Deadmau5's advice on how to get started in electronic music

He was asked:
"Do you like Japan? Also I want to make great records like you. Where do you recommend I start out from? I love My Pet Coelacanth!"

[georgemichaels]

It really irks me how much technical and creative skill it takes to make good electronic music, yet people think it's "easy" or "just making computer noises" or "not real music." I'm not saying it's harder than, say, playing the piano, but it definitely takes as much dedication as being a good pianist or violinist or any artist in addition to being very, very tech savvy.

[LaMilice.]

Impatience is holding me back from doing the things I wanna do. Damn.

[Hedgehog]

What i learned on my journey of producing music is you can't half ass that sort of thing. I think mediocre artist sometimes half ass their productions tbh. A good producer is patient in their work and want to make sure their songs sound good. That's the whole idea of producing making a fun track but also knowing it sounds good.

[synthraofficial]

It's true. I started with writing music on a pc when I was 14. I wrote sheet music on Mixcraft. Then Deadmau5 mentioned FL Studio and I got it when I turned 15. Now at age 17 I have over 300 Facebook followers and I still don't think I have a genera, which isn't a bad thing. If you go "I'm going to write dubstep" or "I'm gonna write electro house, " Or "I wanna sound like -insert artiest here-" The you will always be mad when it dosen't work. You have to have patients and passion to do this. That's what makes you write good mucic. You just sit thiere, do what you think sounds right, and try to be unique; always be yourself.

[MerlinErdogmus]

I like how he has a couple of millions on his bank account and he still uses a cheaper webcam than mine.

[edum.]

can you imagine having an idea and be able to put that on ableton and turn that into a beautiful track?

[ChrisCretor]

I'm late here but the only thing you need to train is your brain to understand what your ears are hearing once you can do that you can pretty much make anything. I also belive some people are born with a better understanding of music than others but if you're driven enough anyone can accomplish it

[mickeybreezy]

I have to respectfully disagree with this. Even though its electronic music, I think you should focus on the music creation aspect first before diving into signal chains and the intricate minutia of processing. You need something to mix before you can learn how to mix it. I would encourage up and comers to not over look the importance of music theory and sound design. This will help you develop your own sound rather than just emulating someone else's workflow and effects path. It will also lead to being able to actually take that sound you hear in your head and translate it into the real world through your DAW or outboard gear or whatever you use.

[oliviaszewczyk]

I think this is the first time he didn't cuss in a video

[drey]

As much as I admire him as a producer, as much I can't agree with this. It might've took him 10 years to learn all the stuff, but as he said daw software wasn't at the point it is today and 10 years ago this internet didn't have a load of freeshit to low budget tutorials that actually work well. From my perspective it doesn't take you 10 years to make decent music. That's why Martin Garrix ( no matter how you might think of the quality of his music) made it into the business in a very young age.
Toda you're given all the opportunities very easily.

[Deceitful]

In contrast with some here, I actually agree with this advice. How is anyone going to start by jumping straight into the music, when lack of skill and knowledge is an obstacle? It was a mistake I made. For the last few years I tried just writing music, but not knowing about music theory, songwriting techniques, how to program a decent synth patch all slowed me down and the most I produced was a song or two per year. I think had I started with the fundamental knowledge at first, I would be further down my path than where I am right now.

[TheRobZet]

I wouldn't necessarily agree on YouTube. A lot of bullshit out there. Get yourself a real book on sound engineering and physics of sound and then start looking up tutorials on YouTube. After reading books you'll be able to filter out tons of crap you'll surely come across here.

[jackiris]

true story. It really begin when you make a choice on what you gonna do of your life. And then you gonna understand everything about what you use since 9 years.

[אררטי]

For the people who think that you shouldn't learn the technical aspects first, I can't even begin to tell you how much time I could've saved if I had just done that instead of wandering aimlessly through the DAW. Sure being creative brings a lot of the fun and spontaneity to the craft but everything you produce will likely sound like a dumpster fire for a very long time if you have no real knowledge of sound design, compression, EQing, and other aspects of mixing and mastering. Some people are purists that say that what you write should sound good no matter what kind of instruments you use, but so much of electronic music lies in the technical craft, or at least certainly isn't required by music theory. deadmau5 has some absolutely incredible tracks (like FALL) that don't even have a bloody key, but it sounds fantastic and I'll be damned if people get butthurt about "muh creativity" when it can hinder you if that's all you have going for you. Sure, maybe reading into like signal paths is a bit much for most producers out the gate but honestly he's basically right.

[ileryon]

Why spend 10 years learning the technicalities when you could just make music with presets and such. Wow.

Composition in itself is valuable; not only the mix, the sound design and the effects.

[urphakeandgey]

If you have no experience writing music, I suggest you at least get the basics of that out of the way.

A poorly written song will always sound bad no matter how well produced it is. Learn to write music first and you'll probably have more fun learning production.

[MatArti]

You had to have been a long time in a page to remember it at this point

[SuperObvious]

I think this was the best video I seen of him being like chill and really spreading knowledge and dropping gems for us music producers and not just talking shit. And I make EDM style music sometimes and making that kinda music is on a different level of talent. I recognized that as soon as I heard the EDM style music 😳👀

[urbanman]

I disagree. I started music production by just having fun and not worrying about the technical side.

[DJZaxxOfficial]

I started by installing FL studio and watching youtube tutorials and I never looked backl.