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-- Why do some guys hit the ground running and others spend years and fail?
Why do some guys hit the ground running and others spend years and fail?
I cant remember which producer i saw interviewed but he had no knowledge of production just a non pro friend that got him into it. He was a uni student and ended up giving up uni because he was playing around the world and stuff and he said his dance music success could be limited and could return to his studies after. Anyway he was producing 6 months.
Are some people artistically brilliant and therfore worrying about how many milliseconds to set you compressor to act after the transient of your snare occurs doesnt matter?
Or are some people lucky?
Its taken me 4 years and half a degree and all the passion in the world to get 2 remix's , and one release with support and some plays.
Im not moaning im actually happy with music being in my life in any form just a thought while on the john,
Most likely just the confidence to sit down and do what they think sounds good rather than what they think other people think sounds good.
one word - much like why some guys get hotties and others (who may be quite good looking) don't - CONFIDENCE.
Also, just not being afraid to try. For me, the problem is I'm too scientific in my approach. I have amassed volumes of magazines full of DVDs, videos, demos, also bought books, surfed websites, spent time and money on positioning monitors just right, re-doing my basement for even spacing, installing difusers, AND WASTED SHIT LOAD OF TIME ON TRANCEADDICT - basically participating in "work avoidance".
Anything not to actually produce - fear of failure. What if it's not good enough. what if people won't like it. what if. what if. what if.
Some people go in and say "fuck this". I don't care about LFO / Envelope, filter, oscilator, all this shit. Just tweak it until it sounds good or grab a sound and go to town.
My friend's a soccer coach and he has these 15 - 16 year olds playing for him. One player's little brother - only 11, took an Apple garage band, some sample loop library he bought on fleamarket, a cheap $10 microphone and recorded his own "electronic" song - that was WELL FUCKING DONE. Ok, it wasn't perfect, it had no fancy processing and levels were off - but at 11 he COMPLETED SOMETHING. I've been messing around with synths for over 8 years and I don't have a SINGLE COMPLETED TRACK. Not even a shitty one. Well, perhaps a shitty one that was kinda recorded using my iphone microphone with drums beating same 4/4 beat in background, while I desparately tried to time my midi-disconnected synth's arp to the beat.
The rest of crap on my drive are just pieces. Really long 1 synth compositions, no beat. Just fucking around. Even now, I'm sitting here instead of finishing a track I spent over 20 hours on.
Does that answer it? 
its kinda the same with me like today perfect example I am studying live sound at uni this term and im in a group of total newbs to desks etc guitarists and stuff that dont know what a gate is let alone why to put it on a channel.
They said come on rich show us your stuff your the producer and i pretended i hadnt used the desk before and passed on a opportunity to play on a desk in case i fucked up! WTF
Like right now i got a tune that i spent 3 days on literally best drum work ive ever done but as tonight has gone by I have had it on repeat and convinced myself its awful, when 2 days ago i was gonna send it to the label!
Why do we do it!
Is all about you and your music, your vision of it and how your vision will connect to another people. Some guys are lucky and some are musically brilliant, some will fell some will have to work hard to achieve what some will get without any problem.
I don't think is one specific way to get there and I don't have any prescription on how to be successful but if you do what you love to do and you believe in it the rest doesn't really matter.
Cheers.
I wouldn't worry about it either way, Owl City's another example of someone hitting the ground running and look at the shit he churns out
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Kysora I wouldn't worry about it either way, Owl City's another example of someone hitting the ground running and look at the shit he churns out |
^
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Sonic_c its kinda the same with me like today perfect example I am studying live sound at uni this term and im in a group of total newbs to desks etc guitarists and stuff that dont know what a gate is let alone why to put it on a channel. They said come on rich show us your stuff your the producer and i pretended i hadnt used the desk before and passed on a opportunity to play on a desk in case i fucked up! WTF Like right now i got a tune that i spent 3 days on literally best drum work ive ever done but as tonight has gone by I have had it on repeat and convinced myself its awful, when 2 days ago i was gonna send it to the label! Why do we do it! |
I think being able to put pen to paper. SO many people have great ideas, and can see them right out to the end in mind. Some pay little attention to preparation and churn out the most amazing stuff. Despite this, there are many ways to bringing about an end of course.
There is no sure way..! seek and thee shall find..!
Know the right people.
confidence, luck, timing, style...
some people are just lucky, and some people just happen to come along at the right time...
could be lucky as in hitting onto a tune where things just fit! the parts, the melody just comes naturally etc... all of my good ideas have been luck, and i'm not saying i've been succesful, but it's very easy to see how it could be for some people...
it's all about timing! history shows, in every professional field that it's often the time at which you're doing X that makes you succesful or not... again this is a bit like the 'style' one, labels look for different things at different times, are ready to accept change etc only at specific times...
Darwinism only took off because it came along at the right time.. he didn't pull out this theory out of nowhere and it was a huge success automatically...
some styles also are... not necessarily EASIER to make, but require less 'work' i guess... for example guy i know released a hardtrance tune which actually did really well, and he didn't even know how to automate... 
of course it's about skill as well, but i think we all know there are succesful people who are shit, and there are mindblowingly awesome people who get no credit.
My approach is to spend ages on each track, like hundreds of hours. I've only recently got my set up and decided to push into EDM (although it was a hobby of mine some years ago, but I did'nt do anything with it).
I've noticed a lot of top people spend ages on a track, for example Funkerman and Feede Le Grande are renowned perfectionists that can spend hundreds of hours getting the drums right.
Same for the Freemasons - in a vid last year they were working on a track that had taken them about 5 weeks, working everyday full time.
Also the sucessful German D.O.N.S guys had a vid last year in which they claimied to spend weeks on each track now.
To me it's like this; If there are 1 million bedroom producers and the majority are spending say 30 hours on a track, it's not likely I will do better by spending 30 hours too - why should I, and I cant rely on luck to do the heavy lifting.
I have an obsessive nature and think nothing of listening to the same loop for hours on end until Im happy. I would readily spend 500 hours on a track.
Its early days for me, and my sound is'nt there yet, but I'm thinking maybe the sheer commitment and obsessive nature may help me.
In case you wonder I am dedicated to my family and spend lots of time with my kids every day and I work full time. I manage to squeeze in about 3 hours per night on music, typically 9-12.
I manage about 10+ hours each weekend.
Even if I've driven 300 miles that day and get back at 10 pm, I'd still be on the music at 11.
If I fail, then so be it, but Im not one who belives in general there are short cutz.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Richard Butler My approach is to spend ages on each track, like hundreds of hours. I've only recently got my set up and decided to push into EDM (although it was a hobby of mine some years ago, but I did'nt do anything with it). I've noticed a lot of top people spend ages on a track, for example Funkerman and Feede Le Grande are renowned perfectionists that can spend hundreds of hours getting the drums right. Same for the Freemasons - in a vid last year they were working on a track that had taken them about 5 weeks, working everyday full time. Also the sucessful German D.O.N.S guys had a vid last year in which they claimied to spend weeks on each track now. To me it's like this; If there are 1 million bedroom producers and the majority are spending say 30 hours on a track, it's not likely I will do better by spending 30 hours too - why should I, and I cant rely on luck to do the heavy lifting. I have an obsessive nature and think nothing of listening to the same loop for hours on end until Im happy. I would readily spend 500 hours on a track. Its early days for me, and my sound is'nt there yet, but I'm thinking maybe the sheer commitment and obsessive nature may help me. In case you wonder I am dedicated to my family and spend lots of time with my kids every day and I work full time. I manage to squeeze in about 3 hours per night on music, typically 9-12. I manage about 10+ hours each weekend. Even if I've driven 300 miles that day and get back at 10 pm, I'd still be on the music at 11. If I fail, then so be it, but Im not one who belives in general there are short cutz. |
Some people are just lazy, ie me.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Richard Butler My approach is to spend ages on each track, like hundreds of hours. I've only recently got my set up and decided to push into EDM (although it was a hobby of mine some years ago, but I did'nt do anything with it). I've noticed a lot of top people spend ages on a track, for example Funkerman and Feede Le Grande are renowned perfectionists that can spend hundreds of hours getting the drums right. Same for the Freemasons - in a vid last year they were working on a track that had taken them about 5 weeks, working everyday full time. Also the sucessful German D.O.N.S guys had a vid last year in which they claimied to spend weeks on each track now. To me it's like this; If there are 1 million bedroom producers and the majority are spending say 30 hours on a track, it's not likely I will do better by spending 30 hours too - why should I, and I cant rely on luck to do the heavy lifting. I have an obsessive nature and think nothing of listening to the same loop for hours on end until Im happy. I would readily spend 500 hours on a track. Its early days for me, and my sound is'nt there yet, but I'm thinking maybe the sheer commitment and obsessive nature may help me. In case you wonder I am dedicated to my family and spend lots of time with my kids every day and I work full time. I manage to squeeze in about 3 hours per night on music, typically 9-12. I manage about 10+ hours each weekend. Even if I've driven 300 miles that day and get back at 10 pm, I'd still be on the music at 11. If I fail, then so be it, but Im not one who belives in general there are short cutz. |
my approach is to visit beaches in sydney till i run into Armin chillin there with the mrs and then i'll give him my songs
hahaha
Ever since I had the thought of how Trance (In general) was made , to researching and getting hold of FL , I have took a lot in and also ignored much of things said in here.
I picked up things through tutorials and guides but the melody aspect of things was much different for me.
At first like all noobs I just wrote melodies in the piano roll with a mouse.But then I invested in the Hardware and I am now picking up theory slowly but surely and 'hopefully!' writing better and better tunes as I go along.
As of the production side , I now know what is what and can now pretty much understand what process does what.
I think the threads such as ''What hz should my bass be ?'' and ''Why wont my ultramaximised compresser double sidechained bus master sound like Armin?'' dont help at all.
You could say im a complete musical production illitarist.
I couldnt tell you what Hz my bass is or what multiband superdooperizer setting my synths are on?
All I know is that I have Input-Mix/Mod-Filter-LFO-Amp.
And if I change these I get different sounds that suit or I make to suit a particular melody or sequence.
I know that FX give good drive to a song which therefore makes it enjoyable to listen.
Ive also listened to trance since I was 11 years old ( which was about 16 years ago now!)And I know what structure I want my productions to be.
Sorry to ramble on.....but here is my point....
I think other than Mr.Mystery's very valid point of its not what you know but who you know , there is alot of far too technical producers out there who post meaningless posts about figures and overused techniques to which most people reply 'DOES IT SOUND GOOD?' ,
in which the threads usually go dead.
So finally...... lol
I think other than being Tiesto's dogsitter , people who land on there feet tend to be more in touch with a scene than someone with a laptop and a mouse and a head full of confusion and figures.
Personally , well produced doesnt mean a whole lot to me.
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