Just wanted to write out this post to the waveform community and say my thanks to everyone who’s been participating and lurking in this community so far. It’s amazing to see your posts and projects here every day and it genuinely makes my day a little brighter to know that something I posted helped someone on the other side of the screen!

Anyways, I’d like to ask you all to help me bring you better content. I can’t really post Kush, In The Mix, or random youtubers everyday, I find a lot of channels don’t go nearly in-depth enough on a lot of topics and just scratch the surface, and well established youtubers just post the same content and advice over and over again. We should all benefit from different perspectives here!

I got a new job (yay!) earlier this week, so I’m gonna be a bit short on free time, which means if I don’t do something about the way I search for content it’ll be hard to make it consistently.

Finding noteworthy youtube channels can be quite time consuming. Writing a quality post also takes time: watching, researching, writing, reviewing, all that sha-bang! Takes me on average about 2-3 hours to do all of that. I might have ADHD or some form of inattention so that might explain if those hours seem like a bit too much.

So I thought we’d pool some interesting channels and websites in this thread, that way it’ll be easy to reference for newcomers and I’ll be able to curate the best content in here. It will also be interesting to know what your guys knowledge levels are and what areas of production you find most difficult: mixing, mastering, sound design, songwriting, etc. It will help me curate the content better as right now I really have very little idea about all that. And also, your likes in terms of genres and artists would be cool to share in the community. Let’s see what kind of music we like to make!

Here are the discussion questions in a nice order. You don’t have to answer every single question and it’s completely okay to answer just one! All of these have full potential to be a really interesting standalone comment!

  1. Tell us about yourself! How long have you been making music and how much time do you spend producing a week (roughly)? What made you start your journey?
  2. What are your favorite genres to make and/or listen to? What unites them or makes them different to you?
  3. What are your most favorite artists? What makes them great to you?
  4. What resources (websites and youtube channels) do you use for learning? How do they help you?

I’ll start with myself in the comments to this post!

  • Shadowbait@waveform.socialEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    1. I started improv singing when I was a small child, did school chorus for a several years, then got sick of blending into the group. I wanted to make my own music with the focus on my voice, so I started experimenting with recording and layering things. That was about 20 years ago. I haven’t been at all consistent about it - sometimes I’d go for months without working on music at all. Then there was one year I made a finished song every month and some of it was the best I ever made.

    2. I listen to lots of genres, but most often some form of electronic - downtempo, synthpop, modern EDM, etc. I tend to favor music with atmospheric layers and a hint of mystery, but different moods call for different kinds of music. What I make is hard to classify, but definitely still some form of electronic.

    3. Artists: Pair of Arrows, Rufus du Sol, Metric, Robyn, Zhu… if I try to describe why I love them I’ll be typing way too long so I’ll just leave this one for now.

    4. I learned a lot of synth basics from Sonic State’s reviews - often with detailed demonstrations feature by feature, sometimes with tips on how/why you might use that feature. Some channels for more general music composition and production stuff: James Nathan Jones, Venus Theory, Benn Jordan, Andrew Huang

    • anthromusicnote@waveform.socialOPMEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Ah, I used to be in a chorus myself back in elementary, though it was an after-school activity for me. One vivid memory I have of it is that I hated sitting in classes because I was so bored and wanted to move. Guess that one might count towards my ADHD diagnosis and it certainly counts towards my music taste. I actually hated music for a while after that and it wasn’t until 13 when I started to listen to a lot of cool stuff that eventually prompted me to try and make something myself. And I actually liked it! Maybe I was always meant for it? ;)

      And those are some interesting channels mate, thanks for sharing. I watched a bit of Andrew Huang myself, his “producers flip a sample” series was amazing inspiration for me, but he’s got this intense youtuber vibe that makes his content hard to watch for me. Sonic state and JNJ seem really interesting, much appreciated!

      • Shadowbait@waveform.socialEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        I know what you mean about that intense youtuber vibe. I think it’s something that developed gradually over time and you might enjoy his older videos more. I’ve actually mostly stopped watching his new stuff.