Getting Into Production

i wanna get into producing my own dnb..where do i start?   ive tried messing around in fruity loops and didnt get anywhere (just a doof doof loop)


i have thought of doing that SAE course in electronic music, but the price of it scares me a fair amount and i dont know if ill learn much from it. i have a good computer and a fairly good sound card so software compatibility isn't much of an issue, so if anyone can recommend software or something would help a fair bit.


i also own my own DJ gear, which is where i started getting curious about producing my own tunes. been teaching myself how to mix for a couple of months now

FL is the bomb once you learn how to use it. Probably the easiest program out there. Use the FPC and if you're having problems writing drums there are a heap of presets under scores which you could mess around with a bit. The fruity slicer also works well if you have a cool loop and want to a bit of choppage.

before spending $$$ on a course i would suggest the following:

dogsonacid.com > the grid
spinwarp.com
digitalblonde
loads of tutorials on youtube
get a mate around to show you stuff

the way i got into production was just by trial and error.. sitting infront of flstudio and messing with the basic synthesisers (3xosc is killer) n just fuckin around til i started to get to know what different waveforms sounded like together..

The SAE electronic music production course is cool but im pretty sure its mainly digidesign protools and Reason (no flstudio or cubase) as thats what was covered in the diploma when i did it in 06

find a copy of the amen break n chop that up

if ya want some drum sample libraries PM me

Yeah you can pull some pretty awesome sounds out of the 3xosc. I stole the settings for a bassline in one of the demo songs (Pilchard - Taktix) and modified them a little bit from there to make a mad reecey sound.

You first need to find a program that makes it simple to get something down, you cant learn how to produce if you're spending hours trying to get a program to make noise. I recommend reason for beginners, but only because that's where I started and because it comes with heaps of synths and samples already - whereas cubase and what-not rely heavily on aftermarket programs. Fruity is fine too, I just personally don't like it but many people dislike reason too - it's up to personal preference I guess. Don't forget you can always upgrade if you feel limited, but you won't get anywhere if you start with a crazy program that makes it difficult to do simple things and means that you cannot be creative.

Then just make some beats and bass. Keep doing it over and over again and very quickly you'll start to get your ears in tune and a bit of knowledge about how the whole thing works and you will be able to go from there.

i'd probably say reason too, at least when you grow out of it you can rewire it into cubase/sonar/etc later on and use the parts of it you still like

you can rewire fruity via cubase, etc

Yeah agree there, FL and Reason are definitely the way to start off, although I could never stand reason, as you said it's personal preference, and like Khem said you can rewire FL into other programs. I like to write all my MIDI based stuff (i.e. Drums and Bass) and then export it into Pro Tools if I want to add audio clips, because that can be a bitch in FL.

i started on the sony playstation with fluid, then music and advanced to amiga 500 with akai s2000 and drum machines, midi keyboard etc.

music 2000 was the jam! 

haha yeah was a nice introduction to making tunes. they sounded like shit but u learn the basic idea behind using samples, and how to make decent beats and breaks.

eJay FTW 

www.ejay.co.uk