Start making music

[Rubygunz]

Hey guys, i want to start in music production, I've posted in this foam before, and i got good answers but now I'm looking for something more in depth. Im currently in college and i go for English, yeah i know completely different from music, but music is something I've always adored and i really want to make it but i just don't know how, i can't apply for any music school programs because i have no knowledge. Id rather learn it on my own and I'm ready to dedicate endless hours and times to gaining this new skill, but where do i start? I know absolutely nothing. Do i start with learning music theory? how to read music? how about when i get a daw, how will i learn what all those buttons do and what those words mean? How did you guys learn it? anything will be helpful, thank you.

[antarktika]

but where do i start?

open Ableton

Do i start with learning music theory?

if you want, it can certainly be helpful

how to read music?

probably less important

how about when i get a daw, how will i learn what all those buttons do and what those words mean?

RTFM

How did you guys learn it?

opened Live, messed around, wondered "how do I do that?" looked for answers, RTFM, repeated those steps hundreds of times.

[yur2die4]

If you can find the record button and the volume faders in a program, you are in a good position. (Even better if you know how to load instruments and sounds)

After that, you keep making music, but each time you try to figure out more and more what is going on.

Save almost everything you mess with at first. No matter how terrible. Render them and listen to them. And make more and more music. Don't stop making. If you can do that one simple thing, you will get farther than many.

[H20nly]

all these guys are lying to you. the first thing you do after you get a DAW is go through the painful ass process of getting sounds from the program to come out the speakers...

[Tagor]

the pain/joy starts with bringing the music from your head out of your speakers.

you have to make a dessicion. i often compare it with sailing.
do you really want to learn all the knots, navigation, weatherknowledge and rules, or is it just a nice thoughtabout
to navigate a ship in the big ocean ?

it was no time easier then today getting into music-production.

my advice: learn a classical instrument like violin, piano, guitar or even drums.

then record it via intro and look if you can achieve to bring in synthetic sounds from the daw.

or buy push and watch videos how people use it. there are many roads to rome, even if some end up in paris.

[Idonotlikebroccoli]

It can be quite daunting, indeed. My first 3 years of making music, I just messed around with pre-made loops in Dance eJay, recorded silly things with a microphone, and had fun with it. It's not about getting good as fast as possible, but rather being able to enjoy yourself even when you're starting out.

My enjoyment was the same in my first Dance eJay 3 project back in 2001, as it is now in a large good-sounding Live project. Also, I still make tons of silly bad-sounding 4 bar projects. For every project that I'm happy with, there are ten that are just boring or uninteresting.

Just do whatever feels interesting to you in the moment. You might start out using pre-made loops*, and suddenly find yourself interested in exploring audio effects, followed by an interest in unmusical noise, and unexpectedly come across some random thing some person mentions, that just fascinates you.

Improvement comes naturally. Let's say that it takes 1000 new projects/ideas to get very good. Then it's mostly a matter of getting to 1000 by trying different things. You got good at talking as a toddler by doing it this way.

* I've heard good things about this loop/sample pack: https://www.samplemagic.com/details/331/chillwave-2

[EasyWorkflow]

all these guys are lying to you. the first thing you do after you get a DAW is go through the painful ass process of getting sounds from the program to come out the speakers...

So true. The learning curve was so steep for me I almost quit and I had experience because I built a previous home studio and have been a guitarist for 38 years. Be prepared to spend endless hours and a lot of aggravation trying to get a hold of this animal. For me, it got to the point that I needed to start taking private lessons or I was quitting. Everyone is different and if you can't afford lessons, than keep experimenting and learning through trial and error. Ableton is a complicated piece of software. At least it is for me. I was overwhelmed for months and came close to calling it quits until I started taking private lessons about two weeks ago from an online certified Ableton instructor who is now my mentor. I have taken 9 lessons in last 16 days and have learned more in two weeks then I did in past 5 months.

I had no choice because I was done with Ableton. Now I have so much confidence and can even use Push without looking at my laptop. I never dreamed that day would happen. But it did after two weeks of lessons. It all depends how badly you want to learn this type of music production. You could learn to play an instrument with the amount of hours you will need to invest in Ableton just to come close to understanding all the components that make up this software.

If you are currently in college, take on single course on music theory which I did in 1980. To this day, I still use the theory I learned in that course composing music in Ableton, and playing guitar became so easy for me back in 1980 once I learned modes, scales, cycle of 5ths, arpeggios, and basic music theory. I NEVER learned to read music and unless you want to be a studio musician, for most styles of music, only classical guitarists, studio musicians, and jazz guitarists who play live with bands in Broadway shows need to read music and those guys pretty much read chord charts, not notes.

Good luck in school and in your musical endeavors.

BobbyD

[H20nly]

well, I'm certainly not denying or devaluing anything in your response to what you thought I meant, but I literally meant getting a DAW configured so that it will record and play back audio and/or setting up a MIDI controller so the inputs and outputs produce results that are audible. To put it another way, getting to the point where your gear configured to work with your audio interface can be an enormous pain in the ass. This could be especially true if you haven't done it before and are non-technical. It's typically not plug n play