Hey guys!
Do you think is worth it to buy template projects?
Been trying produce cool underground music far from the tutorials of sonic academy for a while now... Got some templates from abletunes but isn't really my thing as everything is comercial. Looking on youtube found this and was wondering if someone could keep and eye on those guys. I had a look into they website but is still under construction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xtVxIfQ9Q8

Sounds so cool!!!

What do you think?

 

Yeah man templates can be a useful learning tool, I only wish they had some for my genre. You should use any means at your disposal: analyzing MIDI, templates, etc. to learn production. Don't specifically know about this one and I'm not an Ableton user but I meant in general.

 

I think, building a track from scratch is a far better way to learn producing than using templates.

Being a teacher by education (I know, when does this guy stop! lol), I try and judge this from a didactic point of view.
The templates I've seen (those from audioz) are vastly complex and come with no documentation whatsoever.
You have a track that's in a state where it's ready to be published. LOTS of tracks, clips, effects and automation going on.
If you don't know the typical workflow and what you do for what purpose, it's really really really hard to break everything down into bits that are so small you can understand them from a beginner's point of view.
The sheer complexity is so overwhelming it's likely you just go on hitting the play button, sit there, say "whoa" and don't get what's happening and why.
To realize, to hear what's happening right at this moment, and where the equivalent event is located in your daw, is sometimes not that easy if you did this track yourself from scratch. Finding that out if you're an experienced user in that particular daw and don't know the project? Not so easy, but doable. Finding that out if you don't know what's what and why it is what it is? Go figure...

You will get much more out of it if you watch a tutorial like the ones from sonic academy, follow them step by step and recreate what they do simultaneously. Do that with several tutorials.
This has several benefits: first of all: you will build a track from start to finish and will achieve a more or less solid sounding result, you will have the instant gratification in successfully finishing a track and maybe some sort of pride (á la "cool, I did this!"). This feeling of gratification is really important to keep you going.
Secondly, you will have an explanation why you did what you did. Example: there is a compressor on the bass. Why is it there? And why are it's settings the way they are? The guy (I've never seen a gal do a tutorial on music production...) will tell you why, and what you will achieve with that action.

The next step I would go is to load a track you like and want as inspiration into a single audio track in ableton. Then try and recreate it beat by beat. Or create something similar. This way you will learn to listen very carefully and develop a feeling for typical elements of your preferred genre. When specific elements set in, when the breakdown starts, etc. If you don't know how to do specific things you hear, just google. Like "how to make a noise sweep riser" or something like that.
This way you develop a set of tools that will get you a good way to your goal.

A next step would be to develop your own style. Go listen to your favourite tracks from your genre, and do it very analytical. What are the defining elements (agressive bass, mellow chords, gated reverb on the kick, and so on)? How is the tension created? Take a pencil and write it down. Make up your mind and develop a concept on what your signature sound should be. Then, use what you've learned and evolve from it.

Now maybe you're thinking "but where's the creativity? I don't want to fake it, this should be achieved by letting my mind flow freely because that's the way musical geniuses do it!".
I don't say you shall not be creative! You sure shall be! It is a very common misconception that music composition and music production are a result of free flowing creativity. Most of it is actually really hard technical work, it's a cognitive process. That's the difference to jamming! You jam, create some ideas, gather them and then you produce them.
As you often are a one man show in this kind of music, the boundaries tend to overlap. But those are different processes, nonetheless.


Btw, I wouldn't call that deep house so what you find when you search for deep house tutorials will most likely be misleading...

 

You so right in all you said, but in sonic academy they also doesn't really explain you what they are doing.. they just create the sound and talks about it as if you supposed to understand and I find it quite hard for beginners. I had a listen to this template and it sounds pretty much to me like a track ready to release, I think is also a good way to see what is inside of a project made it by a pro but is true I will have no clue of what he did and why he is doing it.
I check they have only two videos on youtube but I don't really understand how they are giving those project away, In sonic academy you notes the final tracks are not as pro as you need to be out there, same with sub bass online and even the one from dr ramirez which I find very useful but those templates are very groovies

 

I don't think templates are a good place to start but depending on where you are in your journey they can be useful. My recommendation is to check out AudioSex Academy for starters, there you will find many excellent resources for various concepts from mixing to music theory. It includes everything from videos, interactive frequency charts, external text, video and website references. I'm also expanding it all the time so check back from time to time to find many additional updates. Then you can use the forums to ask any question you want about any topic so use that to your advantage.

 

Templates can be useful if they boost your productivity or workflow but not limit your creativity.

A few months ago I started to create a kinda "modular" template in Ableton Live that bosst workflow plus creativity. But it's not done yet. More complex than I expected at the beginning.
Maybe it wouldn't be that complicated if I would just concentrate on a basic set of tools and learn how to use them properly.
Still learning..

 

I need templates for logic pro x