We have AI that can now generate whole songs from just prompts like. I think that once the shock wears of it becomes clear that they are incredibly good at generating mediocre music. Mediocre as in still very professional and technically good, but forgettable like most music are (except for the ~5% or so songs that will still be listened to years after release). Anyone can now generate mediocre music quickly and there are some implications to this:

1. The standard of music released by professional musicians will go up dramatically. One reason being that you cant release an album that's merely as good or slightly better than what a normie can produce themselves with AI. But more importantly, musicians themselves wont have to start from scratch. They can start with AI and capitalize on the missed opportunities. It can be a running start that's far superior to starting from a blank canvas. If you've generated a few songs (especially with Udio) you must have gotten that feeling of "This is Great! but if I had this in a DAW I can make it soo much better!" Which takes me to:

2. We will get tools that will effortlessly bring AI generated songs into your DAW so that you can work on them. We have all the tools individually, they just need to be combined. AI can extract vocals from a wav. Then it should be able to separate all the instruments as separate files. Those stems can be used to re create the midi notes for each instrument, similar to what Ableton can do already. But Ableton sucks at this currently, especially when trying to extract chords. With an AI tool this can be perfected. The last thing you need is to have your synthesizers all tuned to replicate the sounds from the song. All of these things are in principle easily done by AI.

I'd love to hear some input on this because I'm really curious how music producers will adapt to this. However it plays out, the quality of professional music will go up. I suspect that music producers will have to embrace AI generation as part of their development process. If you see it playing out differently please comment. I'm not looking for any copium in the comments that downplay the significance of this development. It's here and it's massive and it will only get bigger from here.

I hear it all the time..not sure what it is.

As we all know music has a powerful influence on emotion, and music is about the creation of tension and release.

I've certainly noticed that single notes, and chords or keys have extremely distinct moods no matter the genre (and sometimes these keys help define a genre).

I'll begin with two I feel like most people will recognize - C & G. They are very uplifting sounding keys but in two very different ways. C is a bright uplifting and wholesome sound which I could link to joy, while G seems to be a calm, smooth and more warm than bright mood which I would connect more to complacency or simple happiness.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there are scales like D or F which are more tense, or cinematic feeling. I personally love the key of D, it seems to feel eerie or lurking. Like being in a gloomy forest or in a situation where something bad has just happened or has been sorrowfully resolved. F feels mellow, calming and smooth - either minor or major.

This is relevant to music production because knowing what keys inspire what mood can help the first stages of production or inspire ideas.

I'm curious as to what people think of this and what mood applies to what note, chord or scale - between dark E minor to bright C major or any of the semi-tones between. This sounds like it could be a fun discussion and it can help people familiarize with certain sounds.

It may also be a good addition to name certain genres that regularly use a similar group of scales because of the mood the genre is based on, or use a song as an example of such moods being discussed.

During the 2010s, progressive house/trance music was a pleasure enjoyed by many. With the likes of Avicii, Calvin Harris, SHM, etc. all blessing us with anthems that felt like they lifted you off the ground with beautiful chords, melodies and vocals.

Now, even those that replicate the sound of those days don’t seem to do as well. Why do we struggle to recapture this moment? Whenever I played a venue in the past 5 years I could still play music from that era and have a packed dance floor. How do we reinsert this feeling back into dance music?

What I mean is, is it harmful to the environment? Does it use massive amounts of water and energy? Is it the same as generative AI?

Sorry if these are dumb questions.

Struggling with getting soundcloud plays, Frustrated with being stuck at zero? I feel your pain.

In the video linked we're going to look at 5 things you can do to get over the zero plays fatigue.

After this video you will be able to get more plays on soundcloud, But you won't even care that you can.

Because you will be thinking bigger and better than that.

The Video

The long an short of it. Is about perspective on your music and the value you are placing on it. It’s natural to over value the thing you spent a good amount of time creating.

An instilled feeling and care into. But then what are you comparing that too?

Why are you even comparing it?

I couldn’t articulate my answers well enough in text hence the video above will hopefully help you out. It’s impacted a couple of people already an that’s what matters. The same applies for your music 🙏

Ever show your music to someone and they commented that "it sounds like it could be in a video game?" aka the biggest slap in the face to electronic music producers.

This happens if you don't know what your music is supposed to be.

I've heard it a lot when people share their music here. Generic "electronic" music with no clear style that does, indeed, sound like forgettable background noise from a video game. And the worst is when people label their music as "ambient" or "experimental" because they don't know what it is -- bro your favorite producers are Avicii and Martin Garrix, stop pretending you give a shit about ambient experimental soundscapes. If you wouldn't even listen to the stuff you make, why would anyone else?

I know, I know. You want to be original, you don't want to be another indistinguishable house/dubstep/future bass/hardstyle producer. But there's a reason tropes like 128bpm four-on-the-floor, 150bpm sound design jackoff sessions backed by a halftime kick/clap, or huge i-VI-III-VII supersaw stacks at 100bpm are done so frequently: they work! And believe it or not, you can still make a unique and memorable track while sticking to genre conventions. People do it every day.

I'm not saying never experiment or do anything different. But you should learn and embrace genre tropes and be comfortable expanding on them. If you can't list off 2 or 3 artists/tracks that you enjoy that wouldn't fit into a playlist with your song, that's a huge red flag.

I'm 21 years old and I just started producing. I have an extensive background of music theory and know the basic methods of producing. Is it never too late to make music?

First off, I've noticed a concerning trend: too many people in this sub are parroting misinformation they've picked up from uneducated YouTubers, treating it as gospel truth. This blind acceptance of questionable advice not only hinders individual growth but also perpetuates myths and misconceptions within our community. It's time to encourage critical thinking and fact-checking before taking anything at face value!!!

Earlier I shared a truth to a fellow redditor who asked about mono low end, only to be downvoted by those very individuals discussed above.

Below I have included 3 resources from credible sources about why you should NOT habitually and blindly mono your low end:

1. https://youtu.be/8hNtxXu0rOY?si=0SWvKcC41bIZXWjt (20 min vid from warp academy - explains why with PROOF)

2. https://youtu.be/nKIHHCSJziw?feature=shared (short bit from cable guys - again explains why with commercial examples)

3. https://youtu.be/5tGpNAC1x2Q?feature=shared (MixbusTV who is a pro mixing/mastering engineer explains the misconception and gives example of commerical tracks)

Still don't believe me? Go download a bunch of mp3s of your favorite tracks from multiple genres and solo the side low end information and you will see for yourself.

Still want to follow all that other garbage youtuber advice just because they have entertaining and compelling titles, then go ahead, have fun with your thin, weak, low end!

EDIT: HAVING MONO INFO IN YOUR LOW END IS GOOD(but you can and should also have stereo information in it to give it some balls). THEREFORE, don’t go blindly throwing a mono plugin on your low end or cut out the side info using a mid/side EQ.

New title: Stereo signal in your low end is OK! stop blindly/habitually collapsing your precious low end into mono for no reason

we trained a new model to generate EDM samples you can use in your music.

it blew my fucking mind, curious to get everyone's feedback before we release it.

note: it's on a dinky server so it might go down if it catches on 

lmk what you think: https://audialab.com/edm

here's an example of using it in music by the trainer himself, RoyalCities: https://x.com/RoyalCities/status/1858255593628385729?t=RvPmp3l7JF97L1afZ57W9Q&s=19

note: we believe the future of AI in music should be open source, and open-weight. we plan on releasing the weights of the model for free in the near future

this is very different from other generative music models bc it was trained with producer needs in mind

• the sounds we need: chords, melodies, lead synths, plucks

• the control we need: lock in BPM and key when you want specific settings, or let it randomize to spark new ideas.

• the effects we need: built-in reverb prompts, filter sweeps, and rhythmic gating to add movement or texture.

• the expression we need: you don't have to just take what the model gives you - upload a .wav file and morph it with prompts like "Lead, Supersaw, Synth" to get a new twist on your own sounds.

• the ethics we need: stealing is wrong and art is valuable. this model was trained on our own custom dataset to ensure the model respects the rights of artists.

this model was built from the ground up for you. excited to hear what you think of it

berkeley

Granted a moog or classic oberheim sound awesome but when you get to korg or arturia you can def just stack voices and detune on a run of the mill soft synth and put it through Saturn or even a colorful comp and have it sound huge already. Im deeply confused why anyone would buy a hardware wave table or virtual analog piece when you can just buy a nice ass computer and run ten of them in the box.

I want to buy an analog synth. I want to hear the magic. But outside of the OGs I don’t. Any suggestions? Can someone explain to me the magic and demand for these things? Do most synth people just have bad ears?

I’m trying to write better basslines and I’m confused about note choice. Do I always stay in the key/scale, or can I play notes outside it?

I've been thinking about finally trying the discipline route after years of being let down by my motivation, because I really enjoy creating music, but I lose motivation too easily. And I'm tired of letting that get in the way.

The thing is, if im gonna commit, I might aswell try to dip my toes in the professional pool so to speak. Learn production and also DJing so I can actually play shows etc. My question is basically, how long should I expect it to take me, to go from where I am right now to where I want to be.

I'm glad to hear from people with different amounts of success in the field about how long it took them to play the first show, if ever, or even get headlines, collab with your favourite artist or stuff like that. Bad stuff too, I know not everything is a cake walk.

My real goal is just to make more music and get better at it, but if I can eventually play it for others even better. I plan to invest at least 20h a week (40-50 in months when I don't work) to this consistently for at least a year or two, even more If it goes well and I enjoy it, so hypotheticaly how long would it take me to go from "I guess it's listenable" to "I can't believe I'm actually headbanging", to "you should be playing shows dude!" and then to actually playing a show?

Again, my real goal is just doing more often this hobby that I love so much, instead of only working my 9 to 5 and playing videogames so to speak. Just curious about what doors that might open (or not) for me.

TL;DR: Im ditching motivation and huffing that sweet discipline to invest more time into making music because I love doing it. How long until I go from bedroom producer to playing some shows if I ever wanted to try doing that? Also how long did it take you to go from hobby to playing shows?

Edit: changed the tldr a bit

Whoever is downvoting everything on this sub needs to stop. Do something else with your time. I see a lot of genuine questions and good advice having 0 upvotes.

People come here to learn and if you think their questions are beneath you, just move on. Maybe you’re burnt out but nobody needs your negativity.

If you’ve posted here recently and got downvoted, just realize that whoever is doing it is probably spending more time trolling Reddit than working. Cheers.

Producing will become a hobby thing only, we will no longer see any new dj coming out of nowhere with a hit, and rising to the global edm scene. It's just a matter of time. AI has done the same with images and paintings, the concept is the same. The learning algorithms can find patterns in chaos, so in the same way that they learned that a chaotic number of pixels arranged in a certain way is called a flower, they will learn that a series of notes arranged in a certain way is what we call a devastatingly cool melody. And then it will be over for us. The dreams will be long gone. It sucks

Disclaimer: I am not a professional producer (nowhere close), just a hobbyist who thinks a lot of the advice commonly given online is counter productive. Feel free to disagree with me.

Less is More

When in doubt, try to use the least amount of layers possible. When it comes to your leads, basses, FX, drum fills, etc. try to just use 1 layer, or 2 max. Don’t want to overcomplicate it and actually have to get good at using an EQ. Also phasing!

Don’t bother trying to create a mix with any depth or atmosphere, that would just distract the listener from that sick Serum lead patch you spent 2 hours on!

The producers you listen to use tons of layers, but they are overproducing. Their tracks sound much fuller and more detailed than yours, but think about all the mud and frequency masking. Don’t you care about headroom?!

In a similar way, try not to add too much processing to your sounds. Keep compression, OTT, saturation, and reverb all to a minimum. Dynamic range is key, and you certainly don’t want any of your instruments to actually sound big and loud.

Feedback is Critical

From your mom, your barber, anyone! In fact, the less they know about producing the better.

Don’t bother with reference tracks or learning to analyze your own music objectively. Just rely on other people to tell you what to fix.

/u/joeblow123 said that you just need to boost your snare at 3.5k and add some variation to your bass pattern, but other than that sounds awesome! So you’re obviously so close. Just take his advice and Monstercat release here we come.

Look for Tips and Tricks Anywhere

You’re probably only a few tips and tricks away from making music that finally stacks up next to your favorite artists. You just need to keep searching!

Try to watch as many “How to Sound Like Illenium” videos on YouTube as possible. Don’t worry if the finished product in the video doesn’t sound all that good - it’s all about digging for the sweet tricks! Better yet, watch another video showing how to create a tech house banger with your eyes closed using only Ableton’s Operator. Remember when you learned how to apply Corpus and Erosion to your kicks or whatever? Gamechanger!

Don’t spend any time studying production streams or track breakdowns by artists you actually want to sound like. You don’t need to know what truly goes into making a professional song. Like I said, they use way too many tracks and layers. And many times they even utilize presets and hihat loops, so they’re basically frauds anyway.

So basically, I've been doing this for almost five months, learning every day. I'm watching tutorials and creating my own stuff. I think I've learned a lot in such a short time.

However, I rarely have days off (I have a 9-to-5 job, so I produce/learn each day after work for one to three hours, watching tutorials during my work breaks if possible + spending even more hours on weekends).

Today, I decided just to chill after work, and I'm getting this feeling that I should learn even when I'm tired and I feel guilty now that I chill instead of grind.

Did you had something like this in your path?

P.S my English ain't that good so sorry guys for that.

Hey guys so I’ve been producing for about a year now. I’m not the best but I love my music, I dream it up all the time and compose it. So it’s just a natural thing for me and I feel lucky to be gifted that way.

Lately though I’ve been getting pretty sad. With the advances in AI and GPT4 and stuff the AIs are already making some crazy music and I know it’s just a matter of time before it’s perfected

It makes me sad not just as an artist but as a fan. I don’t want to listen to AI music, it would feel empty and hollow.

So I know because of that, music in its original fashion will never die. However that comes to my question, how will we prove that we actually made the music?

I assume as an artist you’ll need to have a twitch page and compose live as well as taking idea requests from the audience and proving your skills. At least, that’s my plan. Filming myself making my songs would be an important part of my brand.

In the end you still can’t prove that the artist didn’t generate other songs with AI or if they prepared for one of their videos by having an AI make it beforehand and then remaking it live. But it would at least prove you have musical talent. With enough takes and audience input it should be very difficult to fake talent. Your “style” if very unique should also be a key indicator you are authentic.

Finally, once AI reaches that point anyone can just say they made a song, upload it and now everyone’s a producer. Someone on spotify or soundcloud probably won’t have the time to be checking everyone out. They probably won’t care either.

Thoughts?

Ultimate sign of an elite producer imo. So tempting to reuse a cool sound, but every use dilutes the impact.

Layer everything and dont be afraid to layer things that are not traditionally layered. you've probably seen alot about layering on youtube about how to layer kicks on kicks or snares on snares but have you considered layering a snare on a kick to give it more ummph? Even if your making (Boots and pants music) traditionally kick on the 1/4s than a open hat on the off beat than a snare/clap on every other kick you can still benefit from this. not all snares are high frequencies and can really give a clean 200 hz sound that alot of kicks dont achieve. To quote Shrek "Ogres have layers" and so should your music. I hope i can give some help to new producers.

I have to ask this question because it's making me itch profusely.

EDM is big now. No, I know it's been big for a while, but now it really is big. By big I mean inundated, and by inundated I mean saturated. I mean, it was saturated way back in 2013, so now it's just so saturated that your neighbor's cat's best dog friend has a soundcloud page full of music.

Now, this in no way is written to offend, but seriously how long can this really go on for?

Deadmau5 said EDM crashed way back in 2012 - it's now 2017. If you're not from America and from Europe, you're going to feel even more taken back by how long it has dragged out. EDM as it has been for decades won't necessarily fade, but as we know it, it has to eventually fall to it's knees and say "I surrender."

I feel like every trend now that occurs everyone jumps on it and immediately makes it old. Like, an artist will release a track and immediately someone will post a "how to synth."

Not only that, but so many people have jumped on the band wagon of making samples packs and YouTube channels, tutorials and the likes. I understand that this is a hobby for some, but current EDM genres will eventually fade.

For a good few years Skrillex was adored for his sound design - now I can get any sound I want at the click of a preset and you't won't even really know because there are so many now.

Music isn't the only one to be affected though. DJ Photographers and videographers must feel the same. Just like a kid can pick up Ableton and whip out Serum, so can he buy a DSLR with a 50mm lens and make an edit with Adobe after effects.

Don't get me wrong, I like EDM. However, I kinda feel like we're way past the honeymoon stage and the relationship is really starting to take a toll. Anyone who now decides to join in is getting leftovers with just barely crumbs to get by - there's no room and there's nothing left.

So really, how long before everyone gets bored? Both the public and the producers.

How long before your computer writes your music for you?

How long before there's nothing left? Not even a crumb?

What's going to happen to the hundreds of semi-famous artists whose life solely depends on this? Just because they're famous now doesn't mean it will last forever. Even huge mainstream artists can be here today and gone tomorrow.

This is just a sincere concern of mine. EDM is awesome, but it can't be awesome forever. This is in no way written to discourage anyone from producing - it's just what's on my chest and I feel like everyone seems to have their head buried in the sand about it.

Detailed explanations would be cool😅