Starter, need guidance

T

tehuku

New member
Hi, FP !

I'm 18 year old multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, who just got into music production.
I need some help. I don't exactly know how to approach music production. Main things I want to study are mixing and mastering.
I have very little experience with recording and mixing instruments (Using Garageband, hope to get Logic soon) and I've understood that if I don't have proper room and mics, theres not much to do. So I'll focus on mixing and mastering electronic music. Have messed with FL studio for few days.

So how do I start? I'm gonna read all the books and materials I can get, obviously. Is remaking songs the way to go? I have lots of my own material written too. I would love to make pop music, something that Ryan Tedder does. (Beyonce, Ellie Goulding, Demi Levato, Onerepublic etc ) . How much is mixing electronic music different from mixing real instruments ?
Also, how long will it take if I practice 2-3 hours a day, to start sounding decent (radio-friendly) ? I hope to be able to release some of my own music in a year.

Another thing is that I probably need good instrument samples (Drums, Keyboards, Basses, Strings, Leads etc) for Logic and I got no clue whats is good and what isnt and where to get them. Or are Logic's samples good enough?

Think thats it.
Thanks !
 
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Sounds can be transformed.mixin and mastering can be done so many ways.use an equalizer to remove excess stuff you dont want in each sound for that song at the moment.

compressors in my opinion should only be used if notes c4-c6 become louder than the lower half.All of them drums come from drum modules, digital or physically.

there is no guaranteed time signature for improvement.35gb of free soundfonts.90+ gb of drums at freedrumkits.net
 
tehuku said:
I would love to make pop music, something that Ryan Tedder does. (Beyonce, Ellie Goulding, Demi Levato, Onerepublic etc ) . How much is mixing electronic music different from mixing real instruments ?
Also, how long will it take if I practice 2-3 hours a day, to start sounding decent (radio-friendly) ?
Click to expand...
I just love what Ryan Tedder has done. The song linked in the bottom here (Stronger) is heavily influenced by Tedders work on drums aka Halo etc..
I would say there are more similarities than differences when it comes to mixing genres. Very important elements in Ryan Tedders mixing/writing/producing is:

A simple chord progression, often repeated over the same 4 chords the whole song throughout (Halo, bleeding love, Apologize, Counting Stars(well mostly))
Strong drums/rhythms aka Timbaland (where Tedder spent some years working with Tim Mosley; picking up the skills to produce that beautiful RnB beats)
Repetetive choruses with a smart lyrical or melodic twist.

How fast you will sound great? Basically comes down to how much you practise and HOW SMART you practise. Chase down whats important. Since you are a writer and multi-instrumentalist, start producing great beats.
Remake what you hear and like, that is SOOOOOO important in the start. You learn a lot from remaking.

One more thing. You are "radio-ready" when you are. It helps to set goals but they can´t run the track for you. Hard work every day. And have fun.

Also, try to network as much as possible, both online (sound cloud etc) and good ol knocking doors talking to people.

If you got some questions, feel free to hook up with me.

And here is that Ryan Tedder inspirited song I was talking about. Wrote it together with Tonje Kvarsnes. Produced by me. Well it´s mostly just a demo production.

 
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KonKossKang said:
sometimes notes in higher octaves become loud compared to the lower half
Click to expand...

That's not really the only case you'd want to use a compressor though. I do hear what you are saying, but I think it has more to do with how you are more sensitive to the higher frequencies rather than them actually being louder. So technically, you could be having ear deafening high notes while they are still below the db of the lower ones, so a compressor would only make matters worse.
 
making beats is a hard streneous journey.. you won't get good until probably 2014.. i'd go with fl studio demo version tinker with that a bit... get the full version and invest in drumkits and vst's for sounds down the line..
 
Thank you for the answers. I'm starting to make my first house tracks and got myself Komplete 8 and Sylenth1. Where can I get good kicks ? I probably gonna layer the kicks (low + high click).
Also, do you guys use MIDI drums or sampled sounds ? As I've understood, the professionals mainly use sampled sounds.
 
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Don't waste your time learning how to master right now. You should be GREAT at mixing before your track is even considered for mastering. And you have a long ways to go to become capable of mixing your track good enough for the mastering stage. You could practice mixing for a year before you even start to think about Mastering.
 
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