I think the title is all I really need to say. I've been reading articles endlessly and it seems like getting the sound you have in your head into a song is a culmination of countless tips/tricks/experience/ideas.

nahh, not complicated for me. i just start.

What about the tones man. The mic placements, the ambience, the dreaded cut frequencies in your control room, bass sinks, unwanted reverberations.. And that's before you think of putting it all together

bleh

take the production seriously, then you got to take the reviews seriously and your own seriousness seriously

just make us a tune - the producers here will know why its bad and help - if youve put your life and soul into it and they tell you its bad then it'll hurt

the kokkaljos phon zen rout of banging a tune out in as quicker time as possible completely gets you off the hook for criticism

you just say, yeah well, i made it on an ironing board and a hover tube because thats all i had man

and you'll improve with age and experience

saregama for example started out playing the spoons

Haha, thanks phonicboom, that helped a lot. I need to get experience, not just reading things to prepare me. I'll get started asap.

YOU FEEL MAKING MUSIC IS COMPLICATED!YOU!

But you are right some how!

While making music concentrate on it completely just like you do in exams! 100% result! And practice!
hehe

Okay, I've made an arc of wood in my room to get some nice reverberations, a new guitar and other equipment is arriving tomorrow, I've just compiled the latest source of all the free music software I need and I have more mic placement diagrams than can fit onto one side of A4. MY TIME HAS COME!

open wrote: made an arc of wood

You just should have "dried" your room, and then apply digital reverbs of any kind you want.

Not an option, the only room I can possibly record in is my bedroom and, sadly, I can't stick things on the walls or pull up the carpet. For acoustic guitar my only option is to find sympathetic natural reverberations.

Home production in particular but in my opinion all kinds of production, is bound by no particular rules... There are things that work and those that dont its that simple. You know unwanted reflections can be both good and bad, mistakes can turn into hooks, mic spill can compliment and add ambience, However it can also make things sound guan. Its up to the producer to experiment and discover, and my personall philsophy is to try everything musically even when told it wont work.Play devils advocate and you will surprise yourself.
I got a degree in sound engineering at uni, and you know the best fuckin ideas and dicoveries i made in my living room with one mic and a couple of splits..................

Thank you for the advice, it's actually much more valuable than any strict guide.

I'm a huge fan of line instruments... take the clean signal into my computer and then manipulate away.. add reverbs or well any other effect I want. :D . But that's just one of many ways to get a sound.

DemonH8 wrote: I'm a huge fan of line instruments... take the clean signal into my computer and then manipulate away.. add reverbs or well any other effect I want. :D . But that's just one of many ways to get a sound.

I've been doing that after I recently bought a good pre-amp and it's helped the quality. A guitar doesn't have to sound like a guitar too :

oh no doubt, thats really part of the fun for me, take a sound, be it musical in nature or not, and modify it until it is musical in nature.

just do music for yourself, your the creator ...us as audience, we like whatever has soul in it...

I find that usually when you just let yourself go and decide that it doesn't have to be just right, even close to the idea is good enough, you will get things done and some of them will actually sound pretty good :) Better to get something done with relaxed feeling than spend endless effort on something that'll never be just right anyway

Michikawa wrote: I find that usually when you just let yourself go and decide that it doesn't have to be just right, even close to the idea is good enough, you will get things done and some of them will actually sound pretty good :) Better to get something done with relaxed feeling than spend endless effort on something that'll never be just right anyway

Agreed, I've been doing that and getting some interesting results (especially with some backwards tape techniques). I won't post anything yet, I'll leave it till I release the album for a real surprise.

I think Glen if you master the art of recording then music making is nothing but reciting a poetry

ljmudit wrote: I think Glen if you master the art of recording then music making is nothing but reciting a poetry

Well put, I aspire to have no technique

open wrote: I aspire to have no technique

then............?

ljmudit wrote: then............?

At the moment I'm following a lot of information written in books when I hit a stumbling block, though it's gradually coming more naturally. Originating from martial arts, the highest form of technique is to have no technique, i.e. for it to be natural.

Don't go for theories..though they are useful. It should be 70% practical, 25% theory, 5% brain

5% of my brain isn't very much

open wrote: 5% of my brain isn't very much

some correction:

100% brain divided into: 70% practical work and 30% theory!

ljmudit wrote: 100% brain divided into: 70% practical work and 30% theory!

Sounds just right.

open wrote: Sounds just right.

ok! So howz everything goin?

ljmudit wrote: ok! So howz everything goin?

Sequencing drums is slowing me down, but no more than my attempts to get near perfect guitar takes. It's still going to be a few weeks probably

take time! Practice makes a man perfect

Hi! I am a producer / musician,looking for bands who like to sell their music on my website. If you are ready for that, contact me on gagarecords@gmail.com

Music creation = improvisation. Hits and misses turn into some really cool riffs (this is probably why I love performing jazz so much and why I never liked learning about music theory!) Most of the popular music compositions out there are based on really simple chords - i.e. music by the Beatles, Green Day, etc. So, really, you don't need to create some huge and extravagantly complicated composition!

What I have found works for me is to just spend a few hours and just jam. Hit record in Ardour and just key away. Throw down some drum tracks, throw down some melodies and just see what happens. After a few hours, I'll listen to everything and just cut out segments that sounded good to me, then I just build on top of that, until I get it just the way I want it. But, all the while, just playing around and see what sounds good.