Hello everyone~!

luiswhite · 02-16-2013, 07:37 PM

hello music banter. my name is luis and im starting to get involved in music production. im 19 years old and i am at the moment taking online classes at point blank to learn how to use logic pro. i am taking an ear training course to further my musical abilities. the least i can say is that i am having an amazing experience but i would love some advice from people that are say a year or two into producing music. what are the struggles i am going to face on my journey, what are some tips that will help me and also i was wonder what are the best way to get around a problem that your having with your music. i wanna get deep into this community because music fascinates me. from producer to producer!

Trollheart · 02-16-2013, 08:15 PM

Hi and welcome.
You'll probably get more technical assistance here Artists Corner - Music Banter --- somewhere to start, anyway...

j.w. · 02-16-2013, 10:37 PM

It's a peculiar time to get into the music biz... it's about half the size it was 13 years ago, & it doesn't look like it's going to start growing again until premium streaming really takes hold, which won't be for several years. Studios are biting the dust left & right, it's not as easy to get a solid apprenticeship as it used to be.

I'd say your best bet is to become a kickass editor. Because pretty much all bands suck these days, & the ones that don't only record at a handful of studios. Everyone thinks they can just come in & do a sloppy take & have the engineer fix it in Logic/Pro Tools. And no one at the studio wants to do the tedious ****. It takes like 20 seconds to align a drum track perfectly, but it sounds mechanical. It takes hours to align a drum track just enough that it sounds good, but not so much that it loses it's feel. If you get good enough that you can nail that sort of thing, & you're willing to put in the hours doing the mind numbingly tedious ****, you become invaluable to a lazy producer. And they're all pretty lazy. And if you can get in that way, you'll learn the rest.

It's a lot like graphic design, there's a lot more people going to school for it than there is a need for it. Most people won't end up using their degree, & the ones that do will mostly be doing work for ****ty garage bands & will hate it. The way to get ahead is to learn to recognize the groove, & always be positive & pay attention to details & work harder than everyone else, & don't be incompetent. The rest of the stuff will come on it's own. And develop your personal skills, talk to people & make friends, as many as you can without being douche. There's not really a place in the music industry for quiet people who expect to be recognized or who wait for opportunities to appear. But no one wants to be around a douche, either. Be sincere with people. And be confident, but always be humble, so people will teach you.

And watch a ton of DVD's. Watch the Todd Dowd film, the Language of Music. And all of the Classic Albums series. Most of that stuff is on Netflix. You'll absorb a lot of the intangibles, what artists are looking for out of their engineer & what makes a great song. And the new Dave Grohl film is really good, Sound City, even though it's about analog recording. There's a lot in there about the studio environment & what not. No one really came into that studio knowing anything about recording, everyone just worked their way up from sweeping the floors on an apprenticeship model & that just bred great engineers.

Good luck. I've got friends who are ridiculously talented & now they just do live sound, & I've got friends that I never thought were particularly great musicians & now they're working on Grammy-winning records & scoring major films. And the difference between them is their character, I think.

luiswhite · 02-17-2013, 05:10 PM

thanks man. im looking more into the electronic music field, edm and such, im not trying to expect anything out of this of course i hope that something comes out. i love music and want to make music but what you said is really eye opening. im looking up those videos atm and hoping to gain some more knowledge! thank you for your time means a lot to me

02-16-2013, 07:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
luiswhite Groupie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: CT Posts: 2	Hello everyone~! hello music banter. my name is luis and im starting to get involved in music production. im 19 years old and i am at the moment taking online classes at point blank to learn how to use logic pro. i am taking an ear training course to further my musical abilities. the least i can say is that i am having an amazing experience but i would love some advice from people that are say a year or two into producing music. what are the struggles i am going to face on my journey, what are some tips that will help me and also i was wonder what are the best way to get around a problem that your having with your music. i wanna get deep into this community because music fascinates me. from producer to producer!

02-16-2013, 08:15 PM	#2 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Hi and welcome. You'll probably get more technical assistance here Artists Corner - Music Banter --- somewhere to start, anyway... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-16-2013, 10:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
j.w. Groupie Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 21	It's a peculiar time to get into the music biz... it's about half the size it was 13 years ago, & it doesn't look like it's going to start growing again until premium streaming really takes hold, which won't be for several years. Studios are biting the dust left & right, it's not as easy to get a solid apprenticeship as it used to be. I'd say your best bet is to become a kickass editor. Because pretty much all bands suck these days, & the ones that don't only record at a handful of studios. Everyone thinks they can just come in & do a sloppy take & have the engineer fix it in Logic/Pro Tools. And no one at the studio wants to do the tedious **. It takes like 20 seconds to align a drum track perfectly, but it sounds mechanical. It takes hours to align a drum track just enough that it sounds good, but not so much that it loses it's feel. If you get good enough that you can nail that sort of thing, & you're willing to put in the hours doing the mind numbingly tedious , you become invaluable to a lazy producer. And they're all pretty lazy. And if you can get in that way, you'll learn the rest. It's a lot like graphic design, there's a lot more people going to school for it than there is a need for it. Most people won't end up using their degree, & the ones that do will mostly be doing work for *ty garage bands & will hate it. The way to get ahead is to learn to recognize the groove, & always be positive & pay attention to details & work harder than everyone else, & don't be incompetent. The rest of the stuff will come on it's own. And develop your personal skills, talk to people & make friends, as many as you can without being douche. There's not really a place in the music industry for quiet people who expect to be recognized or who wait for opportunities to appear. But no one wants to be around a douche, either. Be sincere with people. And be confident, but always be humble, so people will teach you. And watch a ton of DVD's. Watch the Todd Dowd film, the Language of Music. And all of the Classic Albums series. Most of that stuff is on Netflix. You'll absorb a lot of the intangibles, what artists are looking for out of their engineer & what makes a great song. And the new Dave Grohl film is really good, Sound City, even though it's about analog recording. There's a lot in there about the studio environment & what not. No one really came into that studio knowing anything about recording, everyone just worked their way up from sweeping the floors on an apprenticeship model & that just bred great engineers. Good luck. I've got friends who are ridiculously talented & now they just do live sound, & I've got friends that I never thought were particularly great musicians & now they're working on Grammy-winning records & scoring major films. And the difference between them is their character, I think. __________________ [links removed by mod, no advertising] Last edited by j.w.; 02-16-2013 at 10:42 PM.*

02-17-2013, 05:10 PM	#4 (permalink)
luiswhite Groupie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: CT Posts: 2	thanks man. im looking more into the electronic music field, edm and such, im not trying to expect anything out of this of course i hope that something comes out. i love music and want to make music but what you said is really eye opening. im looking up those videos atm and hoping to gain some more knowledge! thank you for your time means a lot to me