An Amateur in Need of Some Advice!

Hey :D
I am an amateur producer. I have a decent little setup in my apartment. It is a mix of both hardware and software. I am still waiting for my Yamaha RM1X though.
OK, I have a couple of questions I was hoping some experienced DJ's out there could help me with:

1. When sitting down to create a song, should you have a general idea of what you want the song to sound like, or should you just play around and wait for something good to happen?
2. What are the steps you usually take when creating a track? Do you make the beat first, or do you start of with a melody or synth?
3. I have FruityLoops, how long does it usually take to become comfortable enough with the program to start making some nice sounding shit?
4. I want to use Fruity with my RM1X. Now I know that you can slave the RM1X to Fruity, but is it possible to creat a sound or loop in Fruity and export it into to RM1X to use on the hardware sequencer.(Does that make any sense or do I not know what I am talking about?)
5. If any of you experienced DJ's wouldn't mind lending me some other advice that you feel an amateur might need to know, that would be great!

Thanks for help!

There's no hard and fast rules to techno, but here's my personal answer to your questions....


1. When sitting down to create a song, should you have a general idea of what you want the song to sound like, or should you just play around and wait for something good to happen?

Over the years, Chrissi and I have definitely tried to make certain projects sound a certain way. We've never got the sound we want straight away but you learn and learn and eventually create your own sound and style based upon what you like and things you like about other people's tracks. Now we have a few project names and a few 'styles' we never go into the studio and have a preconcieved idea of the track. but yes, we do go in to make something in that 'style' if we can.

2. What are the steps you usually take when creating a track? Do you make the beat first, or do you start of with a melody or synth?

it's totally up to you. i always used to think that this was a very important question to ask other producers, but it's not. we usually start with kick and bass for our Anxious stuff. But then it always changes on the eq later down the line often 3 hours later sounds totally different to how it started off. it's up to you how you develop your sound, based upon what you've learnt over the years.

3. I have FruityLoops, how long does it usually take to become comfortable enough with the program to start making some nice sounding shit?

I think I've mentioned this before on this board. Fruity Loops is, to me, a great prog to get started. If I think about it, it took us about 3 years to get our first record out - we only had one keyboard workstation but we were on it every spare minute of every day. Then after 3 years, you realise that one thing is not enough. I think Fruity will be to you, what my workstation was to me. A means to an end.

4. I want to use Fruity with my RM1X. Now I know that you can slave the RM1X to Fruity, but is it possible to creat a sound or loop in Fruity and export it into to RM1X to use on the hardware sequencer.(Does that make any sense or do I not know what I am talking about?)

There's an export to WAV function in Fruity.

5. If any of you experienced DJ's wouldn't mind lending me some other advice that you feel an amateur might need to know, that would be great!

Spend every single hour you have learning, reading, practicing. If you want it badly enough, you will get it!

4. I want to use Fruity with my RM1X. Now I know that you can slave the RM1X to Fruity, but is it possible to creat a sound or loop in Fruity and export it into to RM1X to use on the hardware sequencer.(Does that make any sense or do I not know what I am talking about?)

No U can use fruity 2 sequence sounds of the rm1x, but u can not load samples (*.wav) into RM1x... But exept 4 live work (qhere u would wnat 2 take only the rm1x) this does not make much sense anywayz.. as fruity is preatty nice 2 sequence samples!

U can use the rm1x's 2 sequence fruity, but has midi implementation isn't all that developed, u can not do it 4 more than one sound in Fruity! The response will b thru the selected channel in Fruity!

Hope this helps clear some doubts!

Z