A wannabe music composer most humbly seeking aid

[Witiko]

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

1. 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.
   
2. 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?
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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)

[Nabeel Ansari]

• 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 someone experienced to see in what departments they’re lacking in.
  
• Is FL Studio the right choice for a beginner?

You mentioned your music lacking "presence" or substance. This is a good place to start. When reading it, think CONCEPTUALLY. The "drummer" isn't literally a drummer, but it's a metaphorical name given to the rhythmic (mostly percussive) elements of a song. Likewise with a pianist. If you make pure trance music, you can have synth pads that do what "the pianist" in this writing does. And it's not "use four instruments", but it's the four main areas of music that you need to have in order for your music to have substance. You could argue that solo piano music has substance. But if you listen to piano music, you'll pretty much hear all of the areas covered anyway, you just have to think conceptually instead of literally.

As far as production goes, you said you found lots of production tutorials but no real place to start. This got me on the right track. It's a great place to start and takes a more abstract approach to why you do these things instead of how. I often refuse to accept something as "correct" unless you can prove to me why, unless it's an obscure mathematical rule that a teacher insists on not proving for sake of mental and time investment. Often in musc when someone tells me why something is the way it is I learn not only how to do it the "regular" way but how to deviate while still knowing what I'm doing. This may or may not be the way you work, but if it is, then this guide should be where you start.

FL Studio the right choice for a beginner? Sure. There are no right or wrong choices for beginners. Even things like Apple's Garbageband can help you get used to DAW format (though you'll want to quickly move away from it).

Do I recommend FL Studio? Yes. It's a great program and its modular DIY workflow teaches you how to keep yourself organized, and it often allows you to switch things up once in a while for a breath of fresh air which does wonders for your inspiration. For beginners? It might be intimidating but it's not impossible. I also learned FL Studio before I learned how music worked, so you're not alone.

[Rozovian]

Your questions:

2 - If you feel comfortable with it, then yes. Most music making software today is good enough to do decent music with it, and FL is actually one of the top ones. You'll find that many of the big names on ocr use FL. But it's not about the program, it's how you use it... which brings us to...

1 - Pick something. If you want more emotion in your piano stuff, focus on that. If you want more power in your tracks, focus on that. If you want more quirky, funky stuff, focus on that. I have an in-progress intro to music-making, which covers the basics of writing and production. zircon has his compendium which neblix already brought up, and there's more guides and help all over this forum and the internet.

Learning to make good music is something that takes a while to learn, and because most posted remixers do both the writing and the production (and recording their performance, if applicable), the learning curve can seem steep at first.

My top tips for anyone starting out:

- experiment and have fun, challenge yourself and try new things

- get feedback on your music so you have a realistic idea of what you're doing wrong

- listen and try to find faults in other ppl's music - and figure out what would make it better

- read everything you can find, try to make use of it in your music

- compare your music to better music with a similar sound/style, figure out what you're doing differently

As for one of the specific problems you mentioned: presence. If everything sounds close, nothing does. Add reverb to instruments that can be more background-y. Take out high frequencies from background instruments and boost them a little in foreground instruments (use an equalizer on both). Figure out the right volume levels for each track (compare to well mixed tracks).

And welcome to ocr.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Oh yeah, like Rozo. Can't stress this enough:

THIS STUFF TAKES TIME. It's not like programming. At all. You really have to develop your brain before you can understand what you're doing. This means learning how to analyze music you listen to without helping it. I can not listen to a song without analyzing it. It's kind of a downside in some perspectives, because I can't just kick back and enjoy music anymore. I have to actually try to not analyze it and just let it ring in my ears as what it is. Even in the mattress store or whatnot, I will listen to the layers of what's going on in the store music subconsciously. It becomes a productive habit of sorts.

[Witiko]

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.

This may or may not be the way you work, but if it is, then this guide should be where you start.

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.

THIS STUFF TAKES TIME. It's not like programming. At all. You really have to develop your brain before you can understand what you're doing.

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.

compare your music to better music with a similar sound/style, figure out what you're doing differently

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.

And welcome to ocr.

Right, thanks.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Well, I'd argue that learning to programm WELL in certain programming style / language certainly does take time as well

It's not nearly as much time compared to music. It's not the same. You don't learn it the same way.

[SenPi]

It's not nearly as much time compared to music. It's not the same. You don't learn it the same way.

ugh. kids these days.

[Dyne]

ugh. kids these days.

I hope you aren't discounting his knowledge because he's younger than most of us. He does bring up a fantastic point; programming and music really aren't the same thing, and are subject to different ways of being learned.

Each person learns differently, that said, the way you learn music and the way I learn music are going to be exclusive. Yes, we're still using the same faculties, but in the end, I might learn it more slowly than you.

Ya dig?

[Nabeel Ansari]

Amending what I said about time:

It will take time because it's not the same. You will have to come to grips with the fact that your rate of progression is based on not only your talent and intelligence but your persistence.

I was wrong to dictate it for you. I'm not the greatest programmer in the world, but learning music is less about what's right or wrong and more about you being able to understand that where you are is NOT where you want to be at the right time. As cheesy as it sounds, the learning is a lot of self-awareness and feeling.

There are a lot of fuzzy lines in music that you need to wrap your head around if you want to keep getting better, and the assassins put it best. "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

[Witiko]

... rate of progression is based on not only your talent and intelligence but your persistence.

Well, isn't it always? One always needs determination & persistence no matter how talented he may be in a particular area.

... are a lot of fuzzy lines in music that you need to wrap your head around ... "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

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.

[SenPi]

I hope you aren't discounting his knowledge because he's younger than most of us. He does bring up a fantastic point; programming and music really aren't the same thing, and are subject to different ways of being learned.

I wasn't discounting it because he is young, I was discounting it because to me it seemed like he was saying "learning music properly, is harder (takes more time) than learning programming properly". Which really isn't the case. (and I personally feel that he says a lot of things like they are fact when they are actually opinion which a lot of younger people tend to do)

Yes, there are people who can learn one easier than the other, etc. Discounting all the outliers, Witiko pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. Programming isn't as black and white as people seem to think it is.

p.s. sorry for the derail