What are some of the best resources and tips for learning and improving your music technology skills?

Youtube is your best friend but be warying of the many salesmen who are on YouTube to sell you a course or sound packs etc. disguised as "mentors" or teachers. Absorb the helpful informative but just be wary of the source you are absorbing from. Technical processes that seem very complex to the beginner, may become even more overwhelming depending on the source. There are many credible online resources outside of YouTube to learn from as well like Udemy, or Coursera, skillshare (sites listed above) so it is best to learn at your own pace to successfully comprehend all the new info.

There are many producers and sound engineers on YouTube that share valuable information on software and equipment and production. My favourite are Alice Yalcin Efe ,White Sea Studio, Nathan James Larsen & Alex Rome. If you're smart you can use Chat-GPT and use the video captions plug in and ask for an exhaustive detailed summary of the tips given in a neatly formatted text. This way you can archive the tips and have it re-written per category so it's easy to find all the information back if you are looking for something in particular. Of course magazines like Music Maker and Computer Music are great for this type of information. It's up to you what fits your way of learning the most! Enjoy!

In my opinion YouTube is an excellent source. After that just doing it. Experimenting, trying things out, figuring things out and learning as you go are some of the best ways.

As much as YouTube and the online world has a plethora of free, affordable and quality tutorials, it could also get confusing because there is so much out there. According to us, when you shadow a credible musician, music producer, composer, lyricist, singer etc. you get to learn a lot. The shadow sessions come with a lot of experience. This is, only if the learner has some prior experience and learning too. For someone who is new, formal hands on training should be the primary goal and then could move on to shadow sessions with some help that is available online. In both the cases, self practise is a must.

I would add Electronic Music School by Will Kuhn and Ethan Hein. It's been a great resource for inspiring creativity in my practice and for students.

One of the best books that I have ever read was "SoundFX" by Alex Case. Alex is a phenomenal instructor and this book takes a deep dive into all types of effects that we use in music production. This is not about Sound Effects that you would have in film/post. This is about effects such as Compression, Gating, EQ, Pitch, Reverb, etc. A second offering that really helped me visualize how to mix early in my career is "The Art of Mixing" by David Gibson. This book utilizes 3-dimensional charts that help you visualize amplitude and placement within a mix for certain elements of the mix. A must read.

Também acredito fortemente no aprendizado por meio livros e revistas, infelizmente no Brasil não temos vasta opção em relação a isso. Mas, quem tiver o inglês pronto, o campo de aprendizado é gigante.

In terms of music, literacy is very important. Reading material is definitely a great source for learning provided the reader is literate. This means the reader is able to understand the words on the page without being confused by any ambiguity in the writing. It is important to remember that people in different fields may not have sound writing skills, and their writing may be open to interpretation. This can be a problem when trying to communicate with beginners or novice learners, as they may misunderstand the message or not understand it at all. This would also apply to people that speak English very well as their second language or natively but have trouble with reading.

As the saying goes "experience is the best teacher." "Practice makes perfect" is the more famous one but the general message is still the same. Get familiar with various DAWs (digital audio workstations). There are many different DAWs out there however they all pretty much do the same thing, create, edit, and play audio. DAWs are the software counterpart of music technology while musical instruments, audio interfaces, studio monitors etc. are the hardware of music technology. They both can work independently and cohesive with one another to create new sounds. Playing around with both software and hardware will familiarize you with the various paths one can take when creating music as well as the different results each will render.

I always tell people seeking software or hardware advice: "Watch a bunch of Youtube tutorials. Choose the channel with the teaching style that best fits your learning style and that you understand the most. Then, go with that channel and the software they are explaining." More specifically, watch the first 2-5 minutes to get an idea.

In today's world, online communities are very helpful when it comes to learning many topics and it's no different when it comes to music technology. Online communities give space for both the artist and the audience to connect with one another outside of the music itself. Online communities are helpful for learning as well as connecting, networking, even distributing. Just like in most successful professions, connecting with people is very important, and online communities are a great resource to the music industry or music technology field as a whole for doing so.

The internet is your gateway to a vast online community. With just a few clicks, you have access to hundreds of minds to consult on any given topic, and millions when it comes to music. Online communities and forums provide specific avenues for expanding your thinking beyond your own limitations. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one," and here you have thousands of additional perspectives to add to yours. These online communities and forums are free, powerful tools that can help you avoid mistakes and conceptualize music in ways you couldn't achieve alone in your studio.

Online communities are very helpful. I have found that creative communities such as musicians, photographers, etc tend to create spaces where people love to share best practices. One great online community for learning about Audio Production is the Facebook Group "Hey Audio Student" This group currently has 49K members who are mostly students, professors and industry professionals sharing knowledge, ideas and even jobs.

Acredito que o que estamos fazendo aqui também é de grande valia. Ter uma rede para trocar conhecimentos e experiências é bastante enriquecedor, é um excelente recurso para estudo e trabalho.

In my experience, I find that working on projects 30 minutes or less at a time helps the best. Whether the project is new/experimental or a continuation of a previous project, the mental and audio fatigue is minimal compared to working on a project for an hour straight or more. As far as going into a session with an agenda, this depends on my creative state, whether or not I am working alone or with someone else, and if I am working FOR someone. Each circumstance will develop a different skill set in terms of music technology.

This is very important. You can read all the manuals and watch all the tutorials you want, but in order to really master the tools you want to learn, you have to start using them. Experimenting, playing around, and trying different things is the best way to find out what the tool is capable of doing, and how the results sound like.

Creativity goes first than any tool. The most important thing is that you find ways to express yourself, no matter what set up you have. There will be always opportunities to upgrade your software and hardware :)

My learning path has probably been quite an unusual one. I was once given the task to write an easy to understand user manual for a specific music studio, its equipment and DAW - not because anyone thought I was the big subject matter expert, but because I was interested in the topic, I had a background in music, and I was known for my ability to write clear and understandable content. That project taught me incredibly much both about the studio hardware and about Logic Pro X. Since then, I have learned more and more about music technology by doing and experimenting. This kind of learning process is not everyone’s cup of tea, or even a possibility, but I’m glad it’s been mine.