# Begginer Musician here with some questions...



## KeitoTheMidnightFox (May 14, 2017)

I been producing for over 2yrs now and DJ'ing quite longer. 

My questions are. How do I get my productions to sound hyped? And better? 
Link to my productions;
soundcloud.com: Fennec Faux

I'm an Ableton Live user and I use only few things as for plug ins but my collection includes;

Serum, FM8, Massive, Sylenth1, Sausage Fattener, Serato Sample, OTT, DimensionExpander and Serum FX. 
For my EQ'ing/Mastering I mainly use Ableton's stock stuff. 

My favorite genre of music right now I been enjoying on trying to produce is Future Bass and Future House.
I also love to work with Trap and Dubstep. Sometimes House music. Though when I DJ I mostly just spin House music, since thats my main go to. Mostly because thats what I learned on. 

I know very little about Music Theory (Which I think is the big thing holding me back) 
I know some chords/keys. (Though I have a cheat sheet of scales/chords to help me remember what key scale I am working in) 

Since I am a begginer and I kinda want to make more hyped music but I think maybe I should just settle with chill Future Bass and soft stuff. 

Any help, advice, lessons, tips on anything. 

Be from what I will need to know more about music theory or anything that I need to know. Even if its straight up how to EQ and layer stuff to make them sound bigger. Which I can layer stuff. I have a tutorial thing from start to finish on Helix from Cymatics. And pretty much 99.9% of my Serum presets are from Cymatics. AND Serum is basically the only VST synth I use... xD 
Which may also be a thing holding me back. 

I'll take any type of feedback.  

Music is something I love making and I love DJ'ing and I really want to try to make more out of this then just a hobby.


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## Old Fashioned (May 14, 2017)

I'm not really a musician, but if you are wanting to learn more about scales and so forth I would suggest learning an instrument. The piano especially would be very useful just so you can hear and interact with the key you're tinkering with. But, that is just what I've found helpful in my experience.


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## EmpressCiela (Aug 29, 2017)

Hello! I know I'm late and idk if this'll be any help, but I'll do my best to give of list of ways you can improve. I've listened to your recent tracks so this'll all be tailored to help with your specific style.

Firstly, *definitely learn music theory!!!* Not saying your music's bad without it (it's actually still pretty damn good. Nice work!), but Music theory is a very, very useful tool in the belt of any and every good musician. For example, you want to get your music hyped. Even if you're making slow tracks with a high-end bass drop and a massive drop, you can still get your audience hyped but utilizing and exploiting the right chord progression and notation. I was blessed enough to take the class my senior year of high school when I thought I couldn't use music theory in my kind of heavy electronic music, and yet I still find myself using things I learned from that class like scales, counterpoint, figured bass, etc. Learn a little bit at a time and play around with it as you go. This is the best advice I can give a fellow musician.

But let's say you do this. Is there anything else? YEP!

Secondly, *learn what makes the genre you're working in unique. *Dubstep has simple drums (usually), bassline reliant melodies, short melodic and harmonic phrases, as well as rhythmic drops. Jumpstyle has a MASSIVE and HARD-HITTING kick drum in the four-on-the-floor rhythm, lots of sidechaining, and notation centered around the areas with the heavy kick. Future bass has heavy synths that tend to fall on the back beat, really steady bass over atmospheric or euphoric dreamscape sounds, and it's undefined as a genre which can lead to some interesting compositions. Learn what your genre is known for and learn how to incorporate those aspects into your track. Some compromise may be needed at times, but overall I don't think You'll come across much conflict from what I've heard.


Thirdly, *listen to how the pros do it*. With a little music theory under your belt this becomes easier, but it's not necessary.  When you listen to music that you want to be making, don't just listen and envy the artist. Break down the song in your head. Listen for when the song shifts from a transition and how different parts of the song work to keep your interest. Going back to you looking to make your tracks hyped: I'm sure you already know that the buildup and drop combo is the best formula for this. Throw in some pulsing drums and a riser with chopped melodies to ice it off and then drop all of it, effectively making your audience willing to lose themselves and rave. But there are other ways to do this that doesn't need to occur within those two sections and the pros know this. Listen for the little things that they do that get you hyped and learn how those aspects work in tandem with the rest of the track. If that means emulating something unique to that artist, then so be it. Every artist's style is comprised of their own thing as well as influences of people they like. Again, music theory will make this easier because you'll be able to break it down quite a bit and pick out the nuances in their musicality, but its not an absolute to have for this. 


lastly, *experiment*. There's very few godlike techniques and ideas in music that were made intentionally. Experiment to find out what works best for your intentions. You have a MUCH better DAW than I do and I'm not really clear on what FL can do, but play around with all the functions and see what happens. look online for tutorials on certain things you aren't sure of how to do and go from there if you need to. In my case, I had to look for months to find out how to sidechain properly. I finally found a video explaining something completely different, but I saw the VST the guy was using and got it for my own. the thing compressed like a dream (and with minimal effort) but upon experimenting with it I found that I could make custom sidechain pumping rhythms, which I used in one of my best tracks, "Night Walk". All I'm saying is mess around and see what happens. Music is a very trial-and-error field to be in and unless you're the perfect musician who appeals to everyone, You're gonna need to play around with your errors and improve on them constantly.

Welp, that's all the advice I can give at the moment. I'm still a noob to music production, so take this all with a grain of salt XD


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## Pipistrele (Aug 29, 2017)

I made similar thread a while a go, and it had some really informative and insightful answers, so I'll just link to it here, can't make it proper justice by just paraphrasing stuff that was said in it:
forums.furaffinity.net: Making electronic and/or sample-based music... Where to start?


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## Red Racoon (Jul 6, 2020)

Hi, I have some input on this as I have attempted making music - when I was younger, starting with sample based stuff and did go on to learn an instrument. I now have 18 years of piano behind me since. 

My input would be - _if you have a particular interest in learning music theory, *do it. *_Learning notation and theory will enable you perhaps to be able to speak the common language shared by other musicians. 

Same with in instrument - if you particularly *want *to learn a particular instrument, do it! I’d definitely recommend a tutor if you do, as your learning will be more focused. Just expect a lot of work. Actually learning an instrument is about 80% pain for 20% pleasure. There is a lot of frustration and time spent doing the same thing over, and over, and over till you want to throw the darn thing out the nearest window... 

Knowing theory alone, or even an instrument to any level may not actually improve you’re ability to make music that sounds any different or - ‘better’. 

There is a slightly counterintuitive fact that - people who don’t have any knowledge of music theory technically have slightly more musical freedom than perhaps someone who does. You can sit someone down who’s never played a piano in front of one - and they'll probably end up playing something that isn’t entirely awful. Why? Well, one simple thing - music theory (certainly in the classical sense) is a set of rules about what goes with what. Humans have this weird inate ability to subconsciously learn what sounds good and what doesn’t.  So having actual rules that affect this knowledge can, and does,  slightly reduce your ability to put sounds together, and may even lead you to an artistic dead end. This is as you spend so long thinking what should work, you end up stuck with nothing. 

Obviously - There is a slight caveat to this statement. I think there is a massive difference between perhaps learning ALL of music theory as a whole, and perhaps - learning more about music. As people have mentioned above, there are things you can do without burdening yourself with learning an instrument, or even music theory at all! 

Firstly, just listen to more genres of music - even those outside of your comfort zone, and especially those you may classify as ‘hating’. Explore what makes these songs come together, how they progress. If you particularly hate a genre, explore what in it makes you hate it and, if you were to attempt a song in this style what you may change to make it more palatable. 

If you’re going to pick ONE thing to learn from music theory- make it rhythm, and how the many different note values are played within different rhythms. This’ll probably make the most notable difference.  Then listen  to A LOT of different and even slightly bizarre rhythms from different genres, and how the different notes/sounds fall within these rhythms. Ensure to find songs in rhythms you wouldn’t normally use (being electronic, that’s probably everything outside straight 4/4). Can you use any of less common rhythms yourself?  

Learn more about different instruments, what they are - how they sound and how they are used in different songs. Try and emulate some of this in your own works - can you make a songs using these instruments that sound similar? 

Another technique that even professional composers use is (bizarrely as I mentioned this might make things harder above). Limit yourself. Musicians do this by tying themselves to particular Keys or instruments - however, it is possible in even electronic music. Can you make a good song with just ONE synth plug in? Or just using a particular wave form on a synth, like just saws. 

There’s also getting out of your comfort zone by, say, using a demo version of a completely different piece of software. You can still make music but everything you think you know about the song making process will be removed. Even the synths and sounds you have come to rely on won’t be there to make your life easier A  so the song you make might be entirely different! 

Finally - remember, music should NEVER be a chore. Make it fun, and - just practice making songs as much as possible. You’ll get better just through the process of doing  

hope that helps


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