InfernoZN

I would actually recommend Adobe Creative Cloud especially if you're a student since they do a discount, it's about $22 a month and they offer basically all of their programs, so you could dabble in other programs as well if need be.

Yeah I've noticed that learning music theory separate from any music, although still technically helpful, isn't as interesting as learning from direct examples. I'm slowly falling in love with jasonyu.me who has amazing breakdowns of classic video game music, where he explains the theory along with the tracks themselves, and with amazingly well written notations. I will definitely take your advice though, and try and take songs I like and actually write the musical notation out. Maybe I should start with simple gameboy NES tracks since they can be a lot easier to hear the differences.

I hope I'm not jumping the gun here, I made sure to search extensively for a topic like this but, alas, did not find one exactly like it. There are plenty of great topics related to improving composition, often more specific examples or questions pertaining to certain problems (like a left hand piano part). I wanted to ask: What would a list of general activities to help improve composition look like? Other than the actual practice of composing your own pieces in whatever way be it paper or in DAW, what other practices help any of you learn and discover more about music? I'm looking for things most people can practice such as: analyzing sheet music of songs they like, breaking down songs to their base parts, learning about music theory, writing music notation, or anything that you believe helps broaden one's mind on the understanding of composition and arrangement. I will say, this is partially personal but also hope others like me who want to improve composition would be happy to see a list of different activities they could proactively do that may help them over time.

Thanks Timaeus! A lot of your critiques are very helpful, but I am glad you like the vocals. That one I just figured out eventually and learned how to layer a bit (but it was pretty awful before). To me, your points bring up one of my major flaws: lack of variation, and complexity, especially in composition, structure, and arrangement. I also have started to notice I can be negligent of mixing in a... less irritating way. Most of my songs are made in a heavily "improvised" manner, I play most of the bits myself on a small keyboard (like 2 octaves, its ridiculous, I should get a better one sometime) and because of that I think I end up repeating the same rhythms, contours, and basically the same bag of tricks over and over. My plan is to get a heavier focus on composition, going to pen and paper music notation before making a track, and learning a lot more about music theory wherever I can. Thanks for your help!

Hey! I've been a long time-ish lurker, and honestly have fallen WAY too far out of making music frequently and getting comments and all that wonderful, soul-crushing stuff. So I'm gonna drop into it, not think about it too much. This song is a couple of years old, but I would argue my knowledge hasn't progressed too much since then, so please comment on anything you can think of with this song, from mixing & mastering, to composition and structure. I feel my biggest weakness has to be composition and arrangements, because I always find my songs a little more sonically boring than ones I love and hold dear. I have a very rudimentary and experimental understanding of music theory and the real meat and bones of composition, most of my knowledge comes from just doing it. Any criticism is welcome, and I really want to learn way more than I know now. Thanks, Zachary

After reading all of the replies I have to say that I'm on the same boat as Neblix. I'm really curious why so many people are jumping ship, when it sounds like they simply tried new methods that may or may not work for some people. If it doesn't stick with 11. If it does go to 12. That's part of the beauty of FL Studio's pricing anyways: one time fee, do what you like. So far the changes I've heard don't seem to justify such a harsh reaction. I think it's just proving that point I learned long ago that almost any change will be quickly met with backlash, until people get over it for whatever reason. Like when Jon left Game Grumps and now Danny is the second host. Everybody complained, even me, but now no one can imagine Game Grumps without Danny. Oh! Or like when they change Doctors in Doctor Who. I'm also with Neblix in being baffled by why this is getting so personal for a lot of people. I really just want everyone to chill out and discuss effectively why they do or don't like FL Studio 12. That's why I came in the first place.

A lot of good advice from these guys so definitely read them all thoroughly. I'm not the best at mixing but I seem to get it done and often get complimented on it, so I'll give some simple advice as a 4 year novice. I personally focus on what exaclty you're trying to accomplish, what sound you want, etc. If you're going for a house beat, investigate house beats, think about what processing and balance they use to acheive their sounds. But don't get overly techical, because its ALL about HOW IT SOUNDS. If it sounds bad it doesn't matter what technique you're using, its just bad. So try and do what you think sounds good, and what you want, cause it is both a technical and artistic skill. So try and become familiar with the plethora of techniques people use, maybe by challenging yourself by doing multiple genres like orchestral or different electronic, and use them appropriately for what you want. For example, when I do hip hop, I often use compressed breakbeats that are choppy or old sounding. But when I'm doing a breakbeat in a house song I usually keep it tight, and less compressed to give it more of an energetic sound. I hope some of this helps!