The Cure for Cluelessness

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The Cure for Cluelessness -
23 May 2009, at 05:56
So I'm 19. I live in the middle of nowhere. I have dial up (26 kbps, no joke). I've been obsessed with uplifting trance for a good 5 years now. I got a demo for Fruity Loops 4. It's not quite cutting it.

I'm completely clueless in the technical aspect of production, but I think I can cook up nice melodies.

I'll be moving to Toronto soon, so I'll be able to find stores with equipment and I'll have hi-speed for downloading software. What are the very first few steps down the path to uplifting trance production? Keep in mind that I'm poorer than a... this joke could become politically incorrect really easily, so I won't bother thinking of it.
Rover
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# Re: The Cure for Cluelessness - 23 May 2009, at 16:45
Uplifting trance is a very difficult genre to produce in my view. Granted, no EDM is particularly easy to produce. There are so many elements going on, that you're job to produce a clean sounding track can't be de-emphasized. It would probably be best to invest in the best reverb and delay VSTs you can possibly find if you do uplifting. EQing skills are essential to uplifting trance, because of all the melodies and the tendency towards sounds that are "fat" or "big" or "massive." The compromise of a big sound is that it clutters up your listening space, too.

You simply have to move from the ground up, I think. I still use GarageBand as a sequencer, but it really doesn't matter to me at the moment, because a lot the stuff I use are based in synthesizers and getting the right percussion samples. As my main synthesizer, I use the brilliantly diverse and able (and free) 3x oscillator Alphakanal Automat: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1552.html I, for one, cannot believe it is free, given how versatile it is, and I don't understand why people spend $100 on a synthesizer that can do just the same. I've tried demos of VSTs you have to purchase, and the sounds are really unimpressive compared to some free gear. There are a lot of people out there who want you to think you need to spend a lot of money to get what you want. I wouldn't write them all off, but I'm just saying, be careful. I do eventually plan to move up my list, and move into something more like Logic Pro, but finances are the main constraint right now. Barring my ignorance, I still slightly feel that a lot of the talk about the right DAWs (Logic, Cubase, Live, etc.) is overrated. I hear tracks made in programs like FL (Octagen & Arizona - Starburst, to my great surprise!) that are absolutely gorgeous, while some of these aspiring producers shell out hundreds on a real workhorse DAW and their tracks sound like crap. The guts of your talent will be how well you turn those knobs on the synthesizers and practicing on your effects chains, and click it until you get a sound that you can call your own, but is still great to listen to.
Veritas curat. Vertias vos liberabit.
# Re: The Cure for Cluelessness - 24 May 2009, at 04:53
Thanks dude! There's some lingo in there that I'm still a bit too green to understand, but it's helpful all the same!
# Re: The Cure for Cluelessness - 27 May 2009, at 03:20
I agree with Rover on some things. DAW (sequencers), especially for electronica, where you are dealing with MIDI data for the majority of the time, are pretty interchangeable as far as being able to get good results. There are some things that are important if you are looking to produce professionally as opposed to on an amateur level. The most important is workflow. A higher end sequencer (this means Logic and for audio ProTools) just lets you work faster. This doesn't matter if you just write tracks for fun. But the streamlined effectiveness of Logic just let's you manipulate MIDI sooo fast. And it has a lot more functionality that, once you figure it out, let you do those little ear candy tricks that you hear on professional records that you can't do in other sequencers. The other thing is compatibility. Some of the freeware sequencers aren't compatible with some of the better gear.

The main thing for just starting off producing though is to do research. Some freeware reverbs might sound better to you than a $500 library of reverbs. Read up on stuff so you don't get ripped off, which is especially important when working on a budget. The other thing is that no matter how much money (or little) you spend doesn't matter if you can't write a good song. Your rig will build with time, but it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing!

I don't even know if I stayed on the subject but I hope that helps!
# Re: The Cure for Cluelessness - 3 June 2009, at 13:43
Thanks man, it sure does. Just knowing that I don't need to spend like a million dollars just to get started is good. :)