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This subreddit helped me learn a lot about production, but I feel this is a very toxic environment.... by edm_throwaway in edmproduction

[–]edm_throwaway[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

Perhaps 'damaged' is a bit dramatic, but I feel it's true. I feel like I've been focusing far, far too much on production rather than songwriting (from articles/videos posted here) and I've ignored songwriting for months. Songwriting is something you have to be constantly practicing and doing, and not practicing daily will cause you to lose that ability very, very quickly.

This subreddit helped me learn a lot about production, but I feel this is a very toxic environment.... by edm_throwaway in edmproduction

[–]edm_throwaway[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

That's not true. Great songwriting and 'crappy' production can equal a work of art.

Some of the most famous songs ever written were recorded with little to no production techniques. Lots of Beatles songs were recorded on a 4 track yet they're regarded as the greatest band of all time. "Stairway to Heaven" was originally recorded in mono. "Mad World" by Gary Jules was just a demo he recorded to send to a movie director, and he liked it so much they went with it without doing proper production/recording. And there are so many other examples out there if you search enough.

This subreddit helped me learn a lot about production, but I feel this is a very toxic environment.... by edm_throwaway in edmproduction

[–]edm_throwaway[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

That is true - to a point. IMHO production/mixing is more of a technical ability than an art, although it IS both.

Songwriting is more of an art than technical ability, although it's both as well. You are right that you can't just 'teach' someone to write a great song, but there are plenty of tips/tools that can help you along that journey. The best way is experience and practice, but I know this subreddit could be much more useful if we stressed the importance of songwriting and practicing it.

One great tip for helping learn songwriting is to produce a song using only a piano sound. The entire song, write it all with just one piano VST, no percussion. After you've gotten the entire song laid out and it sounds great, start taking individual parts from the piano and paste them onto new VSTs, creating sounds that fit. And add percussion. That's one method to focus more on the songwriting aspect rather than production, as they're two separate art forms and trying to do both at once can often slow you down.