sonic academy, useful or damaging?

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frinfrin
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:59 am

sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by frinfrin » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:00 am

i've been looking at those sonic academy videos with interest for a while now and i finally went for it and now im halfway through the latest 'how to make a nu-disco' track. i'm fairly new to DAW/ableton and i'm learning a lot from it - it's really helpful to be able to copy exactly what this guy is doing, and hear precisely what changes it makes. however on another forum on here, a couple of posters said this:

"After you learn you go back and watch and you're like wtf. All their channels are clipping, the way they use EQ is horrible. It teaches bad stuff. Had to unlearn almost all of it."

and

"I watched some free versions of the videos a few weeks ago, as a complete beginner, and found them to be very useful. Having now learnt the basics I would say they are not very good. But a good way to find your way around the program when you are literally just starting out."

and i'm just wondering if anyone else has comments about them? or more details info about what mistakes they make?

if i can be aware of what their mistakes are before i get fully involved then that'd be really helpful. also are there any other video types who do stuff like this? i find videos that show how to actually create a certain type of track/genre/sound are *really* helpful.

xenomachino1
Posts: 83
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:07 pm

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by xenomachino1 » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:37 am

i truly think they are quite good. They give you a general perspective on how to approach tracks and divide your work flow, plus, with these videos, you always pick up a thing or two that you didn't know before and that always stays with you.

Also check out the MacProVideo series on ableton. I've watched a lot of tutorials and that has been the one that has helped me the most when it came to basics. When you start getting good and need a little more, check out nickstutorials. Now those are the best.

hope this helps

jc

beatflux
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 9:18 am

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by beatflux » Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:39 am

It made me cringe watching the trance tut where the guy had the master clipping.

frinfrin
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:59 am

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by frinfrin » Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:56 pm

after watching through a few of these i think they're an invaluable tool, especially for beginners. a bit of reading about mixdown should avoid any of the clipping errors so don't let that put you off. i've learned an incredible amount from the nu-disco tutorial (although the song itself is a bit weak, it's great to see the different elements that make it up). im about to do the basic music theory courses next and hopefully they'll be equally as good. annoying that they've recently changed the pricing though, so now you have to spend £30 per quarter, rather than £10 for a month (where you could go through each tutorial and unsubscribe) but that's a minor quibble.

D.R.F.
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:27 pm
Location: Lisboa

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by D.R.F. » Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:48 pm

They have some useful tips.

I dislike their taste in music and what they perceive to be a specific genre, but I like watching the tutorials nonetheless. There's usually a little detail you can apply in your own productions.

It doesn't make sense to subscribe their service for a full year, but for 13 euros you can get full access plus resources (samples and projects from certain tracks shown on tutorials) for a month, so all in all, it's a good website.

Edit: I noticed now that they've changed their ways and now you must subscribe for a 3 month period. That sucks. They don't have enough new material to support a 3 month (90 days!) subscription.
Ableton Live 8 Suite

housemusiclover
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:54 pm

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by housemusiclover » Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:53 pm

Just watched one of their tuts...pretty nasty. You can find hundreds of better (free) tutorials on youtube or vimeo.

frinfrin
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:59 am

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by frinfrin » Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:09 pm

ah, which one did you watch and what did they do wrong? i'm quite new to all this so any criticism of how they work will be helpful.

housemusiclover
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:54 pm

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by housemusiclover » Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:50 pm

frinfrin wrote:ah, which one did you watch and what did they do wrong? i'm quite new to all this so any criticism of how they work will be helpful.
pm sent

philter
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:20 pm

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by philter » Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:12 pm

We do try our best not to make nasty tutorials... :wink: If you have some feedback on any of our courses we'd love to find out. we really do try to constantly improve and give out good relevant info in our videos.
Image

housemusiclover
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:54 pm

Re: sonic academy, useful or damaging?

Post by housemusiclover » Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:54 am

philter wrote:We do try our best not to make nasty tutorials... :wink:
any PR is good PR, right? :mrgreen:


this guy knows his shit: http://www.groove3.com/str/producing-ho ... -live.html
also cool: http://www.youtube.com/user/DubSpot

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