Well ant, glad you like me being frank 
http://dnbscene.com/article/88-thinking-inside-the-box-a-complete-eq-tutorial
I’m seconding this article. Best article about music production that I have ever read. I recommend this article to anyone, no matter how good you think you’re EQ’ing skills are.
If you don’t understand compression either, there is a follow up article that ties EQ’ing and compression together and it explains both soo soo well.
Dont be afraid to read! It might not be as fun as messing about in ableton, but it is just as important to read up on technical subjects! Its the difference between that amature bed room producer and the pros!
[quote]daniaan (21/11/2011)[hr]Don’t wanna be harsh on you, but sometimes you’re just not good in a certain hobby.
I always tried hard to become a great tennis player, but really never made it out there. You have to have some certain skills that can’t be trained.
It helps to have a great ear in hearing what sounds good and what sounds like rubbish. Another thing is being creative. Nowadays being a bit technical is great too to master the digital boundaries of your DAW en VST’s.[/quote]
I don’t understand this mentality. If everyone gave up when they weren’t good at something, no one would ever GET good. At what point is someone supposed to declare themselves completely hopeless and give up? Which skills can’t be trained and how do you know they can’t? What does it mean to be “just not good”? Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.
We shouldn’t focus on being good, great, rich or famous. Music is as old as humanity and is owned by everyone with ears to hear and a brain to understand. There’s nothing magical about what we do here except that we CAN do it.
[quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]daniaan (21/11/2011)[hr]Don’t wanna be harsh on you, but sometimes you’re just not good in a certain hobby.
I always tried hard to become a great tennis player, but really never made it out there. You have to have some certain skills that can’t be trained.
It helps to have a great ear in hearing what sounds good and what sounds like rubbish. Another thing is being creative. Nowadays being a bit technical is great too to master the digital boundaries of your DAW en VST’s.[/quote]
I don’t understand this mentality. If everyone gave up when they weren’t good at something, no one would ever GET good. At what point is someone supposed to declare themselves completely hopeless and give up? Which skills can’t be trained and how do you know they can’t? What does it mean to be “just not good”? Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.
We shouldn’t focus on being good, great, rich or famous. Music is as old as humanity and is owned by everyone with ears to hear and a brain to understand. There’s nothing magical about what we do here except that we CAN do it.[/quote]
you pretty much answered your own question buddy !! why so much stress. like you are saying it takes time and practice. Skills is something that you obtain when you practice something for a long time . some people have that extra ,skill that gives them and advantage over others, but that doesnt mean anything if you dont believe on perseverance
[quote]alinenunez (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]daniaan (21/11/2011)[hr]Don’t wanna be harsh on you, but sometimes you’re just not good in a certain hobby.
I always tried hard to become a great tennis player, but really never made it out there. You have to have some certain skills that can’t be trained.
It helps to have a great ear in hearing what sounds good and what sounds like rubbish. Another thing is being creative. Nowadays being a bit technical is great too to master the digital boundaries of your DAW en VST’s.[/quote]
I don’t understand this mentality. If everyone gave up when they weren’t good at something, no one would ever GET good. At what point is someone supposed to declare themselves completely hopeless and give up? Which skills can’t be trained and how do you know they can’t? What does it mean to be “just not good”? Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.
We shouldn’t focus on being good, great, rich or famous. Music is as old as humanity and is owned by everyone with ears to hear and a brain to understand. There’s nothing magical about what we do here except that we CAN do it.[/quote]
you pretty much answered your own question buddy !! why so much stress. like you are saying it takes time and practice. Skills is something that you obtain when you practice something for a long time . some people have that extra ,skill that gives them and advantage over others, but that doesnt mean anything if you dont believe on perseverance[/quote]
I appreciate what you’re saying, but I don’t believe in this magical skill that some people naturally have and others don’t. The hardest thing about music is that nagging voice in the back of your mind that says, “You can’t”. Instead of reinforcing this voice with talk of a mythical super-skill that we’re not even sure exists, we should be focusing on the fact that we’re all capable of learning. Pointing out that someone is just “not good in a certain hobby” because they’re struggling is not only a pointless tautology, but unnecessarily negative.
I don’t think anyone can compete with Beethoven or Mozart or Bach or any other classical artist of their time, what they had is a skill to have their music reach and move billions of people after they’ve been deceased for so long. It’s a shame how much competition there is today in the industry. Music doesn’t reach as far as it used to. It’s an insanely hard task to keep up with. Most just don’t have the skill to create tracks that will last that long or will get enough marketing.
The artists who prevail are the ones who spend all of their time to music. " Music is like a girlfriend, or boyfriend (which ever way you swing). you have to spend a lot of time with it to make it to that next step" I believe Figure said this, dubstep/drumstep artist.
If you wanna make any track sound good, you absolutely have to spend time with it. Let it go the way it wants to go. and the rest is you. there is only so much processing you can do to certain sounds and i think this is where a lot of people get tripped up. They try to do too much. Not everything is supposed to sound pretty and nice./End Rant
Congrats Walshyyy for your 100th post…Have fun.
[quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.[/quote]
Are you comparing KWIGMYRE with Schubert here?
All I’m trying to make clear is that certain people out there have that gift of musicality. It comes natural to those.
I think music is a prime need, so you shouldn’t stop making music if you love to make it. But you do not have to compare your self with the gifted ones if you’re not.
[quote]daniaan (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.[/quote]
Are you comparing KWIGMYRE with Schubert here?
All I’m trying to make clear is that certain people out there have that gift of musicality. It comes natural to those.
I think music is a prime need, so you shouldn’t stop making music if you love to make it. But you do not have to compare your self with the gifted ones if you’re not.[/quote]
I think he was relaying the fact that, in order to be gifted you have to work hard at what you do, this works for any situation. Beethoven wasn’t truly gifted from the beginning, he had to work his a55 off to get where he was. In all honesty, Beethoven probably worked harder than any other musician ever. It doesn’t matter if someone is musically gifted if they don’t use their gift the right way.
[quote]daniaan (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.[/quote]
Are you comparing KWIGMYRE with Schubert here?
All I’m trying to make clear is that certain people out there have that gift of musicality. It comes natural to those.
I think music is a prime need, so you shouldn’t stop making music if you love to make it. But you do not have to compare your self with the gifted ones if you’re not.[/quote]
No, I’m saying no one here should consider themselves ungifted just because they don’t meet some standard you can’t identify. Telling someone that they’re struggling because they’re not gifted doesn’t have any purpose, but it could cause someone to doubt what they’re doing.
[quote]Walshyyy (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]daniaan (22/11/2011)[hr][quote]Warbread (22/11/2011)Schubert lamented that no composer could ever be as great as Beethoven, but that didn’t stop him from writing great music. Nor has it stopped anyone else with a desire to write since.[/quote]
Are you comparing KWIGMYRE with Schubert here?
All I’m trying to make clear is that certain people out there have that gift of musicality. It comes natural to those.
I think music is a prime need, so you shouldn’t stop making music if you love to make it. But you do not have to compare your self with the gifted ones if you’re not.[/quote]
I think he was relaying the fact that, in order to be gifted you have to work hard at what you do, this works for any situation. Beethoven wasn’t truly gifted from the beginning, he had to work his a55 off to get where he was. In all honesty, Beethoven probably worked harder than any other musician ever. It doesn’t matter if someone is musically gifted if they don’t use their gift the right way.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s a pretty good summation.
KWIGMYRE has worked hard doing a lot of things to help his musicality and technical issues but not compared to schubert or beethoven. they spent countless decades crafting their works.
I really try working on 1 maybe 2 issues everyday on my projects. It keeps me grounded and fresh everyday for something else to inspire me. Mostly i just play around with stuff. twisting knobs pressing buttons for hours. Eventually you find something that works…unless your just that unlucky which in that case start with a new sample or a different synth or new a new chord progression (It really doesn’t matter what as long as you realized something needs to happen)
The good part is KWIGMYRE has realized he has a problem, a common problem that can even turn a superstar producer upside-down.
Just keep working. If it shows you how little faith you have in producing your own tunes… Move on… its not for you as of right now.
I was once told If i became a musician, I could never be an architect, If I became an architect, I could always be a musician.
I agree with all the points that the above posters made about the subject being discussed.
Anal Bleaching
Condos in Milton Keynes
Pancakes
Conclusion: I now want pancakes
Second Conclusion: Anal Bleaching… yum:P:hehe:
[quote]ICN (22/11/2011)[hr]I agree with all the points that the above posters made about the subject being discussed.
Anal Bleaching
Condos in Milton Keynes
Pancakes[/quote]
I clicked that second link just in case :w00t:
I’m in the same boat as KWIGMYRE.
I’ve been at this on and off for 15 years now and I’ve just started to get to a stage where I can make something sound ‘not as bad’ as it did before. Still sounding pretty awful tho.
An interesting idea about talent was brought up. My brother is in the same situation as me, been trying to produce electronic music for ages and never happy with anything, but he’s an amazing guitar and bass payer and has been well before he started trying to make electronic music. So he is talented musically (he was playing yngwie malmsteen solos at 15, played in cover bands, original material bands, and can basically jam out like fcuk to anything), but he’s at the same level I am with techno production.
We have both worked full time all our lives so this is a hobby but you would think the amount of hours I had invested I would at least be able to make a kick and open hat sound nice, but nope…
So yeah, I feel your pain KWIGMYRE.
One of these days I’ll start asking for advice because when it comes down to it I think that’s one of the most important things. Someone to take a listen that can actually understand where you’re trying to go with it and give some constructive feedback, leaving you with something concrete to work with.
Half the battle Sam is remembering what works & getting a core of things that work.
Finding sounds that work… Finding the the right effect settings etc… its all a trial & error thing.
Maybe it was in this thread, but something I’ve also noticed myself doing a lot of recently is concentrating on just one thing & trying to get that sounding the way I want.
At the moment its claps/snares - but regardless of how I get on, its all building upon existing knowledge & trying new sh!t out.
I was sticking Lives ping pong on the snare 2 nights ago… I was gonna change it to time, rather than sync - to give it a bit of stereo. However - it went on as the track was playing, and was on “3” . Sounded cool.
Anyway - That gave me the idea to throw it on the master and assign the wet/dry onto my midi keyboard. Instant break :D And its so obvious. I’ve done it lots in traktor & I’ve heard it on loads of older techno records. Funny how little you analyse what you are hearing, or how little you consider how you should approach when we’re just throwing stuff together without a plan. You have to be creative of course - but when you want a specific sound, and quality - its good have a method.
Never know what you might find along the way. But whatever you do / find out - remember it. Even if it means writing it down mate.
Throw some stuff up if you feel ok about it & I’m sure people will give you a bit of advice.
Another thing to everyone here, is that you are your own worst critic. You may think your stuff is really bad but other people will probably like it. You’ll always micro analyse your track. The key is to keep practicing and actually finish tracks even if they are a pile of ****e and you chuck them in the recycle bin. It’s all a good exercise!
Mussi for President! Yes we can
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He’s fkn right though.
He always makes me feel better about my stuff - Seriouse 
Its great having someone that’ll give you a pep talk. We all need it.