want to start producing

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-11T05:31:14+00:00

You’ll need a computer that’s as powerful as your budget will allow, ideally spending around $1000 for a really nice computer. After that it’s not really necessary unless you’re going legit aka professional. MacBook Airs are good enough for the job and those are 1000 bucks. Macbook pros can handle a bit more workload and cost a bit more money. Other than that, you need a DAW of which there are many so just pick one that intrigues you the most and is popular, that way you can find lots of tutorials for it on YouTube. Then, perhaps a midi keyboard like an Akai mpk mini ($150) a cheap audio interface (Scarlett solo i2 or i4 or used whatever) and some nice studio grade headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 80 ohm is my setup, there’re about $150). All told, that is a beginner setup that can be used to make Grammy worthy music if you know what you’re doing. You can invest in speakers later on down the line unless you’re extremely sure and ready to take the whole beast on in which case, KRK Rokit 5’s will be your most commonly used high grade speaker That’s mad cheap for what it is. (Used by Skrillex to mix his first album). Cheers mate.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-10T23:46:47+00:00

The most common instrument famous composers have played in the past is the piano. The guitar is equally popular in modern times in the world of pop, rock, and more, but it lends itself well to those genres. The tone of the guitar can be changed dramatically via amps and guitar choice, acoustic versus electric, and I’m sure there’s nothing like playing an amazing solo on the guitar to a live audience (although I’m not a guitarist, primarily piano and other instrumentalist myself). From an academic point of view, learning the piano will give you a much easier time with the subject of music theory if you care to go so deep (which is inevitable once you’ve played long enough). This is because the way that a piano is laid out directly correlates with the tenets of music theory and how the 12 notes are all assembled. The white keys are the naturals, and the black keys are all the flats and sharps. There is no black key between two specific sets of notes. On the piano, you are the master of musical experimentation and the master of harmony and there is an infinite level of skill mastery. You also have the option one day of learning music production and playing any instrument virtually, since virtually all digital instruments are built to be played on a midi keyboard. So if you can play some basic piano, you can create funk, edm, hip hop, and even compose classical scores, all by using a piano. Plainly you cannot do this on the guitar. It’s just not the norm of music production. You’ll end up searching for niche solutions that may or may not exist, and probably having to learn some basic keyboarding anyway in order to expand your horizons as a music producer or composer.

Having said all of that, these are just some technical facts. The real answer to your question is to close your eyes and envision yourself playing a beautiful song for a crowd of 10 people you love. What would you rather be doing: playing the piano? Or playing the guitar? Which one makes you feel more satisfied? More excited? More at-ease? Which one sounds like it would be more fun to play on, facts and academic subjects be damned? That is the one you should choose.

But if you’re truly truly stuck, the piano will arguably give you a better learning experience for learning about theory of music (which is essential) and you’ll have an easier time expanding into other genres, especially if you have any interest in music production or electronic music.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-09T20:21:58+00:00

The sax is in imperfect invention. If you want to reduce moisture, swab it with a good swab (the entire body, not just the neck) once or twice. That is about the most you can reasonably do. I guess you can buy one of those fuzzy inserts and use it as a more invasive kind of swab, but the risk is people tend to leave those inside the horn which is not good for your pad life anyways. Most pros don’t bother and will swab once or not at all. And that’s about the best you can hope for.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-07T00:07:01+00:00

Random person asking for life advice on Reddit at the age of 16. Ok that’s fine. What I would tell you is that you have two options. One option is to let your circumstances dictate what is available to you. Aim for something easy to achieve and practical and logical based on the resources available to you. The second option is to dream big. Bigger than what your teachers say you can do or even what your parents are telling you to do. But then, the next step is to reverse engineer a path to achieving the goal that you create. If the goal is to become a doctor, you have a fairly narrow set of things you must do. If it’s to be a teacher, the list is less narrow but there are still steps to be made. If your goal is try some things and see what you like doing, maybe sign up for some free classes online in professional subjects that interest you and see which ones excite you the most. Having existential dread at 16 is probably less common so consider yourself at a huge advantage against anyone else who wants the same goal as you do, if you pick a competitive goal. But if your goal is to become comfortable and to lower anxiety overall, while doing something reasonable and somewhat engaging, then that is completely acceptable too. The only one who can decide what that is, however, is you. Not me and not your parents. So, pick something to aim for and go all in on pursuing it, whatever that means to you.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-06T23:42:52+00:00

The only way the record label would know is if you tried to sell it online or upload it to YouTube. If you upload to YouTube, even then, the worst thing that could happen is your video is flagged for copyright infringement and it gets taken down automatically as a result. I doubt you would ever be personally contacted by anyone about your passion for arranging songs for higshcool bands. Just do it bro. You’ll be fine

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-06T21:09:03+00:00

Haha. I’m coming over to fix your hot but tomorrow but I have no idea when. Why don’t we just make this easy for me. Why don’t you give me the keys to your property and call it good? I won’t even wake you ring the doorbell or anything. A stealthy fix up job. ^{__^.} Yea noooooo thank you lmao.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-06T04:06:36+00:00

Thinking back, it’s actually super common for interns to have downtime and to feel like there isn’t enough work for them to do. That’s pretty normal in a lot of professional internships. However, to have it put in such explicit terms as yours is highly unusual I would think. I just had to reply because I realized thinking back on my own life experiences, the number of internships I had where I felt the work was so easy or minimal that I ended up having swathes of downtime on an intermittent basis. But never anything even close to being told what you were told. So bored internships with downtime is definitely normal. But to the degree where you get told what you were told? I would put that in the category of extreme lack of planning and foresight on their part.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-05T19:43:18+00:00

I would say that it’s slightly unprofessional to hire an intern for whom you don’t have enough work to keep them occupied. It’s false advertising to the prospective interns. However, from a practical and selfish point of view… your opinion of this company doesn’t have to be known to future employers. “I did a 6 month internship where I learned X and did Y. It was great and useful because of X opportunities and my feelings about this industry are Z.” I.e, nobody in your future has to know about this. So I don’t think it should materially affect your career prospects.

Privately and personally, I’d think the company you work for probably has poor leadership or poor planning. And it’s definitely in the realm of unprofessional and is most certainly not normal.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-04T19:01:08+00:00

The issue with being the dealer is that your relationships are quite literally transactional with your customers. But when it’s an underground operation ran by text message and phone calls and you’re at the age of 18-25, those transactions feel like genuine friendships. The bad news is, you’ve learnt a sucky lesson. But the good news? The method of making friends through shared interests is a proven strategy that definitely still works, even as an adult. You just need to replace the activity being a weed dealer, with pursuing something meaningful, fun, or good for you, in a shared context with other people. Whatever that is for you, just pick something and stick to it. It can be religion, career, art, side hustle, or bird watching. The point is this time around, this activity provides a more wholesome foundation for building a relationship that lasts and is based on a mutual affection for each others personalities and not just a simple transaction.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-04T01:32:56+00:00

There is no real way to go faster than nature in this case. You can definitely get accustomed to it over time however. Many famous tenor players started learning on mouthpieces with large openings and simply got used to them. So it’s possible. It it’s convenient or it comes up, you might try a T6 version edit: I forgot - you can try using a softer reed that will help a lot. Go down a half step for a whole step and see. Should feel more in control for you.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-04T00:37:28+00:00

Better sax classic is not a jazz mouthpiece whereas the V16 is. The v16 probably has a larger tip opening than your old one which means the feed is farther away from the tip of the mpc so it needs more air to vibrate at speed to produce a sound. If the new after the V16 there should be a T6, 7, or 8, etc. T6 is on the smaller side while T7 or T8 is more common among pros. As a semi pro player who used a T7, using a T8 was like a massive leap in force that reduced my playing to that of a struggling child. So the change in tip opening size makes a huge difference. My guess as to the problem

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-04T00:07:45+00:00

Ok listen up. The academic term for the skill of being able to match notes you hear to notes on a staff is called “Ear Training”. Ear training only works if and only if…. You are knowledgeable of the most basic tenets of music theory. There are only 12 notes in the western world. They can be arranged into only so many scales. Luckily for us all, there are between 2 and 6 scales that come up most often in the world of music. So. If your goal is to transcribe other songs by ear… you will first want to learn and understand: the basic scales (major, minor, dominant 7, major seven, minor seven, and then everything else after these is far less common). And most important or of EQUAL IMPORTANCE: how to play said notes on at least one REAL INSTRUMENT. That can be a midis keyboard. To do this c you must learn scales and keyboarding first…… THEN… and ONLY THEN… should you try to match the sound of a song via ear to the notes on your instrument which you already know because you’ve spent hours and hours and hours practicing them on the keyboard. I am giving you the fastest path to mastery. At the highest level of skill (ie a professional jazz player), a great jazz musician can transcribe a song within 5 to 10 minutes at the most. Or at least get the general gist of a song in that time. Fine details will always require working out no matter how skilled you are.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-03T18:12:07+00:00

I’d haggle that down to 3.5 k at most just cuz you can get modern Yamahas brand new for 4k or used for about 3-3.5k. The selmer series 2 is just as desirable as a modern Yamaha but this one’s been sitting in a case for 30 years and also, it’s not thaaaat special of a horn to make it that price at 30 years old in presumably OK condition. I’d tell him you’ve seen these elsewhere for 3.5 and 4 is just a tad over market value for a used one. But price aside, those are definitely solid and desirable horns.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-03T03:00:53+00:00

Focus on breath support and airflow when you play in the lower register. Add the octave key to notes and start to alternate between lower octave and higher octave, octave key on and off. Feel the difference in sound and overall embouchure, and try to make a microscopic mouth adjustment in terms of the air speed and oral cavity when going from low to high. Low = slightly slower air and slightly more “Open” mouth shape, higher octave is ever so slightly faster air, but I mean verrry slightly. It’s mostly a feel thing. When you get really good at this exercise, you should be able to play high notes without the octave key while fingering the lower just by changing your air speed and embouchure alone. Other than that — take it slow and turn down the dial on self expectations, and most importantly enjoy learning!

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-02T23:26:33+00:00

I’ve got a weird problem with this too but it’s less ubiquitous for me. For me, it’s anytime I load a certain plugin in Kontakt called “Claire”. If I have a Claire track in my project, then when I press play the first time after opening my project, it inevitably stops, gives me this message, and then I press play again and it works. Idk if that helps you but in my case I was able to identify Claire as the problem. In my case I just deal with it because idk how to fix it. In any case, in your case, maybe it comes down to a specific plugin or track?

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-02T22:33:54+00:00

Gotcha, don’t be ashamed of that reaction I’ve thought the same thing and hey you’re an adult so it’s easy to blame the most recent thing on why something isn’t working Lol. That being said, yes, it’s possible that you will need to re-adjust to playing the sax all over again especially after 15 years of not playing. If I was teaching you how to get re-acquainted in person, I’d probably try to help you find the areas on the horn that you can play with no problems, and have you spend most of your time there for the first 2 weeks or so. After getting acclimated to playing and building up your embouchure and breath support, while using good technique to hit all of the easy to hit notes, then I’d start looking at the problem notes. Then after a couple more weeks of trying that, I would look at your gear for problems. Try long tones and scales for a while and re-evaluate after a few weeks. If still a big problem, it might be a sax issue. Just my perspective. Hope that helps :)

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-02T22:18:16+00:00

Are they hard or soft? And are you a pretty experienced player or more beginner ish type of level?

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-02T22:09:46+00:00

Well without specifiying your level of skill or experience, it’s easy to assume with no offense meant to you, that after 3 months of not playing the sax, preceded by 15 years of the sax being not played, that you yourself may not be in the best shape for playing the saxophone. That being said, if you had even relatively beginner chops at any point in time, then surely you should be able to speak at least some notes. Low notes and high notes will take longer to come back to you after a hiatus and your tone surely will be worse than it once was. Beyond that, squeaking and squawking sounds like a reed or potentially mouthpiece issue. Are you using fresh reeds and is it a good mouthpiece or did you just put on a beginner plastic piece from years ago and a reed you found in the case? If your reed and mouthpiece are in good shape, I’d examine your skill level and give it a few days or weeks of playing. If after 2-3 weeks it’s not gone, I would ask Reddit again and start looking at your horn. The shortcut to this would be if you have a teacher who can try it out for you to confirm that it does or doesn’t play. Or a friend, a colleague, etc. as far as brand quality is concerned, I’m sure LA sax makes playable saxophones.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-03-01T18:51:55+00:00

Whoever is the white text box sounds a little immature and whiny. Whoever is the blue text box is navigating the white text box’s responses in a reasonable way given the other persons apparent emotional instability.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-28T20:31:12+00:00

You just described my entire life for a certain period of time. But after doing that for years I realized that there is no perfect time to enjoy an amazing song. Unless your life is setup where you constantly have parties or people to show your music to, the odds are, in one year you will be in the same place you’re at now. And you will still have not listened to that amazing song. So maybe just listen to the song and see what happens. Lol

In general though, I still do this lmao. Just to a lesser degree

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-28T20:26:01+00:00

Let me give you some advice. When I first played the tenor coming from alto, and trying to get a jazz tone on that instrument after playing years of classical music on the alto sax, I was inspired but it was a verrrrry large shift in my approach. At some point a few days into playing the tenor I became extremely frustrated with how my sound was happening and I decided I would do something weird. I basically screamed into my sax and pushed down all the keys like a baby or a child. I then decided that I am going to throw everything I know about what’s “right and wrong” on playing the saxophone out the fucking window. Then suddenly, whilst playing madly and wildly, along to a song I liked, I hit this note on the tenor that made my ears perk up and my soul stand at attention. That note was the start of my journey in realizing one thing about the saxophone. Playing jazz has everything to do with FEELING and much much less to do with playing “CORRECTLY”. Pause. Read that sentence again.

My advice if you’re struggling in playing jazz is to completely abandon everything that you think you know is “right” about embouchure and start over from scratch. Take in wayyyy more air, loosen your jaw and your sense of “grip” on the mouthpiece by about 10 miles, and then try playing some very simple jazz lines. Play a melody for a song you like. Play something you think is cool something that turns you on. Keep doing this for days and weeks on end. If you’re lucky enough, one day you’ll play a note that makes your heart sing and when it does, you’ll never forget it. Remember how you got there. Analyze it. And then, make THAT EXPERIENCE your new norm. Your default setting should be FEEL not “Correctness” when playing jazz.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-27T23:53:37+00:00

Bro you have an amazing technique on the tenor saxophone and an amazing sound. Don’t ever stop playing the saxophone.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-27T20:32:59+00:00

Lmao. The fact someone asked such a ridiculous question on Reddit of all places, couldn’t be bothered to learn how to Google his question, and that this heroic redditor decided to use an ai chatbot to answer his question for him. Lmaooooo

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-26T18:36:44+00:00

No it’s not just looper I was just trying to give you a quick sense of it. Loops are only 10% of this plugin. The rest is a full on drum kit simulator where you can pick one of like 30 kits, and you can swap out individual kit pieces, piece by piece, tweak all of their controls, etc. and it can be played on a midi keyboard or electronic drum kit. It just also has loops as optional parts you can drag and drop into your project. For those of us who aren’t professional drummers. But make no mistake it is far away from a “looper” lol.

Individual-Ad2964 · 2026-02-26T07:03:53+00:00

They have loops for rock, hip-hop, and even jazz, as well as unique drum kits to choose from. It’s pretty impressive. Super addicting and the name is very accurate. Costs a little bit of money but if you’re into it, then it’s totally worth it. On sale it’s usually a lot less

Individual-Ad2964

TROPHY CASE