeling very frustrated and wanting advice.

  • Thread starter Thread starter DCI5
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DCI5

Oedema5
I've been making music since the summer so not a very long time and I am definitely a beginner but I am committed.

ive made some songs with my shitty Mac, scarlet 2i4 interface, and my midi controller. When I started making music I used a cracked version of ableton live, I liked what I was making and wanted to take it serious and I've been using ableton lite for about 2 months now. My songs feel like they have been getting worse and worse, when I started my arrangements were decent but the composition and mixing were terrible. I've read Mike Seniors "mixing secrets" to give me a better idea on what I am getting into, but that did more confusing than I needed.

i just want to make music I love, which will probably have elements of liquid or melodic dubstep. I'd rather not spent days googling it unless one of you awesome producers can give me some tips to really get started and on the right track.

thanks!
Decima5
 
spend days googling it.
then years trying it and failing.

and you still won't be able to 'just make the music you love'
 
Its a craft man. I'm only a few more months into this than you and think localspace hit it on the head. I've gotten significantly better but I'm still nowhere near where I want to be. Half the time I think I'm wasting my time and the other half I'm convincing myself if I put in the time I can get great. Its a grind. Develop good habits, ie work on production daily. Play with your DAW, set up track templates, organize your samples, sound design, tutorials, etc. Consistent activity will get you the results you want, no shortcuts. If you aren't putting a few hours in daily you will never get good. (although picking the brain of other producers is invaluable)

Have you loaded any tracks you like into your DAW and studied them with a pen and paper 8-bars at a time? If not try that.
 
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Yeah, there is no end point in mixing really. You keep on getting better your whole life and there aren't really a lot of shortcuts you can take. Just keep doing it and even while it might feel like you are standing still, it will push you forward.
 
Focus on one thing at a time, before worry about the mix just worry about making a catchy melody and groove (no or minimal fx).
 
I wouldn't even bother mixing your tracks in the very beginning. Just set a goal for yourself - one a week or something, and try to stick to it. That's the best way to get to a track WORTH mixing!
 
All great advice ^^^^. There are no shortcuts. It is a life-long pursuit.

GJ
 
Its just practice man. it doesnt matter what equipment you have(For sure youll eventually get a better result) But its about putting those 10,000 hours, keep grinding
 
All great advice above. Have an intention before you start THEN figure out how to produce it in reality. Give yourself parameters for each project. Learn new compositional devices (one at a time) create projects that focus on that device - wether it be a chord progression, melody, time feel etc.. Theres probably less than 50 common chord progressions that EVERYONE uses, same with time feels. Google common chord progressions, pick one, write a tune, if it sux, thats fine. Pick another one and write a tune around that, once that one sufficiently sux - move on to next. Eventually things will start to click
Listen to the music you love and the style you want write - listen to it A LOT. But listen with your head - not your heart. Ask yourself on an intellectual level "why is this so good? " how they do that?" a lot of people like sausage - not everybody can handle learning how its made. You gotta learn how its made. You have to suffer, get frustrated, maybe think its never gonna happen, and yet still soldier on. "Anything precious in this world requires great sacrifice"
Good luck
 
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Yes but nobody talk about remake music. This is a really good way to learn. You choose to take a music you love and remake it. But each time you see something you love try to really learn it. You like the melody so go and see what is the key, the arrangement, the chord... You like a sound, search for tutorial on you tube...I do that when i have no inspiration, it give you tools that are really great, it train your ear, and it make you progress in a lot of way.
 
This might actually be a good sign. It means you are becoming trained in figuring out what's wrong with what you are creating. You're starting to hear behind the curtain.​

I think there are a few different forces at play. One is that most of the skills relevant to music creation have to be trained, not learnt. I think this is easy to miss in today's social media culture. Training is based on repetition and is a function of time. Learning is based on becoming aware of something and can be a discrete event. I remember learning what a compressor does, but it took a long time to train my ears to comprehend what compressors actually do.

This is why, if you look at the greats, they are obsessed with the process... not the outcome. Fixation on outcome is not a particularly effective strategy to making music, despite what music lifestyle youtube gurus might tell us.
 
Great advice here! I just have to add one thing: get familiar with the feeling of frustration. This sounds weird, but most artists are never totally satisfied with their piece. You can spend a lifetime on one project. Even leonardo da vinci said "art is never finished only abandoned". Don't let yourself get fooled by the thousands of tutorials, trying to tell you that creating music is easy and you always come up with some heat.
 
OGBama said:
Focus on composition and leave mixing alone.
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Very useful advice to this question thank you. I can appreciate a lot of "just use it" answers but when someone looks at the problem in a question and tries to help it makes me smile! Thank you for that (We are all in this together; let's all move forward together faster!!) :-)
 
Agree with focusing on composition first. just keep going, I used to hate all the stuff I made in my early days but I just kept going. Make new stuff everyday and Remember you are your #1 Fan.
 
Its all a learning process , start with a reference track , learn the theory of it. Keep studying theory so you can come up with your own creative songs. Mixing is a science within itself. Too much to type in this little box. Follow me on IG i can mentor you for a small fee if interested , ig : prodbyedren
 
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