Mental Health Problem, Can'T Stop A Loop Jam. Can'T Finish Son

General Discussion
21

The approach that has worked best for me in the past is to treat the songwriting process in layers: Song ideas first(melody, chord structure, rhythm, lyrics), a minimal implementation, and then sounds and mixing later. I think Renoise’s biggest strength is that you can make yourself focus on a melody or rhythm and build out your 3-6 minutes of content on those alone, because the tracker interface makes it easy to iterate on those things using one or two tracks.

Unfortunately I have trouble disciplining myself to work this way in front of the computer and so I often end up with endless-loop syndrome too. I think part of the problem is that DAW software, Renoise included, makes it too easy to start getting twiddly early on - that you start going “oh, I bet it’ll sound great when I put on some effects and add more layers…” and you go and do that and it does sound great, but then you’re creatively exhausted because, as that blog post above says, you went “vertical” too soon.

Recently, I started researching for software or methodology that can steer me away from doing that, and what I really want is a “higher-level composition” tool - something that fills in a lot of blanks until I’m ready to go in-depth and change them. The best options I’ve come up with are:

  • Loop-oriented sequencers like Mixcraft or Acid Pro.
  • Arranger’s tools(One Man Band, Band in a Box, arranger keyboards)

With the first option you can start from generic beats and licks and build up the start of a song - no one-shots, effects, or MIDI - then gradually replace them with custom stuff. With the second, you can start by playing with chord sequences and have them backed by generic arrangement in MIDI(or BiaB’s “Realtracks”), and then replace or augment the arrangement later. In both cases you’re getting a view of the song that is mostly “horizontal,” so you can work faster towards finished work.

Of course, in both cases, you still have to supply melody lines and musicianship, or it’ll just be generic sludge, but in a sense, working with the generic loops and arrangements can make you hyper-aware of how boring they are, so that you work harder to get beyond them.

22

Perhaps you need to delete some parts of the loop, to get it going on :)

edit: actually personally I would suggest deleting the whole song.

Personally I feel like unless the track starts to get off during the first night, and mould itself with nearly all the elements in the song coming together, altogether, then the track most likely needs to be just deleted - even though it would hold some great ideas.

The feel needs to “magnetize” to all the parts of the song, during the first night - otherwise it (from my point of view) is useless to spend any more time with the parts one is working with (…unless one wishes to train ones technical expertiese / shortcut handling in the software etc. but those can be trained alongside an inspirational session also…)

23
  1. Take a break
  2. Find pen and paper
  3. Write down some goals for your track. {like how it starts, what builds you want, what fills you want, Progression in other words.}
  4. Look it over, and try to visualize the track in its whole. (find more stuff to input, goto: 3)
  5. Start making the track… DON’T EVEN THINK!!! ABOUT STEPPING OUT OF THE CLEAN PROCEDURE OF HACKING IN THE MAIN BUILD OF THE SONG.
  6. SAVE IT. and go to bed…
  7. WAKE UP!!! … its time to finish the track. you got shiploads of editing to do. :)

in other words. FORCE IT! but break it up into a couple of steps.

24

1 out of 1 blogs agree:

http://kimlajoie.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/how-to-get-out-of-a-rut-and-rediscover-inspiration/

25

If I have a loop (I guess that would be one or two patterns) that I think is really good, I just clone it a few times. Then I start varying things. After removing, say, the bass from the first four or eight patterns it becomes obvious, when it kicks in, that I need a transition there to introduce it, a drum roll or whatever. When you start from a really full loop (pads, bass, drums, percussion, effects, melody lines, etc.) it’s normally a matter of subtracting. This may seem a very stupid and simplistic way to do things, but it will provide you with a skeleton for at least half a tune in no time. Then, throw in a breakdown, or a chord change or a mood shift or whatever, and you’ll find that the structure is at least two thirds there. Then you can copy the first bit again, and attatch it to the end. Add an extra layer of cymbals or throw in some more aggressive wobbles (if we’re talking dubstep or dnb or something like that) or anything like that, and hey presto! A complete structure of a tune has arrived. From there it is just a matter of adding detail and making sure the mix works. If this structure seems boring, then at least you have something to deviate from.

With the wonderful pattern matrix in place there is no excuse. Just hit clone, clone, clone, clone, clone, and take it from there.

(this approach works for genres like dubstep, dnb, techno and similar)

26

while building your “jam” just hit ctrl + k every now and then.

27

Give yourself only 3 days to finish the track and upload it to the internet for public listening. You can’t stray from the deadline. Use this as practice for when you are involved in professional projects and must stick to a deadline. You have until Monday night to finish the track and post it in this thread… :w00t:

28

+1 :D

29

I command you to not take orders from anyone.