I'm a new producer and every time i feel like i cooked, when I step away for a bit and come back, it sounds like trash

Why does this happen and does it happen later on even with more experience?

I'm trying to make dubstep if that matters...

I’ve been trying to learn music production on and off for about three years.

I’ve only finished two full songs, although I’ve made a decent number of loops. The problem is that the loops almost always end up sounding childish or like nursery rhymes, and I don’t feel like I’ve developed much actual production ability despite the time I’ve invested.

The frustrating part is that I have access to a huge amount of learning material like Ableton’s manual, paid courses (Side Brain/Simon Stokes on Udemy), YouTube, books (Dance Music Manual/Secrets of Dance Music Production), Syntorial, Building Blocks, Melodics etc. It isn’t a lack of resources or motivation.

I’ve also tried to branch out beyond production itself. I’ve been learning music theory, and I’m currently about 7 months into learning how to play the drums. So I am putting in effort to build a broader musical foundation, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s translating into better production.

I think my biggest issue is how I learn.
Most tutorials tell you what to do for a specific genre or project, but they rarely explain why.

For example, instead of saying “add saturation here,” I want to understand:
Why would you use saturation in the first place?
What problem is it solving?
When should you not use it?
Is this a general production principle, or is it just this producer’s personal taste?
How does this concept apply across different genres?

I feel like I’m constantly learning isolated tricks instead of universal principles that I can apply myself.
Because of that, I can follow tutorials, but afterwards I don’t feel like I truly understand what I learned or when to use it in my own music.

Has anyone else experienced this?

If so:
What finally made things click?
Did you change the way you studied?
Are there resources that teach the underlying principles of production rather than genre-specific techniques?
Is it normal to feel like you’ve spent years collecting information without building real intuition?

I also know people often say things like “just keep making music and you’ll get better” or “use reference tracks and try to copy them,” but that approach doesn’t really work for my brain at the level I’m currently at. It feels like I’m missing some deeper understanding that would make those methods actually useful.

I’d really appreciate advice from people who were in a similar position.

Edit: I’ve put some demos in a google drive folder if anyone wants to listen for more context

We recreated the the Bass sound from 'The Model' by Kraftwerk on our free Synth Primer

This remake is specifically recreating the patch heard at this timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEnx9xS79Lc&t=17s. Other parts of the song may vary the sound or notes.

And here are the key ingredients:

Voices: Mono
Osc1: Waveform (Pulse), Width (100%), Volume (100%)
Amp Env: Attack (0ms), Decay (800ms), Sustain (20%), Release (400%)

Filter: Type (Low Pass), Cutoff (35%)
Filter Env: Mod (5%), Attack (0ms), Decay (900ms), Sustain (0ms), Release (10000ms)

Find the full recipe and download the presets: https://www.syntorial.com/preset-recipe/kraftwerk-the-model-bass

Hey everyone. My Caldigit TS3 plus just stopped working. Tried a new Power Supply, but unfortunately no luck.
It’s the heart of my home studio setup, so really gutted about its demise.
Im looking at getting a Ts5 Plus, so that I’m Future Proof.

I have a M3 MacBook Pro Max.

I’ve read some complaints about the TS5 Plus, does anyone how any experience with it in there setup? I’ve also read that iVanky are good option, especially as I have a Mac, and they really do cater for them it appears.
But I’ve heard it’s louder than the Caldigit!
And to be honest, I prefer my cables
to all come out the back of the unit like the TS3 plus!

Anyway, but equipment is this:

Akai APC40 mk2
Akai MPK mini 2
M Audio Keystation mk3
Behringher UMC404HD
Samsung SSD
WD Elements HD
Dell Monitor

I had a lot of the above plugged into a USB multi thing, with that plugged into a port on the TS3 plus. Not ideal, but kinda worked 😂

I would appreciate and advice guys.

Thanks in advance

Looking for the best (price point approx £300) portable groove box….
So far I’ve shortlisted
MPC Sample
novation circuit tracks

I like to create hard trance / hard edm in general.
Any other suggestions or pointers ??

I have a basic level of understanding for subtractive synthesis and so far I've been trying to stay away from presets out of stubbornness and personal taste I suppose, I feel like if I create my own synth sounds I just feel better about it the whole process and I feel like its all upside for me. It's about learning, finished tracks will come in time I'm in no hurry.

Right now I'm using the OB-xd and it's a little difficult at times to understand what exactly it's doing, I do like it, it very much has its own character and sounds great but I'm wondering if there are better synths to learn on. With more knowledge I know I can squeeze some great stuff out of it.

I do have Vital but it feels like it's doing a whole whole lot and there might be something a bit leaner, like more stripped down and fundamental that still has a decent amount of range?

For the time being I'm keeping my plugins/vsts at a minimum, prioritizing learning each thing and what it does over having an entire library of shit I barely understand.

I find that with OB-xd and Vital, despite knowing a little bit about oscillators, waveforms, LFOs, etc, a lot of times things get away from me quickly so to speak, a bit out of control.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

I'm one year into learning how to produce. I know that's super beginner stage, what I'm capable of producing reflects that LOL but I kinda got stuck on overall arrangement and sound design. Does anyone have experience with getting lessons or mentorships and how that helped them?

I downloaded one sample pack and figured out pretty quickly that I want to do my own sound design. I'm using Vital and Ableton, and don't want any more plugins until I learn everything I can about the basics and how to best use the tools I already have. I've gotten pretty comfortable with Vital and have way too much fun making stupid shit (made the wavy sheet folly noise by accident, it's my go-to if I'm feeling sad or frustrated)

But I got into this for a specific reason, not just to make cool noises. There's album plans, song titles, lyrics, I know what I want each one to sound like. I've got a message and a mission, character design, visuals planned out (I've been a video editor for 10 years). It's just this one skill issue holding me back! I do get frustrated with how long it's taking vs the plans I have + why I started, so maybe looking at lessons is my way of trying to speed it up. I don't know if that's the right way to go.

So I already bought lessons from a producer and he stood me up twice. I ended up having to ask for a refund, and he was kind of a snake about it but PayPal came through eventually. There's another producer I really like, he's well established, and he's offering lessons in August. That first experience has me hesitating, though.

Just curious if anyone would know how to do this... I know theres a filter going on, and it's probably a saw wave at like -4 vocoded, but that's about as far as I've got. Any help would be much appreciated!

The sound: https://youtu.be/Z7TfeqFtSsA?list=RDZ7TfeqFtSsA&t=89

Really want to get into making edm trap but I can never find any good tutorials on how its done. Mostly just finding “how to make x track like this artists” with dudes on youtube making a whole drop and everything at 1000mph without explaining jack shit and cutting the camera when they take important steps they dont want you to see. Also the few video I have found are all “make a track like Isoxo” as if he’s the only producer making trap in the world. I understand he’s the most popular guy right now but goddamn theres other artists folks. Any recs on people that make this genre who actually explain stuff in their videos? I’m trying to make stuff like Ricky Remedy, old GTA, gLAdiator, ect but cant find anything like that to this point. Any suggestions?

Hey y’all. Maybe some of y’all can remember me from the sub. So after getting so many inspirational replies and dm’s I received, (can’t thank y’all enough for motivating me) I decided to start from somewhere.

Therefore, I want to take your insightful recommendations on which program I should focus on.

Normally my main focus is creating vocaloid, electropop, hyperpop and K-Pop music like Charli xcx, Ayesha Erotica, A.G. Cook, Hatsune Miku, FKA twigs, aespa, Arca, Shygirl, NewJeans, PinkPantheress, SOPHIE, KDA etc. So I feel like FL Studio can be the most suitable one because most of the artists I listed are using FL for their music.

However, working on my IPad is way practical than PC so I just bumped into Logic Pro but I’m really not sure if it has the same performance as FL Studio. If I will work on FL Studio, I will buy a new PC and freshly start my projects on it.

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.

Hello everyone,

I have good piano skills as i have been playing piano for a few years. I recently fell in love with house / afro house music, so i decided i could maybe get a MIDI launchkey to start composing myself.

I ordered the novation launchkey mini 37 keys and i was wondering how to actually start ?
Is it a good midi to start ?
Also, Earlier i tried composing melodies on my normal piano but it sounded too « soft » , too « classical ».

I will receive my launchkey in a few days so i at least want to have a catchy melody but composing one specifically on a normal piano as an ex classical player is so hard.

For reference, i take example on « LAVISA » by Jason Padrone and « Move » by Adam Port etc..

They’re my fav pieces.

Thank you.

How the fuck do you do it without squashing the dynamics or making it too quiet? Fuck this nerdy ass genre it's a trap everything needs to be so precise and when something sounds good it can't work for the master because when it's loud the reverb is too overbearing and the kick needs to punch through the mix completely but be careful or it will completely overpower everything else in the mix at the same time and then your master will suck no matter what. But you need to have the energy at the drop so huge reverb on supersaw leads and pads is essential but ooohh be careful! Just a little too much reverb will ruin your whole mix but just too little will make it sound thin, boring and amateur. Compression can be good but too much and it will crush the dynamics and make it lifeless! etc. etc. etc.

This fucking dumbass genre nowadays wants you to be extremely loud while being really dynamic and full of different elements at the same TIME! I'm about to off myself. ALL THE OTHER GENRES DNB, AMBIENT, HOUSE ETC. LOUDNESS AND MASTERING ARE FINE. FUCKING TRANCE WHY DO YOU NEED TO BE LIKE THIS FOR ME? EVEN PROGRESSIVE TRANCE FUCKS ME IN THE ASS WITH MASTERING! EVERYTHING SOUNDS GOOD BEFORE I NEED TO MASTER AND MAKE THE SHIT ASS LOUD! FUCK HOW DO YOU MASTER IT WITHOUT PAYING 500 EUROS FOR SOME SHITTY ASS PLUGINS? ESPECIALLY HOW DO I MAKE IT LOUD? AFTER MIXING, EQING, GLUE COMPRESSING, USING A LITTLE UPWARD PROCESSING WITH OXFORD INFLATOR AND THEN NEEDING TO PUT THE LIMITER TO GET THAT LOUDNESS AND OFC PREVENT CLIPPING. BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE SHIT WITH THE LIMITER WHEN I HAVE TO MAKE THE MIX AS LOUD AS THE OTHER MOTHERFUCKERS WHO HAVE RELEASED THEIR SONG. I'VE LOST MY MIND AND IM GOING TO BE INVOLUNTARILY HOSPITALIZED AND BECOME A MANIC DEPRESSIVE WITH THIS SHIT!! FUCK. I HAVE ZERO HOURS OF SLEEP AND ITS 13PM AND I THOUGHT THIS TRACK WAS GOING TO BE GOOD BUT MASTERING AND LOUDNESS HAS TO FUCKING EXIST AAHHH!! LET ME GET ON MY KNEES AND FUCKING SUCK YOU OFF AND BITE UR DICK AT THIS POINT I DONT GIVE A FUCK

I'm done with my rant and question now. Feel free to downvote and roast me I don't care at least I yelled into the void fuckers

I saw that Soundtoys plugins are on sale, including Little Alterboy (45% off).

Is it still worth it?

Anyone have any recommendations for vsts or plugins that sound similar to Cloonee? The stabs in I Rhyme Quick are so fire and I want to make something similar.

I'm making a UKG type loop where I'm normally on a four-on-the-floor. The part of the drumloop where the kick hits twice, Duck doesn't seem to get triggered as the image shows. What am I doing wrong?

I haven’t had a good laptop or fl studio desktop since 2024 so it’s been awhile, with that I’ve been using fl mobile for over a decade now & switching over will be a major thing in my artistry. Ive been keeping up to date on their new releases and tutorials as they just recently had a big overhaul but I’m a bit overwhelmed, I do know the basics to what plugins I’m gonna get from day one though (Serum 2 for the sound design, ProQ-4 for EQ/Mixing, and ProL-2 for mastering). However I’m open to suggestions as I want to keep a minimal yet maximum output style arsenal for a fast workflow and immediate ideas! What plugins would you recommend I add to my library for sound design (later down the road unless S2 suffices), mixing and mastering?

There are many royalty free vocal packs, but unfortunately, most of it doesn't sound great in my opinion. I found some vocal stems that I think sound amazing and have been very helpful. Despite the stems being royalty free, I hired a singer because I think using vocal pack stems for lead vocals is lazy, unoriginal, and the possibility of another song using the same stems is a problem I wouldn't want to deal with. One of the singers I hired over three months ago is talented but very unprofessional. I think the vocals they recorded for the song sound good but unfortunately are not what I envisioned for the song. I explained to them in detail, as best as I could, what I want, but unfortunately they just don't get it. The revision I requested, which took them over a month to provide, sounds worse and is not a recording I would want to use for the song or any other song I've been working on. I feel like releasing the songs as is, but I don't want to use vocal packs or AI. My experience working with singers has been very frustrating, time consuming, and I'm really starting to lose my patience. I was wondering if anyone else has used vocal packs for music they released, and what the producer community thinks about that

I’m looking for a specific bass sound used in This is Who I Am by XH. I’m using serum 2.

I’m talking about that heavy slap bass sound in the drop. the artist gives a short breakdown of the arrangement in a youtube short but doesn’t cover the sound design.

I understand that the whole drop is likely several different sounds stitched together and there’s probably FM/sync warp modes involved. I’m also hearing some heavy OTT. I’m familiar with this genre and I’ve watched a few hi-tech fullon tutorials but I can’t seem to get it this sharp and upfront. WTF is he doing to make this sound so good??

I see a lot of tutorials where the producer will be making a patch on serum or another synth. After they add a number of effects either within the plugin or externally, they add a compressor at the end to “glue all of those effect layers together.” This has never made sense to me. Do the effects stick out more than the original signal or make it uneven for some reason? Can someone explain the thought process behind this? Thanks!

I do live hardware, I record into a tascam dr-40x, mono. I try to have the input peak be hitting around -4db. Apply a little gain in post.

At a recent gig, there was some fiddling with volume in the first 3 minutes, so that section is both too loud at the start and too soft for a bit before everything stabilizes.

I can remedy this better in future gigs, but I have this recording now.

What tools should I use to balance this audio?

First I tried normalizing with different db thresholds to make the first part equal to the majority of the recording, but it seems a lot of trial and error and the volume change where the transition happens is still, noticeable

Is this a skill issue and I should just keep fiddling with normalizing levels until they fit?

Is there another audio tool I can use to help balance these louder and softer parts on the big scale? It’s not an issue of the sections independently needing compression or anything, but the first 3 minutes of a 50 minute wav file.

I’m using audacity for this, I don’t use a DAW when producing.

Please post any and all [Feedback] or [Listen] type threads here. Any standalone threads that belong in this weekly post will be removed.

This thread is for works in progress only. It is not a place for self-promotion.

Rules:

1. Works in progress only. Do not post finished or released tracks. No links to Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud profiles, or any other streaming/distribution platforms. Share a direct link to your track (e.g. an unlisted SoundCloud or YouTube link).
2. No self-promotion. Do not include links to your social media, artist pages, or any other promotional material in your post.
3. Make an effort to comment on other people's tracks. Others are much more likely to help you if you help them first.
4. Be specific when asking for feedback. Examples: "What do you think about this kick sample?" "How's the mix?" "The last measure feels a little off, any ideas?"
5. Be descriptive when giving feedback. Use timecodes to highlight specific moments.
6. Link to the feedback you've left in your top-level comment. This keeps the thread accountable and cooperative. Comments not following this format will be automatically removed.

Format your top-level comment like this:

Feedback for user1: [link]

Feedback for user2: [link]

Feedback for user3: [link]

Here's my track: [link],

I'm looking for feedback on x, y or z.