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2010 Retrospective / 2011 Plans
Looks like it's time for the annual look back at the year, and look forward to our plans for the upcoming year.
My year had its ups and downs in terms of musical output, but I started working with two new singers, Mia Valo and Heather Kelle, and together with Aliciya Angel we've begun working on an album.....finally. Doing a lot less EDM these days, though, and I'm getting back more to my roots - more of a downtempo to triphop style blending electronica with organic sounds.
On the studio side, I made a New Year's resolution last year to downsize overall, by replacing a lot of my gear with fewer, but better, synths and front-end recording gear. In retrospect, I made a good choice and I've pretty much kept the same gear throughout the year.
For 2011, my plan is to finish off my first album before summer, and that's about as far ahead as I'm looking right now.
Great idea! I find it really motivating just to answer threads like this.
I have been wanting to do something for a long time now but its going to be an extremely tedious procedure due to the amount of sounds I have. I've been avoiding it ever since I started and it will help me immensely with production/saving time.
All the sounds I have were downloaded OCD style like you might expect any newbie to do. But I did it A LOT, and have probably downloaded every bank/preset known to exist. For z3ta alone I have thousands of sounds, albino, rapture.. really any established synth. Now I also have 8 years of my own programmed patches, saved right beside every nonprogrammed patch. Sometimes if I'm bored and not feeling creative I'll sit down for a few hours just pressing "randomnize" and saving patches that have potential. And the problem is I have SO MANY sounds I never use, but hate deleting them too.
The fact is I waste sooo much time now scanning through the same sounds that I never wind up using. Over and over I do it. Its the same thing really with samples too. I think at least 60% of the sounds I have in total (likely 75%) can be trashed, but in a stupid way I consider them all valuable.
Its not about ability to recreate the same sounds its specific characters I feel I might need in the future that I can't program myself... so I guess it is about ability to program lol. Practically speaking I really think its neccessary and will force a higher level of cohesion in my tracks. The problem gets a bit complicate though because I have things like a sample pack all dedicated to natural sounds (cars, backgrounds, animals, weather, sports, mechnical, etc) and although I NEVER use them, they sound too god to trash. The problem is though my attention is still distracted while trying to not be closed minded and it wastes time. Like "hmm maybe a flushing toliet would sound cool in this track?" WTF, I need to lose this sound seperation anxiety and just seriously clean up my collection.
I've seen your threads about GAS cryo but I think SSA is also a legitimate disorder. Just that you won't lose your house over it or stop eating because you bought a synth instead of food. Still am trying to get rid of it this year though. We'll see how it goes.
i am going to get my tracks played monthly on ASOT/GDJB/TATW then become the new dj tiesto by 2012.
Starting a new label that in a few months will shock and exceed any expectation.
Fuck overcoming GAS, I plan on suffering from it for most of 2011
Until I get out of school which should be around Nov of next year, most of my focus is going to be on touching up old projects to get them to sound better (Which I have been doing). And once in awhile DJ mixing it up.
Make more than three minutes of music this time around. 
Lessons learned: Must get better gear.
Plan: Obey the GAS.
I've just redid my template and I think it's going to allow me to work more efficiently.
-Set Axiom 49 Classic to Preset 19
-Create all purpose "Channel Strip" with 24db Low Pass High Pass and Attack and Release for SPL Transient Designer
-Every channel Gets Strip and Utility
-Set up four groups: Drums(except for kick), Bass, Synths, FX
-Dedicated fader for each group
-Color Code all tracks
-Dedicated SC channel
-groups routed to pre master channel
-analyzer with custom settings on master
- tilde jumps to analyzer
- 32,8,4,2 phrase markers defined by midi clips
-Sampler 128s for kicks, claps, op cl hats, rimshots
-The Clap sampler is grouped for easier layering
In 2010 I was amazing, and in 2011 I plan to make an improvement.
The real plan is to finish one complete track each month, ready for release. Whether I bother to release it or not is another matter.
2010 was a good year business wise, but musically absolutley terrible,
I finished one track (gulp) but thats all I could even muster as my NDA's only expire in 2011. This means I can finally make some music without having to ask for permission as they own it (yes anything I make, even at home, while working for them).
It will be nice to have some freedom in that respect but in fairness I'll miss the work so I gain one thing and lose another.
As for kit. No plans, apart from some much needed mopads and and passive volume control.
My main drive is to really learn my plugs inside out, especially waves fx, and my preferred softsynths. The ultimate goal is to have a very small number of plugs I use devoutly and know seamlessly.
Re: 2010 Retrospective / 2011 Plans
| quote: |
| Originally posted by cryophonik more of a downtempo to triphop style blending electronica with organic sounds. |
2010 - got first equipment, learnt a lot, made some tracks..
plans for 2011:
-continue improving skills, musical knowledge, etc.
-spend more time actually producing
-focus on getting a release
-if possible get some nice equipment
-buy a soundcloud account
-get active here
bleh..
Re: Re: 2010 Retrospective / 2011 Plans
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Owsey2008 I'm really pleased with my 2010. |
2011
-Get my first track released
-Work on DJing
-Get my first live gig.
-Do an ambient track
-Make more music!
2010 was nice. I could have done more if i had more outlets.
2011 will be awesome. A get busy year...
In the first few months got things across 4 seperate releases on 2 Labels. Just finished mixing a track thats coming solely on a compilation. Overall..a track on a split EP with some other artists, A Remix on Vinyl, the track on the Compilation, and then an EP on Vinyl. All stuff for labels that have been doing great things, and months in the making.
Maybe start looking for a few gigs around mid to late 2011. Hopefully another EP or two later in 2011, as new steamy material has been slowly piling up on me. Hopefully more remix work, as I seem to be decent at them, having just finished my second remix not to long ago and getting good response about it.
And definately more gear...synths, compressors, good sounding pieces. With great sound, the possibilities are endless.
One good thing out of 2010. I wrote, recorded, and produced an original Alternative Rock track with vocals, thanks to Mia Vilo and cryophonik. I also did a metal remix of that same track. I have a few more Alt Rock vocal tracks that will be recorded soon, so 2011 looks promising in that area.
I just looked at beatport, in 2010 I released 4 EPs, 1 single, and 4 remixes. Several of my tracks were featured on Green Martian compilations. One of those compilations was "Green Martian - Best of 2K10". Seems like I accomplished more than I thought I did, but I received zero Buzz about it all, for the most part. It's like playing for a silent audience. My tracks are pirated far and wide, all over blogs and file sharing websites. Some of my tracks were uploaded to youtube, there were a few positive comments there. The attention is good, but I'm jaded now, I want something more out of this. I mean, is this all there is? Not one dime, your label releases available for free all over the internet, hardly a peep of recognition from anyone, known or unknown. It feels very empty.
I got away from EDM for a while, but now I'm in the mood to produce some vocal house/club tracks. I'm tired of instrumentals, tired of listening to them too. Hopefully I can get inspired to write some vocal house tracks, if not, the label probably won't see much from me next year. In this last month I've finished 2 house tracks, and partially completed a prog trance track and a house track, but I'm not sure I want to release them, I'm just not feeling it.
I need to figure out where I want to go, what I want to do next. I am concentrating on songwriting, and I would like to do that professionally some day. I'm pretty discouraged at this point, I feel like I'm getting nowhere, and since I'm 43, there's not much time to get anything going. A gloomy, depressing year end and start for the new year.
Well, I did a couple of remixes this year. Most of my output went to my website InsideMixes. It's been good to have a few sales through there.
Currently and for the next little while I'm enjoying trying to recreate some of my favorite heavy songs (Metallica, Rammstein, Pantera, Kreator, Stuck Mojo, Nirvana etc) and learn how to put together some really good sounding heavy mixes. Quite a bit different to mixing trance, so I'm looking forward to learning heaps!
2010 was exhausting:
- jan to april I was studying in sweden - every day of the week.
- April moved back to Finland
- April to June I drove 125km twice a day to and from work.
- June I got local job.
- In september I became full time.
Late 2010 I switched to dark side (Mac/logic maybe i should upgrade sonar too). Also upgraded and bought some gear.
2011 to do list:
- Buy an apartment
- Go to a vacation (first time in three and a half years). Somewhere like Laos, Cambodia, Bali/Lombok ...
- Have fun and socialize with friends
- Learn more skills: Logic, sampling ...etc.
- Produce more experimental stuff.
- Finish some tracks.
(- buy more eurorack modules.)
For me '10 was about releasing my album, busy at work, shifting gear back and forth. Deciding who i want to be and where my music fits.
In a few weeks I will become daddy again, that's our most impressive upgrade 
I've found a studio buddy with the same camp taste in EDM as i do and i've decided not to try to make "me too" trance/Tech/Minimal anymore, but just what i like and what feels good to me/us. Not taking myself too seriously anymore. Face it, there is no money to be made in EDM, So let then as well enjoy the ride
I've worked on my production skills and decided where i want to play.
I love producing and engineering and i am a gearslut with a weakness for quality. I've got more than enough synts both ITB and OTB, so decided to invest a bit more in some nice outboard dynamics and I am happy.
Got the label "Alien Disco Records" sorted out and we got 8-10 tracks in several stages lined up in order to release in '11
Will hopefully release a 2nd album as well. And focus a bit more on my mastering services, while still having my little circle of loyal customers,I didn't do a very good job of marketing my services in '10. No aspirations for DJ'ing or gigs. Just let me be the guy in the room behind the knobs and i am happy
2010 was a great year, I had three releases, and one remix. It was my most productive year to date. To not get myself lazy, I'll try to make at least two projects (bootlegs, originals, and worst case scenario, an edit) a week to be productive.
2011, I have a new PC coming soon, and that should make my workflow smoother. It's just not fun making music on my current computer. I'm also expanding my ears, and expanding my sound. I'm a house and techno producer and I dabble with other shades of electronic music, but I'll experiment in hip-hop, pop and maybe even rock. I think I m a rarity in that I'm a house producer who's only influences are from club land. I always see in interviews that many producers have eclectic tastes.
2011 kit will see some midi controllers, maybe a Maschine, a laptop for possible live PA stuff, and a virus. MMMM...virus.
oooaaiaiiiaooo
| quote: |
| Originally posted by tehlord In 2010 I was amazing, and in 2011 I plan to make an improvement. The real plan is to finish one complete track each month, ready for release. Whether I bother to release it or not is another matter. |
Had my first 'proper' release this year: a 3-track EP under the name of a project I'm calling Jargon. Well actually it's out officially on 1st Jan 2011, but it was signed and the promos went out this year and it's already on Beatport... so that's a major step for me.
In 2011 I really just need to up the pressure. I've only been spending a few hours producing every 2 or 3 weeks recently and I've got so much unfinished stuff I want to finish. In creative/technical terms, I want to spend more time and effort on sound design. I think I'm doing the right things, just need to do more of it!
I've also been properly selling out by producing some pop tracks for a vocalist I know, which I'm going to carry on with as it's been great experience. Also hoping to work with more vocalists in 2011 - both pop/commercial for the experience and more underground... I've got various ideas of fairly leftfield/quirky vocals I want for my own tracks.
No immediate plans for any new kit, spent enough this year - and the Mackie HR824s I've just added should keep me excited for a couple of months!
My goal for 2010 was to get a small record release and that didn't happen but I learned more in the last year than I have the past 3 it seems!
I also just re-did my template in Logic and started routing stuff to busses and grouping tracks together, really does give me a better more controlled sound. That being said 2011 I will get my release that I didn't get this year 
I also just moved into a new house coming from a loft and I now have my own room for a studio, I've never had my own space I've always been in the corner of the living room or something. So it seems that my skills have came together, I have a new space, all the kit I need I think so 2011 should be a good year if I can stay motivated and focused.
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