In my current “project” (the one where I started using Renoise and re-discovered my love for music production), I kind of decided to work only on one track at a time, to force myself finishing it and not keeping “almost done” tracks. There are maybe 1 or 2 tracks I actually got back to after finishing one but couldn’t really wrap my head around so I kind of rushed their ending.
However, sometimes I feel a bit out of my current track and would like to start a new one, which I usually don’t since I’m afraid to leave behind the track.
So, what’s your way of doing ? one track at a time ? multiple at once ? How many “forgotten” projects ? How many of those are actually “close to finishing” and not just one or two loops ?
Usually I work only on one song until it’s finished. However, it could happen that it’s almost done, but I’m not happy with the result or I feel uninspired to continue working on it, and in those cases I often leave it on my drive until I’m up for continuing to work on that song again, which could take something between one week and 15 years. Depends on my mood and inspiration. Right now I’ve got about 240 unfinished Renoise projects (at least 50% almost done) and probably around 30 unreleased finished Renoise songs on my drive that I’ve created between 2011 and 2024. Sometimes I just browse my old unfinished songs, get some inspiration by listening to them and then I finish them by rewriting the whole song, which results in something completely different than originally intended. I finished some Elektro songs this way that can be found on my album. And in exceptional cases it could happen that I’m working on 2 songs in parallel (but IF then mostly in different styles like Elektro and Synthwave), but this isn’t happening very often.
I work with multiple ideas at a time, because I often get bored of one project so I go and take a break from it by moving to another one, then come back and so on. Some get finished, some get abandoned, but that’s part of the process. If I try to follow a strict path, nothing works - that goes for anything in my life. I guess it’s my messy personality or smth lol
Sometimes one, sometimes many. Depends on mood, inspiration, focus, and deadlines, if any.
I, like @TNT, have tons of mostly finished and unreleased songs, which I periodically rework to keep fresh for live sets. I have a stupid backlog of tracks to release. Seems my priority is usually writing something new, although I can buckle down and finish projects if there’s compelling reason or inspiration or creative drive.
I do enjoy working on one song only to completion sometimes. I think many of my strongest tracks have been written this way, and I don’t see much downside to focusing on only one track at a time. It’s gratifying to channel all the inspiration and time and experimentation into one vehicle.
That said, I like working on multiple tracks simultaneously as well. Especially when they are different vibes or styles
In the past, I used to have lots of unfinished tracks, some very close to be finished but in the end I think I found I enjoy more what I do when I force myself to finish tracks without letting them lay around. For sure, it’s not a “must-follow” rule so it happens sometimes I still do, but not that much.
My current project aim is to solely enjoy making music for myself, only uploading it for a kind of “archiving purpose”, not chasing glory or anything, just living with the flow and releasing tracks as soon as I finish those, to truly capture the moment as well. Hence why I don’t have a backlog of tracks to release. However, I completely understand this way of working since I used to in the past.
(answering more to @slujr here, also the fact you do live sessions adds up to the fact that it’s nice to keep unreleased tracks imo)
I also created a “trashcan cut” alias for my tracks I took back from the dead, but couldn’t really continue working on them correctly so released kind of not as polished as my other work.
I begin more than I finish… all the time…
While working on a module, I suddenly make a pattern out of context, and ‘hey thats great… a new song…’ and it piles up…
Also when I want to try out some samples or VST’s, the experiment makes a base for a new song that was not intended…
I have alreay passed 100 KORG M1 Test modules… many of them just one pattern of a groove or even short melody. A few got finished and released (latest is nr. 75 ‘Container Joe is comming to town’)
After a while I listen to some of these drafts. ‘What was that one? I must hear. Oh, yes, I could do more on that,'….
And all the sample experiments… Some Predator VST experiments (4 of them became ‘We are not robots’ but actually were they also done simutaneously when a mistake pattern suddenly came up and became its own song)
Its is a big mess…. and so am I..
..diagnosis or creative mind?
Nevermind, what works for one, doesn’t work for another. And opposite
I finish songs when I’m in the right mood and in the “zone” in order to finish them, and I release them if I’m satisfied with the result. Nevertheless I mostly start to create new songs despite the 240 unfinished old projects (some of them also do have a genre that I usually don’t create anymore, others are using old VSTs that I dropped years ago). But when there’s a lack of inspiration, browsing old projects could help to become creative again. I simply do what I feel like doing. So it always depends…
As long as you’re enjoying it’s fine. Personally I wouldn’t force myself to finish songs. I finish them either way (at least that’s the plan), but I have to be satisfied with the result, otherwise there’s no point in releasing them, whether it was made just for oneself or for gaining “endless glory”. If it needs a break for weeks, months, years or even decades in order to finish the song with a satisfying result, so be it. You gotta feel your song, and forcing yourself to finish it just to have a finished song often results in an unsatisfying result, which isn’t the goal.
Yes, ‘Sketches’ or WIPs or whatever… Musical types get real mental over them whilst an ‘analog’ artist will show off their thick ‘sketchbook’ of uncompleted penciled-out ideas with glee… i think musical types need to think more like that… In many ways for the ‘web’ it’s smarter anyways… Upload the healthy WIP but not completed especially if it’s quite good that way better ensures it won’t get stolen… That’s pretty much what I upload is WIPs or stuff done in retro trackers like AXS, old FruityLoops, Tuareg2… I have 3 very good tunes that will never see the internet as why would I care if peeps I don’t know listen to it? It’s not gonna change the world… It’s just for me, family & a few friends… OFFLINE… Music theft is quite rampant these days & for most you will never know it has been ‘swiped’…
