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-- Do you ever get the urge to just throw in the towel?
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Do you ever get the urge to just throw in the towel?

Uninstall the software, delete the project files, the finished tracks, the samples and synth banks, sell off the synthesizers, mics, and audio interfaces?

In a word: no.

and i have been producing for 6 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift and i have been producing for 6 years.

I have been going for about the same amount of time and sometimes I get to a point where I just want to toss everything and find some other hobby. But then I think I would probably get an urge to attempt to make music again soon enough.

A few months ago I tried to imagine what I would feel if my computer simply disappeared, or if I just tossed it in the garbage bin one day. One of the feelings I imagined was a profound sense of relief and freedom, a burden lifting off of me.

Re: Do you ever get the urge to just throw in the towel?

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Uninstall the software, delete the project files, the finished tracks, the samples and synth banks, sell off the synthesizers, mics, and audio interfaces?

I did that once about 7 years ago. I took a 4 year hiatus. When I came back, I learned more in a shorter period of time. While it is true that there were more resources to learn at that time, I was really motivated to improve as a producer. Now I'm going on my 4th year since coming back and I'm still happy. The scene has changed, the music has changed, the equipment has changed, but the basics are still the same. FOr me, it all comes down to "Can you be a good songwriter?" Without that, nothing else matters.

Why did you take the break, and why did you decide to come back?

My advice to you is to just take a break. I assume you are feeling uninspired at the moment and thats normal. Sometimes I take breaks up to 3 months is which is usually the longest, but average is about 1 to 1 1/2 and during that time I focus on usually either DJing or listening to other styles of music.

Another remedy is to try and produce other styles of music that are out of the norm for you so you can learn different styles and production techniques. Like say when I feel uninspired for trane maybe ill produce house or ambient. I like to stick to genres that can possibly enhance my style of my main genre.

My 2 cents.

It's not exactly that I feel uninspired. I've been trying to write stuff, and succeeding to some extent. It's mainly that I'm really starting to doubt that what I get -- and will get, ever -- out of this hobby is anywhere close to the effort I put into it. Sometimes I think I am like a dwarf who is practicing basketball really hard every day and deluding himself that he can make it into the NBA.

ive only been doing it for a couple of years so i guess its not the same but still..

i can only produce on weekends so if i miss a weekend i get withdrawals lol

edit: so no ...

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Why did you take the break, and why did you decide to come back?

Well its kind of a long story, but the "short" version is this:

I was hooked up with a DJ crew in Dallas for quite some time in the early to mid 90's. We were very successful and I actually helped to build a name for myself not only through DJing but with a very successful website centered around the "rave/club" scene in the Texas/Southwest US area. As most DJ's do, I started producing a few years after DJing, and got my first release in 2001. Shortly after that, I basically got screwed over by the DJ production company I had been hooked up with. After the bad experience with the DJ company and people who I thought were my friends, I just stopped everything. DJing, producing, everything, I was very, very disgusted with the whole thing. I still listened, but that was the extent of my involvement.

After a couple of years, I started making mixed CD's again (this was right about the time mp3 started becoming the norm and record shops were closing down). At first I started making "classic" CD's with all my old vinyl, most of which are still on my site. I used Sony ACID to make the mixed CD's all on the computer, which helped me out a lot with getting to know how to edit audio files. At first i just gave them out to friends, but they were pretty popular ,so I started posting them on my website.

Eventually I switched to Ableton Live 4 for mixing CD's and decided that I may want to start messing around with production again. I bought a copy of Reason and started messing around with that. It was fairly easy for me to get back into it, as I had experience from before. After a while, I still had some of my old hardware synths, so I hooked those back up and upgraded to Cubase. By this time, the Internet was prolific enough to where I could ask questions and get information about producing in a way that just wasn't available back in the 2000 time frame. I got more and more back into it, and, well, here I am. I've actually hooked back up with my old label and since release a couple of tracks on that same label. I have now got CD decks again, and I'm back to producing in my free time again.

The break was good for me to be sure, but a lot of what changed had more to do with the technology changing, the scene changing and the people changing. I dont have any aspirations of being a globe-trotting DJ or anything like that, but I'm the kind of person who needs to have some type of project going on at all times. I have a day job, a house and a mortgage, and a wife, so I'm not planning on changing this from a hobby anytime. That being said, I really love doing this, and the better i get, the more motivated I get. I'm happy to get a few releases per year, and if I can parlay that into the occassional DJ gig as well, then that would be fine as well.

I still have periods where i will stop producing for 4-8 weeks at a time, just to get away from it and immerse myself in something mindless, like video games. The problem with that type of stuff is its very unfulfilling at the end of the day. I like to look back at the end of a day and feel like I accomplished something, and video games dont really do that for me. For me, this will always be a (semi-pro) hobby, because once you start making money off of this stuff, it turns into a job, and I want to avoid that at all costs.

Yeah, I don't have any aspirations to make it a full-time job, either. When I referred to the "NBA" in my metaphor, I meant meeting my own standards by writing stuff that I think can stand alongside my favorite artists. Not necessarily making a lot of money or trotting the globe.

Yes. I simply do not have the time for it anymore.

And when I do get some hours off the last thing I want to do is sit in front of the computer. At this moment I'm not sure I want to keep producing... but then again it's not the first time I've felt that way.

I have taken months off before, but that was because I was busy with other stuff, not because I had simply gotten sick of trying to make music. This is the first time I've really felt like just giving it all up.

I take breaks all the time. I think they are necessary. I know I for one can burn out very easily and have done just that several times. As long as you are enjoying it thats all that matters.

Nope...just got my debut EP out on Rebirth, it keeps getting better from here for me. And recently bought a small analogue mixer Fixing to pick up some analogue compressors next, currently working on a Remix for Rebirth, and also some new demos for a couple quality labels. I'm hungry as ever to make music.

Ive not really quit, but I have lost all of my stuff before. I have like 10 songs that all I have left is low bitrate mp3s, and those I got from the net after I had uploaded them.

Putting aside the fact that I've never made anything worth sharing, I've purposely deleted all the files off my hard drive several times.

Try it - if you're not satisfied with the material there's nothing lost.

It is indeed a burden lifted.

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Putting aside the fact that I've never made anything worth sharing, I've purposely deleted all the files off my hard drive several times. Try it - if you're not satisfied with the material there's nothing lost. It is indeed a burden lifted.

Losing my old files in a hard drive crash a couple of years ago was actually the best thing that happened to me productionwise. It forced me to sort of reinvent myself. If it hadn't happened I'd probably still be recycling the same patches and ideas over and over again.

I never have and never will burnout. But I understand I was made to create music and love it with all of myself. I have a perfect job scenario and money to invest into it and realize I have been incredibly lucky in every aspect of not only music but life as well.

My past obsession/job/hobby was very similar to music and I think it helped me greatly in the mental areas. There are days with music where I just can't do shit. Once I accepted that and stopped trying to force through it I was fine. If I have a day where i'm not feeling it I immediately drop everything music related and take the day off; and I get all anxious at night while i'm laying in bed thinking of all the ideas for the next day.

It kind of sucks. I miss the days when I didn't know how everything was created in tracks. Everything has lost it's luster now. I still get satisfaction from edm and producing but I don't get really moved by it anymore because I know everything that is happening technically within a track. The exception to this is when I get drunk or smoke a bowl and then listen to music. It then is like the old days.

What i'm getting at is this. Music means different things to everyone. I think you just need to find what it is you're looking for within music.

I once did that. I had lot's of hardware gear and one day i just got tired doing music. I sold my stuff and i've regretted that decision ever since. Mostly I miss my TB-303 :C Few years went by and then I wanted to start making music again. Different style though.

yep i dont the same had some hardware gear like my moog and sold all of them. stopped for about 5 years, been producing again about 2 years but started to kick off again and loving every minute of it.

Got some new vst's etc and going to start buying hardware again.

quote:

Originally posted by Specimen303 Mostly I miss my TB-303

D'oh! If I had a TB303 I'd never sell it even if I sold everything else.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Losing my old files in a hard drive crash a couple of years ago was actually the best thing that happened to me productionwise. It forced me to sort of reinvent myself. If it hadn't happened I'd probably still be recycling the same patches and ideas over and over again.

Same here, I've lost my source files multiple times and it never held me back. Last crash made me go legal as well which I consider to be a very good thing.

Every once in a while I take a break, but I could never stop. Everytime I walk into my tiny studio room I smile and realise I'm quite proud and fond of the stuff I've collected over the years. (Nord rack 2 should be coming in tomorrow or next week )

Big +1 to starting from scratch. I've been on a break since last year but finally finding some time to start up again soon and I'm in the process of putting in a new HDD. That means old project files are going into storage and I'm starting from scratch.

Getting Cubase 5 this weekend should also reinvigorate me.

Sold all my hardware when we started a family, then itched for a few years and now am back in and love it immensely - I never get bored, and have never found anything else that holds me like production.

Only problem is it's eating into my time, and I'm finding midnight sessions are now 7 daus per week and I'm getting tired as I run a business and am very familty orientated plus do martial arts and excercise every day so I'm getting a bit fucked-up lately.

Problem for me is I seem to work so slow - or is that normal? I mean just hour after hour night after night tweaking the bass, the kikc sound, the lead etc etc, on and on.

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