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Writing blocks

hello...
I know everyone has it sometimes, you just sit down, write something ... rewrite a gazillion times and you know you're not in THAT MOOD to create something good...so you just thrash it again and fall into depressions...

I thought you might share the info about how do you get over these times?

any ideas? come on :P

i remember there is a good thread about that...
my tip:just forget about producing,go and do something completly different,try to chill out,give yourself a time,refresh ears..and you will come back with better creativity...that work for me...

yeah producing is 98% of the time depressing, 2% you are happy with what you created

i'm thinking of quitting, because each night i go to bed i have a bad feeling after a few hours of useless work

havent produced shit for a month.. hoping new monitors would help..
if not, i might try drugs..

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle i might try drugs..

Any links?
same here,i keep downloading new VSTs,sometimes i get some
insperations,but now with the demo of NI-Metaphysical and some
Speedy jay presets,i fell i should do something else!

i'm getting into doing my producing in bursts

i wont do anything for a few weeks, but then just get bang on it for about 3-5 days non stop, and produce a tune right thru to the end and master it and everything.... then not do anything for another 3 weeks....


keeps things fresh

Hey. I know the feeling . I'm in the slumps right now actually lol. What I do is just keep producing. Keeo churning out some super naty shit, that way when you do produce something worthwhile, youre like WOW :P. Just my way of coping. I'd also suggest getting into other hobbies. I also take a lot of pictures and do a lot of graphics design, both 2d and 3d so when I'm in the slumps with one thing, I'll try another. What really sucks is if I'm just plain in the slumps . In cases like that, I just watch TV and movies... None of this may really apply to you though. Youll just have to find out what is best for you but atleast you have some ideas.

Cheers,
Zac

you know whats working for me? ive almost completly stopped listening to music other than my own. that makes for hardly any constant outside influences. also, ive learned to (personally) only get up and work on something when im really really bored. like really bored. i find myself putting more work into the track then i usually would. and it just tends to flow alot better. im really going to separate the time i spend listening to music with the time i spend creating it. i need to make them two completely different things, because they both seem to interfere with each other. im not sure why though. i just find when im in that "ok, i think i feel like making a track" state of mind, nothing ever comes through. but if i really push myself to wait long enough, there is this unexplainable time, where its just the right moment to start a track. usually, in this state of mind, i REALLY get things done. probably wont work for anyone else, but it does for me.

if i would listen just my music i would lose objectivity
i listen other music not just trance but all good music for inspiration

drugs sounds like good idea

I just came out of a "writer's block", in fact a few weeks ago I made a thread about it, I think.

I honestly don't know how I got out of it, I just did. So my best advice... give it time? I don't know I didn't do anything special like stopping producing to refresh myself, i just sat down one day and it came back to me.

Not very useful or helpful, I know. But it's my 2 cents

quote:

Originally posted by messytechie i'm getting into doing my producing in bursts i wont do anything for a few weeks, but then just get bang on it for about 3-5 days non stop, and produce a tune right thru to the end and master it and everything.... then not do anything for another 3 weeks.... keeps things fresh

I'd say that's some of the best advice on this page. Everybody's different, but for me, when I'm particularly inspired I can finish an entire track in less than a week - but when I'm not in the mood it can take forever.

And it's true that listening to *only* your *own* tracks might compromise your objectivity, but IMHO, objectivity is best saved until a track is ready for editing/remixing/mastering. Being too much of a perfectionist (as I often am, which is not to say that I'm perfect, just picky at times) really only slows you down and blocks the flow of creativity.

Objectiveness is, by definition, uninfluenced by emotion. Try to produce with no emotion or love and you'll end up with a track that's pretty sterile.

So let's get this straight, you make crap most of the time, and only once in a while you making something less crappy? Or are you making something marketable?

I'm going to assume it's the former. Now when you stop and think about that, you realise you're not a professional (in most cases), and that you have a technical skill level that you're still working at. You might be super creative and have the sweetest god damn cutting edge tracks in your head. When it comes down to getting them made, it's not really happening.

If you feel like you're just making crap, I recommend that instead of just stepping away and thinking that will solve it, you should instead try to learn new things about producing. Crack open your favorite VST, initialize the patch (clear the parameters) and try and sculp some interesting shit. Play with your effects until it hurts.

I use to just make tracks that sucked and every time i made a track, it sucked a little less. Seemed like progress..... but it's really not.

Now I like to spend the bulk of my time working at only one element. Drums, or bass, or leads, or atmosphere or effects. Getting those drums sounding crisp and spacey. Then at the end of the week I try and hammer out a track. I'm never happy enough with a track to send it out, but I often look at the track and think "Yah, I nailed that ______ (insert aspect)." Learn, Learn, Learn! Get books on synthesis (there is a sweeeeet ebook around here i HIGHLY recommend called How to make a sound").

If you can't THINK up anything good, yah, sure, writers block, take some time to clear your head and come back. But if you simply can't make anything good, you're probably not happy with your skills. Which is good, because you know in your head you can do better. All the music in your head is good, you just ain't hammering it out the way you want it.

I'm gonna end that shit here, I just worked 10 hours so this might be a little pessimistic and contradictory.

Just a point of view.

Several solutions for when I'm programming software or reached writers block on a melody or bassline:

- Take a shower, a walk, go out and get away from it.
- Listen to other people's music; new genres and styles that you wouldn't normally listen to, and hear the intricacies of the music and the production styles.
- Drugs.
- Just write a bunch of different basslines or drum grooves, make a LOT. Make them awesome. But don't worry about the melody. Save them and come back later; nothing feel's better than wanting to make a new track, and already having part of it laid out. This way your creativity can immediately jump right into the melody.

Good luck and don't let it get you down, and don't force it.

*Edit

Forgot the best advice: download new drum samples and instruments!*

My music isnt that good. But i usually find a big night out in the city listening to some good djs really helps me come back. Especially when i saw Rank 1, Alphazone and even the prodigy. You hear djs pumping out good tracks and you sort of remember why u started writing music and what originally got u excited about the sorta music your into. I am easily influenced by good djs and go through stages from trance to breakbeat to hard trance to a bit of prog and back to trance. But i guess its different for everyone.

The biggest trouble that I have with making tracks is figuring out where they should go next. I can normally bang out a melody, bassline, chord progression, etc. without much work, but once I've gotten those down, and put together some fitting synths, I tend to blank on how to begin the track. Once I've started, though, I keep on hitting impasses as to which element I should introduce next or how I should introduce said element. I'll often find myself sitting on these problems for weeks before I ever make any progress on a track. Getting away from the track definitely helps. So does listening to the work of others.

quote:

Originally posted by thoughtlessjex The biggest trouble that I have with making tracks is figuring out where they should go next. I can normally bang out a melody, bassline, chord progression, etc. without much work, but once I've gotten those down, and put together some fitting synths, I tend to blank on how to begin the track. Once I've started, though, I keep on hitting impasses as to which element I should introduce next or how I should introduce said element. I'll often find myself sitting on these problems for weeks before I ever make any progress on a track. Getting away from the track definitely helps. So does listening to the work of others.

haha, today I happened to be teaching my friend music theory, and I drew this very serious and articulate map out for him. And now, I will share it with you.



There we go, problem solved!

quote:

That's all well and good for a general outline, but I'm talking the finer details. I.e. do I bring in the pad next, or the lead? If I bring the pad, do I fade it in with volume or a filter, or do I put in a really neat fill and have the pad burst in immediately afterward? Believe it or not, that stuff eats me up a lot.

hey mates,

I think your advices helped me to go over it I spent a day out on bicycle with a friend, we rode over 40 km hehe, when I came back my body was pretty tired, but my mind was in the state "I should lay down some ideas"

Also today in the morning I experimented with the ideas I layed down yesterday and hey HERE IT IS it's only about a 20 secs sample, with a melody a bass and pads...but I think it sounds good, still lots of work on it, but I hope now I'll be able to get this finished

THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR KIND REACTIONS

and feel free to send more...we should all know how to cope with these blocks...

btw...I think drugs don't solve much...

quote:

Originally posted by thoughtlessjex That's all well and good for a general outline, but I'm talking the finer details. I.e. do I bring in the pad next, or the lead? If I bring the pad, do I fade it in with volume or a filter, or do I put in a really neat fill and have the pad burst in immediately afterward? Believe it or not, that stuff eats me up a lot.

There is no guideline for this, you figure this out while changing things on your track and determing what sounds better, and than changing again, and again, and again, till you think: "yes it should be this way"

quote:

Originally posted by BOOsTER Also today in the morning I experimented with the ideas I layed down yesterday and hey HERE IT IS it's only about a 20 secs sample, with a melody a bass and pads...but I think it sounds good, still lots of work on it, but I hope now I'll be able to get this finished

Yeah i like it very much, great melodic sequence... Only the melody needs a little tweaking

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