Hi, community. Back from a unrefreshing holiday and keen to do something productive.
It’s autumn. The clocks go back tonight, the dog is moribund and the garden is looking after itself. My wife is on a training course and I have 3 full days to myself next week that I’m determined not to waste.
It’s production, self-education time; about 20 hours in total, no distractions. No pub, box sets, DIY or other diversions. No. Honestly. Promise.
My shortlist:
Music theory. Okay with the basics but it’s a huge topic.
REALLY getting a handle on Pigments (or Vital or Serum.)
Dabbling in modular - download VCV Rack or similar. Rabbit hole?
Listening to a load of random, unfamiliar genres for future inspiration.
What would you do? Is there anything you’ve focussed on that proved to be beneficial to your production skills?
I know 20 hours isn’t a huge amount of time but it’s a rare opportunity.
I think they could all be a good use of time, depending on what you want out of it.
undoubtedly an unpopular opinion, but this wouldn’t be my suggestion. theory can be neat, but it takes an unreasonable amount of time to get more than the basics, and in my experience the basics makes you want to create things that apply the basics and those things just sound like generic everything on the radio. that said there’s some great stuff if you dive deep enough and learn to break the rules.
honestly, this or #3 would be my starting point, and then a couple hours in it’d lead to inspiration where I’d just spend the rest of the time riffing and writing. Pigments isn’t anything special and won’t make better music, but it is very, very well made and incredibly powerful once you nail a workflow.
just skip downloading anything and buy a bag of meth. it’s less addicting and cheaper in the long run. also an easier habit to kick. (but seriously, it’s awesome and you should absolutely play with modular, but it’s THE rabbit hole for electronic music)
if that gets the juices flowing for you, do it. there are worse ways to spend your time than expanding your listening.
Forget 3, it’s a very VERY deep rabbit hole. 20 hours just researching and playing with VCV is a fine way I guess, but from my experience, it’s overwhelming and expensive going down the modular rabbit hole.
Forget 4, use this time to be productive!
I would combine 1 and 2.
Take whatever little theory you might know and use that (be it scales, chords, voicings, etc) while you twiddle knobs around with Pigments/Vital/Serum.
Personally, I like just poking around and exploring while I try out some new scale or chord progression. I find a lot of new and interesting ideas can come out of it.
Just some food for thought.
I know enough theory, and my recommendation is not to try and cram it.
I read the Ravenspiral guide to music theory and looking through it again as I’m about to link you to it (it’s a free PDF) I think about 1/3 of it has stuck for me over the years.
I’d just read a section from this as you have time. By the time you know intervals, scales, and chords, you will know as much as me. I know only 3 scales in one key off the top of my head, you really don’t have to go crazy with this stuff.
That said, again, this is not something I recommend cramming in 20 hours. I would rather you make it a habit to study this on a regular basis as part of your music making, as you will then have time to digest the theory and work each new element you read about into a new track one at a time. That way you aren’t writing bland basic music, you are taking the basic rules for music and working them into your creative output in your own way one at a time.
I don’t read so much anymore, but I follow Jameson Nathan Jones on youtube, a classicaly trained musician turned synthesist/soundtrack composer who uploads a new theory video once a week as applied to electronic music. Keeping tabs on someone like this and watching their new videos as they come out is a great way to keep theory on your mind and make it part of your habit to study. He also offers further written sources for free, though I’ve never dug into those myself.
And lastly, my secret for doing good sounds in Pigments is pretty basic - just add unison! It works pretty much every time. But yeah, there’s a ton of things to learn inside Pigments, I honestly couldn’t tell you where to start. IIRC Arturia has tutorials built into their synths now where they pop up directions and walk you through making a sound, maybe see if Pigments has that?
I would say this one, because once you learn modular, every other synth will make way more sense and you’ll get a feel for what each component is doing. Before I did that, I was just eternally lost. ymmv
Theory is also a good choice for obvious reasons, but you can always get a chord generator module
There is a limit to how music theory much you NEED to learn. I have a friend who’s a whiz at music theory but when I ask him what he uses it for he can only say “Improvising.” (he’s a jazz trumpet player… Like me, but better.)
Learning Serum (or any synth for that matter) is definitely a must
The amount of crazy shit you can do with literally ONE instance is amoizoing…
Modular synths… Ehh~ I guess? A lot of them are redundant with all of the new shit we’ve got nowadays, but some of those sounds are really good.
Other than that, I’d only listen to the music you WANT to produce… If you mix too many styles, you get a grey sloppy mess that doesn’t sound very good.
I like to sample a LOT of random shit, chop it up… add fx… It’s a surefire way to get crazy samples. I have a “chopped anime vox” that’s literally the “cash me ouside howbow dat” meme but chopped and sped up. Heck, I think I made a kick rumble from a shitty moog sample once…
Whatever, if you find something that gets you going then keep doing it
I think that your response to option 1., is a good point. I don’t want to sound like everyone else (ultimately, given time,) and certainly not churn out the generic “shake your hips and wiggle your t*ts” pap. Ugh!
I really appreciate your response and thanks for the pdf on theory. Looks like a very useful resource. Thank you.
I’ve managed to catch a couple of Jameson Nathan Jones’ videos via “the algorithm” but I haven’t, (but will,) subscribe to the channel.
Music theory is massive and I agree that you need to drip-feed it gradually once you get to grips with a particular element. I’m one of those curious people that need to know why something is as it is. Can be a bit of a pain, but that’s the way I’m made.
I must admit that I’m drawn to the modular option.
I went to school with a posh, rich kid and his parents bought him a Korg synth in the 80s for his birthday (not jealous, honest.) We had fun during the summer holidays making lots of noise and I remember messing around with patch leads, VCOs, VCAs, triggers, gates, etc. Eventually we managed to patch the sounds we could imagine and I recall it being great fun once it started making sense.
I might just be being nostalgic but the appeal is still there.
