I'm flabbergasted. I watched this guy on youtube for like an hour and a half explaining the basic buttons and the basics of the piano roll, and I'm still lost. I make the move to join this forum and Future Producers and now I realize I'm not even close to where I need to be.

I don't know anything about MDI or a n y t h i n g music wise. I'd like a few tips as to where to start. I've poked here and there with the tutorials, but even then they seem too complicated. Maybe I'm just nervous?

oh, and my main problem right now:
I try to do things on my own, and via google and a LOT of websites, I found that 3 0Sx is the best thing for a bassline, but I can't figure out how to manipulate it the correct way to get a east coast, or even hip hop sounding level. maybe this is a step I shouldn't be attempting right now, but I can't picture making a song without the bass as the foundation.

A simple sine wave on the first osc dropped two octaves with the second and third osc turned off will give you a classic "Sub Bass" sound. That's probably the simpliest Hip Hop bass I know of.

There are all kinds of basses that you can do with 3xOSC (and TS404) and probably the easiest way to learn them is to search for presets for them and tweak the presets. There are all kinds of flp files of remakes in the download area that you can save the channel settings (there's an NFX video on channel states) and then bring them back up as presets in a new project and tweak to your liking. "East Coast" bass as far as I know is ususally (vinyl) samples of real electric bass from 60's and 70's songs.

You can kind of simulate them with Boo Bass (and there is plenty of VST's I use Studio Instruments by Cakewalk for Strings / El Piano / Bass which was 29 bucks for download last I checked, much more realistic IMO) but it's not the same as real electric bass (all the finger noises / slides and such) sampled from a record. Sometimes I use premade loops (or record my own since I play bass) and put a vinyl simulation VST on it which gets close... but not quite.

As a bassist / guitarist I also have a hard time without bass but some hip hop don't have bass in it. At least not a traditional one. For instance the detuned saw that Lil Jon uses, there's two free vsts from N.I. Kore Player and Kontakt Player that have those types of sounds in em.

There are diffferent types of sounds that 3xOSC won't do cause of the type of synth it is (subtractive) vs. a additive or FM type of synth or sampler. So to be a expert synth programmer you gotta figure out which genre uses which types of synths which takes time.

If your trying to get good sounds "out of the box" the synths that come with FL are kinda hard (although there are some masters here) cause they don't always have the common effects needed for the sound you want without putting them in the mixer channel.

If your just starting out I might try downloading N.I. Kore player and add-on pack and The N.I. Kontakt Player and add-on pack and starting there. They have all the different kinds of synths in them and you can search for sounds in several easy ways in Kore, I love it. Then you can "see" what effects are on the bass (or whatever) and learn to put those on the mixer for the bass you got in the channel for the 3xOSC and TS404 and what not. Hope this helps more than it hurts.

-Asthmatic Grapefruit Clinton

You didn't specify what program you are working with, but I will assume it is FLStudio since you are here.

To me it sounds like you are in too much of a hurry, you are trying to learn it all at once. What I would suggest to you is to slow down, learn how you add notes to the step sequencer first. after that add your own sounds, then build a basic drumm loop. after that you can start looking at the options in the step sequencers and modify that basic drumloop into something compleatly new.

Baby steps, learn one tiny part, then another and another. And then you can start combining them in to a whole. The betetr you learn to small parts (meaning don't try to rush and skip things) the better you will know and operate your daw later. The work habbits you will have later on are being laid down right now.

Just take your time, do some tutorials and remember to hit F1 to bring up the manual in FL when you get stuck.

^Yea
dont even worry about learning things right now, just have fun with it.
If you want a good way to start though, watch the beat recipes and follow the steps, then use those steps and start creating your own beats.

^ Second,

Besides that it takes a good while to really get into sythesis to really unlock the 'secret powers' of the 3xOsc or any other synth for that matter.. Right now you're better of dealing with presets.. Focus on your compo skills first.. It's no use to learn sythesis now if you can't make a decent melody ..

True, my bad. I overdid it. Listen to these guys, they know what's up.

yes, I'm working with FLStudio.

Thanks for all of your input, today I'm going out to buy a couple books on music theory and composition because it was recommended to me by someone else.

2nd Man, I like the sound of your idea, as I think I would learn if I went through a couple of beats while someone lead me through all the steps. But when I went to NFX's tutorials of Oh Boy & In Da Club, the first had sample's involved, which I know its a little too advanced. The latter had drums and things involved that I don't even have. So what packs should I be downloading to start off my learning?

TooIntergrated, I agree, and I'll practice tonight with the presets and everything.

Before you get into all the FLStudio features i would start learning some basic music theory.
Especially the nfx tutorial about scales, beats and a little bit of chord progression.

Cuz all the knowledge about the FLStudio DAW itself, means nothing, if your beats sound off key.