Ableton Forum

Hey!

Since I'm new here, I may as well introduce myself. I'm 21 and french-speaking, my main passion is gaming, I really like detroit techno... and I have had no musical education whatsoever in my entire life. It's not even long since I've seriously been listening to actual music, about a year or two I guess. And well, I just kind of ended up fiddling with Ableton one day and... I liked it. Really liked it, actually. It has kind of grown on me and now, I'm really interested in getting better at this stuff, especially sice I want to be a game designer and this could be a big plus to give my games a unique vibe. But as you can read in the thread's title: I have no idea how I could in fact improve my skills.

I mean, I've messed around Live for quite a time now, and I've even put up an "album" on Bandcamp to show it around even though I know it's completely amateurish, but I don't know how I could make it real. Of course, I've already watched dozens of tutorial videos and everything, but it doesn't really help you get accustomed to music production as a whole once you've learned a couple of basic things. I don't know of anyone who could help me in this field either, so I'm kind of stuck playing with samples and writing four-on-the-floor drumloops for the time being. So that's the big question: Do you have any tip you would absolutely want to say to people who are completely new to electronic music production? Are there any VST around that I should really own? What's the most important part of sound mastering? How can I learn to compose a housey piano hook? How can I make my bassline fit with the rest of my track? That's the kind of questions I'm always asking myself without ever finding an answer. And that couldn't be otherwise seeing how I don't know anything about music, and how these are pretty complex and open-ended questions!

So that's it. If you have tips you think are essentials for electronic music production, just tell me. If you agree to help, of which I'm thankful, maybe you should give a quick listen to the aforementioned album, so you have an idea of my "skills" and can hear directly what's wrong with it. Don't hesitate to be harsh regarding this production: To get critical viewpoints are the reason I uploaded it in the first place, and that how I'll learn to get better anyway.

Thanks!

Note: I'm using Ableton 8 and run under Windows 7 64bit if that can be of any help.

If you want my advice, free stuff (youtube example) show you something but can't make you a musician, if you want to start seriously buy some Book/Video Course on music theory, music composition, synthesis, arranging, mixig.

After you have a good knowledge you have something like 45-50% and you have to spend LOT of time experimenting what you've learn.

It cost some money but LOT LOT LOT LOT of time,and i mean LOT of time seriously (succes takes 10-15 years they say lol) someday i went to bed at 3.AM because i was studying MUSIC, not stuff for my university (engineering, pretty badass stuff looool)

So, if you want to start this way begin at your own risk xD

Peace and Music!!!
StefanoM

You're still quite young at 21 so learning new skills should be relatively easy for you.

I'd suggest maybe buying some music theory books (beginners ones, ones for kids maybe) or even one of those home 'easy play' keyboards with built in lessons.

Get some theory in your brain and then creating little riffs will become easier, and combining them into finished tunes is the next step.

Stuff like techno isn't complex, and you'll be able (with a small amount of theory knowledge) to create passable tunes with 4 or 5 tracks: drums, bass, chords, lead, maybe vocals (or sampled snips of voice).

Listen to as much music of your chosen genre as possible, and study it.