The FSOL Message Board

Years ago i was a rock guy. I listened to rock, had guitar lessens etc but it wasn't for me. One night staying up late I saw Future Sound Of London's Papua New Guinea on MTV and it changed the way I thought and looked at music. Electronic music was my new love much more than rock ever was and ever since then i had the desire to one day create my own electronic music.

I know a few of you here are composers/musicians yourselves, so could anyone offer me any advice on how to get started. Any books i should read or anything like that. I don't really have any music knowledge so i'd really be starting from scratch.

Any advice, or suggestions would be much appreciated. I would ask on another forum but i know i wont get a serious answer there. Thanks

I recommend start just by experimenting with hardware and software. If you don't have any money to invest in a keyboard or some other music making hardware, at the very least start playing around with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

Example - http://reaper.fm/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - The fully functioning trial version is free. It will take almost any VST plugin so you can make lots of sounds through the midi there.

Have fun

I'd say experiment as much as you can.Try out all sorts of ideas, instruments, methods - obviously this will be limited by money.Listen to as much music as possible, if you find something you like try and figure out how its done.Get yourself a DAW - there are plenty of places online to acquire one! Follow online tutorials, google things you can't figure out, ask on other forums.I'd also say its important to make the music you want.Try not to follow trends - make stuff that excites you.If its made for the right reasons you'll get a buzz from learning new techniques and when your stuff starts coming together.

Yeah, the best thing to do is experiment until you get a sound that you really like. I don't think music theory is of much use unless you have really specific ideas to start with that you want to translate into music, so just get some free software - Reaper is a decent DAW, Audacity is great for editing samples, both are free, and there are tons of free VST samplers and synths out there - and have a mess about.

And not forgetting a decent set of monitors.

I wouldn't worry about that till a bit later - I was composing on £15 computer speakers for about 3 years just happily playing away and having fun. Just see what works by putting sounds together, let music theory and mixing techniques take a back seat in this period of pure experimentation and exploration.

I agree with Pete, i made my first experiments years ago on big Sony TV speakers and now that i listen to that stuff on my monitors they sound quite decent and well mixed to my surprise. Music theory is not necessary at this point, and just like the guys said above, its all about experimenting and putting sounds together. But from my experience, after a while id suggest you do some reading about mixing, just a little, so that you know what to do with your EQ on your sounds and why you have to do that.

Ok, thanks for the advice.

And the most important thing: whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it. Don't put yourself through hell!

Indeed, Id say this is the most important thing! Im glad i did follow this advice from Ross a couple of years back, and it did me good. While trying to achieve some things that needed technical skills/knowledge/good experience gave me headaches and put me off, starting off from simple things and sound combinations made me work in a different way which was a lot more creative and fun, and gave me confidence since the result sounded quite close to what i was trying to do.

For your first release start small, as in say a EP of some of the first few tracks you feel comfortable with, and put it out there for free, then with the starting point established, aim higher from there.

I'd suggest at this point don't even think about releases. Wait until you're comfotable with your own sound before you start putting it out. If I'd actually 'released' anything from the first three years of Second Thought I'd be so fucking embarrassed these days (even my first two proper albums have certain production elements that make me cringe).

Yes, best not get ahead of myself this early on. I'm still pretty much a novice when it comes to making music. I'm not really aiming high to begin with, I'm just doing something i enjoy, and if one day my music is good enough then maybe I can start thinking about releases. But that's a long way away, I still have a lot to learn.

Just throwing in my 2 cents.. The first one can be daunting when you get to thinking about it believe me, also especially when you compare the second release to the first, or you can just release singles, or just post songs everywhere, ahh I love the Internet

Oh, and I second enjoying what you do, yes indeed.

LooseLink wrote:Just throwing in my 2 cents..

I appreciate it, I just don't want to push myself to hard early on and end up not enjoying it anymore.

I don't even have any equipment yet, and can't download that reaper software at the moment because the computer i'm using is terrible. Yesterday it took me well over an hour to download something i bought from fsolDigital and it was only 1 track and a video.

I do have a keyboard, but it's not really a good one, but it'll do just to play around and try out a few thing until i can afford something better.