Given that there's a mountain of IO videos been uploaded to sister site of late, I thought I'd watch a couple and I was struck today by this thought: these guys might be good at producing music, they're piss poor at producing tutorials. Here's a clue: the microphone is important if you want people to hear what you're trying to say.

If you're trying to make a business selling tutorials to the public for actual money, shouldn't you at least be more competent at video production than the average YouTuber who's giving it away for free?

I've watched a few of these IO tutorials now and none of them gets better than mediocre. And it isn't just the production -- they aren't competent teachers either. They tend to be all over the place in terms of the ideas they're attempting to convey -- you're really just getting a look over a producer's shoulder. How useful you find that will depend on how experienced you already are before you watch.

Sonic Academy videos might be musically dull and the tutors they use aren't very exciting, but by God they've got the teaching down. It's never some half witted stumblebum mumbling into a microphone over the other side of the room.

There's a reason people love the PML videos and the old Rick Snowman/Dance Music Production stuff. Again, say what you will about the music, these guys are competent teachers.

But I swear, these days the quality of the free stuff on YouTube is at least as good as the paid stuff. Which makes me happy that I've never actually paid for any of it.

 

and sometimes the paid ones become to free, for ex. the good old trancemusic mastery trance synth programming one which is still the best in its category https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePereveslo/videos

 

can confirm, IO Music Academy - Producing Disco with LUXXURY , is recorded from a zoom session, poor quality of audio and video. and the teacher improvises a lot (in a bad way) , and it really sucks at teaching. like you said , free youtube stuff is way better than that. i wonder who pays for that??

 

I've never really been into Trance so I'd never looked at that tutorial before but just looking at the various categories and skimming one of the videos, it looks really fucking good. Teacher making an attempt to actually teach stuff.

One of the things that irritates me a lot is when they do a tutorial on a synth and all they do is go through the various functions and tell you what they are. GTFOOH! I can figure that out by reading the damn manual. I know what an oscillator and a filter is, thank you very much. At the very least you should be showing me how you use it to make the kind of sounds that a rank beginner wouldn't be able to come up with on their own.

 

I'm a big fan of PML (Production Music Live), and their tutorials are as well produced as the music you hope to produce yourself. I watched a couple of IO videos and it reminded me of a work meeting where people turn up late and then ask daft questions, like "how do I get my mic to work?"

If you want quality, go for PML, Sonic Academy or Producer Tech

Leave the Zoomies to educate the TikTok generation

 

Iv'e never been a fan a production videos... just tutorials like groove3 are the only ones I watch. I dont need to watch production videos because over the years I mix my own way. I have never seen a tutorial going over the way I mix. I have never seen a production tutorial where I said, "oh cool, i'll change what works for me and do it that way". I have never seen a production tutorial that went over stuff I didnt already know... I get it, theyre for beginners, but if you heavily rely on production tutorials to learn or make music, than you will be nothing more than a clone making everything everyone else is making, sounding the same, and processed the same... a good production tutorial would be going over feel and vibe, not RuN a BrIcKwAlL HP fIlTer On EvErY sInGle TrAcK

 

I think their usefulness is heavily dependent on the music you make. If you're in a guitar band, recording live instruments then I could see how you'd get pretty well nothing of use from them.

If you're making mostly electronic music from VST's on a computer -- it's pretty well how everybody learns. You're not sitting around with your mates while you watch them work the mouse. But sure, after you've watched a handful, there's a law of diminising returns that kicks in. You'll need to watch a shedload of stuff to get a tiny amount of learning from them. But I haven't found another way of solving the problems that affect my own process. You've really only got three choices. Either you:

a.) Just do what you always did.
b.) Experiment -- which is helpful but somewhat haphazard, or
c.) Try and figure out how other people solve that problem

Watching other producers work (which is what 95% of tutorials actually are) is really the only systematic way to address c. that I've found. When I was first learning, I'd look at the tutorials in magazines, but they're far less helpful because you can't hear what's going on.

 

I started to think about what I'm trying to achieve exactly. So what sounds am I adding and why? What's missing and why isn't the energy working yet?

I've started to strip my tracks back to 'unplugged' once I have the arrangement laid out, so that its just the essential parts, like Vocal and Hooklines. Then it becomes a bit more clear what needs to go in the spaces and which parts are overkill but its still difficult when you aren't really following a path at that point

 

Ultimately this is the case. I always made weird electronic music, what my bros call (my last name) music. In 2007-8 there where no tutorials like there are now, and hence, I didnt make music that sounds like other peoples. I did grow up singing very heavily (school, competitions, choirs) so I had an ear and was able to vocally harmonize things by ear. One thing that helped me most in what I do now (soundscape, tape loops, ambient drones) is the science behind how the brain hears audio. So my first tape loop I did, I knew if I played it back into the computer a second time and panned both the takes on opposite sides, knowing I was working with an analog medium, there would be no phase cancellation and I could create an insanely huge stereo field. Basically what I do is experimental in nature. None of my tracks have outputs except the stereo output fader, and they are all routed to busses. The way I mix is my own way, and I never watched a tutorial to learn why I should do it this way, and in turn, my music is unique and (my last name) music.

 

yeah the flood made me curious about the IO Music Academy tutorials and wanted to ask here about it before wasting my time to download and watch them, glad someone already did. I had a feeling that it is mediocre but I kinda need to learn what the new generation doing with their production because it got the names of all those hot new indie producers. These days I only watch new Puremix and MWTM stuff and I must say Im starting to hate the way the old farts doing it especially those that still not moving on from the old ways. Totally annoyed with some of them saying analog sounds special and then proceed to dial in a basic delay sound with poor condition Binson Echorec that can easily be matched with DAW stock Delay plugin with a clever filtering and a little bit crusher. I think I learned more from Finneas and Illangelo compared to the repetitive stuff by the others. I planned to give IO Music Academy stuff some time next month and already plan my schedule to do so..

should I really skip this one ? honestly I don't really care about the music, I just want to learn techniques, but content, visual, video quality is kinda important as well so I wont upset my mild ADHD.

 

Personally, I find Reid Stefan videos far more entertaining and educational than the tripe that IO put out

 

So true. Glad to have you back

 

I also find it interesting that tutorials are always geared toward some kind of techno or hip hop... it's rather telling if you ask me

 

Thanks, glad to be back

 

Those two guys have a very creative approach to production, always thinking outside the box, and always trying to find a new surprise. So you're definitely gonna learn new techniques from them compared to the rehashed producers on there (that said, I have not watched any of the videos yet and won't waste time, simply inferring from what OP said).

Also, it's important to note that a good teacher and a good producer are independent events. It's likely because they are involved much more in the process rather than communicating it (but a counter-argument can be made that if they can't communicate, they don't fully understand what they are doing). However, you can still learn from a good producer if you have access to a stream or production breakdown. You really get insights as to what techniques they use and their workflow.

Not sure if it tells anymore than that they are popular genres (that are relatively easy to get into).

 

And relatively easy to make, probably the easiest genres to make, yet apparently there's a lot of people that need some help making these two styles of music....

 

When I was much, much younger, I used to hang out with a couple of guys who made music like this. They had some success with it under the name The Royal Family and the Poor.

I thought they were terrible but that didn't stop them from getting a deal with Factory.

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2022

Oh yeah, to make was what I meant. More popular > More newbies > More (mediocre) tutorial videos

Everybody's gotta start somewhere though and probably, most won't be making any more than some fun rap beats. Serious ones won't pay attention to these videos.

 

I've been waiting for a quite some time for pat lok's tuts on this IO music academy, just because I enjoy his style of music. Sadly not a great teacher which makes a little difficult to understand how to make similar music as his. I'm glad these tuts are public now and I totally agree with topic's author on how mediocre these are. There is plenty of great content on youtube for free.

 

Jesus, I was just curious as to what the videos looked like so I went to the home page of the said producer you mentioned. It's not even edited! Even Sol State (https://www.youtube.com/c/SolStateMusic), a free youtube channel, has quality editing - Succinct, impactful, highlights important thought processes, and insight as to what the producer went through. If that Sol State guy edited these IO videos they won't seem as bad as they are right now. At least good editing can clean up the mumbling and imprecise communication