Can you point me in the right direction of music composition/production?

[Guest robetlndis]

I'm talking about the first steps of music composition.

If I have music in my head , how do I make it into a reality without singers readily available ?

I am aware of computer softwares . But do you think I have to go to school and learn music and also , how do I set up a music studio ?

• 2 years ago
  

[ViRiX]

Hi.

Even though you can learn a lot from going to school... this is an art so you don't really NEED to do that.

if you don't have singers availible, write down the words that you want to be sung. So you at least have lyrics.

Do you have a keyboard? LIke a musical one (yamaha, casio, whatever) or just a basic piano? You can try playing them out there... it may not be the FULL song, but you get an idea of what you want to do.

There are some pretty cheap and free software that you can get that will let you create music.

FL Studio has a free demo that won't let you save a project, BUT you can export an MP3 or wave of whatever you make.

If you google around, I konw there are some free ones, but it's a little late and I can't quite remember what they are at the moment, sorry. Google something like "Free DAW" or "Freeware music creation software" and you should find a bunch of matches.

With these you can sort of plot out the melody and drums of the song you want to make.

Again, it may not sound EXACTLY how you want, but you will have worked out a road map.

There are a bunch of things that go into music production, but take it slowly and don't expect to make something that sounds like it came off some big pro game or movie... I bet the people who made those songs didn't start out sounding quite like that either.

I hope that was some help.

[SnappleMan]

If you want to set up a music studio, you'll need to spend money. Free stuff is all fine and good but it wont cut the mustard when it comes to what really drives the entire workflow. Get yourself a solid DAW like Sonar or Cubase, and a MIDI controller/synth of some kind and you'll be set.

As far as actupally creating music goes, knowing music theory is very important. You wont know what you're really doing until you train your ears and your fingers, and basic piano ability is a requisite of any music program you'd take so it all works out. Still that's only one of three broad parts of music production. First you write it, then you have to record/perform/program it. What I suggest you do here is start ABUSING google. Learn everything you can about recording and performing, even if you're just going to be using Reason or FL and mousing in your notes. Having that knowledge is so very important in creating music because every professionally sampled instrument (and GM library) is created for pros who know how an instrument should be played and recorded (MIDI articulations are extremely important). Third thing you need to learn is production. How to mix a song. Google this even more than you would the recording part... It's been 10 years and I'm still trying to get this part right!

School will definitely help you not only to learn music, but you'll learn to play music and you'll be interacting with other musicians which is proven to help you understand music better.

[Gario]

Do you have to go to school? Nope, Snappleman has the right idea - look into it yourself, look up information on your own, etc., and it'll take you in the right direction. However, if you take a 'Do it yourself' approach, you need to be as meticulous as humanly possible and not let a single detail escape you. I went to school for composition (woot), but studied deep Counterpoint theory on my own (clep'd out of the classes that taught it, which was screwing me up so I needed to study it on my own) so this is coming from experience, here.

The thing that school provides is primarily a third party that will correct your path if you develop some strange ideas on music that really... don't work. If you're screwing up the sonic sound of a song by adding too much, for example, having a teacher there to tell you that it needs to be changed helps a whole lot. Of course, if you have someone else to tell you of the problems (OCR, baby!), or are an excellent self-critic then that primary benefit isn't all that great.

The secondary benefit is that school will give you direction as to what leads to what and why (For example, you learn harmony, which leads to counterpoint, which leads to Schenkerian theory... but that isn't apparent if no one tells you that). You can look these things up, sure, but sometimes it helps to know what you're looking up, which school can help define.

The final benefit that you miss out on in school is the opportunity to work with people and hear your music performed. It is very difficult to get around this if you don't go to school, but it's obviously possible (I mean, soundtracks for movies wouldn't exist, if it was impossible to get people to perform your music outside of school).

So, with that information in mind, you can make a decision whether school is worth it or not. You can do everything I listed without school, but school makes the process so much easier.

[Yoozer]

We're obviously not doing something right if this question is asked over and over again in the same way.

[kizoxef]

As a new user I notice a few things.. and I do peruse pretty thoroughly.

In the guides section I feel that some things are titled poorly. "What keyboard should I get" makes me think of someone asking about what keyboard to get.. but instead I find zircon's fantastic guide explaning things.. and not questioning about them. And at the same time I see other titles like "How should I make the best 'distortion?'" If you click on that one.. you see a legitimate question.. It was pretty confusing and unorganized to me at first...

And also the stickies really don't stand out to me at all visually.. Like I have to try (with some difficulty) to identify threads that say "Sticky:"

[markhansavon]

Guys, do you think this post might be spam? His sig's ad is for Ultra Cleanse Pro. x_x

[Arcana]

We're obviously not doing something right if this question is asked over and over again in the same way.

I found it really hard to learn music from OCR's guides and tutorials by themselves. It's gotten better now but that's mostly due to the rest of the internet getting into music production on the cheap rather than anything OCR has done by itself.

Also, there are so many "it depends on your _" situations (computer, knowledge of theory, workflow, money, etc) that is it simply easier for people to ask and get a customized answer than it is to try to sort out the variables.