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Season 2 ·

S2E02 – Sticking to One DAW

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Sticking to one DAW (digital audio workstation) will tremendously speed up your knowledge of beatmaking in your early years. (Your early years are very important to absorb as much information as possible, because you are new, things are fun, and you are like a sponge.. looking for all the valuable information out there).

But I totally get it…

When new, you see so many tutorials out there, and you think, “Oh, I need that DAW.. or that VSTi, or that Drum Kit“.. And it’s hard, because you definitely need some of these tools, but the trick is knowing the good tools, and the tools that work for you. That will allow you to avoid GEAR LUST, like explained in Music Production Made Simple Podcast – Episode 1 of Season 2.

I do suggest new producers try different DAWs when starting out, to see what they like, but eventually, you HAVE TO SETTLE DOWN.. otherwise you’ll waste too much time trying to learn the music program, rather than LEARNING HOW TO MAKE BEATS! (Which is the end goal, right?)

You’ll also spend a lot of money if you are using multiple DAWs, and you’ll just spin your wheels without moving very far.

If you are struggling with your beatmaking, I encourage you to try FL Studio. Their LIFETIME free updates are absolutely amazing, and their support team is wonderful.

I’m here to help you learn how to make beats with FL Studio, as I’m now a Recognized FL Studio trainer, and have my Beatmaker Training Platform with tons of FL Studio courses. (There’s also a questions area where you can ask me questions when you’re a member, and I’ll respond back fast!)

Remember, it’s usually the lack of the producer’s abilities and skills, rather than the capabilities of the DAW. You have to put your time in to learn this craft of beatmaking, and if you do, you will truly feel the true reward of saying, “Yes, I made that beat from scratch!”. (And yes, FL Studio is more than capable to be called your only DAW you use, just like I do!)

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S2E02 – Sticking to One DAW

  1. Season two, episode two, sticking to one daw.
  2. If you're wanting to save money, if you're wanting to learn faster, and if you're
  3. wanting to see results in your beats, I promise you, sticking to one daw is going to
  4. do that for you. So if you want to check out the free book, which has my five keys
  5. to a successful beat, as well as my seven core principles for being a music
  6. producer, just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash five keys, and that book is
  7. going to prepare you to launch properly as a music producer, as well as be aware of
  8. a lot of powerful things, such as like picking a key and scale before making the
  9. beat. There's tons of stuff in that book.
  10. So again, just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash five keys.
  11. I'll send you the book for free.
  12. Okay. Now before getting into the episode, I want to let you know that I updated the
  13. learn your gear page with a new article about buying audio cables.
  14. There's a lot of good information in there.
  15. We talk a little bit about balanced and unbalanced.
  16. I drew some diagrams for you. It's not too long.
  17. Check out the article to learn more.
  18. Okay, just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash learn your gear.
  19. Okay, so let's get into the episode about sticking to one daw.
  20. So the first thing I want to say is you have to first decide what is your purpose
  21. for using the DAW, the digital audio workstation, which is just the music program
  22. that we use to make our beats.
  23. But the thing is, a digital audio workstation can be used for more things than just
  24. making beats. Like it can be again for beat making, it can be for mixing, mastering,
  25. sound design, sound effects. But I'm talking to you guys to learn to make beats in
  26. this episode. Now it doesn't matter what DAW you use, you know, you can use Ableton,
  27. Logic, Pro Tools, whatever. I suggest FL Studio if you are making beats.
  28. Okay, FL Studio is the only DAW I use, but at the end of the day, it always comes
  29. down to the producer and their skills, not the DAW, right?
  30. You know, some producers are like, oh, this DAW has this feature or this feature.
  31. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
  32. The music program is just where we make beats, okay?
  33. That's it. It's you as the producer who has to learn how to make beats.
  34. So the next thing I want to tell you is that to make a beat, there's actually two
  35. stages to make a beat. So everyone wants to make the beat, right?
  36. But the thing is there's something in the way of learning how to make the beat, and
  37. that's the music program. That's the DAW, the digital audio workstation.
  38. It's hard to learn. And this is usually where people don't continue with music.
  39. And it's because the music program is so hard to learn.
  40. That's why I say stick to one DAW, to one digital audio workstation.
  41. You're gonna see results a lot faster.
  42. And then you're gonna be learning how to make beats, okay?
  43. Because there's two stages. You have to learn the music program, then you have to
  44. learn how to make beats. And when I say learn how to make beats, well, for example,
  45. do you make hip hop beats? Do you make dance beats?
  46. Right? These require totally different knowledge.
  47. Like, yes, we're using the same music theory when it comes to our chords, but for
  48. the drum loops, right? The timing's all different.
  49. Everyone wants to learn how to make the beat.
  50. And learning how to make the beat, there's so much knowledge around that topic in
  51. itself. But again, the music program allows you to make the beat.
  52. And if you don't know how to use the music program, you're never gonna learn to make
  53. the beat. So by sticking to one doll, I promise you, you're gonna learn a lot
  54. faster, okay? Now, again, it's important to talk about what are you using your music
  55. program for. If you're doing heavy recording and stuff like that, I don't think FL
  56. Studio is the best DAW for you.
  57. FL Stududioio. can use a and you can record your voice and you can make songs, no
  58. problem Radio ready quality songs for sure, if you know what you're doing.
  59. But when it comes to editing that audio, you know, FL Studio isn't the best, but FL
  60. Studio for workflow with MIDI is okay.
  61. FL Studio is so good with MIDI, and so what does that mean?
  62. That means when we're using our one-shot drum samples to program into a step
  63. sequencer, or they call the channel rack, or adding in our notes into a piano roll.
  64. Like FL Studio's piano role is so good, it's so fast and intuitive.
  65. That is using MIDI. And if you have checked out my SafeSpots book, you know I teach
  66. you all about MIDI. MIDI is the secret to becoming a good producer.
  67. You know, a lot of producers always look towards all these fancy plugins, all the
  68. expensive plugins. But the thing is, MIDI is the core basics of how your
  69. music program works when it comes to these virtual instruments, when it comes to
  70. programming in our drum samples.
  71. I teach you all about that in my safe spots book as well as the course, right?
  72. Just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash safe spots.
  73. It's my teaching curriculum all about drum loops.
  74. And for those of you who have taken it, whenever you talk to me about safe spots,
  75. it's like it's this language which I've kind of created, and it's cool because it
  76. makes sense, right? We have our organic tools: velocity, layering, panning, note
  77. nudging, sound selection. These are the things that producers need to know to learn
  78. to make good beats. So let's just do a quick overview of what we
  79. covered. To make a beat, there's something in the way, and that's learning the music
  80. program, which is hard in itself.
  81. Once you learn the music program, now you can start making beats.
  82. making. But again, beats is hard in itself
  83. And if you are jumping to different music programs, what's happening is you are
  84. spending more time learning the music program than learning how to make beats.
  85. The beat making usually translates from daw to daw, right?
  86. If I want to make a hip hop beat, well, it's just knowing how can I place my notes
  87. inside that music program for it to sound the same.
  88. Because every music program, you know, is tempo.
  89. 90 beats per minute is 90 beats per minute.
  90. 90 beats per minute isn't going to be different in FL Studio than Ableton because
  91. it's 90 beats per minute, right?
  92. So those are the things that stay the same in a music program.
  93. So don't get caught up in thinking that you need tons of music programs.
  94. I also wanted to create this episode for those of you who do use FL Studio.
  95. And sometimes when you look in tutorials, you think, ooh, maybe I should try that
  96. daw. Maybe I should try that music program.
  97. I promise you, if you use FL Studio and you make beats, you're not doing heavy
  98. recording, FL Studio is your option.
  99. It's about learning how to use the music program, okay?
  100. So just a bit of comfort for you guys that you're doing good if you're using FL
  101. Studio, if you're using your virtual instruments, if you're using one shot drum
  102. samples, I promise you at the end of the day, you will have the true reward of
  103. making your own music. There's no feeling like it in the world, making your own
  104. music from scratch and being able to listen to it.
  105. If you want to learn what version of FL Studio to buy, I'll leave a link in the
  106. description. Alright, so closing out.
  107. So again, you guys can get my free book.
  108. It's called Five Keys to a Successful Beat.
  109. So simple it becomes creative.
  110. Just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash five keys and I'll send it to you.
  111. This book contains my five keys as well as my seven core principles of being a music
  112. producer. The first principle in the seven cores is stay inside your DAW and don't
  113. come out. For those who have read it, you guys know that staying inside your music
  114. program is the only way you're gonna learn, right?
  115. When you're on YouTube watching tutorials, what happens is you watch the one
  116. tutorial, somehow all of a sudden now you're on the fifth or sixth tutorial, it's
  117. getting late, and you only spent like 20 minutes making music.
  118. You spent like an hour watching videos, right?
  119. So by staying inside your DAW, then you leave when you have a question, but then get
  120. back in your DAW. Okay, so that's principle number one.
  121. But by sticking to one DAW, it's going to save you money and it's going to allow you
  122. to stay more focused. So I hope you enjoyed the episode.
  123. Check out other episodes or just visit the website it'sgratuitous.com for all your
  124. FL Studio training needs.
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