This is a classic composing mistake you should avoid. And btw, this is also something you shouldn’t do while mixing. In terms of composing I also tend to listen to my unfinished stuff over and over again (provided I like what I hear), but this slows down progression massively. So if I’m stuck in that way, this is what I do: As soon as the main pattern is finished I play it as a loop to figure out how to start the song. Therefore I deactivate and activate tracks (just like a live act) until I know how to start and how to do the build up of the song. As soon as I’ve passed this point, the rest is a piece of cake. And that’s what I would recommend to you, too.
Let’s go!
100% confirmed. In the past I’ve made up to 3 finished songs in one day. Even just a couple of years ago I’ve made 2 finished songs (including mixing) within one evening. But the expectations (including my expectations) are growing. Now it’s also important to have a proper mix and master, otherwise I couldn’t enjoy my songs anymore. And if you’re doing it right, it will take at least a couple of days just to finish the mix, because you need to have breaks for some well known reasons. And it’s not good for creativity in general if you need around 50% of the time to finish a song for mixing and master. But it’s a big mistake to not release songs because you’re stuck in your mixing process loop that never ends, especially when every mix sounds the same.
I have a vision! I can clearly see a greek guy called @stoiximan singing to your sounds! I see joy, creativity, progression and a lot of positive feedback. I see @stoiximan inspiring your workflow and I see you teaching @stoiximan how to get a proper mix in 5 days including breaks. I see both of you improving in every aspect. And yes, my visions usually become reality. Come on!
I could have imagined this means “fucking tosser fuck you”, but it’s something else.
Both of you are right. But personally I think Psy-Trance is way more same-sounding than Synthwave, because Synthwave is based on melodies and Psy-Trance on sound effects. Just a couple of days ago I’ve listened to some Psy-Trance stuff at work and I really thought it sounds exactly like your stuff. I checked, but somebody else made it. Anyway, this is not a genre specific “problem”. This problem affects all kinds of music (and videogames, and movies, and every media you can imagine, too).
My ultimate weakness is the writers block.
I realized how much i deal with writers block, i truly hate it when it happens.
When I come up with something to work with, I finish the composition fairly quickly, i am able to finish a 3-4 minute composition in about 16 hours from scratch, but here’s a thing, sometimes i can just sit for days try to come up with something i think it’s good to work with and eventually give up after some time. That’s why i am not able to produce a lot, and my album i would love to release, keeps delaying because of that simple thing, which results with me creating a small amount of songs and not that much songs in the album as well.
My idea to stop this from happening that much is to use Renoise more, i had a pretty long break from it, since i started using Ableton a lot, which limits my creativity in some sense, and start trying out different mixes of genres (had a idea to do ambient + DnB + breakcore stuff) instead of creating only chillwave.
too true. As the music technology develops, the bar for making music lowers, which is a good thing, I think, but it means that there is so. much. content. And we don’t even really have AI blowing human producers out of the water yet…
But people will always seek to express themselves through music, even as the technological landscape changes
Nice. I’ll choose to take this as a compliment on my production quality lol
Back in april I participated in a ‘Callapril’ event on a different synth forum. I was randomly paired with another participant and told to make a track together. Which was a lot of fun! All the other participants also had a good time with their randomly assigned partners.
First we video chatted for a few hours, talking about music and getting to know each other. Then we worked on music. Sending stuff back and forth. Video chatting to discuss what we liked and didn’t like and where to take it. Making up something together that neither of us would have made on their own. And I’m still in contact with him, video calling occasionally.
We actually started work on a new collaboration recently but unfortunately something happened and he is unable to continue at the moment.
Anyway, I was planning to blatantly copy that format next april and introduce it here on the forum. But maybe we should just have such an collaboration-event/competition sometime soon?
But isn’t that normal? Everyone has got writers block from time to time. And it’s also normal to dislike what you just have created, at the latest the next time you’re listening to it. Either you love it or you hate it. But that’s not a problem. In case you hate it just keep your composition on your drive and finish it later. It doesn’t matter if a couple of days, weeks, years or even decades later. You know what’s funny? You’d probably be surprised if you’d listen to your own unfinished stuff that you’ve made a long time ago and you almost or even completely forgot about it. But if you do so, you’d recognize the true potential of what you’ve composed. Suddenly things you didn’t like before are cool, it just needs some changes, additions and of course a new mix and master to become great. Personally I’m always surprised how many really great ideas I had in the past when I’m listening to my old stuff. If there were enough time I would use my today’s skills and possibilities and remake them all.
Ok! We don’t have to talk about your production quality, your production quality is always good. I think it’s partially even better than many “professional productions”, and many “professional productions” don’t sound that “professional” anymore. I’ve never thought that home production without professional gear can result in a way better sound than any “professional production”, but I experience it myself more and more. I guess that’s because the bar for making music lowers, just like you said. Back in the days someone creating music was a rare exception and it was hard to get a foot in the door, but today everyone can produce music quite easily and there are millions of so-called “labels” out there, which literally everyone can set up. All you need is an internet connection and a website. And because of this many “professional productions” don’t have the same standard than “professional productions” have had in the past.
Would be interesting…
There’s a competition called MBC that’s best for collabs and weird mixed music styles and weird stuff in general.
From what i know there’s an artist called Sewerslvt which makes something really interesting. Songs that mixes ambient, drum n bass, acid and breakcore at the same time. Shit, I even heard of a crazy person that mixed classical music with breakcore, that’s crazy what people can make.
I have the worst case of GAS, I call it GAS is Greener syndrome, forever chasing the utopian workflow or software to get let me do what I want to do - therefore I never come close to mastery of tools, forever cursing the work I need to do to learn the new tools I have imposed on myself. Therefore I hit roadblocks and, oh, hey, DAW X is out, maybe I should try that…
I let my lack of “proper” music theory become a thorn in my head and I’m constantly doubting that the music is “valid” as I haven’t composed it with the “correct” knowledge. There are reasons for this, which I won’t get into here, but a simply as possible it’s from childhood and overbearing, judgmental parents.
I obsess over the process, rather than the content, I do what has been described earlier by repeating the same loop over and over, tinkering obsessively over a handful of dB’s gain here or there, then I get sick of the loop and run headlong into the same mistakes on a new project.
I either introduce too much variation where it isn’t needed, or not enough where it absolutely is.
I’m crap at the little transitional stuff.
I try too hard to make stuff I think might impress somebody, seeking validation, rather than pure expression.
That’s about the state of things, sounds silly to type it out as each could be resolved - but, oh lord why do I overshare, I suffer from lets say “conditions” and I’m sick of having to “work on myself” or identifying “learning opportunities” and yeah - I’m sick of fighting my impulse to indulge my stupid brain lol. Oh well, onwards and upwards, maybe. Maybe.
Aside from parental influences, it can be helpful to remember that theory arose as a response to praxis, and exists as an analytical art that attempts to codify and understand music after the fact. Theory is always secondary to praxis, even though much music can be made with theory as the starting point. The important thing is to remember that humans play music. They don’t work music. You can work on music, but that’s work as a form play
At some point I stopped writing bridges in my “pop” songs. I don’t think every song needs one but most do. I have to force myself to do something, anything, in the last bit of a song now just so it feels right. Seems like writing bridges was something I’d do automatically back in the day, I don’t know what happened.
I’ve definitely settled for bland lyrics in the past too, but I learned my lesson there. It’s better to just let a song sit around instead of attaching lame words to it because I know I’ll never rework the song once I record it.
I don’t really hear a lot of modern pop music, but haven’t bridges fallen out of favor generally speaking? If that’s what you’re exposed to, then that might be an influence on your own music?
I know, I feel bad that I haven’t finished it yet. Summer just is a busy time for me, hanging out with family.
That’s another weakness of mine, having way too many nearly finished projects. I should really try to wrap things up before starting a new project.
I will try your suggestion for combating looper-i-tes, thanks!
