Frustrated

[Luis Isaac]

sounds a bit like writer's block. Take a day off and go walking on the beach (ibiza trance), the woods (ambient), the city (minimal) or an industrial estate (techno)

great Answer!; I would like to add something is working very good for me. it is taking five spare time minutes so my mind resets and then i start again, it is very good to avoid "overloading".

[xxmmxx]

Over the years I've met a few fellow 'producers' and I think people generally fall into 2 categories.

1) tweakers
2) producers

I know people with all the gear in the world, full studio setup, racks of hardware, monitors, club speakers, massive space and a lot of software as well.. and yet they accomplish so little. they work on songs all the time, but never actually finish anything. They are too busy reading magazines and always over analysing the gear, whats better best etc. they are too involved in the mechanics of it all, getting tied town with harware vs software issues that will never end. They start a song, get halfway, start tweaking, then they have their eyes set on some new gear that will give them better sound, be that a filter or compressor or whatever. i call these people tweakers.

Then i have other friends who i call producers, they may only work with a laptop with built in soundcard and no hardware besides a midi keyboard that never gets used, and they manage to produce a song every week. of course not every song is a masterpiece all the time, but generally they accomplish a LOT. They don't visit forums everyday, they don't bother with reviews about what filter sounds best and they don't waste their time arguing with people about what setup or hardware/software is best.. they just do the job.

When i started out i was somewhat of a tweaker but soon became frustrated with not accomplishing anything and started getting more disciplined. These days I force myself to only work on ONE SONG AT A TIME, and don't start a new song till i finish the old one. Simple rules, sometimes it's hard to stick by them but if you want it real bad you can make it happen! Best of luck.

[AK]

@robot criminal

i was thinking of bells or something like a xylophone when i said that, but tell me whats wrong about toms with little reverb and delay, or bongos, playin' some little melody please!?

has it been done to death or something?

I don't know personally, I thought by not listening to too much of the scene, I might keep my musical approach free from the current treend. I kinda like toms too, glad I am not using them in that sense then.

@ Fred, have you ever tried to strip back your instruments? I find it quite suprising when you limit yourself to a few parts just how much you can get out of a sound and how far you can mix and match those ideas around. Sometimes it's easy to fall into a trap of adding and adding when there hasn't been any real exploration of the basic sounds themselves and efx.

[victorgonzales]

Dont make loops and work on one part at a time.

Instead of 8 bars write a 7 minute basic drum track. Then write a basline and lay it across the whole thing
then write sa synth melody or whatever across the whole thing.

Kinda like an outline. Dont spend time tweaking on it until you have the framework. once you have a full song basically laid out then start tweaking on changing notes, patterns, effects fills breakdowns and automation.

I find most people that tweak out on loops never finish songs. Its a lot easier to see what needs to be done when you have a full song laid out.

[xxmmxx]

As Victor said before, try and do an outline. I work in this way and it does work. even if you just lay out the drum track for 7 minutes, then do a gap in the middle and call it breakdown/buildup. Immediately you will have some sort of structure, a beginning, a middle and an end.

[isaaclevy]

Over the years I've met a few fellow 'producers' and I think people generally fall into 2 categories.

1) tweakers
2) producers

I know people with all the gear in the world, full studio setup, racks of hardware, monitors, club speakers, massive space and a lot of software as well.. and yet they accomplish so little. they work on songs all the time, but never actually finish anything. They are too busy reading magazines and always over analysing the gear, whats better best etc. they are too involved in the mechanics of it all, getting tied town with harware vs software issues that will never end. They start a song, get halfway, start tweaking, then they have their eyes set on some new gear that will give them better sound, be that a filter or compressor or whatever. i call these people tweakers.

Then i have other friends who i call producers, they may only work with a laptop with built in soundcard and no hardware besides a midi keyboard that never gets used, and they manage to produce a song every week. of course not every song is a masterpiece all the time, but generally they accomplish a LOT. They don't visit forums everyday, they don't bother with reviews about what filter sounds best and they don't waste their time arguing with people about what setup or hardware/software is best.. they just do the job.

When i started out i was somewhat of a tweaker but soon became frustrated with not accomplishing anything and started getting more disciplined. These days I force myself to only work on ONE SONG AT A TIME, and don't start a new song till i finish the old one. Simple rules, sometimes it's hard to stick by them but if you want it real bad you can make it happen! Best of luck.

thanks for wharing this tougths.....

[isaaclevy]

Dont make loops and work on one part at a time.

Instead of 8 bars write a 7 minute basic drum track. Then write a basline and lay it across the whole thing
then write sa synth melody or whatever across the whole thing.

Kinda like an outline. Dont spend time tweaking on it until you have the framework. once you have a full song basically laid out then start tweaking on changing notes, patterns, effects fills breakdowns and automation.

I find most people that tweak out on loops never finish songs. Its a lot easier to see what needs to be done when you have a full song laid out.

i used to write the whole song and work on diferent parts of it...and that was fun and worked for me (for the litle time i have on this producing stuff)....and a friend of mine likes to "jam" with loops and he advices to do that instead of writing.....i was trying that for a time also and u noticed u can get a diferent result.....they are diferent ways of working on a track.

i sugest u try both, and whatever gives u better results or makes u feel more your production is good....

i guess it all comes to developing your own method....there r no rules....just get into it..lol.....

ps: i am still trying to figure mine...

[AK]

Dont make loops and work on one part at a time.

Instead of 8 bars write a 7 minute basic drum track. Then write a basline and lay it across the whole thing
then write sa synth melody or whatever across the whole thing.

Kinda like an outline. Dont spend time tweaking on it until you have the framework. once you have a full song basically laid out then start tweaking on changing notes, patterns, effects fills breakdowns and automation.

I find most people that tweak out on loops never finish songs. Its a lot easier to see what needs to be done when you have a full song laid out.

Good advice right there.