Help me structure my (newbie) learning process for music creation, please

The Lounge
#21

My approach:

Make a project, and do some sound design for some bread and butter sounds on around half of the tracks you have available.

Save the project.

Make beats using those core sounds, and allow yourself one or two additional tracks that you can design sounds on the fly.

Duplicate your sounds across all the patterns in a bank.

Make as many beats as you can using those sounds, and either save them if you are happy with them, but more often just dump them and reload the project at the end of your session.

Most importantly, record the result. Listen back to it, especially after leaving a gap for a few days.

Then when you find your hands are moving automatically without having to pause and think too much, start working over multiple patterns, and figure out, either with or without song mode, how to move between one thing and the next.

You ask:
“What, in your opinion, are the 20% of features/tricks I should focus on which would take me to the 80% of making a decent song?”

My answer:

The basics of subtractive synthesis. Learn to take a waveform, use a filter and filter envelope to shape the frequencies, and an amp envelope to shape the amplitude. That’s it. If you understand how these things interact, you can create a great variety of sounds. Then start thinking about modulation with LFOs.

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#22

I appreciate every single comment in this thread, but this one is the most practical for me at the moment! Thank you so much :pray:

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#23

the ones that you’ll feel comfortable enough with, what I mean is that different tricks/styles/approaches work different for every individual, like I said before - it will take time - and what I meant is that you need to find your own workflow that will get you both productive and expressive, try different things, try one-pattern songs, try two-three pattern song, try the song mode, try chaining patterns, you need to try a lot of things to figure out which flow will make you expressive and comfortable.
record your sessions, good or bad, take a day off, listen back, your mistakes will become obvious and next time you play the same song you will do better and better and better.
patience and dedication is the best feature that will take you furthest. and don’t be afraid to do things differently. try overbridge, try recording main outs, don’t get stuck, record and play record and play record and play…

4 Likes
#24

This.

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#25

Thank you @alechko
This makes a lot of sense, and echoes with my other experiences. I know exactly what you mean.

record and play record and play record and play…

On it! Thank you

1 Like
#26

To overcome the limitations of no-polyphony-per-step on the Syntakt, I suggest you learn how to use chords and inversions on the chord track. Can you create a chord progression where the top notes of each chord comprise a melody? For example, a harmonized C major scale on a single chord-machine track of the Syntakt would be something like:

do: C major triad 1st inversion
re: G major triad root position
mi: C major 2nd inversion triad
fa: G 7th root position
sol: C major triad root position
la: F major triad 2nd inversion
ti: G 7th 2nd inversion
do: C major triad 1st position

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#27

Whilst I would try all kinds of rhythms, I would also try the elektron sequencer, it’s as powerful as it gets. Mixing takes practice and some bumps. And just try a few steps on 1, changing the pitch, adding some variation and increasing the attack for some other more pad-like sounds. Use the LFO1 on all parameters and try something you like etc. set different tempos for each just mayhem.

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#28

Thanks everyone for your advice once again!

I am back with an update if anyone is interested.

While I was struggling with the Syntakt, by coincidence I saw a local ad for a very cheap, used Model:Cycles and I jumped on the opportunity in hopes that a more limited device will be easier to start with. And I was right! Spent a couple of days playing with it, and managed to produce a track already! :exploding_head:

This is my first track ever. I never studied music, never played an instrument, don’t have anyone with music history among my friends. So this is quite a big deal for me.
I am really proud of the end result, despite it being very simplistic and nooby. Also, it’s not mixed (I wouldn’t know how to do it anyway, yet).

8 Likes
#29

Good!

Since M:C and Syntakt share so much DNA, you can take ideas from M:C up to Syntakt in order to learn it better and/or add a bit more sophistication with some advanced features. But above all, making sounds you like and are happy with is the most important.

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#30

…a little naive, which can have it’s very own charme aaaand never the less, quite nice, for a first step…u’ve defenitly started u sonic journey…and ur handling the hw itself already pretty decently…
congrats…

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#31

Really nice Track, I like the vibe! Great way to start a Journey!

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#32

That’s a hell of a lot better than my first track! Well done, you’ve def got the feel for it immediately so keep at it, and all I’ll say is: keep finishing them, even if they suck! That’ll teach you more than pretty much anything else, and always keep a recording so you can look back in a few years and see how much you’ve improved. Welcome to being a producer!

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#33

I took someone else’s advice when I asked a similar question here last year and started deconstructing the sample patterns that come with the Digitone. I’ve so far only “finished” one (Korall) but I have learned so much it’s incredible; more than from reading the manual or any of the excellent YT tutorials. My process is to focus on one track at a time and study the parameters that created the sound, hold down each step to see what is different about it and then try to recreate it in a blank pattern, while allowing for my own experimentation. If there’s something that I don’t understand, then I hit YT looking for a more detailed explanation.

Just learning this one pattern has completely changed my view of what can be done on the machine and how much you can squeeze from a single track on the Digitone. My plan is to do this for all of the patterns on the Digitone and then move to the Digitakt and do the same thing.

I think it’s a really fun way of “learning by doing” while also having some structure in place.

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#34

I wanted to answer something similar, but I couldn’t put it into such a meaningful short sentence. I started this way and will continue like this. As a result, I know every box i own very well and was able to develop a very good workflow. In the end, it’s everyone’s own experience and what works better for them.

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#35

that’s a really nice track and a perfect device to start with imo, sounds pretty good to me :slight_smile:

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#36

:clap:

Good stuff

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