Top 10 things to avoid as a beginner

[Jonah]

I'd personally say something about using the autokey. I understand that it is a good crutch to be on, but it does limit how diverse your music would sound if you keep relying on the light grey lines.

Also octave overload is high mood and I've been trying to decrease it when it comes to my slower songs.

I especially agree with the Mud City mistake, since I am really notorious for that kind of stuff. My only advice (used with Grand/Electric Piano) is to separate the parts that stand out to you more as individual notes regardless of their position on the piano.

Added the autokey to the list, hopefully I didn't misinterpret what you were trying to say about it.

[LucentTear]

It does make sense. Also sticking thread cause this might serve more useful than my tutorial anyway.

[HelpMe123Alt]

i am good at drums naturally what

I am good at drums unnaturally, what?

Like, it is super easy to create a good rhythm. Melody is much more creative. I thought that was common sense.

Proof of point: ##757668

[Wafels]

I think the most important thing for beginners to learn is to figure out how to get around the limitations of having no sustain, or not having enough instruments. Despite having lots of limitations, OS surprisingly provides a good amount of freedom, and is a great place to experiment with different sounds, which brings me to another point: layering. Layering allows users to make instruments sound better than they would alone, and with good layering, that deafening emptiness (?) goes away.

[LucentTear]

Agreed. Adding onto that, a good portion of OS composition seems to be visual, and this doesn't mean smashing MIDI art on the pianos. But in comparison to a notation platform, it's much easier for beginners to get an overview of the song without looking at sheet music. It's what I like about OS as a digital interface due to me not having any sort of music theory knowledge at all. Because of the layout, it's easy for me to experiment with different things and rhythmic patterns on the piano instruments alone.

In OS, the distance between notes is spatial, while in sheet music, distance has to be assumed in the type of note it is. Assuming that 70% of the sheet music you will find will be on paper, you can't automatically play the song at first to get a gist of what it sounds like. On OS, it just feels easier to make a connection between the appearance of the notes and what it actually plays.

I'm not advocating that you should never learn sheet music ever, but what I have to say above merely applies to the site.

But to make an argument here just so I can be relevant to the thread, try to play over the lines of the grid. Whether it would be slurs, psuedo-triplets and the like, going off beat can make your music sound a little more interesting. It's awkward and hard at first, but gives you plenty of options to freshen something up.

[Sosasees]

Hey guys, PhioT (Jonah) here. I was bored so I decided to make a list of mistakes beginners and even some advanced members make when using this site. I'll try to mostly leave taste out of this, but everything is at least a little biased, so take what I say with a grain of salt. 

1. Reverb Overload:

This is probably my biggest pet peeve. Reverb is not meant for everything. Sometimes people seem to think that everything sounds better with reverb, which is wrong. The problem with overusing reverb is that it makes things sound muddy, and muffled. It also takes away from the impact of the initial hit of the sound, which can lead to melody being lost and difficult to hear. Overall, it just makes every song that overuses reverb sound the same, like a muddy mess.

This isn't to say that reverb is always bad, It sounds really nice with an high-pitched sci-fi. It also helps if you layer it with a sound that is similar and doesn't have reverb.

2. Reverb on kick

This kinda ties into the last one. I would have no problems with this if different drums were seperate, but the main focus of most drum patterns, the kick, should almost never have reverb. Honestly, I'll probably have no problem with reverb with almost any other percussion instrument, but if you have even one kick you should avoid using reverb.

The reason for this is that a kick predominantly resides in the sub-bass regions of the audio spectrum. Reverberation in these frequencies brings us back to the earlier problem with muddiness.

3. Loudness Overload:

This happens when you turn things up (duhh). The thing about turning things up, is while it's not bad at a small amount, turning it up too much can lead to clipping, which is never good. A thing about psychoacoustics is that humans naturally percieve louder as better, while in actuality, generally quiter things have a higher audio quality. This is why you should always opt to turn something down, rather than up.

4. Octave overload: 

Another overload. Luckily I mostly avoided the past ones when I was starting out because OS had no reverb, and the only way to make something louder was to copy/paste the notes over each other. However, I was definitely very guilty of this sin. Basically, this is when you just octave everything a bunch, which is a really uncreative way to get a "fuller" sound. My problem with this is more taste-based than the other things, but I think if you ask any of the more experienced users on this site, they'll agree that this isn't the best way to "evolve" your music.

5. One for all:

Basically what I'm talking about here is when you just use one instrument for everything. Typically this instrument is one of the pianos, or an 8-bit wave. This isn't a problem with sound, so much as it is with improvement. It only becomes an issue when you make every single song with this instrument, which makes it harder to adjust to using different instruments when you need them. It also helps when you have more complicated songs to seperate the different parts so that it's easier to work with. Another benefit to seperating the parts into different instruments is it will give each part a different timbre, and so if they play dissonant frequencies it won't stand out as much.

6. "I'm just bad at percussion":

I think this one is almost unavoidable, unless you either have experience with percussion, or a massive ego. When you start percussion you're going to suck, it's just how it is. If you're already somewhat good at writing melodies and arranging, it'll feel like your percussion is behind the curve. This is why I think a lot of people think they're less talented at it than they are. This is a bad way of thinking, and not just because it hurts your confidence. The less you think you're talented at percussion, the more you'll internally use that as an excuse to not practice percussion, and it's a downward spiral. Just practice. It'll take time, It's an entirely different side of composing.

7. Elitism:

This is probably both the most annoying and the rarest error on this list. Basically this is "My genre is the only good genre". I don't think anyone starts out as an elitist, I think it comes from putting in a lot of work and not getting the attention you feel you deserve. This is an unhealthy line of thinking, it prevents you from finding inspiration from a wider variety of sources which greatly inhibits creativity. To any possible elitists out there: I'd suggest trying out other genres, seeing how they work, and finding where the effort behind the music lies.

8. Sequence Spamming:

What I'm talking about here is spamming/forcing your sequences upon others. Another thing that is related is being overconfident about your sequences. Be humble. The reason this is bad is because it will most likely end up in people not giving you correct criticism. They'll find every little thing wrong with your track and pick it apart at the molecular level, which isn't what you need to improve. This'll just end with you being hated and suffering a blow to your self-confidence.

9. Mud City:

I got more mud complaints. This time the thing I'm talking about isn't as much of a problem as reverb overuse, but still doesn't sound good to the ears. This kinda ties in with number five, in that you typically need to get more diverse with your instrument choices to solve it. Anyway, what I'm talking about is that there are some sounds on this site that have a distinct muddiness to them. Normally, in a proffesional DAW, you'd simply EQ these frequencies out. However, OS doesn't have that option so you'll just have to limit the amount of mud you put into your song via instruments. Electric piano is fine, but grand piano definitely has this problem. Reverb worsens it. I could make a list of all the instruments that have this problem, but I need to go to sleep soon. Listen to it youself, train your ears to listen to frequencies in the low mid and below. BTW this isn't a problem if you do it right, it's just that if you add too many muddy instruments in, and especially with reverb on one or more of them, it can lead to whole songs just straight up sounding like sht, regardless of how good the melodies are.

10. (Courtesy of LucentTear) Autokey dependance:

Brought up by LucentTear, an advanced and well-respected user of the site, the autokey. I'm deciding to add it to the main post because I think it's an important thing to mention, and shouldn't go unnoted. What we're talking about is the autokey. For those that don't know, the autokey is a useful tool that, when selecting a key, will light up all notes of that key. The importance of the autokey in this thread is that many users seem to grow a dependance on the autokey, which isn't good. One thing that's bad about this is that it limits the practice you get with accidentals, or notes that are out of key, as well as key-changes within the song. While the term "accidental" seems rather off-putting, these are an essential part of music composition, and shouldn't go ignored.

So how do you solve this? Well, there are many ways, and I'm sure it's different for everyone. What I do, is I always set my key to C major before I start composing, regardless of what key I'm working with. Alternatively, you could maybe just turn off the key, or just ignore it. I think the most important thing is that you use it as a tool, and not as a handicap. 
(Feel free to mention if I missed anything)

Anyway, Sorry for the giant wall of text. If you think I said anything wrong, or maybe should've reworded something, tell me. Either PM or reply, it doens't matter.

I'm also curious, do you feel any of these apply to you, or your past self?

good night

(P.S. if anyone has anything to add, just reply below.)

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Dear Jonah, I thank you for your Article, and This is what I want to say to your Points, as of 28th July 2018. Points I made where I asked a Question where I find an Answer important, I marked with the Exclamation Emoji (❗). I'm not an Expert, so I might make one or multiple Mistakes and you might have a Different Opinion than me. You can always Reply to Point out wherever you think I made a Mistake, and you can always tell your Opinion about my Opinion:

1. Reverb Overload / 2. Reverb on kick:
When I've started using OnlineSequencer, Reverb did exist, but I've never used it yet.

3. Loudness Overload:
When I've started using OnlineSequencer, I haven't changed the Volume of the Instruments at all.
Today I do use it, but just as a Correction Tool, if some Instruments stand out too much and hinder the hearing possibility of other Instruments too much.

❗ 4. Octave overload:
I never used Copypasting the Melody to multiple Octaves as a Beginner. Only in these two Songs for now, where I wasn't a Beginner anymore: ##869721 ##872096
But when it's not the best way to get a fuller Sound, what are better Methods to evolve my Song?

5. One for all:
I had made a Song, where I used only Piano for the entire Piece: ##865352, but all older Pieces you find on my Profile (amongst them are all Pieces where I was a Beginner), used multiple Instruments. In the next Version of the Song, I replaced some Melodies and Sub-Melodies with Different Instruments in order to add Variety (Luckily it was very easy to Replace the Instruments, depending in the Song it could be impossible): ##869721. The 3rd Iteration of this Song I built from the Ground up, with some Elements Copypasted from the 1st or 2nd (I forgot which): ##872096. It also sounds good, but try to Select every Note at once with Ctrl and A, and replace every Instrument with a Single Instrument of your Choice (except the Drumkits), and it gets immidiately muddied, not to the Point that it's impossible to recognize the Song, but you still hear that it's a bit less clear. 
On a larger Scale, if you try to Convert a Mp3 File to a Midi File, it's nearly impossible to Recognize the Original Audio unless you've already heard it at least once, due to the Audio being extremely muddied by the huge Information loss when Converting Mp3 to Midi (not the other way around).

6. "I'm just bad at percussion":
I never thought I was bad at Percussion, because, before I used Percussion myself, I heard some Sequences on OnlineSequencer, that had Percussion, that sounds very good and fitting despite being just Basic. You don't need much Percussion in order to have good Percussion. The Percussion is not your Melody.
In Fact, too much Variety in Percussion can be bad, because Percussion is a Balancing Board for your Melodies. A Consistent Percussion serves a very stable and secure Balancing Board, while a Inconsistent Percussion (one with so much Variety, that it's no longer the overall same thing throughout) can be very fragile and Dangerous for your Melody.

7. Elitism:
I often just browse Music on OnlineSequencer, and then I hear Music of multiple Genres, and I like Music of multiple Genres. Also, when it comes to Video Games, I like Platformers, but it's very VERY stupid to say, that Platformers are the only good Type of Video Games, because it's certainly not true. All Genres have both good AND bad stuff.

❗ 8. Sequence Spamming:
Is always linking your Work once in the Chat, when you just finished it, equivelant of Spamming? I hope not, because I always do it.

❗ 9. Mud City:
What is EQing out? I never heard this term.
And could you please make the List of muddy Instruments at some time, and Reply to this Article with a Link, once it's ready?

10. (Courtesy of LucentTear) Autokey dependance:
I never use the Autokey. I always ignored it or set the Key to ,,C Major'' or ,,None''. Whether or not a Song of Mine fits into a Key, and if yes, what Key in particular, is completely coincidential.

By the Way: All Things I said I did in this Reply, I did before I found and read this Article.

[cane118]

7. Elitism
...oh you mean only orchestra might be bad... need to do also sung songs?

[HammyDaYT]

It seems to me that your 2nd rule is pretty biased, reverb on drums can work.

You might be misinterpreting what I said. What I meant was that reverb shouldn't be used on the kick. You're right, it's a completely valid option for most of the drums, however, personally I'd advise against it when it comes to stuff like kicks and toms because those have a large amount of low-end frequencies. While the reverb that OS uses seems to have some form of low-cut (if it didn't, the problem would be much more noticeable and worse), but personally I don't consider it enough. Although you may be right that this opinion is biased, the genre I focus on tends to have really tight, short-envelope kicks, and I don't tend to listen to music that has more ambient style drums.

So yes, it could be a stylistic choice to use reverb on the drums for advanced users, but I think beginners should avoid it if they don't know what they're doing. It can lead to clashing in the low-end which would inevitably either lead to simply having a crappy sounding low-end, or turning the drowned out instruments up which leads to Loudness Overload and unequalization.

tl;dr: It's doable, but it's difficult and it can't be an afterthought.

plz tell me how to add reverb

[Lopyt]

You forgot note spam

[Lopyt]

##1104782

Muddy and 'verby enough?