FL Studio 11 is a bit overwhelming - guidance wanted

[StoneVisage]

A couple weeks ago, I took the plunge and picked up FL Studio 11.

...Only to discover that, despite my previous musical knowledge, I have no idea what I'm doing with FL 11. Every time I think I've learned or figured out something incredibly useful or vital, I soon hear about things like 'engineering at 24bit' and 'waveform modulation.' Is this a case of needing to throw caution to the wind and just mess with sounds for hours to get a better feel of the program, or am I missing something integral to using this software? The sheer variety of filters, mastering, mixing, even the preset VSTs - it's overwhelming!

[ChocolateChicken]

A couple weeks ago, I took the plunge and picked up FL Studio 11.

...Only to discover that, despite my previous musical knowledge, I have no idea what I'm doing with FL 11. Every time I think I've learned or figured out something incredibly useful or vital, I soon hear about things like 'engineering at 24bit' and 'waveform modulation.' Is this a case of needing to throw caution to the wind and just mess with sounds for hours to get a better feel of the program, or am I missing something integral to using this software? The sheer variety of filters, mastering, mixing, even the preset VSTs - it's overwhelming!

Yeah, it is overwhelming when you first plunge into the world of music production! Everyone went through this and, unfortunately, it is indeed a case of needing to just mess with your program for hours and weeks until you get a better feel for the program and figure everything out. But you're not completely alone! There are tons of tutorials on youtube that can teach you pretty much everything you need to know, as well as tutorials by the makers of FL Studio themselves: https://www.youtube.com/user/imageline

We're here to teach you stuff too, if you ever need help on anything specific, but most of the stuff you might have questions about will most likely have been answered on this forum already or can be discovered by tutorials and stuff.

Anytime you want to learn something, experimentation is something that I highly recommend, and there are ALWAYS tutorials and lessons on youtube if you ever get stuck and can't figure things out. It happens to all of us.

Also, I encourage you to read the manual. It really does help and make things go faster!

Just remember to be patient; you will not figure things out immediately and it will take time to learn stuff, especially things that are super complicated like synthesis, compression, ect. It took me like two whole months when I got my first program before I was able to make my first little song on the computer. It depends!

[Callenby]

Hi, welcome to MLR! Why not go to the introduction thread and tell us a little about yourself?

Anyway, you should change the title so that it mentions FL Studio. That way people can more easily determine whether or not they can help you. Unfortunately, I'm a Cubase guy, so I can't help with that.

What I CAN do is refer you to some free online classes that might help. For instance, here's a class on music engineering. You can look up other classes here.

Hopefully that can be of some assistance.

[ChocolateChicken]

And this thread is very good and useful:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1369

[CaptainFluffatun]

One piece of advice that I might give:

Take everything in chunks. You're not going to be able to practice mastering until you have a good mix. Even if you have a good mix, it can be lacking if your sound design is off. Even if you have all that, your music won't be as good as it could be if you knew extensive music theory.

Hopefully you see my point. I would recommend starting with synthesis/sound design. That will get you the core elements of a song for you to arrange and mix.

So yeah, don't attack too many things at once. Don't wonder how ALL of your plugins work - wonder how ONE of them works, and mess with it until you're proficient at it. Then and only then, move on to the next plugin.

Also, if you see a term you don't understand, google it! If that term is defined by a bunch of terms you don't know, google those!

[Conduit]

One of the things I did when I first started was made a song. Just go from start to finish without worrying about quality. Unless your amazingly talented it'll sound awful, but that's not what matters. If you reach a step that you don't know how to do, google it, watch some tutorials, and move on. It'll quickly give you the fundamentals of the program, and then you can work to better understand individual parts after. Also, having someone walk you through stuff can be a great help, and if you search through the Tutor thread in my signature I'm sure you'll find someone familiar with FL to help you.

[StoneVisage]

Thank you guys so much for responding. It's nice knowing you guys are here for support when I'm pushing myself to learn.

When I get home I'll make an introductory thread and check out all those links.

Thanks again!

[Injustrial]

As mentioned above, experience makes you better at stuff. It's just the way it is. I've been doing stuff in FL for about six months now, and though I still have a looong way to go, I feel I've made significant progress during this time.

There's a couple of good people for tutorials, if you want to watch them.

I personally recommend Seamless, because he's so incredibly knowledgeable, it's getting ridiculous. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2mgCVJWitRUTIpgd7pLung
Especially his series "FL Studio Basics" should come in handy.Here's the playlist, go check that out.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGYoE903Nir5-wvI5ipGZMS6AYD1Le_iu

Then there's Beats 4 Beats.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV86U8vTlhbiO_4umBU09Ww
Though, not the best at explaining stuff, he has a great basics tutorial to get you started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1mf3uYvk1k&list=PLAD739A1E9AB99EEF

My best advice to you is to just be a sponge. Soak up as much as you can, then filter out the misinformation and madness later down the line.

[S.P.P]

Other people might disagree with what I'm going to say here, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
To start with, don't worry about anything technical. Just make a song. Even if it sounds crap to you, just do it. You may not want to release it which is fair enough - but what you could do is put a link to it on the feedback subforum, and ask what you could do to improve. We're happy to help people to improve!
You might get things back such as; "your lead needs less high end", "your drums need to be punchier in the mix!", or "maybe try side chaining? And compress _______". THEN you can start worrying about technical things and do some research or ask for help with it.

But to start with, just noodle around. I learned far more by experimenting and playing around then I did from guys on YouTube who most of the time did not answer the questions I had.

And welcome to the forum! :3

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

One piece of advice that I might give:

Take everything in chunks. You're not going to be able to practice mastering until you have a good mix. Even if you have a good mix, it can be lacking if your sound design is off. Even if you have all that, your music won't be as good as it could be if you knew extensive music theory.

Hopefully you see my point. I would recommend starting with synthesis/sound design. That will get you the core elements of a song for you to arrange and mix.

So yeah, don't attack too many things at once. Don't wonder how ALL of your plugins work - wonder how ONE of them works, and mess with it until you're proficient at it. Then and only then, move on to the next plugin.

Also, if you see a term you don't understand, google it! If that term is defined by a bunch of terms you don't know, google those!

This. You should pay attention to this. This is good advice. There is other good advice here but this is especially important.