# What the hell are all these buttons for?!?!



## Reckless (Aug 31, 2013)

Hey everybody I hope I'm in the right place for this (and I hope I don't jack shit up if I'm not), but I just started getting into dubstep production and I'm completely lost after multiple tutorials. I'm looking for some help from anybody who has experience with electronic music production, and just for an explanation of what certain functions in music production software do. If anybody can help me out or knows where I can find info on this, that'd be great to know and really appreciated.


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## Kalmor (Aug 31, 2013)

It would help to know what software you have currently.


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## Reckless (Aug 31, 2013)

I have FL studio 11. For now at least, but it's a good starting point.


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## Kalmor (Aug 31, 2013)

Bleh, I have reaper so I won't be able to help you with that DAW, but there are features universal to all of them. What work have you done on it so far?


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## Reckless (Aug 31, 2013)

Raptros said:


> Bleh, I have reaper so I won't be able to help you with that DAW, but there are features universal to all of them. What work have you done on it so far?


No major work yet, since everything I make I'm not happy with. Anything i do is just me attempting to recreate sounds made in tutorials. My main problem is I just have no idea what buttons to push and what to change to make the sounds that I think will sound good. If that makes any sense lol


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

If anybody knows a good YouTube video or website that explains just the very basics of sound manipulation and what tools can be used to create certain effects, please don't hesitate to say something!


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## Vukasin (Sep 1, 2013)

It would help to know what VST's/VSTi's you are using.


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## Inpw (Sep 1, 2013)

You can find many DAW specific tutorials on youtube but for quality production I would recommend reading through this:

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072

and run through some tutorials like these:

http://www.sonicacademy.com/Training+Videos/

Sonic academy doesn't cover FL studio though but I did many of the cubase tutorials in Ableton live. It helps you learn music production in general not focusing on a specific platform IMO.


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

Vukasin said:


> It would help to know what VST's/VSTi's you are using.


Nothing extra. I'm only using the stuff that FL Studio provided me with. Are there any that you recommend I get?


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

Accretion said:


> You can find many DAW specific tutorials on youtube but for quality production I would recommend reading through this:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072
> 
> ...


Awesome thanks for the links! The sonic academy is something I'll check out for sure. I'm not sure if this is what the tutorial covers, but just for clarification, I'm looking for a basic explanation of buttons really. For example, if you were to turn on the effects of button "A", it would make the sound wobble. If you increased the intensity of effect "Y", it would distort sounds in the higher register. If that makes any sense. I just want to know how certain tools effect sounds (sorry for getting repetitive here). I don't have the time to check out the sonic studio tutorial right now as I'm writing this post, so that may be what those tutorials cover. I'll watch some when I can and get back to you on what I think. Thanks again!


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## Inpw (Sep 1, 2013)

Reckless said:


> Awesome thanks for the links! The sonic academy is something I'll check out for sure. I'm not sure if this is what the tutorial covers, but just for clarification, I'm looking for a basic explanation of buttons really. For example, if you were to turn on the effects of button "A", it would make the sound wobble. If you increased the intensity of effect "Y", it would distort sounds in the higher register. If that makes any sense. I just want to know how certain tools effect sounds (sorry for getting repetitive here). I don't have the time to check out the sonic studio tutorial right now as I'm writing this post, so that may be what those tutorials cover. I'll watch some when I can and get back to you on what I think. Thanks again!



This is where the tutorial and the manual comes in. Practically you're looking at subtractive synthesis for the sounds of dub-step including all electronic music actually. The dubstep bass line is a distorted bass created using crushing techniques also known as a bit crusher or overdrive. Getting the sound to wobble is either filter cutoff modulation or pitch bend in many cases. This can be done via programming the envelope straight with these controls or by adjusting a low frequency oscillator on the desired control. Other modular things also gets used such as ADSR envelope to have the property of this change over time. Most dubstep today has a set of 3 bass lines running simultaneously known as the distorted bass (lead), Sub base (50 - 100 Hz), phase bass (Phaser pan) to pan the lead continuously throughout the rest. 

Here's a nice summarised explanation of the key components in a subtractive synthesiser. 

http://news.beatport.com/blog/2007/10/18/some-call-it-analog-how-subtractive-synthesizers-work/

FL Studio has some powerful built in plugins from image line. Sytrus has many oscillators, Sakura is a weird percussion synth, 3OSC is a standard patch the list goes on and on. Harmless and morphine are additive synth setups.

Which VST are you playing around with? I might give you some insight in the plugin itself.


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

Damn. Haha that's all I can say really I mean that helps a lot I just have a lot of practice ahead of me! I've been messing around with Sytrus, Harmor and Harmless, a little bit with 3OSC and Vocodex, none of which I understand lol.


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## Inpw (Sep 1, 2013)

FL studio is a powerful DAW IMO and it's not really beginner at all.

Unfortunately none of the training videos thats worthwhile is free. Youtube is littered with "how to sound like_______" guides which doesn't really get to the point but rather let you copy exactly what you see. I started my own set of unfinished tut videos but it's hard work to properly try and learn someone the concepts. We tried to use guided method of industry standard terms and methods but it just takes way to long and I'm too lazy to finish it up. I might finish them one day if I get a chance.


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

Accretion said:


> FL studio is a powerful DAW IMO and it's not really beginner at all.
> 
> Unfortunately none of the training videos thats worthwhile is free. Youtube is littered with "how to sound like_______" guides which doesn't really get to the point but rather let you copy exactly what you see. I started my own set of unfinished tut videos but it's hard work to properly try and learn someone the concepts. We tried to use guided method of industry standard terms and methods but it just takes way to long and I'm too lazy to finish it up. I might finish them one day if I get a chance.


I imagine that it is hard work! It's not an easy thing to learn and explaining takes a good bit of understanding. And you bring up a good point with those "how to sound like ___________" videos. They tell you how to make good sounds, but not how to modify them to make them your own, which is really what the videos should be based on. However if you want to send me a link to those videos Id be willing to check them out. Even if I pick up one little tip from them, they'd still be useful.


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## TobyDingo (Sep 1, 2013)

I remember when i tried my hand at a little dubstep production, i watched some tutorials on youtube on a channel called 'boyinaband', he has a lot of synth building tutorials but i think they're mainly for Reason. 
Start out by watching basic tutorials for FL Studio. Just get to know the basics before you go jumping into making you're own unique sounds. Try to build up an understanding of what tools you're using and why tweaking 'X' knob on 'X' VST makes the bass sound meatier or the snares sound crisper. You wouldn't just pick up a guitar and say 'i want to sound like Bob Dylan' without knowing how to play any chords.


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## Reckless (Sep 1, 2013)

TobyDingo said:


> I remember when i tried my hand at a little dubstep production, i watched some tutorials on youtube on a channel called 'boyinaband', he has a lot of synth building tutorials but i think they're mainly for Reason.
> Start out by watching basic tutorials for FL Studio. Just get to know the basics before you go jumping into making you're own unique sounds. Try to build up an understanding of what tools you're using and why tweaking 'X' knob on 'X' VST makes the bass sound meatier or the snares sound crisper. You wouldn't just pick up a guitar and say 'i want to sound like Bob Dylan' without knowing how to play any chords.


Excellent point. My problem is I haven't found any tutorials or anything that tells me WHY "tweaking 'X' knob on 'X' VST makes the bass sound meatier...". Any suggestions on where to look to find that?

EDIT: So I recently found out that the thing I'm trying to learn is called sound design...I think. Sound about right?


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## TobyDingo (Sep 2, 2013)

Reckless said:


> Excellent point. My problem is I haven't found any tutorials or anything that tells me WHY "tweaking 'X' knob on 'X' VST makes the bass sound meatier...". Any suggestions on where to look to find that?
> 
> EDIT: So I recently found out that the thing I'm trying to learn is called sound design...I think. Sound about right?



I would suggest delving deep into FL Studio forums (i'm assuming they have a forum). Have a browse around there. I'm sure there will be some tutorials on their own website as well. I haven't seen any in depth tutorials like that. It's a pretty steep learning curve i suppose. I learnt in college so all the basics were explained to me in class.

Sound design sounds about right if you're talking about making you're own synths.


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## Reckless (Sep 2, 2013)

TobyDingo said:


> I would suggest delving deep into FL Studio forums (i'm assuming they have a forum). Have a browse around there. I'm sure there will be some tutorials on their own website as well. I haven't seen any in depth tutorials like that. It's a pretty steep learning curve i suppose. I learnt in college so all the basics were explained to me in class.
> 
> Sound design sounds about right if you're talking about making you're own synths.



Well after a few minutes of looking, which is no where near enough, I think everybody on the forum seems to know what they're doing. Most likely because FL studio, like you said, isn't a beginner program. I'll look some more and hopefully find something useful.


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## Bittertooth (Sep 8, 2013)

fl studio is pretty straightforward and I got a pretty good hold of it when I was 12.  but if you have a specific goal right off the bat you won't know how to accomplish it with the little knowledge you have of the program.  try making non dubstep, or better yet just try making nonsense rhythmic sounds and see how the workflow goes in fl studio before carrying out sophisticated projects like making complete songs


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## Reckless (Sep 8, 2013)

Bittertooth said:


> fl studio is pretty straightforward and I got a pretty good hold of it when I was 12.  but if you have a specific goal right off the bat you won't know how to accomplish it with the little knowledge you have of the program.  try making non dubstep, or better yet just try making nonsense rhythmic sounds and see how the workflow goes in fl studio before carrying out sophisticated projects like making complete songs


Yep I watched about a week's worth of tutorials and I know what I'm doing for the most part now. I was just looking to get an explanation of like distortion and fader and tools like that and how they effect the noise I'm modifying (I know what those two do, but not much else). Anyways I should be on my way with some projects here soon so I'll let you guys know when they're up and I'd love to hear your feedback!


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## Demensa (Sep 14, 2013)

On the topic of tutorials for FL studio, I haven't watched too many of these, but the ones I have from this channel are generally decent: http://www.youtube.com/user/SeamlessR


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## Reckless (Sep 14, 2013)

Demensa said:


> On the topic of tutorials for FL studio, I haven't watched too many of these, but the ones I have from this channel are generally decent: http://www.youtube.com/user/SeamlessR


Yep I've watched many of Seamless's tutorials. They're a bit complex and assume prior knowledge of DAWs and sound design. He has a new series on the basics though and that has been really helpful recently.


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## VengeanceZ (Nov 22, 2013)

My best advice is to just mess around with it, for days, weeks, months even. You'll get the hang of it eventually, or if not then I suggest dubstep tutorials, specifically for VST's you are using. Sytrus should not be underestimated, it's quite powerful in the right hands and it's easy to get used to. Creating your own synth or lead is just a matter of combining several different sound waves and adding effects such as distortion, reverb, chorus, flanger etc. Don't overdo it, find a balance. Bass wubs can be created with creating a volume automation for one MIDI OUT that is linked to one of your VSTs and controlling it via the automation that you put in your playlist alongside the melody you created in the form of a pattern. This is of course the simplest and also probably the longest way to do it. There's better ways out there, I never bothered with them because I use samples to create pure orchestral music. Sorry I wasn't of much help.

This looked useful though, have a glance over it - http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/14-dubstep-production-tips-178489


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