It's long been agreed that the vast majority of music making software doesn't come with a manual that really teaches you how to make music.
Help is on the way though, with the launch yesterday of www.sonicacademy.com: a site offering paid-for video tutorials to all the key music-making programmes, plus hardware, plug-ins, FX units and more.
The site was set up by the guys behind The Academy in Belfast, which accredited music production training programmes, and has had the likes of Agnelli & Nelson and Fergie as students. You can download tutorials for everything from Ableton to Cubase to Reason to unusual DJ gadgets and mixers from £3.49 per video, with levels ranging from absolute beginner to ultra-advanced. You can also pay £39.99 a year (or £4.99) to become a Sonic Insider - which allows you to download 2 full courses and gives you online access to all other video tutorials, as well as lots of exclusive bits.
M-Audio, Ableton, Steinberg, Native Instruments, Vestax, Allen & Heath and our favourites DJDownload.com are all endorsing the site.
We're giving you the chance to win one of three 1x year's subscription to the site - check the competitions section!