I’m curious to know for you renoiseERS (if thats a term) out there - how often do you have difficulty finishing a song?
Obviously it happens to all of us (or thats what I tell myself)… but I wonder, how often do you get FAR into a song… and scrap it because it won’t seem to finish up?
I’ve been working on and off on this song for at least a couple of months and… I’m not getting any further. All I do is CHANGE it. I have probably re-written it half a dozen times. This thing has EVERYTHING and the kitchen sink and it still sounds “empty” to me…
This one in paricular is probably the busiest most hardcore sounding song I’ve written since… well I’d say years even. But it sounds empty and dare I say it… boring to me?
So it’s a 2 part post. How often do you scrap or are unable to finish a song? Second part… what is this tune of mine that refuses to end missing? (Perhaps teenage angst… that used to do me so well when writing. Damn you 30’s!)
I guess I have no less than 500 pieces that I’ve started and then abandoned. These are just ideas though, one or two patterns. Some of them (dare I say most of them) sound pretty good but I just happen to be one of these people with some sort of attention disorder and just can’t keep on dealing with the same thing for more than a couple of hours.
However, when a song has progressed enough, I usually take the time to finish it. The most time I’ve spent on a piece is like two weeks or so. But even in this case, 90% of the track were done in the first several hours.
As for your song, it’s not really my style of music so I don’t know what rules apply. I feel though, some quiet part building up the tension will help at some point.
The most brilliant tracks are unfinished tracks.
Keep that in mind when you’re stuck, it motivates.
I guess everybody has loads of unfinished stuff, probably even more
unfinished than finished work. If a song doesn’t ignite the rush to get
done, maybe it will in a few months. Maybe it never will.
In the meantime, there’s always other music that needs work, so as
long as you don’t do nothing, who cares if one track never gets finished!
so i thought i might actually put them to use in some short videos, or hand them out to youtube friends for soundtracks,… atleast it gets used, and you get a bit of exposure. tiny, but something and better than having it sit on your drive forever.
so yeah, short videos, now i just have to learn to shoot videos and find an editor that works like a tracker.
Dude, this is a pretty tight track as it is right now.
Just add a “Wooooooooosh” sound at the end, band-passed from high to low, from max quality to 3-bit with the bitcruncher, and a quote from Bill and Ted’s Excellent adventure saying “Woah” for good measure.
Bought some web space and tossed all of my mp3-era songs under one domain. At the moment I have 3GB worth of music uploaded and that’s not even all of it. I’ve also uploaded lots of my xm-era modules.
Haven’t updated the place for quite some time now, but I will toss in another massive update later this year.
I will also try to make some sort of an arrangement by year option available, so that one could easily browse through my history of computer based music. Right now the site consists of just couple of genres under which you may hear all sorts of randomness by me, both finished and unfinished.
Yeah, couldn’t think of anything better to do with my music other than share it all.
I think this sort of an archive is just for the hardcore fans… in case there were any. At least there’s lots of traffic going on every day.
You totally know I’m going to do that now right? I wish my emu 04/04 supported “what you hear” recording so I could just sample it off youtube. I’ll find a way!
As to the other replies… I KNEW IT!
Everyone has a pile of half finished songs on their computer, that if piled end-to-end would stretch to the sun and back.
SKNK and Dfast - between the 2 of you, you’ve given me an incredible idea. In fact while typing this sentance out I even improved on it!!!
Heres the plan: A website where people dump half finished songs that may never see the light of day. Then, anyone who likes the ‘indredients’ of the song can jump in and finish it. I suppose technically it would make it a remix of an unfinshed song. If only there were a domain name that would suit something like that… something like… Remix Online… hahah (ConnerBW jump in here).
I seriously think thats such a good idea! (I will almost certainly not put any work into it… but I still think it would work) Whats the concensus? Do you guys think thats a good idea?
A site to dump half finished work that you probably won’t ever find the steam to finish? To let other people jump in and take a crack at?
Centipus - some part of me feels guilty about not putting a full effort into a song. I know what you mean when you say “no responsiblity to create a masterpiece”… but I just feel so lazy and guilty when I don’t put in my best effort. (Whicy by the way, lately, is never as I seem to be bored of every song before I even get near finishing it, so I rush the intro and ending). This song for example is absolutely dry with no FX except for a bassy explosion sound. This type of tune sounds so empty without the empty ambient noises that fill up those loose holes.
Wow, that would be so awesome. The revival of Remix Online dot Com with that as the premise would be killer.
I’m working on an open source CMS which I will have an alpha for in September, this is taking all of my time. But after that, I’d be interested in reviving the partnership if it’s still available. It would also be a good testing ground for the CMS.
especially since it works with the way the industry seems to be going right now,… ie the music itself is free to use provided credit is given where its due, and a living off of music occurs in other areas such as shows, commissions, etc.
apart from being an obvious resource for dj’s, you’ve also got the vj area which is growing quite quickly, and their software is getting to the point where they can chuck in audio as well as video. a very real threat to the pure audio dj, albeit still in its infancy.
maybe an area for video footage as well?
sounds like a great idea, it would be alot of work, but it could also be quite lucrative.
I think it has all the makings for a popular site. I love the idea, but still feel bad for last time as you put in most hte work. I’m hesitant to make a commitment in terms of man-hours I could contribute… but I could probably provide some web space and the name. If it was to have an actual business model I could also support the e-commerce part of it. Anywho… ideas! If your or anyone is into this idea I’ll work towards it.
If you’re stuck with a song and it’s clearly going nowhere, DESTROY anything even slightly weak, be brutal about it.
Don’t just delete the pattern data, remove the entire channels, instruments, and FX chains.
Save the skeletal remains for another day, probably just a single pattern chord progression or drumloop at this point. Come back to it after a few weeks and start doodling.
It’s easy to waste many hours tweaking the minutae of a stagnant song, we’ve all done it. You just have to be harsh, don’t be afraid to DESTROY.
At least there’s lots of traffic going on every day.