Stuck In The Middles!

PlasmaFlux · Post by **PlasmaFlux** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:51 am

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Hello all! I'm new to mnml, and am thrilled to have found this site! I've toyed with music production for years, but have just begun to take it seriously in the past few months.

I'm working with Ableton Live and a used Oxygen8 MIDI controller that I just bought off ebay.

My recurring dilemma is this:

I often spend hours building and caressing tracks from scratch in the Session View in Live. There comes a point where everything falls into place and I have a "eureka!" moment. Pumping through the headphones is one hell of a groove and I'm thrilled that I was the creator of it.

The problem is that the groove I've made is inevitably perfect for the MIDDLE part of a song, where all the stops are pulled and asses on the dance floor are a-shakin' full throttle.

I have a folder full of Live Sets that would be absolutely ideal middles of songs if only I could figure out how on earth to get from beginning ---> middle ---> end.

In other words, I have no clue how to go about building a full track from intro to outro. I've been listening to my 150gb mp3 collection with an analytical ear towards layering & construction...but to no avail.

(On rare occassion, I build a fantastic beginning of a song in the arrangement view, but then don't know how to create a middle or end.....but that's another topic for a later time....)

This is a rather vague and abstract problem, but I'm hoping this is the place to find people who understand what I'm talking about.

Any advice / tips & tricks to get me out of this rut will be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to offer either my first born child or a pound of my flesh in exchange for any valuable information.

Thanks in advance!

~PlasmaFlux

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New Guy · Post by **New Guy** » Mon May 28, 2007 10:56 am

this has been answered already. and i think with the search function you could have found the right topic.
try searching for arrangement, or writers block or stuff like that...
this reminds me, Robot Criminal, dont mean to sound pushy or anything but any news regarding this reoccuring problem?

PlasmaFlux · Post by **PlasmaFlux** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:51 am

For the record, NewGuy, I searched the site thoroughly over the course of a couple days before posting, for fear of scrutinization by "Search the Forum" Nazis, and thought this to be a unique question.

I am proficient at (re)searching, and am not just some random n00b who doesn't know how to RTFM.

"This questions has been answered already" is of no use to me whatsoever. I'm somewhat surprised that you attempted to use my post as an example for your passive-aggressive crusade.

I beg a thousand pardons of you, New Guy, for any part I might have played in pushing that stick even farther up your ass. (Trust me, I did enough research in the course of trying to answer my own question to know that it exists, seems rather prickly, and is lodged pretty far up there.)

No pound of flesh for you.

~PlasmaFlux

New Guy · Post by **New Guy** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:10 pm

if your conscience is clear and you think that my comment is not true in your case, than why get so upset?

nevermind this was just a rhetorical question.

PlasmaFlux · Post by **PlasmaFlux** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:18 pm

The only thread that remotely resembles what I'm asking is this:

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6604

And that wasn't informative enough for me to take action from.

Perhaps it is not I that should be using the search function before posting.

New Guy · Post by **New Guy** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:22 pm

seek and you will find!

love this track btw.

PlasmaFlux · Post by **PlasmaFlux** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:43 pm

If you have nothing constructive to contribute to this thread, why contribute at all?

I honestly don't understand why you're pulling this 'Holier than thou ultimate mnml user forum badass guru' bullshit.

Do you have anything of value to offer, or are you just getting off on being a dck?

Why not just remain silent and let someone interested in actually being helpful share their advice?

I'd just like to say that I'm far less enthusiastic about joining this community than I was a couple hours ago. I didn't realize it was a feeding ground for lame-o jackals.

New Guy · Post by **New Guy** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:55 pm

loosen up man, dont take it too seriously.

btw, from the the topic title this song came to my mind:

Stuck in the Middle With You Lyrics:

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.

Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,
Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you.