Hello
I have a problem. I would like to produce some music with ableton. I’m a dj and play music for 20 years at least. Still I feel like hitting a huge wall when I want to make music. I need some basics about how to produce dance music.
Sure I can watch how prodigy or other ‘sound alike’ music is built. But I want to understand what the music needs. It will need a drum, a bassline, vocals, and more (what?) But is is possible to do a dissection on music, just isolate parts of it and tell something how to make the sound, what is alternative to do, so I can produce from inspiration and not just try something that will take lots of time and sounds the same all over?
When I watch NI machine video, my mind gets blows. Same on a APC40 video. But I’m sure I can’t do ANYTHING they show. I don’t understand how they can go and push buttons that will sound like great beats. Are they experienced drummers that just have a go on some touchpads? Where do I begin? Feels like I can’t get started at all…
well the thing is in Dance Music productions is a mix of many elements.
usually when you see people producing their track on videos or commercial , they pretty much have been Producing for many years. so usually they have a ready set up .
about composing Dance Music . i think it is something that i struggle as well.
the funny thing is that there is so many gene res that are easy to compose like Drum and Bass and Dub step . Musically they are easy to write but processing wise you got to be really good mangling the sounds to extreme settings .
in the other hand House Music is more Melodic . you just need to know enough sounds processing to sit the sounds properly ,. but you might need to learn how to compose lead lines , bass lines and study how the drummers plays his Music .
so yeahh there is many different approach how you can compose your music. there is so many videos showing how they build they track from scratch in the tutorials.
depends in what you want to do , you might need to do lots of research .
[quote]macmiata (15/09/2011)[hr]Hello
I have a problem. I would like to produce some music with ableton. I’m a dj and play music for 20 years at least. Still I feel like hitting a huge wall when I want to make music. I need some basics about how to produce dance music.
Sure I can watch how prodigy or other ‘sound alike’ music is built. But I want to understand what the music needs. It will need a drum, a bassline, vocals, and more (what?) But is is possible to do a dissection on music, just isolate parts of it and tell something how to make the sound, what is alternative to do, so I can produce from inspiration and not just try something that will take lots of time and sounds the same all over?
When I watch NI machine video, my mind gets blows. Same on a APC40 video. But I’m sure I can’t do ANYTHING they show. I don’t understand how they can go and push buttons that will sound like great beats. Are they experienced drummers that just have a go on some touchpads? Where do I begin? Feels like I can’t get started at all…[/quote]
Study, learn, study learn, study, learn… etc… it never stops. One thing though… some people don’t have that inner ‘talent’ and no matter how much they learn they might never have the success they want alone. This is why many people team up with others to fill the gaps. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself… not everyone does everything themselves. Face the reality that actually you might never be able to play beats like Jeremy Ellis on the Maschine video… I can’t for starters! Someone like him would practice almost every day… those things are also rehearsed often… just ease back… enjoy as much as you can and hook up with others if you find that you are hitting a brick wall. Remember also that a lot of people who become masters at this stuff do it almost every day and every night… If you are holding down a proper job and family, relationships etc you wont have the time to get to the same level.
What the above say - but remember making music should be fun as well, sure you need to learn and study and practice - I would say I spend probably 3 hours a day doing something music production related - I also have long breaks so nothing gets to be a chore
Also try experimenting you never know you could have that next must have sound somewhere buried within you 