5 music production truisms that are actually nonsense

[Michael L]

This writer (Tim Can't) sounds just like the "authoritative-sounding" writers he is complaining about. He went from one extreme to the other, pretending its Art vs Science instead of Art & Science.

[2ZrgE]

For me just the overused "X things you have never seen/heard/cannot belive blahbla" click bait. Nothing really new/interesting there for people with the slightest bit of production experience/knowledge about music production.

Hehe, stupid me, I also clicked and read this crap...

[DanielF]

Sound like anyone you know?
Ask an excessively noob-y theory or production question online, and you'll get smacked down by a forum warrior within seconds for having the temerity to put fingers to keyboard before having a comprehensive grasp of mankind's accumulated musical knowledge.

It's almost as if these virtual vigilantes were never beginners themselves, emerging from their mothers' wombs with a working knowledge of post-tonal music theory and the inner workings of classic hardware compressors.
Just sayin'

I'm beginner and this jumped out pretty heavily. I think many members of lot's of music forums(there are plenty) gonna feel little..weird. I'm waiting more attacks towards this article to drop pretty soon.

Funny thing about those "online warriors" is that they do have very good information. Most times it's the way they give it away. Like it's a gift to the world. Sometimes I go and listen some tracks of them and I'm amazed how poor music(IMO)they produce. That's of course compared to that godsent information they are willing to share with us newbies.

[2ZrgE]

Sound like anyone you know?
Ask an excessively noob-y theory or production question online, and you'll get smacked down by a forum warrior within seconds for having the temerity to put fingers to keyboard before having a comprehensive grasp of mankind's accumulated musical knowledge.

It's almost as if these virtual vigilantes were never beginners themselves, emerging from their mothers' wombs with a working knowledge of post-tonal music theory and the inner workings of classic hardware compressors.
Just sayin'

I'm beginner and this jumped out pretty heavily. I think many members of lot's of music forums(there are plenty) gonna feel little..weird. I'm waiting more attacks towards this article to drop pretty soon.

Funny thing about those "online warriors" is that they do have very good information. Most times it's the way they give it away. Like it's a gift to the world. Sometimes I go and listen some of them tracks and I'm amazed how poor music they produce. That's of course compared to that godsent information they are willing to share with us newbies.

You can have a vast knowledge of production techniques and still be a poor musician (but also the other way round). Every average guy can for example learn software like Photoshop or Illustrator inside out, but that doesn't make him an visual artist of course.

Many people have a lot of gear (hard- and software) but don't even produce complete songs. But if knob-fiddeling makes them happy, why not?

[DanielF]

Sound like anyone you know?
Ask an excessively noob-y theory or production question online, and you'll get smacked down by a forum warrior within seconds for having the temerity to put fingers to keyboard before having a comprehensive grasp of mankind's accumulated musical knowledge.

It's almost as if these virtual vigilantes were never beginners themselves, emerging from their mothers' wombs with a working knowledge of post-tonal music theory and the inner workings of classic hardware compressors.
Just sayin'

I'm beginner and this jumped out pretty heavily. I think many members of lot's of music forums(there are plenty) gonna feel little..weird. I'm waiting more attacks towards this article to drop pretty soon.

Funny thing about those "online warriors" is that they do have very good information. Most times it's the way they give it away. Like it's a gift to the world. Sometimes I go and listen some of them tracks and I'm amazed how poor music they produce. That's of course compared to that godsent information they are willing to share with us newbies.

You can have a vast knowledge of production techniques and still be a poor musician (but also the other way round). Every average guy can for example learn software like Photoshop or Illustrator inside out, but that doesn't make him an visual artist of course.

Many people have a lot of gear (hard- and software) but don't even produce complete songs. But if knob-fiddeling makes them happy, why not?

Nothing wrong with that. Like I said they have very good knowledge(in some cases). It's the way they act. They really need to be praised, even for basic Q&A type of things. There seems to be tendency for making things overcomplicated. Many times answer grows to this monumental piece of information(showing their expertise).

Sometimes topics are quite mixed with knowledge and just making things sound like they are.
If I hear that their own music is not bar to the "online presence", it makes their points a quite vague. There are always people in other areas in life too that quite just can't deliver. Bad thing is that they sure can act.

[IncarnateX]

Musicradar just published the best article ever:

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/5-m ... nse-628773

Sounds like he has been at KVR:

Ask an excessively noob-y theory or production question online, and you'll get smacked down by a forum warrior within seconds for having the temerity to put fingers to keyboard before having a comprehensive grasp of mankind's accumulated musical knowledge.

It's almost as if these virtual vigilantes were never beginners themselves, emerging from their mothers' wombs with a working knowledge of post-tonal music theory and the inner workings of classic hardware compressors.

[2ZrgE]

Reminds me of any other production-related forum on the Net.

[Jace-BeOS]

Or any other art-tech forum (photo, 3D, whatever).

[2ZrgE]

Sadly there are a lot of rude, unfriendly & uneducated people out there who feel the need to vent their frustrations on others. I used to take part in a piano forum where I watched newcomers being attacked on a daily basis from so-called experts (their expertise: mainly high post counts). I always thought especially musicians where friendly, tolerant people - I was wrong obviously.

[arkmabat]

The article about creativity that's linked in that top 5 article is really good stuff (though dull in the middle when the author talks about the lipstick problem and Internet of things).

As a person that finds creative work to be an extremely irritating and time consuming process, it has always annoyed me when people act like creativity is some magical fountain I dip into to pop a photograph or song into existence. It's not just that they're making a mythical mountain of it; it's effing lazy to think of creative work as magical. It excuses the myth-spreading people from learning to do that work. Worse, it diminishes the work that people DO put into making things.

On the topic of creativity being derivative, check out Nine Inch Nail's song "Copy Of A".

I love that song. It's the NIN album I find most difficult to get into, but I liked that song instantly. I wonder what he thinks he's a copy of, after copying himself copying someone else. He said Pretty Hate Machine sampled a lot of other records, and the downward spiral used samples, but he has always reinvented his sound to some degree each album. Maybe that reinvention process is the repetition...

My interpretation of the song is one of repeating one's self in life, and in one's efforts to be meaningful. Not just in writing music. It goes thematically well with "Disappointed"... especially if you're a fan that wants him to stop changing his style over time

I get the vibe that progress is derivative in nature. Metal alloy to ancient gong to rock cymbal. I'm a copy of my parents combined DNA. It keeps going and progressing.

[simon.a.billington]

Can't tell you how much is see the first point being over used so much. It's so not providing anything helpful to those who need it.

Not to mention, if someone is new, they would be unfamiliar with what sounds "right"

Sure advice can be very subjective but at least a person can usually derive a top 5 list of things to try just to see what will work in their given situation.

[jancivil]

Disagree with the point about creativity, yet also somewhat agree with it.

The point was that people that state 'the most important thing is to be creative and original' are silly. I'm not sure I ever saw that stated, quite. But the strawman that did that has clearly missed that there is no chance at originality, because all songs are the same, and he has authority - Neil Young! - to bring to bear. And one supposes that the sheer numbers of all of the completely unoriginal and quite possibly non-creative Beatport ad nauseum folks means they must be right. It's very silly writing if you ask me.

Then more argument from popularity: the loser musicians in bands kept their day job vs the filthy rich Producah up in Las Vegas with the Ferrari. So forget about it, just get the right loops package.

[trimph1]

Or any other art-tech forum (photo, 3D, whatever).

Or hobby forums.

[drakmaniso]

Then more argument from popularity

I think you misread the article. This is not an argumentation for popularity or conformance, but a simple demonstration that pure originality does not exists. What we perceive as original/outstanding art is in fact constructed from a common language shared by all other pieces of art, and only a small part is truly unique.

Even the most experimental work shares a lot with the cultural background. And if someone were to create something purely original, there would be no common ground with other people, and no way for them to appreciate it.

The point in the article is: if you want to be original, you must first learn the language we all share, in order to impose your own twist on it. Therefore, saying "try to be original" to a beginner is not helpful.

[simon.a.billington]

Then there is the commercial sense to creativity...

Be too daring, too creative, too original and people may not be able to relate, so they want want to listen to it or buy it. So if you're in the business of music it's smart to have a commercial mindset or awareness of just how far you can go creatively before you risk alienating the audience.

As a crude example, say the big thing is EDM. That's what people are listening to, buying, and its all over the charts. You want to be creative and unique, so you record a polka... almost no-one will want to have a piece of that. SO if you want to have some measure of success you need to be mindful of EDM in this example. That doesn't mean just doing the same thing as everyone else, but it does mean making something that can pass itself off as EDM.

So with that in mind it would be smarter to write some polka influenced EDM or EDM influenced polka.

Mind you I hate polka and I think this would be an incredible bad idea, but you get the idea!!

Creativity is certainly an important tool. I'm about as creative as it comes, but it doesn't end there.