Hey y'all. Sheesh, been a while. Let me think, what's new... - Was back home for some time and really, really enjoyed it. Instead of being overcome with homesickness, though, I came to the conclusion that I just really enjoy being on vacation at home. But really enjoying vacation at home is, of course, predicated on the fact that my day-to-day isn't at home. And I really like my day-to-day in Freiburg. So that was a nice feeling. I also decided, for about the fourth time this year, that I'm really okay just studying part-time, working part-time, and generally having time to relax and figure things out, even if I don't eventually wanna become an English professor or whatever. It's a process. - I started working out regularly for the second time in my life and this time I'm following through. It's been about two months of regular at-home body-weight training and hOly moly, y'all, working out is... fun? I enjoy the feeling of consistent personal improvement, and I look good, and I just feel more... at home in my body. It's also become a kind of meditation for me, a reflection on the fact that our intellectual and spiritual life, although in some ways separate from immediate physical constraints, is nevertheless dependent on our "life in three dimensions," as Chad Harbach puts it. While I was at home I played basketball while the family was at church and it was kind of the shit. - I should really be writing a paper right now. I'm gradually knocking out what will eventually be 20 pages about Shakespeare's As You Like It, and holy shit guys, I feel like a Real Scholar. I have a pretty good view of the critical consensus on the character I'm focusing on (Jaques), have an original and interesting idea that I haven't seen anywhere else in the literature, and I think my arguments are solid. It's obviously work to get it all on paper, but I really like it, even despite my usual insane levels of procrastination. I just kinda wish the topic wasn't so niche--almost everyone I'd want to share my work with wouldn't really know enough about the play to "get" it. Oh well. How've y'all been?
Oh! Hey! Totally forgot because I've been spending all of my time writing this damn paper--I brought back my Maschine Mikro from home, finally bought Ableton Live and a MIDI keyboard, and started producing! I still suck hardcore, and I can't seem to find a decent straightforward course-type-internet-thing, so if anyone has tips please let me know! Otherwise I'll continue stumbling around in the hip-hop-tinted darkness until I find my way ;)
I don't know any particular course to follow, but start hanging around some audio production communities and then you'll start hearing about the stuff you should be learning about. r/wearethemusicmakers is not bad. I'm sure there are countless forums. Also, at a certain point, share and look for feedback. Hubski has a few people floating around that know their stuff in this regard too.
Yoyo. Are you trying to make hip hop beats? I have experience here. Watch a lot of YouTube tutorials (even the bad ones) on how to make "rapper"-type beat. You'll get a sense of the main features and how producers screw around with them. After that it's just adding your own spin to it. At least that's how me and my brother made our... err.. tape in FL Studio.