My COURSE PATHWAYS is a proven curriculum to learn FL Studio and Beatmaking in as little as 3 months! It's really hard learning the basics of music production, but my COURSE PATHWAYS walks you through step-by-step in easy-to-understand videos, and prepares you take off and truly make your own style of music. You can view my COURSE PATHWAYS page here: https://itsGratuiTous.com/course-pathways/ =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e29-the-course-pathways/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER.. SO SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE REGARDING COPYRIGHT. As a music producer, our copyright is EVERYTHING! It’s how we make our money, it’s how we claim ownership, and it’s how we LICENSE the right to use our products. NEVER just giveaway your copyright without understanding what you are truly giving away. What We Cover in This Episode! In this episode, I discuss the upcoming5 Golden Pillars of Music Production Course(if you are amember, you get it free!) We then get into digital products such asbeats,sound kits,preset banks,books,courses, and even how a podcast or YouTube video is someone’s copyright! INFRINGING on someone’s copyright is extremely dangerous. Yes,samplingis a popular music production technique, but you will want to look into “sample clearance”. If you are using drum kits, make sure that they are actually 100% Royalty free, as not every drum kit out there is these days! That’s why I always recommend theXclusive-Audio Drum Bundle TRIOto you guys.. not only because of it having 2,300+ one-shot drum samples, but because it is100% royalty free to use in your beats! Are You Sure You’re Protecting Your Copyright? So as mentioned, when you make the beat, it is YOUR COPYRIGHT. Your evidence would be your .flp (FL Studio Project), which shows all the MIDI Notes, and how you made the original song. Yes, someone could technically try to “re-create” your beat as their own, but it’s VERY hard to 100% replicate something, as tweaking a knob exactly is nearly impossible on these VST synths. You may have heard of the “poor man’s copyright” where they mail them self a copy of their released song, but I’d honestly say this was more important in the days of REAL RECORDING..we beatmakers use MIDI, so replicating your track in-depth with the exact sounds would be very hard to achieve.. Do Beat Tags Actually Prevent Theft? Producers use beat tags to prevent theft of their beat. If you catch someone using your beat without buying the proper rights (license), this is grounds to proceed legal action.. But, the beat WITHOUT a beat tag is still your copyright.. the beat tag is just one of those things like an extra layer of security to prevent theft, but if someone had amateur audio skills, they could still cut out your beat tag, and keep the beat looping over and over.. The fact is, it’s YOUR COPYRIGHT, and a beat tag doesn’t change that.. it just helps prevent theft, and helps your brand. Should you still use beat tags? Yes, of course! They help your brand, and prevent theft by making someone do extra work to steal it.. but your copyright to that beat remains regardless of your beat tag over your beat or not. Agreements Regarding Copyright Ownership.. The power of digital products is non-exclusivity. You can re-sell it over and over.. and if someone wants the exclusive-rights to something, that’s when the big money can come in.. but even then, exclusive-rights is very dangerous and can hinder your business because you may never benefit from it again..unless you state it in the terms! You must think about NOW and in the FUTURE to decide the offer presented is worth it to you. If you think $300 today is worth it, then that’s the decision you made! If you find out 3 years later that your work is generating $10,000+ a year.. it’s a lesson learned! This is why giving away your copyright is extremely dangerous.. you always want to be somehow attached, whether it be they have to always show your brand name when it’s used, they pay on-going monies, or the exclusive buy-out offer is TREMENDOUSLY lucrative. FREE FL Studio Starter Kit! FREE .flp for FL Studio Producers Discover How Easy it is to Make Beats! DOWNLOAD IT NOW! It’s Your Copyright.. Keep It! So there you go! Your music is your copyright. Own it, and know the power of it. If someone wants your copyright, that’s YOUR WORK. They have to p...
In this podcast episode of Music Production Made Simple, I talk to you about what I think makes a MIDI Keyboard Good for Beatmaking. I understand everyone has their own preference, but when using FL Studio, this is my strong opinion to see great results, save money, and see RESULTS in your beats! 49-Key MIDI Keyboard is BEST! When talking about price, size, and workflow, I truly think the 49-Key is the BEST MIDI Keyboard option for producers (with Semi-Weighted Keys). I like to put myM-Audio Oxygen Pro MIDI Keyboardto the right of my audio interface, and a 49-Key allows it to be within arm's reach! (That is the awesome beatmaking workflow I’m talking about!) =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e27-what-makes-a-midi-keyboard-good-for-beatmaking/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
I suggest taking my How to Use a MIDI Keyboard as a Beatmaker course, or learning from my what to look for in a MIDI Keyboard article. Additionally, you can see my recommended MIDI Keyboards for FL Studio! As always, reach out any time by contacting me directly.Should you volume balance your songs? You’ve made the beat, and you love how it sounds nice and full, but you’ve seen tutorials tell you that you should now bring each instrument to the mixer, and try to re-mix the song. But.. think clearly for a second.. if you like the balance, should you try to “re-balance” your volumes and hope for that same balance? Getting the same balance is VERY HARD.. Adjust Instruments Where Needed.. With virtual instruments, like a ROMpler, we beatmakers ALREADY HAVE HIGH-QUALITY SOUNDS. The thing you must understand as a beatmaker is a lot of information is jumbled together with the recording world to us beatmakers, who just use MIDI and one-shot drum samples. When a recording engineer would record a musician, their recording levels would not ALWAYS be the same for each different instrument. This is where VOLUME BALANCING is important to bring up a BALANCE in the song. But for us beatmakers, if we play our melodies, we can quickly lower volume by one or two dB, and that’s technically OUR volume balancing.. make sense? What about EQ and Compression? Well, the same idea applies. When you record an instrument or singer, the microphone is susceptible to many negative things like.. The Room Sound (if it’s not acoustically treated). Distortion if Recorded TOO LOUD Inconsistency in Loudness (the singer or musician said some loud or quiet words).. As a beatmaker, all of these are easily remedied through MIDI. The room sound.. we can control this through adding/removing REVERB or DELAY! Distortion.. we can easily just turn down our Virtual Instrument! And inconsistency.. we can just adjust VELOCITY on an individual MIDI Note (learn more in my SAFE SPOTS Book). So when we are applying Equalization and Compression, the same concept doesn’t fully apply for a recording to a virtual instrument melody. Yes, we want things to be clear, but we may not be EQing to FIX a bad recording.. we may just be EQing to MAKE an instrument sound better or more clear. How to Best Get Started Using MIDI? I suggest taking my How to Use a MIDI Keyboard as a Beatmaker course, or learning from my what to look for in a MIDI Keyboard article. Additionally, you can see my recommended MIDI Keyboards for FL Studio! As always, reach out any time by contacting me directly. =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e26-does-volume-balancing-wreck-your-song/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
When making beats, should yousound designwhile making the beat, or should you just use aROMplerto select high-quality presets? This is a question I get ALL the time! In addition, I also get asked isusing a ROMplercheating? And the answer is NO! Remember, sound design is a totally separate industry from making beats. We as beatmakers needhigh-quality soundsto make our beats fast and with quality. It still takes A LOT of skill to make a beat.. butdrum samplesandsynth presetsallow us to make professional beats fast, and it makesmixingA LOT easier, too! If you try to sound design whilemaking a beat in FL Studio, you will discover it slows you down way too much. My advice is to do sound design separately, then use those high-quality sounds tomake your beats. The beatmaking process goes: Make the Beat -> Arrangement -> Mixing -> Audio Painting -> Mastering Sound design is a TOTALLY SEPARATE INDUSTRY.. and one you may never have to learn to make high-quality beats.. If you want to learn sound design, that’s totally up to you.. and be prepared because it’s overwhelming.. just like learning to make beats was! =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e25-should-you-sound-design-while-beatmaking/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
I personally think the music industry is the MOST influential industry in the entertainment world. However, when you enter the music world, you must understand that FAME does not equal SUCCESS, and you can have one and not the other. No matter who you are in this world, we all listen to music, and we all have our own favorite artists and songs from our own generations. SUCCESS is what you WANT.. but FAME can lure you into thinking that you are “successful”. Successful is a word without a real definition, because most people consider success different.. Is 1 million dollars successful? Is having a family successful? Isreleasing your first beat tape beingsuccessful? Now FAME is having people know about you and your “image”. There’s lots of famous people who have lost it all! Success is being able to do what you want, achieving your goals, and still being a normal human who can enjoy their life! The moral of the story is.. check your heart, and understand your intentions entering this music industry. It’s very appealing, and can quickly bring you success, fame, as well as chaos. The secret to it all is reading, understanding what you want, and knowing the pros and cons of each situation. Take this one to heart. GratuiTous =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e24-is-fame-worth-it/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
In this podcast episode of Music Production Made Simple, I discuss hard drives with you for your music production computer. There's two main hard drives we use for our music production computers.. That is Mechanical Hard Drives (HDD), and Solid State Hard Drives (SDD). There are also what's called a "hybrid hard drive" where there's a small amount of SSD built into a Hard Drive to help it run a little faster by "caching" common files for faster loading. Mechanical Hard Drives A mechanical hard drive is more affordable, and is able to be purchased with LOTS of storage space. You simply provide a power cable from your computer's power supply (PSU), and a SATA cable plugs into the HDD and motherboard for the data connections. As I said in this episode, I liked the 5400RPM hard drive, as the noise was not audible in my acoustic computer case to help keep things quiet.. the 7200RPM can be hard audibly. Solid State Hard Drives: At the time of making my music production computer build video, 250GB was like $200-300!!! Now you can get 1TB-2TB for that same price.. (about 5-6 years later..) SSDs are awesome because they are QUIET and FAST. The only problem at the moment is you can't buy them in LARGER sizes like 4TB or 8TB (maybe in the old card-type SSDs).. but they are still pricey. Conclusion.. Hard Drives for Music Producers So I hope the gives you insight to buying hard drives as a music producer. Currently we use an SSD for our main C:\ drive which is where we install our operating system (Windows for example), and our most important programs and files like FL Studio, Drum Kits, and our main VSTs. For our LARGER files (like my FL Studio courses), we store these on a HDD (Hard Drive) because it's more affordable. Hopefully in the coming years we will be able to just use one hard drive again, but this time on a fast SSD that is affordable, with a reasonable capacity to keep up with all our digital assets nowadays.. By the way, you can checkout my FL Studio Books if you'd like to become a better producer! =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsgratuitous.com/podcast/s2e23-different-hard-drive-types/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
It doesn't matter what genre of beats you make, the 808 is one of the most powerful instruments as a beatmaker. Now, the 808 sound is a VERY SPECIAL instrument because it's like a hybrid between an kick drum and a bassline. To become a GOOD producer, you NEED to learn how to use an 808, and a bit of its history. Each genre uses the 808 a bit different, but it's a key element for fullness in your beats. (The 808 kick drum originally comes from a Roland-TR 808 Drum Machine. There's also many other common sounds we hear in popular songs all the time from this drum machine, but the 808 is known for its initial hit [similar to a short-tailed drum], then it's long tail which rattles the subwoofer [like a bassline]). =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e22-the-secrets-of-808s-as-a-beatmaker/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
Producers ask ALL the time.. “Should producers start with their drum loops first, or melodies first, when making a beat”. My answer for you is TRY BOTH WAYS.. It will allow you to become an extremely versatile music producer, who is able to adapt to ANY SITUATION they are thrown into. In addition tomaking drum loops, orprogramming melodies, beatmakers should definitely knowhow to sample as well. =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsgratuitous.com/podcast/s2e21-drum-loops-or-melody-first/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/
Creating melodies on a piano as a beatmaker using FL Studio is not as hard as you think. Yes, music theory is required, but it's all about improvisation and catchy melodies! Want 50% OFF the Piano Course? Copy + Paste Link!!!: https://itsGratuiTous.com/cart/?add-to-cart=23832&apply_coupon=PIANO =========================== GET THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES: https://itsGratuiTous.com/podcast/s2e20-piano-and-melodies-for-music-producers/ =========================== Try my FREE Book "5 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL BEAT": https://itsGratuiTous.com/5keys Watch My FL Studio Courses: https://itsGratuiTous.com/courses/