Witiko

Love this, what is the source? Also, I didn't think that the quieter rhythm guitars during the piano section were that big an issue - came natural to me that the lead should be focused at. Then again, I'm not an expert, just saying it sounded right to my ear.

Which one in particular? There are multiple basslines going on in the song, so that I knew what exactly I've done right. Glad to hear that, even moreso given the fact that this is one of my first creations not only in FL Studio, but overall. Also happy that the instruments sound right, as I consider the choice and the shaping of these my biggest weakness. I know, right? I brought the song to its climax in 1:24 and I was like Well, now what? I guess that some additional planning beforehand as for where I want to go with the song might actually be beneficial. Concerning the samples you posted a link to - I can see what you did there, a shame I didn't find these before creating the remix. Right, thanks for both the cheer-up and the constructive criticism!

Hello there I'm trying my hand at music production, since I'm quite new to this all, and I've decided to go ahead and remix one of my favourite game themes - the UNATCO Theme from Deus Ex - in FL Studio. It's probably a bit of a short one by your standards - only 2 minutes - so there's no excuse. I'd be most grateful if you could drop some feedback as for what you did / didn't like, so that I knew what to improve on. Original: Remix: http://soundcloud.com/witiko/unatco-theme-remix

Well, isn't it always? One always needs determination & persistence no matter how talented he may be in a particular area. A lot of people think of programming as of an automated and purely-logical work. While there are some base rules (the extent of which depends on the flavour - f.ex. stuff like Lisp / Scheme can be practically anything you want it to be), it's entirely up to the programmer what he does with the language. LEGO might be a good analogy. Also, setting declarative programming aside, both in music and programming one wants to achieve certain effect. But with both one needs to have certain skills to be able to give the right instructions to the runtime / instruments / music composition software in order to achieve that effect. However - yeah. Listening is something much more fundamental than reading source codes, I suppose , so I guess the impact of learning to compose music on the everyday life may be somewhat bigger. Then again - every time I see some structure I subconsciously start breaking it down into an object model, quite the plague.

neblix: Thanks for the clueful answer. Interesting articles. The one written by zircon explains compression very cleanly beside which it also contains a lot of various production tips athwart the spectrum. It is. But it sure makes things harder in the beginnings, as it is then, when taking things on faith is most tempting in an effort to hasten the progress and get better results. There is a lot of various suggestions in the article, as I've already mentioned, which are hard to absorb all at once. I guess I'll just keep on producing stuff and continue returning to it throughout the process. Well, I'd argue that learning to programm WELL in certain programming style / language certainly does take time as well - like anything else out there in life one sets out to master - and at least for me it did change the way I thought about certain stuff. I would even go as far as saying that beyond certain skill level it can be considered an art. Then again - what can't. Rozovian: A great intro, particularly admire the whimsical writing style , although it's a bit long. Which is a good thing, I'll keep on digging through it and experimenting with the stuff mentioned. That will be a hard one, since my songs usually lack any specific form whatsoever and most oftenly it's just the main melody that I know in advance. I guess some planning as for the style wouldn't hurt, but then again my knowledge as for music styles is rather lacking. Right, thanks.

Hello there, Allow me to introduce myself - I'm Witiko, a 19yrs old creative soul from Southern Bohemia, who - among other things - revels in programming, working with graphics, videos and music. While with graphics I usually "just" edit pictures, play with colors, various effects and create collages - I'm not a great draftsman - I wanted to take my relish in music a bit beyond clipping in Audacity. My skills: a former viola player, an enthusiast wannabe pianist and guitar strummer have some basic understanding of the music theory. Intervals, harmony, scales, musical modes, accord types and stuff like that. picked up FL Studio for music composition. I am by now moderately-versed in how the program is operated be it automation clips, layers, plugins and other various levers and buttons. have almost no problems (or at least very little in comparison to the other problems) with composing what you’d call “the main lead / melody“ (trying to put down these is actually why I picked up composing in the first place), I suppose I am able to add the „bass line“ and concoct some sub-par beats out of the preset samples, but that’s about it. The shortcomings: know very little about music genres, I would always listen to what "sounded right" rather then inquire about the song's genre. By reverse-engineering the songs I like I ended up with a mixture of trance, rock and electric music. That, however, doesn't mean that I know what any of these words mean (sure, partly joking, but yeah). have very poor to no understanding as to what makes up a song and how that differs amongst genres. I gather that there are some beats, the main melody, some basses and well, that's pretty much it. The origin of the majority of the dandy sounds in most of the today's songs is clouded in mystery for me, although I suspect that usually it falls into the category "some arcane synthetizer did it". have serious gaps as for real-life instruments. Not that I didn't know some of them, but I usually fail to detect what it is that I hear in a song, even moreso if the song's polyphonic. Surely it's possible to compose entirely using electonic instruments, but I have no doubts that this nescience is a setback. although knowing how to handle the most basic stuff in the FL Studio, the composition itself – be it my own creations or attempts at remixing - is what keeps on causing me headaches. My songs generally lack presence and the instruments used don’t really fit, as you'll be able to hear for yourself in the enclosed samples of my attempts. I'm enclosing 5 short samples (+/- 5mins total) of what I'd call the least terrible of my experimentation: http://soundcloud.com/witiko/sets/my-humble-fl-beginnings bossFight.mp3 - The main theme has something to it, there is some sense of rhythm to the song and there actually is an intro. Also, kind of crazy this one - a touhou game gave me inspiration. devil.mp3 - Using Pads as the main lead instrument? Told you I didn't have a clue about instruments, picked it by ear. Despite that, however, there are some parts to the melody, which are not absolutely repellent... right? phoenixWright - Allegro.mp3 - An attempt at remixing one of my favourite game's main themes. A failure, but I'd say that the choice of instuments is to blame. I tried my best, but sadly, I couldn't get the instruments sound the way I wanted. Still, seems to me that one can hear a shadow of the spirit of the original melody in between 00:29 - 00:42. tension.mp3 - Contains no drums and I'm pretty sure it isn't well-composed as for the form, but this - this actually sounds quite the way I wanted it to sound and I'm quite proud of that fact. wasteland.mp3 - An experiment. There's no form to it, it is but experimentation with the cutoff filter and repetition of three patterns. Thus I’d like to ask: How to improve the way the songs sound – effects, instuments, composition. There are plenty of tutorials out there, but usually covering pretty specific topics. The thing is that I do not know exactly what I don’t know, which barrs me from seeking some specific help. The enclosed songs should be evidence enough for anyone experienced to see in what departments they’re lacking in. Is FL Studio the right choice for a beginner? Thanks in advance for your answers to my questions as well as any suggestions that might occur to you while reading the information I put above / listening to those samples. I'll be most grateful for any advice I can get. (It doesn't really need to be as long as this post. As a matter of fact, it prolly shouldn't. So please, feel free to toss anything that comes on mind - be it short or long - my way)