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Needing inspiration.

I'm working on a new prog house 7 track album at the moment and I just can't find any inspiration. The lack of it is making things unmotivating.

Can anybody shed some light on the matter and help me find some?

Go get some tracks from Beatport. I just bought like 70 tracks, more than half Progressive House. There is tons of good stuff out there.

Re: Needing inspiration.

quote:

Originally posted by Kage_ I'm working on a new prog house 7 track album at the moment and I just can't find any inspiration. The lack of it is making things unmotivating. Can anybody shed some light on the matter and help me find some?

If you're having a problem with motivation its usually because you have no clear cut goals to go after or your goals are to broad and undefined.

Instead of focusing on making a new 7 tracks album focus on a 1 track album.
Then focus on the track.
Then focus on what you want to do differently with that track.
Then outline how you're gonna do it.

The more specific you make a goal usually the more resources (in your head and outside your head) you will find.
Kind like a vacation spot.
You can tell yourself "I wanna go on vacation to a foreign country" and not be inspired because it means nothing.

If you tell yourself "I want to go to Aruba, and go parasailing" then you'll naturally start feeling more motivated. So I think the real issue a lot of times can be not having a clear map of what you want to do and where you want to end up.

Re: Needing inspiration.

quote:

Originally posted by Kage_ I'm working on a new prog house 7 track album at the moment and I just can't find any inspiration. The lack of it is making things unmotivating. Can anybody shed some light on the matter and help me find some?

Just make music without thinking about what you are going to make, make some drums, import some synths and sounds.
Then let the sounds you use decide what music you are going to make rather than going in with an too clear picture of what you want to make.
In other words let the sounds tell you how the music is going to progress, then you could maybe find out that a 7 track prog house album isnt really what you want to make.

I want to make a psy trance album, but it just doesnt happen so id rather make some prog trance like stuff instead because that actually works out

So one day when you are messing with sounds you might get the right timing and inspiration to do a prog house choon, but until then.. put your mind into a blank page.

Thanks for the wise words, guys.

What ever you do...never make music on adderall. You will become fixated on one thing and fuck with it for 8 hours and at the end of the night you will be right back where you started.

quote:

Originally posted by Bayou Boy What ever you do...never make music on adderall. You will become fixated on one thing and fuck with it for 8 hours and at the end of the night you will be right back where you started.

I tend to do that without adderall, at times.

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Originally posted by Kage_ I tend to do that without adderall, at times.

One thing I have learned lately is do not be afraid to ditch a part if it is not working. I have written some great parts, that for one reason or another, just did not fit within the context of the track. Instead of spending hours trying to get either the part to fit or the rest of the track to fit around the part, I'll usually just ditch it and start on a new part. It helps alot with your completion percentage.

haha...yeah I hear ya. I get into the same rut sometimes. It's weird...all it takes is getting a few things clicking, and then you are off to the races. At least thats how it usually works for me. I'll bang on something for a few weeks and then...bam...it all start to come together.

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Originally posted by Eric J One thing I have learned lately is do not be afraid to ditch a part if it is not working. I have written some great parts, that for one reason or another, just did not fit within the context of the track. Instead of spending hours trying to get either the part to fit or the rest of the track to fit around the part, I'll usually just ditch it and start on a new part. It helps alot with your completion percentage.

This is an absolutely essential thing to so, if you keep a no good part for too long it becomes so much a part of the track that you come to the point of no return.
One should be careful on settling with stuff that sounds "okey" and if you do, you better have something else that sounds awesome or great to compensate.

Inspiration is a fancy title given to hard work after the sweat dries up.

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Originally posted by DigiNut Inspiration is a fancy title given to hard work after the sweat dries up.

I have no idea what you mean by that, but it sure sounded funny.

things come together much faster on a bit of a caffiene and ginseng high

a couple albums that gave me inspiration:
Trentmoller - The Last Resort
Hybrid - Soundsystem 01


Mostly due to the sound fx and percussion panned across the stereo image...

Listen to lots of progressive and hybrid genres!

Make the composition in a midi or score editor first. If you have a song and all you need is to apply synths to it, its WAY easier than if you have nothing at all and you have to think about everything.

Think about composition then think about sounds, not at the same time.

Go outside. Look at faces as people drive by on their way somewhere, and wonder where they are going. Look at images of poverty and hopelessness, and try to write a soundtrack to them. Go somewhere where there is a lot of people, crowds, and just watch people as they pass their time. Think about a second and what it means to lose that one second. Make your desktop something full of abstract lines or colors for a month, and then the next month make it something dark. Inspiration should not always come from music. When I create I hardly ever think about another piece of music, I try to write soundtracks for different memories, places, rooms, emotions, and so on. I think about life and my past experiences, and those small memories of things that stand out. Life should always inspire you to create something, and when your not inspired, do something out of your ordinary routine, or change something that is constant around you.

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Originally posted by Kismet7 Go outside. Look at faces as people drive by on their way somewhere, and wonder where they are going. Look at images of poverty and hopelessness, and try to write a soundtrack to them. Go somewhere where there is a lot of people, crowds, and just watch people as they pass their time. Think about a second and what it means to lose that one second. Make your desktop something full of abstract lines or colors for a month, and then the next month make it something dark. Inspiration should not always come from music. When I create I hardly ever think about another piece of music, I try to write soundtracks for different memories, places, rooms, emotions, and so on. I think about life and my past experiences, and those small memories of things that stand out. Life should always inspire you to create something, and when your not inspired, do something out of your ordinary routine, or change something that is constant around you.

^ dont follow that you will make sucky musics.

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Originally posted by cronodevir Make the composition in a midi or score editor first. If you have a song and all you need is to apply synths to it, its WAY easier than if you have nothing at all and you have to think about everything.

Dont agree on that fully.

Just take a bass sound, then let a kickdrum run or not.
Then just play notes on your keyboard until you get something that sounds decent or good.

Process repeat for other sounds as well as you move along, this way you will feel what to do more, than just pointing and clicking.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle Dont agree on that fully. Just take a bass sound, then let a kickdrum run or not. Then just play notes on your keyboard until you get something that sounds decent or good. Process repeat for other sounds as well as you move along, this way you will feel what to do more, than just pointing and clicking.

Yes but, this will sound very blunt.

That isn't how music is made. Sitting and randomly clicking won't produce 4-5 harmonic sets in harmonic and/or melodic form. Now I do realize this is a trance forum, and lets face it, most trance is very very simple. But still getting into the habit of writing [or learning to be able to] music before you enter the studio is very good.

Every band ive met [quite a few] don't just go into the studio and start playing random stuff. A writer actually sits and composes each part for each instrument, before a single sound is ever made.

Its good because it gives you a goal, a plan to look at and put into action. The workflow is very fast when you have that. When you have a checklist and you know what will go where and how it will sound. In my experience I didn't get stuff released only because I didn't have a plan and i would get stuck on something and not know how I want it. Or MORE importantly, I would change my mind in the middle of it on something, and because of that change I had to change something else, after a few days I have an entirely different song.

Music should be made by physically playing an instrument.

Its extremely easy, pick an instrument sound and then choose a key that sounds good and start playing stuff and gathering ideas.

Lol. Making good harmonies doesn't happen that way.

Haven't you ever wondered why there is 0 melodic harmony in trance? Now you know. Most EDM artists have the mind set of "open an instrument and randomly hit keys until it sounds good"

That is like doing math by "randomly hitting numbers in a calculator" Really good music is planned. Catchy music that is remembered for maby 5 or so years is stuff that just "happened"

Look at classical music. Its been 500 years or so for a lot of it and a lot of it is still heard mainstream today. In 25 years not even 0.5% of the trance music made in 2008 will be remembered.

I bet most people here don't even know what Dance 2 Trance is. Spicelab? No clue.

quote:

Originally posted by cronodevir Lol. Making good harmonies doesn't happen that way. Haven't you ever wondered why there is 0 melodic harmony in trance? Now you know. Most EDM artists have the mind set of "open an instrument and randomly hit keys until it sounds good" That is like doing math by "randomly hitting numbers in a calculator" Really good music is planned. Catchy music that is remembered for maby 5 or so years is stuff that just "happened" Look at classical music. Its been 500 years or so for a lot of it and a lot of it is still heard mainstream today. In 25 years not even 0.5% of the trance music made in 2008 will be remembered. I bet most people here don't even know what Dance 2 Trance is. Spicelab? No clue.

Im not going to bother.

If i said the earth was round you would argue that it`s flat.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle Im not going to bother. If i said the earth was round you would argue that it`s flat.

So, you are getting to know him ...

quote:

Originally posted by cronodevir Lol. Making good harmonies doesn't happen that way.

It doesn't? Almost all jazz and blues are at least part improv. And I've known musicians who could do it with classical music too.

The reason why classical composers sat down and wrote it on a score sheet was because there was no other permanent way to record it. If you're in a sequencer environment, you can record everything. It's better than a score sheet because you can just erase or change the parts that don't work.

It helps if you know enough about the theory of composition to be deliberate about the process and not be trying combinations of notes and chords and melodies randomly, but why on earth you would suggest that music needs to be composed with a paper and pencil is beyond me. In the digital age, that's the most inefficient means imaginable.

I don't know what bands you've worked with, but most bands actually produce music by just jamming, and writing down (or even simply memorizing) what worked after the session. Most producers, likewise. Most composers will use score editing software, not an actual score sheet.

Anyway, my original point stands; inspiration doesn't really exist, it's a label you slap on after you've forgotten how much painstaking effort it really took to complete something.

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Anyway, my original point stands; inspiration doesn't really exist, it's a label you slap on after you've forgotten how much painstaking effort it really took to complete something.

That is an interesting view.

I think sort of you could be right, but is not inspiration just simply being confident at what you do in the spur of the moment?

Kinda like simply getting lucky with your sounds at that given time, raising your confident and believes, which just makes you add more and more stuff.. and everything just works!

Certainly not having "inspiration" are the moments where everything you do just doesnt work out, lowering your confidence and believes.. and getting you into a writers block slump.

I can only make good music when i believe in myself at the time, and this varies of course to how the last production sessions has gone, and how well what i try to do works or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle Kinda like simply getting lucky with your sounds at that given time, raising your confident and believes, which just makes you add more and more stuff.. and everything just works! Certainly not having "inspiration" are the moments where everything you do just doesnt work out, lowering your confidence and believes.. and getting you into a writers block slump. I can only make good music when i believe in myself at the time, and this varies of course to how the last production sessions has gone, and how well what i try to do works or not.

Nicely summed up, this definately applies to me

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