Why don't you upload some of your tracks here and let us listen? It's a start...
Today in my entrepreneurship class, my professor was talking about a friend he has who has been working on a business plan for over ten years for an art cafe. Launching an art cafe isn't nearly that complicated, but she's convinced that she never has enough research for it to be successful. He said something like, "I guess she'll probably never pull the trigger for starting the business. She has a weak tolerance for risk, so instead of having a business, she has a hobby -- studying." The point of his lecture was that sometimes "good" is better than "perfect". If it's taken ten years and you still haven't reached perfect, maybe you never will, so just try with what you've got.
So send in your stuff, put it on the internet, and do whatever you have to do to get it heard. Besides, your "good" might be someone else's "perfect.
What have you sacrificed or lost through making music?
anything i've sacrificed was totally worth it.
i studied architecture at university, and gave up a potentially lucrative career for music.
the only thing i wouldnt give up, is my family and loved ones, they are the most important thing to me.
i've done nothing else virtually my whole life, and i havent really been successful in terms of status, money etc., these things mean nothing to me. i've preffered to stay underground and be true to my beliefs about how music should be made, and that is from the soul.
when i first started to break through somewhat in EDM in the early 1990's, everyone told me i was an idiot for not making some commercial club tunes under a pseudonym to make money, instead i retreated away from it and became more underground.
the important thing is that you're happy. if you're not, then its time to think again.
i can sympathise with you, i've spent long nights of frustration in my studio, thinking my life was just passing me by, but it passes, and then i'm buzzing again.
dont let your health suffer though, keep fit.
the thc thing is not an issue, thats an individual thing, where would music be if you took away all the music that was influenced, written on, played on, by people using thc, you'd be able to fit Virgin's entire stock into the cleaners cupboard.
music is everything to me (almost) it's my first language.
i studied architecture at university, and gave up a potentially lucrative career for music.
the only thing i wouldnt give up, is my family and loved ones, they are the most important thing to me.
i've done nothing else virtually my whole life, and i havent really been successful in terms of status, money etc., these things mean nothing to me. i've preffered to stay underground and be true to my beliefs about how music should be made, and that is from the soul.
when i first started to break through somewhat in EDM in the early 1990's, everyone told me i was an idiot for not making some commercial club tunes under a pseudonym to make money, instead i retreated away from it and became more underground.
the important thing is that you're happy. if you're not, then its time to think again.
i can sympathise with you, i've spent long nights of frustration in my studio, thinking my life was just passing me by, but it passes, and then i'm buzzing again.
dont let your health suffer though, keep fit.
the thc thing is not an issue, thats an individual thing, where would music be if you took away all the music that was influenced, written on, played on, by people using thc, you'd be able to fit Virgin's entire stock into the cleaners cupboard.
music is everything to me (almost) it's my first language.
Steevio, Castonova, Ronny Pries - thank you. Your advice was not only helpful - but also inspiring on a human level.
Musically speaking I "almost" broke into the breaks scene after posting up tracks on a similar forum to this, then didnt follow it up with the the interested label. Why? Because Id veered off again into a new style, as Im always doing. Ive made just about every style of electronic music imaginable - and I cant really post up here because Ive made but one "minimal house" track.
I cant imagine anyone sticking to techno or house or breaks, just to get a name for themselves. If you love all forms of music, like me, surely you end up making such a disparate range of music that its impossible to really progress in any one scene. Hmm.
How about you guys? How have you stuck to a genre or scene (as it appears you have here, at least?)
Musically speaking I "almost" broke into the breaks scene after posting up tracks on a similar forum to this, then didnt follow it up with the the interested label. Why? Because Id veered off again into a new style, as Im always doing. Ive made just about every style of electronic music imaginable - and I cant really post up here because Ive made but one "minimal house" track.
I cant imagine anyone sticking to techno or house or breaks, just to get a name for themselves. If you love all forms of music, like me, surely you end up making such a disparate range of music that its impossible to really progress in any one scene. Hmm.
How about you guys? How have you stuck to a genre or scene (as it appears you have here, at least?)
I've sacrificed computer games which i think is a good thing. I guess i'm not doing that good a uni as i would rather make music.
I've been into techno a long time, a good 7 years. I'm into other types of music but techno and minimal house has always been something very special to me. As a composer i just naturally make minimal music. If i try and make something really complicated, something thats not minimal to me, everyone still thinks it's really stripped back.
I've been into techno a long time, a good 7 years. I'm into other types of music but techno and minimal house has always been something very special to me. As a composer i just naturally make minimal music. If i try and make something really complicated, something thats not minimal to me, everyone still thinks it's really stripped back.
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Ronny Pries
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Dusk,
the situation you're in translates well to mine, eventho i use to stick to somewhat dancefloor orientated tracks most of the time. But in the end most of them don't really match each other in a way to put them on a release. It usually takes a lot of time until i find those that make a solid release. Okay, the rktic stuff has been made on an own level of consciousness, it's almost concept work. Anyway, most of the time i just sit down and see what happens depending on mood or task (i.e. when making music for a demo, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTv1Fxq8XU4 ).
And before i die i'd like to lay down at least one breaks and one ambient/electronica album.
However, i think mood is playing the most important role in producing good music on my behalf. Thus i don't really "understand" how people can follow one distinctive sound direction and stick to it. Are they robots? What's the secret? Isn't it painstaking to keep up to one thing all the time? Or do they lack facets? Or do they just lie down their tracks according to certain rules of a style and keep on making records for the sake of getting cash? It would certainly make me understand why there is such a huge amount of similar tracks that "suck" or lack individuality. But i guess i fail to be a player in this regard.
the situation you're in translates well to mine, eventho i use to stick to somewhat dancefloor orientated tracks most of the time. But in the end most of them don't really match each other in a way to put them on a release. It usually takes a lot of time until i find those that make a solid release. Okay, the rktic stuff has been made on an own level of consciousness, it's almost concept work. Anyway, most of the time i just sit down and see what happens depending on mood or task (i.e. when making music for a demo, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTv1Fxq8XU4 ).
And before i die i'd like to lay down at least one breaks and one ambient/electronica album.
However, i think mood is playing the most important role in producing good music on my behalf. Thus i don't really "understand" how people can follow one distinctive sound direction and stick to it. Are they robots? What's the secret? Isn't it painstaking to keep up to one thing all the time? Or do they lack facets? Or do they just lie down their tracks according to certain rules of a style and keep on making records for the sake of getting cash? It would certainly make me understand why there is such a huge amount of similar tracks that "suck" or lack individuality. But i guess i fail to be a player in this regard.
Always think twice.
thats interesting, but i always think the opposite about genre hopping, you know the phrase jack of all trades, master of none. i also feel that mood is better expressed in a genre, rather than with one.Ronny Pries wrote:Dusk,
the situation you're in translates well to mine, eventho i use to stick to somewhat dancefloor orientated tracks most of the time. But in the end most of them don't really match each other in a way to put them on a release. It usually takes a lot of time until i find those that make a solid release. Okay, the rktic stuff has been made on an own level of consciousness, it's almost concept work. Anyway, most of the time i just sit down and see what happens depending on mood or task (i.e. when making music for a demo, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTv1Fxq8XU4 ).
And before i die i'd like to lay down at least one breaks and one ambient/electronica album.
However, i think mood is playing the most important role in producing good music on my behalf. Thus i don't really "understand" how people can follow one distinctive sound direction and stick to it. Are they robots? What's the secret? Isn't it painstaking to keep up to one thing all the time? Or do they lack facets? Or do they just lie down their tracks according to certain rules of a style and keep on making records for the sake of getting cash? It would certainly make me understand why there is such a huge amount of similar tracks that "suck" or lack individuality. But i guess i fail to be a player in this regard.
sometimes you really have to "live" a music to make relevant, interesting tracks, techno as a form is only limited by the writers imagination, thats why so much of it is sh!t, i think.
To dusk. chin up, after 10years im sure your tracks have enough quality. get them out there!!! nobody will savage them as much as you do.
Ronny, I hear everything you are saying. I dont personally understand these guys on Juno prolifically churning out endless variations on one style. I also find it hugely impressive - their sound evolves and changes without betraying their "known" genre, thus keeping their following interested.
My tracks end up heading in all sorts of tangents (following on from a few guys' kind advice, Ill link it up here later and see if anyone can spare a listen.) I dont find it easy to stay on one track which as you say, is better than a genre full of derivative repetition, but at the same time I think with the limitations on your creative time, you need to associate yourself with a particular scene or genre to make real progress.
edit - good post atheory, we were in the same mindspace. I totally agree with the "jack/master" differential - there arent too many producers capable of turning in exceptional work in multiple genres, but plenty who genre hop simply because they arent good enough to master one alone. That's one kind of amateur - only hope this category doesnt include me forever.
My tracks end up heading in all sorts of tangents (following on from a few guys' kind advice, Ill link it up here later and see if anyone can spare a listen.) I dont find it easy to stay on one track which as you say, is better than a genre full of derivative repetition, but at the same time I think with the limitations on your creative time, you need to associate yourself with a particular scene or genre to make real progress.
edit - good post atheory, we were in the same mindspace. I totally agree with the "jack/master" differential - there arent too many producers capable of turning in exceptional work in multiple genres, but plenty who genre hop simply because they arent good enough to master one alone. That's one kind of amateur - only hope this category doesnt include me forever.
Re: What have you sacrificed or lost through making music?
Im in the same boatDusk wrote:Very simply, Ive been sitting in my bedroom for over the last ten years. I have *tried* to maintain a decent life balance, did school and university and threw myself into those things authentically, and those other things (girlfriend, clubbing, drug abuse etc.)
However I realise that now Im no longer a kid with endless time to waste. Ive become really conscious that all the hours I spend hunched over my MIDI keyboard and Nord Lead are hours that others are spending developing their career, playing team sports, going to the gym, strengthening their friendship circles, seeing the world, going out for dinner, etc etc. I've definitely lost friends through repeatedly shutting myself away to work on music. This has become critical distraction from my task of trying to create good music.
It would be ok, I think, if the "gamble" had paid off by now, but in reality Im still refining my sound and never satisfied, meaning ive never sent work out even though I know its there-or-thereabouts.
I wondered if anyone else had any thoughts on this?
The saying goes that sacrifices must be made to create anything worthwhile, and part of me is 100% determined that my life should produce something special, out of the ordinary, even if I lose things in the process.
maybe we can create a track each and post it up here...do something about it likes!