Are you Self taught? or have you been schooled?
- Thread starter MOXATRON
- Start date
Everything self taught.
Dj Joey Joe
Member
Like most have said, it's been basically self-taught and getting, tid bits of info from a few friends. I was one of those kats who use to play an instrument in Jr. High & HS, I played the alto-sax but as soon as I graduated I gave it up to be a dj, which I wanted to do before picking up the sax. I went from making pause tape mixes, to pause tape beats, to mixing & making beats with a turntable & a double cassette deck, to mixing with two turntables, and then finally getting my first sampler the Roland JS-30, playing around with friends ASR-10, MPC 2000, & Yamaha SU700, then buying my own MPC 2000XL. One thing every producer who've talked to always said is, read the manual which I will say it's pretty boring; but, doing that but when you get stuck or tired of racking your brain, reading the manual is key to open your eyes up to more possibilities.
The friend who let me play around with & showed me things on the ASR-10 went & graduated from Full Sail back in the early 90's and he learn how to master his keyboard, use recording equipment, engineering, and even master songs, which was cool. From that he got to work with artists like Lost Boys, Punk Barbarians, & the Rascalz, sadly none of the stuff he produced ever got released. After years of not getting much work producing he gave up, so having training doesn't really mean success, just keep making music for the love is the only thing I can give as advice.
The friend who let me play around with & showed me things on the ASR-10 went & graduated from Full Sail back in the early 90's and he learn how to master his keyboard, use recording equipment, engineering, and even master songs, which was cool. From that he got to work with artists like Lost Boys, Punk Barbarians, & the Rascalz, sadly none of the stuff he produced ever got released. After years of not getting much work producing he gave up, so having training doesn't really mean success, just keep making music for the love is the only thing I can give as advice.
Psychedelic Schizophrenic
Member
Like many on here I'm self taught learning through trial and error and a million and one mistakes combined with reading the official MPC manuals, searching and researching on the internet and purchasing and reading some of the beat making ebooks from MPC samples etc.
The only thing I've been schooled at is getting my ass whipped week in, week out by you guys in the beat battles :lol:
The only thing I've been schooled at is getting my ass whipped week in, week out by you guys in the beat battles :lol:
Speekless
Member
Self-taught mostly!
I started out making beats with a really old program called midimaker, it used stock midi sounds (lol) but I could at least get melodies out of my head that way. Then I discovered Reason by accident (version 2.5 back then), and that was a real eye-opener. I started getting more into music production, also learned Logic, all on my own and by reading the manual (it often gets into details that you don't think about checking when you're just playing with software.
Then during my University time (I was studying maths) I was in a building with a lot of students from different backgrounds, and some of them were in the conservatory. Since I was into computers a lot, and it was just the beginning of "home recording", a lot of them came to me to help them set-up, record, edit their tracks. I loved it so much that I decided to switch studies and went on to study Audio Engineering. I learned a lot more about music production, audio, how to use a studio, and how to work with people that way. I ended up doing an internship at Galaxy Studios, a major studio in Belgium. I stayed there for 3 years, had the studio for myself in the weekends, recording my friends etc... That was a second eye-opener as I really learned to take my listening to a next-level, and about working in a professional environment.
So, mostly on my own, and by experience of course!
I now make websites for a living, because the pay and work days as an audio engineer were much too harsh, which allows me to do some music in my free time (I started out because I wanted to make my own tracks, so that's really where my interest lies, more than working in a studio). I still plan to make a living out of music one of the days, but hey - we'll see!
Peace,
Speekless
I started out making beats with a really old program called midimaker, it used stock midi sounds (lol) but I could at least get melodies out of my head that way. Then I discovered Reason by accident (version 2.5 back then), and that was a real eye-opener. I started getting more into music production, also learned Logic, all on my own and by reading the manual (it often gets into details that you don't think about checking when you're just playing with software.
Then during my University time (I was studying maths) I was in a building with a lot of students from different backgrounds, and some of them were in the conservatory. Since I was into computers a lot, and it was just the beginning of "home recording", a lot of them came to me to help them set-up, record, edit their tracks. I loved it so much that I decided to switch studies and went on to study Audio Engineering. I learned a lot more about music production, audio, how to use a studio, and how to work with people that way. I ended up doing an internship at Galaxy Studios, a major studio in Belgium. I stayed there for 3 years, had the studio for myself in the weekends, recording my friends etc... That was a second eye-opener as I really learned to take my listening to a next-level, and about working in a professional environment.
So, mostly on my own, and by experience of course!
I now make websites for a living, because the pay and work days as an audio engineer were much too harsh, which allows me to do some music in my free time (I started out because I wanted to make my own tracks, so that's really where my interest lies, more than working in a studio). I still plan to make a living out of music one of the days, but hey - we'll see!
Peace,
Speekless
Well I had a few years of piano practice (and some on the accordion when I was very young), but most of the stuff is self taught. All of the mixing "skill" I obtained the hard way, by listening and experimenting with a ton of reference tracks (mostly jazz, funk, hip hop) and, well of course, youtube.
s/o youtube for making our musiccareers possible :lol:
s/o youtube for making our musiccareers possible :lol:
Self Taught - I discovered FL when i was 16. That was a tough year for me and I found the process of music making very therapeutic. I was awful at it, but I could't get enough of it! My mom was so frustrated with the same loop playing out of crappy speakers for hours in our living room. It's been a hobby since then for 11 years. My career and kids keep me busy but i still find the time. Especially when I need some therapy!
Professor Coneyack
New Member
Lil bit of both. First in jr high and high school playing alto and baritone saxophone in concert, marching and jazz band back in '98. After 8th grade I started taking private professional lessons. By 8th grade I was so deep in Hip-Hop, I saved all my christmas and b-day cash to buy a shitty casio piano and also this dope boss br600 which is a mini daw 8 faders/64 track unit with built in fx, and. even drum pads. I was homeless for about 10 years but still kept the boss to flux with. I would goto the library and get samples from the audio section...ish like story telling and nursery rhymes to layer over beats. Now the past 9 years have been all self-taught, mainly with the learning of other instruments. A lot of when I started have been thanks to this site and the people supporting and running it. (JoaGymshoe)
...and now, time for a Dab :idea:
...and now, time for a Dab :idea:
Balstyrico
Member
Man, when I started out htere was no internet. I was using ProTracker on Amiga and the only sparring I had was with other nerds at some of the larger LAN parties. I saw my music being shared, and people playing it etc without knowing it was mine - it was pretty sweet.
Then I tried to learn notes (got my first keys) - I got this huge fucking e organ with 5 sounds and 5 rythms (you know, salsa, pop, rock etc - sounded like shit). So I learned to read the most basic notes at an early age. It took me a couple of weeks and then I saw the light; I can only use this shit to play other peoples music (notes that is). So I never did more about it.
Self taught completely here. I was born to early to get sparring on the internet, so I've used a lot of years just learning by my mistakes.
I still remember the first time a rap group performed with my tracks - I did not know about mastering at that time. Can you imagine how quiet it was - still peaking @ 0db? The crowd was so, so quiet just to hear the music and oh my God, i'm cringing thinking about it still. The rap group left me for Warner shortly after and became of the most played groups in MTV Nordic. (back then you got about $100 each time a music video was showed on MTV Nordic - a hit could easily be in rotation and being played 10+ times each day for months).
TLDR; Autodidact
Then I tried to learn notes (got my first keys) - I got this huge fucking e organ with 5 sounds and 5 rythms (you know, salsa, pop, rock etc - sounded like shit). So I learned to read the most basic notes at an early age. It took me a couple of weeks and then I saw the light; I can only use this shit to play other peoples music (notes that is). So I never did more about it.
Self taught completely here. I was born to early to get sparring on the internet, so I've used a lot of years just learning by my mistakes.
I still remember the first time a rap group performed with my tracks - I did not know about mastering at that time. Can you imagine how quiet it was - still peaking @ 0db? The crowd was so, so quiet just to hear the music and oh my God, i'm cringing thinking about it still. The rap group left me for Warner shortly after and became of the most played groups in MTV Nordic. (back then you got about $100 each time a music video was showed on MTV Nordic - a hit could easily be in rotation and being played 10+ times each day for months).
TLDR; Autodidact
Drago Zetić
New Member
I was classically trained - went through 6 years of music school for piano and singing. I could have gone further, but I figured that this was more than enough knowledge to start making my own music and I didn't care that much about playing live. About 2 years ago, I picked up LMMS and quickly switched to FL Studio, watched half an hour of YouTube tutorials and have been learning on my own ever since.
Brotha B
Member
I was trained in classical guitar for a few years when I was a kid. In 97 I heard Wu-Forever and that was it.Self taught for beat making and man it was a long road to here. I started making beats in the late 90's with digital orchestra program(midi only). Then in the mid 2000 I got pro-tools entry level program sessions for 50 bucks(software only). In 2008 I got pro tools and my first beats on this battle (Started in on STBB 218) with that program.Then I moved on to ableton live and man that was a game changer for me.Since 2013 I've been using Native Instruments Maschine and this is my tool of choice. I like to experiment and emulate the great producers. I also use youtube tutorials. Shout out to very sick beats channel on youtube if y'all wanted some cool inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/user/Verysickbeats
Professor Coneyack said:
wow.. big up bro
DJ Dope-Needlz
Member
Mostly self taught but mixing i learned on a Sound-Design course.
