First off, I am a massive Scott Storch fan and I feel like I was burned a bit here. I love the dude's beats and melodies. He literally lives the GTA lifestyle for fucks sake and is now in GTA with the latest DLC lmao so he's like the dude to be the icon for the flashy hip hop producer lifestyle.

I do not recommend this course to anyone other than fans with cash to burn.

I'm a new producer and this course is marketed directly to my demographic so I am the target audience. I'll break down what I got out of it and why there are better places to go and what I recommend for other newcomers to go check out. If this saves you some cash give me an upvote so others can see to avoid this hot mess, it felt like a cash grab. I get it though, the game is meant to be sold, not told. I'm just disappointed, that's all.

Today I got access to the course, which I preordered, and I wanted to try and help everyone save some cash because this course is extremely shallow in content.

The course is 17 chapters with each chapter being only around 3-5 minutes each, this thing is over lightning quick, so I will break down each chapter and what I think.

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• Chapter 1 - Scott reminisces the old days which you can just skip because if you're a fan you'll have already seen the documentary or just pull up youtube his story is everywhere. Coke, hookers, music, etc this is literally the second-longest chapter of all 17 which is sad because I came to learn from him not to reminisce with the man. I'm fine with artists telling their story but when this is nearly 17 minutes long and the actual parts on making music are an anemic 2-3 minutes each wtf.
• Chapter 2 - Scott just describes for 11 minutes how he has his manager handle all his clients, that's it basically, he kinda just says work with your clients to be accommodating. Next!
• Chapter 3 - Scott talks for 2 mins about being patient in the studio around artists with an ego, that's it.
• Chapter 4 - He talks for 4 mins about how he practiced Ray Charles' melodies coming up and using simple melodies rather than complex ones. He mentions "question and answer"/"Call and response" melody techniques. Basic stuff when building melodies. Then at the end, he mentions how he often plays the keys more percussively than others. He mentions using the pitch/mod wheel like it's special or secret info lol.
• Chapter 5 - Scott literally just says use Komplete/Kontact, OmniSphere, Arturia V Collection, and Nexus to find sounds lol. This is about 3 minutes long. It's just him literally mentioning that.
• Chapter 6 - This is similarly 3 minutes of him mentioning his use of specific drums which are basic 808s and sub-basses as well as cutting up breakbeats to snag snares, kicks, etc from other music aka sampling. He then says to put an accented beat in your drums to make it sound better than basic drum patterns so an extra step-up/down or a flourish etc. He does specify he prefers playing the drums out rather than clicking them in via the piano roll since it gives more life to the beat through the varied velocity of each stroke.
• Chapter 7 - Almost halfway done! lol, So here he just says quickly in 4 mins use chord changes, grace notes, arpeggios, pre-chorus changes, and not just 8 bar loops. He demonstrates an 8-bar loop with an extra bar of random changes. I am whelmed.
• Chapter 8 - This is about 3 mins and he says to use sub-bass to make your bass line instead of the 808. Then he mentions Spectrasonics Trillian to get cool strings. Finally, he mentions varying your keys by holding notes longer than normal and varying up the chords by adding inverse chords.
• Chapter 9 - He just shows you for 4 minutes how to find the tempo of a song by playing with the tempo slider and says you have to feel what feels best by experimenting with different tempos. He plays keys over a beat while changing the tempo to show basic progression routes on a fast tempo vs slow.
• Chapter 10 - This chapter is the longest one coming in at 20 minutes and it's all about handling live studio sessions. Something most new producers won't be doing until they get more experience first. He builds a small song with another person next to him aiding the process. He starts with a melody first (he is Scott Storch) and then asks the person next to him what they feel the tempo should be etc and they just bounce ideas off each other and experiment. Then they basically just start throwing shit from Splice onto it from there. The beat is actually mediocre and you can get better tutorials on YouTube than this.
• Chapters 11, 12, and 13 - Each one of these are each about 3-4 minutes each and they cover how he made "Still D.R.E.", "Candy Shop", and "Fighter". They are way too short to learn anything and he just talks without going into much detail about the process. He basically just mentions how he got inspired from listening to older music and early hip-hop tracks to make inspired melodies. Literally, that's it, it's disappointing these weren't given more care since they're big hits.
• Chapter 14 - He discusses his specific relationships with labels over the years. This is less than 2 minutes and he just says make good relationships with label A&Rs. Next.
• Chapter 15 - He talks for 5 mins about how music production has changed since the early 2000s, duh, basically just says it's easier for producers and artists to get started today. He says to get in the studio back then you had to be the cream of the crop but now anyone can make an album. This chapter is literally a waste of time.
• Chapter 16 - Scott mentions for 4 mins working with new artists. He says as a new producer go find a new artist and build with them because your music doesn't mean much if it never gets out there and used by an artist. He recommends finding a new artist you like who is willing to work with you and building with them to learn the process better instead of being a solo producer.
• Chapter 17 - The final chapter. For a whole big 6 minutes, Scott breaks down his big tips to new producers.
  • Here they are:
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1. You need to learn the basics of music and rely less on technology. Learn the theory or an instrument, you don't have to be good but you'll understand music more.

• 2. Don't overproduce, leave room in your beats for the artist to thrive and move in. It's harder to make a special beat simple than just throwing everything in it. The artist is the lead and you need to accompany them. If it's good when it's simple then it will be amazing after post-production. Just get one good thing and run with it.
• 3. Listen to your beats in a car, iPod headphones, etc varied environments because it's how others will be listening to your tracks. Don't just trust the studio monitors.
• 4. Create your own lane, and stop doing what everyone else is doing. Study other's works and try to rebuild their sound as practice.
• 5. Take courses. Invest in education.
• 6. Try to work with other producers as often as you can. Build connections. Find a Mentor.
• 7. Stop just exclusively listening to modern music and just one genre. Get started listening to music before your time and outside of your normal genres to learn new tricks no one else remembers since it's old or hasn't been seen yet due to it being in another genre. Mix it up and study the history of music by listening to older varied music. Broaden your horizons.
• 8. Go to conventions or label events to get new opportunities.
• 9. Book a studio session at a studio with heavy traffic to meet artists and other producers. Come ready with beats to show off.
• 10. Use social media all the time and connect with everyone you can.

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That's it.

Hope I saved you $75.

Honestly, I got more out of Timbaland's masterclass and that was still pretty lukewarm.

The best course I have ever taken so far has been Andrew Huang's complete music production course. But wait, Andrew isn't a rap/hip-hop producer! Yeah, he isn't but holy shit this is exactly what I needed starting out. A guided course on how to make any type of music because it focuses on learning about the core fundamentals of music by building melodies and beats etc. Andrew is a talented dude and actually a really solid instructor, he's incredibly approachable. You literally build 3 songs with him and it's a great starting point and something we all wish these Masterclass courses were.

Anyway, that's it, save yourself some cash and literally get anything else than this if you're just starting out like me. Hell YouTube is literally the best at this, just go watch some YouTube tutorials lol.