Newbie: Trying to get the hang of things

Aristocrap · June 25, 2010, 13:31:47

Hey all! I've recently gotten really interested in producing electronic music, so I decided I'd join the forums and try it out. So far, I've read and completed LPChip's tutorial, and now I'm familiarizing myself with all the controls and such.

I wanted to ask where I should go from here. Are there more advanced tutorials? Should I tinker around with the program and see what interesting effects I can come up with? I'm also reading up on song structure to get an understanding of how a typical song is put together and how to break them down.

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!

psishock · June 25, 2010, 13:52:33

O hai,

well for starters, you can just listen to any type of music to understand song structure. Practicing will help a lot for sure.

For tracking tricks on other hand, you can google up zillions of module files, load them up and study them. Check the individual channels, one by one, and see how stuff were realized.

That should be the most straightforward way, monkey see, monkey do.

uncloned · June 25, 2010, 14:20:58

I second Psi's suggestion

Grab a module and start changing things to see how its done.

I have many modules here

http://clones.soonlabel.com/mods.html

I am not a tracking wiz - in fact I'm pretty basic - BUT that also means I'm a bit easier for a new tracker to follow - and I'll answer questions as well.

Chris

Aristocrap · June 26, 2010, 01:42:22

Thanks for the replies. I've been taking looks at other people's work and how they do things. By the way, I like your stuff, uncloned!

I made my very first song today and I'd like to see what you guys think. It's short; barley 2 minutes, but I'm not sure I'd call it 100% done. Don't expect anything amazing, but it's a start:
http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23134913/Scrapyard_Droids.wav

uncloned · June 26, 2010, 03:52:15

Thanks!

Though - people here would probably prefer if you used OGG compression instead of .wav and posted your music in the free music forum here

(go up one level from here and you will see it.)

I'm busy working on a playlist - I will listen asap.

Louigi Verona · June 26, 2010, 09:30:11

While it is certainly cool to look at some basic stuff, I suggest you look at sophisticated mods, because those you can study a lot and learn a lot of tricks. I would suggest looking at Elwood ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_(Finnish_musician) ), he does very good music yet it is fabulous that the samples he uses are usually not that good and it is very important to see what tricks he uses to get that thick, beautiful sound.
I would also suggest Thomas Mogensen of Vibrants and Maniacs of Noise, but could not find quick links to supply.

Saga Musix · June 26, 2010, 10:46:36

Thomas Mogensen's stuff can for example be found here or there

uncloned · June 26, 2010, 13:55:55

Quote from: "Aristocrap"

I made my very first song today and I'd like to see what you guys think. It's short; barley 2 minutes, but I'm not sure I'd call it 100% done. Don't expect anything amazing, but it's a start:
http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23134913/Scrapyard_Droids.wav

Not a bad start - my suggestion would be to keep studying some artists whose style you like.

the Mod Archive is a great resource for that.

http://modarchive.org/

Harbinger · June 30, 2010, 14:15:02

I'm surprised and disappointed that no one is pointing our newcomers to the MPT manual. It's not complete, but it IS functional.

What gives? Is it not as helpful as i thought?

uncloned · June 30, 2010, 14:38:04

we were waiting for you, the author!

jmkz · June 30, 2010, 17:43:43

A friend are interested in OpenMPT, because I tell him that I was doing my music with this program. He is not very interested in demoscene music, but even so it works for any type of music (he likes the narco-corrido or ranchera music). I recommended yesterday the manual because he just had installed OpenMPT Sunday (yeah, little bit later :oops:) I think that was helpful at least for me. This day I will ask if you like the manual, I think his opinion would serve them.

PD. I am interested to translate OHM into spanish

, but that will happen upon version 1.0 final.

uncloned · June 30, 2010, 17:59:01

the guy wants to be assassinated?

Quotenarco-corrido or ranchera music

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sergio-vega-the-reports-of-his-death-were-exaggerated-at-first-2013074.html

jmkz · July 01, 2010, 02:20:22

We are sad by that news, but is the feeling of a ranchera song, the lyrics are deeper... I don't like at all those songs but when you listen to one of this it's different... (inspired)

LPChip · July 01, 2010, 08:27:38

To get back on topic:

It can help a lot to see how someone else tracks.

I've recorded how I track a song under one hour. It might not be your style, but it will give you tips on how to track quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-2I0ILnj4 (7 vids, total 55 mins)

But the best tip is, just enjoy making your own music.

jmkz · July 01, 2010, 21:45:46

Quote from: "LPChip"But the best tip is, just enjoy making your own music.

Yes!

I was started with the songs of Star Defender of Awem Studio in 2004 those are my first modules I hear in Winamp 2.81. After investigate of this modules I found Modplug Tracker and derivates of those song were my first "remixes"... After a virus in My old Lanix PC, those modules was lost... I only have an MP3 of my first song which was a drum solo... Those things like the beginning I never forgot :')