Share advice you'd give to your newbie self

Kaiwan_NI

Forget the fact that this question is itself a paradox. 

Forget the fact that without the path you’ve taken, you wouldn’t have grown into the kind of artist you’re today - a person who can look back on what you did in the past with more mature eyes and experience.

Travel back in time to when you played around with your gear for the first time. If you have the opportunity to meet your newbie self, what would be the advice, directions, and shortcuts about music production you’d give to make the road less bumpy for your younger self? 

Nico_NI

Here's a couple of things I would say to my newbie me:

1. That kick is way too loud!
2. Stop collecting plugins/hardware and try to master just a few.
3. You can make any sound out of any sound.
4. Saturate more.
5. It's okay to not release everything you do.
6. Focus on enjoying, less on delivering.

Kaiwan_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1404#Comment_1404

Love the #6!

Paule

Creating snapshots for a Reaktor ensembles

1. There is too much reverb in the snapshot.

2. Turn down the master volume

3. Delay mix maximum on 2 o'clock

4. Let out the play instinct

Arranger section AmbieGarde in MMM

1. Every audio clip a different delay

2. Limit the tracks to four or five

3. Use IR nearly inaudible

4. Create spatials

Ryan_NI

For producing, I'd say to stop worrying so much about the fine details and focus on writing the track at its core - and if you feel like putting it out there, cool - if not, it's kind of fun to keep it to yourself :)

It's a similar thing for mixing with Traktor for me. A lot of times I used to get so caught up in the "perfect" mix or take it too seriously. I'd like to tell my younger self to stop caring as much and try to enjoy it, similar to @Nico @ NI. Have fun experimenting with things. Have fun mixing with music that, otherwise, shouldn't be mixed together.

Wyley

I would tell my noobie self the upcoming winning lotto numbers.

I would say change the way you log in your music so you can use your collection with any program.

Tony Jones

Don’t wait so long to start the journey

JesterMgee

Some things I have often quoted and had quoted to me over the decades...

If you have the capability to test the question you are about to ask, try it first and you may not have to even ask the question.

The one thing in life you can take as much as you like for yourself and it only betters things the more you take is time.

Spend time to read the manual, it probably has answers to questions you haven't even thought of yet.

YouTube is not a substitute for self experimentation. You can sometimes learn a lot more by making mistakes and spending the time to fix things up rather than the direct approach.

Forget about trying to make your production sound "professional", you aren't one, you probably never will be, but it doesn't mean you can't make it sound pretty damn good anyway.

No one on forums are really interested to really hear your tracks, not because they are bad (well, that could be part of it) but because they are busy making and digging their own stuff. Don't be discouraged that your post has 3 views in a month, just make stuff you like and find interesting and have some fun with it. What interests you is not always what interests others.

Prepare yourself for the fact that there are MANY things you don't know, millions of things that separate you from the pro guys and decades of experience you will need to invest to probably go little further than your bedroom. If you still wake up and feel you want to keep going, you are ready for the journey.

The old saying "Less is more" is certainly true. You don't need lots of hardware or plugins to make something good. You don't need heaps of expensive gear and your production can sound great even with just 6 tracks. Challenge yourself to make the most out of the least.

It's perfectly fine to feel you have no ideas, that you have not felt like learning or doing anything for months, that it all feels like a waste of time or it's just not fun anymore. Take a break, you may either discover that it is in fact time to move on, or you may just one day be inspired and make something great. Good art takes time, for some this can be a lifetime.

Kaiwan_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1472#Comment_1472

Manual reader here as well 🙋🏻‍♀️

I do listen to everything posted on the forum though. Always nice to hear what everyone is up to and there's something beautiful about a work by someone who makes music just for the sake of making it - unfiltered by press/a label's expectations and not influenced by play counts.

JBlongz

My biggest advice would be to COMMIT TO AUDIO. You can still save your midi versions, but too many times I've been crushed by discontinued software incompatible with the latest systems. Or even a version jump that changes the signature of your sound. Freeze tracks or bounce stems!

Uwe303

My advice would be

1. You don't need 100 compressors or FX and instruments, learn first what you have inside out

2. listen, listen, listen tweak - then all over again

3. RTFM at least partially

4.have fun, don't try to force something

Uwe

Wyley

Human beings don’t read manuals.

The only manual I know is labour and I steer clear from such things.

GoKeez

1. Don’t over think it. Feel it. If you don’t, come back when you do.
2. Have fun, if you’re not, come back when you can.
3. Live, love, laugh, cry. The music will follow
4. Make the sounds you imagine. You’ll listen better and learn more. Ultimately they’ll sound great to you and that’s what matters.
5. You are the only you. However, there are countless others who can relate. If you sound like someone else, you nor anyone else will find you.
6. Record everything around you as often as possible.
7. Learn how to sample.
8. Audio kicks Midis 🍑
9. Dont buy anything else, one day soon people will be paying you to use their gear.
10. Be patient, you’re an amazing human.

djsubculture

1. RGAS, cost too much money. Work with what you have.

2. Less is more.

3. You can never get too much practice.

4. Have fun.

5. Network as much as possible.

6. Learn as much as you can.

7. Did I mention practice?

PooFox

Be a music junkie, not a plugin junkie.

You can make 1000 songs with 1 plugin but 1000 plugins will make it hard to finish even 1 song.

Tigersharc

I would give myself the following thoughts.....

1. Learn and practice piano.
2. Actually learn music theory and apply it to the piano practice.
3. Don't buy Waves Plug-in's, you will be so much happier with SSL real plugin's, NI and Arturia.
4. Practice more
5. Get that Full Sail University degree 10 years sooner.
6. Study something new that is musically oriented and apply that knowledge to a new song every week.
7. Don't download every free plugin a company offers, most were junk that took up space on your computer and you never used them.
8. Don't buy gear just because YouTube users are using it, buy what suites your personal needs.
9. Go big or go home. Buy your computers fully maxed, to get the most out of the amount of years of use you can get out of them.
10. Don't stop practicing or singing, it will help when you are trying to figure out the keys of music you are trying to learn how to play.
11. Lastly ask yourself did you practice piano today and if you did practice some more.......