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)