Just Make Beats.
Jump in face first.
this is the time you'll be at one of your free-est; you won't know 'rules' you won't have habits, it's just you and sound.
Guarantee you will look back at these beats as being some of your best ideas, just poorly produced.
Listen.
And learn to use your ears.
It's so easy to get to "thoughty"/thinky about stuff early on. No doubt you'll be drowning in articles and videos about compression/eq/tutorials from clickbait YouTubers -- we've all been there -- and it leads to a habit of thinking "i have to do this*. when you probably don't. Listen. Does this sound good - yes/no, if yes, leave it alone.
This will obviously take time until you're listening better, but just keep listening. Listening to your beats and listening to tonnes of commercial beats. Develop your aural palate.
Use your ears; not your eyes or your head.
GET A MIDI KEYBOARD!!!
Seriously, this will be 1 of 2 very important game-changers.
Even if you get the cheapest 49 key keyboard you can find, it will serve you wonders.
(not)sorry to whom it may offend, but clicking-in midi is not the one!
- it doesn't matter if you cannot play keyboard/piano at all it will STILL make a huge difference -
When you click in midi, you're lead by circumstance, waiting for the playhead to pass over to find out how the music sounds. Doing this is quite mechanical, lifeless and after hearing it loop back can take you away from your intended musical direction.
When you play midi in, you are lead by feeling. Rather than clicking in something dead and sticking with it, you will play until something 'catches' you, and sounds catchy and makes you move. Even if you're just playing one note to get the rhythm. You can then adjust/edit your midi if need to. You will play much better melodies than clicking them in, even if you can't play.
--- all of my parts are played in, every melody chord, even trap hihat rolls. So as someone who can't/couldn't/doesn't/wasn't a keyboard player --- TRUST ME on this one. Massive game changer.
Same goes for midi drumpad controllers (if you're more of a boombapper). You can get keyboards with pads too, depends on what your needs/budgets are.
GET REFERENCE MOINTORS!!! (Studio speakers)
This will be the the other 1 of 2 very important game changers.
At the very least get a good *balanced*/accurate pair of headphones.
I will always argue monitors > headphones, as sound is supposed to move air/fill the room and space around you. But also because there is a difference between panned sounds in headphones vs monitors.
Even if you're not planning on becoming a mix engineer or mixing your own stuff, it will help to have a better representation of what you're making... as well as being able to compare it with accurate representations of commercial references(tracks).
Getting familiar with how things sound on your speakers, will lead to better mixing and production choices.
Don't worry so much about mixing - but also do.
This will get a lot of people's backs up, but listen close.
What are you trying to be? A producer? a beatmaker? a mix engineer? a mastering engineer? Whatever is your focus... focus on that.
My point: this has been said to me by countless industry professionals from mentors, artists, record label A&Rs, managers etc etc, and is even backed up in advice from the likes of Timbaland.
The song/music/idea is most important!!!
If your song/beat gets picked up by anyone important, it's going to be because of the music/idea itself. Not some meh beat with a brilliant mix. When they pick up your beat, even if it's mixed really well, they're going to ask for your files so they can get it mixed by someone else.
So put your focus on making really fucking great beats.
Now, that isn't to say don't try and mix your stuff. There is a lot of benefits to mixing your stuff well --- it'll help casual listeners appreciate your beat, it'll help in the battles here, and generally just helps when presenting your beats. Learning to mix your beats should be a byproduct of producing/beatmaking.
Would you rather a well polished turd, or a dirty diamond??
The mixing will come, pay attention to it, to feedback, but the music itself is core.
It's a numbers game.
Make make make create create create.
Just keep making beats, you don't have to share all of them, but just keep chucking shit at the wall until something sticks.
It may take a person 20 beats to make 1 good one. So burn through 20 beats, burn through 40; the more you make the more likely you are to have that one that just hits.
This is a better approach than trying to force an idea; sometimes ideas, even though good, just don't work, and it's important to be able to move on quick from them as opposed to spending hours, days trying to force it. There's no time for sentimentality, not working? bin it. Is it really that good but just not working right now? Then save it for a different project and move on.
On the back of this, many experienced/good producers here will tell you... a lot of their best beats were really quick to make and "just seemed to come together by itself". When you work quick you often work from that instinctual space, before overthinking kicks in.
You can always come back to beats later and maybe 'hear' something to add that you didn't before.
Stay fresh. Working on something for ages, even if shit/out of time/out of key, it will start to sound 'right'.. so especially if you're spending ages trying to make something shit work... you're likely going to do yourself and the beat no favours, and just continue down the path of shitness. Not working? Scrap it/move on asap.
Enter the battles here on illmuzik.
Especially the ones that sound difficult - this is where you'll grow.
- limited time/deadline
- making to themes
- competing against others
- challenges/outside comfort zone
- learning how to do what you do, but get people to respond positively to it
^these are some important things that battling here will give you. these will improve you. guaranteed.
Look at all the people with "ILLOG" status here --- that means they've been around here a while, and all of them are good. So... stick around and get stuck in - you'll get good!
Be YOU and trust yourself.
Be true to yourself, make what you feel, make what you like. Take inspiration from all sources.
Sometimes along your journey, you will have thoughts or beliefs, some of these could be wrong, but some you may just really feel. Trust in it, you might find a top music person saying the same thing after years of doubting yourself. Maybe you thought of sampling 50s songs or style, and people said no, or you doubted, then 6 months later a top artist is having a hit with that style. Believe and trust your vision.
Be selective in what advice you take and who from - you'll be swamped with advice online, videos, here, everywhere. Not all of it is right, or not all of it may be right for you. Listen, but learn to discern too.
and finally...
stay ill.
1
~ Iron Keys
www.illmuzik.com
