Since I was about 8 years old I always interested in audio production and the way sounds work. In middle school, more specifically 7th grade, I stumbled on a program called "FL Studio 8 Producer Edition XXL". I had already had a background in music, taking guitar lessons a few years earlier, somewhat of a knowledge of how a piano worked, as well as playing trumpet in the middleschool band, where i learned my music theory. I already had a small foot in the door. Needless to say, I downloaded it. Instantly becoming hooked as i now had to power to create and craft anything song and sound i could imagine.
For those who aren't familiar with FL Studio, this is what it looks like shown below.
FL Studio is considered a DAW Program (Digital Audio Workstation) or in laymen's terms, cool sound making software.
Though my brief knowledge of how constructing music works, my songs still sounded like a toddler banging on a set of pans and playing piano notes with his feet. I would be lying to you guys if I said after my first song was 'finished' that I didn't feel unmotivated to continue moving forward with this new found hobby. I closed the program and with full intentions of never picking it back up. Fortunately for me, I'm a little more stubborn than that. It was like an itch that needed to be scratched. I would dream about putting together great symphonies. I was subconsciously pushing my self back to the program. Sure enough a few days later I was sitting in front of my computer looking up tutorials for hours, determined to learn this program. Tragedy struck... my computer died on me, it would never be turned on again.
Fast forward to the end of highschool. I'm a hormone crazed teenager with unstable emotions, heavily into art and painting. I just felt like it lacked that spark that I was looking for. In search of a new outlet, or in this case, an old outlet. I reinstalled FL Studio. The obsession was back, though I now lacked the time to fully commit my self to it.
After graduating highschool I sat in front of my computer, everyday, for 6 months. I created 1 to 3 songs a day. I didn't care how terrible they sounded. This was the turning point. eventually after the 6 months of having absolutely no life, I was able to create something that my friends and kids I met in school would want. I began to sell instrumentals to them.
This is what my set up looked like at the time. Fully equipped with a 2 subs (one of which didn't work but it looked good.) and a cutting edge air soft shotgun behind my monitor. completely ridiculous, I'm well aware.
Months go by, I finally feel confident in the program to be able to not only understand, but to teach the program to a few of my close friends. One of which, Blake, introduced me to a man named John. John would teach me more than I could have taught my self. This furthered my thirst to become better. Personally I like competition. I made it a goal to be better than John in my production. Slowly I would meet other very talented producers, with this newly opened door into the industry. Eventually meeting producer named Aaron.
For whatever reason Aaron saw some potential in me. My songs where mediocre at best. My mixing was nonexistent, and truthfully still didn't really know what in the world I was doing. Aaron sat me down at his studio and walked me through Protools (Another DAW program). He showed me mixing and mastering techniques and how to take my production to a new level. No longer was I in my garage with a broken subwoofer for show. This was my new home.
I learned what I could from him in the time I was given. Unfortunately I didn't own a vehicle at the time and the studio being about a hour away, it was very difficult to find someone willing to drive me there often. Nonetheless, I took what I've learned and created my own production company. With this knowledge I've had my songs played on the biggest stages in my city , at the biggest clubs, with hundreds of people in the crowd. I've produced film scores for independent film makers and content creators. I never gave up on trying to find that spark that really allowed me to express my self, and with that is some of the best advice I can give to a musician trying to make a name for him self. Do not give up, find your spark and absolutely run with it. It may takes years, you may get unmotivated at times. You just have to keep pushing forward and find it in your self to take what you want.
-ToasT
