I don't know what it is but lately I just can't make anything. Everytime I feel like I'm in the mood for producing, and I sit down and load up Reason, nothing comes to me and I get bored and go and do something else. It's annoying me because I know I want to make music... It's hard to explain really, but basically I just feel like something just isn't there.

It's been since January that I finished a tune (so it doesn't just seem to be a short-term thing, like a bad DJing patch ), since then I've not made anything at all save for a couple of little 2-minute long, weird messing about tunes. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with the whole production thing, even though making trance/electronic music has always been one of my biggest ambitions.



So what do you guys do when you're lacking inspiration? Just not even go near producing for a while? Or keep hammering away at it? Or get "real fucking high on drugs"

Thanks...
-Simon

Its called the producers block i get it alot.

Some causes of these symptoms can be many things.

Intimidation meaning u feel whatever you are making isnt up to par or not good enough
(you said u delete tracks after 2 minutes constantly)

For this dont abandon those tracks try and make them sound better what i usually do is scrap all tracks in progress and start fresh with a clean palete.

Problem with reason is no vstsupport so its not like u can download new instruments to make it more exciting and for more insperation.

Other reasons may just be that your poisoning your self with trance try other styles and if what uyr making doesnt sound like trance and its causing u to trash the track.DONT

becuase embracing a new found style will make you unique it often happens to producers after they start to learn and experience more.

Take my advice stay away from the drugs

shit man, im in the same boat completely right now. ive sat at the screen for hours and even just tried to belt out some nice sounds on a nord rack...nothing. this is the longest its gone on for me, been like a week or two. eventually it will pass. but it is more than frustrating, i know.

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Like i said dont get intimidated by other tracks alotta people try to sound as good as what they hear and then find themselves stumped.

try running your fingers over the keys abit punching a bass line.That always gets me going.

I'm having Producers Block right now also, 3 months ago I was producing good stuff, but now I can't make any leads, so I program synths to get good sounds and whenever I feel inspired I'll load my presets and come up with something good.

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Writing should come naturally so dont force it... Secondly just write what you are "feeling" at the time... dont try and *think* of a melody... *feel* it...

Its the only advice I can give you

exactly feel it thats the key.That is what makes this a art.I dont consider myself a producer i consider myself a artist.Electronic music is a art we are not told that we need a specific tune for brittany spears to do vocals to we produce for ourselves.

Its like painting a pictrue u need insperation alotta times depression or anger can motivate u to produce things.

Pissed off at any one lately?

use the energy to create and you will feel much better when your done.

I mean when im pissed its bizzare i can belt out this angry tune that would make steven king shit in his pants.

then when im in love or meet a nice girl i always make a softer tune especially when im happy i live on a lake so the view alone keeps me happy for insperation i just look out my window.

the birds the trees the water the grass aven the asshole next door with his big ass lawn mower.

it all helps see right now im thinking of that movie

The Lawnmower Man

im gonna make some evil acid magic happen

I dunno if this will help, but..

Try to aproach a new track in a different way than you're used to. If you always start off with creating some interesting leads, try to create a nice bassline first. Make a good beat going, experiment with different keys etc. I always start off with getting the groove the way I want first, then I experiment with other stuff. For me, that's the best way. When I get producers block, I won't touch cubase. I wait until I get an idea going in my head. Forcing it will only kill the charm of it all, and it's true - it's an artform, and should be treated like just that!

Cheers

Yeah, if I sit down and don't come up with anything at that moment, I let it go and shut it down. I usually have something in mind and go and lay it down instead of opening the program and wait. I never force anything...it's like forcing a girl to like you, LOL.

quote:

Originally posted by RiCo it's like forcing a girl to like you, LOL.

duck-tape and a tree will do the trick

^^^totally missed that comment about a tree - but I guess I never had issue with shortage of girls liking me (ahem ahem)

so, getting back to your question. I'll try to dig up some past posts about this topic, but here's what I do:

1. Hit the gym to clear my head

2. Listen to my favorite sets while working out and pay attention to track details, try to visualize the track. Works magic on 2 levels: 1)not paying as much attention to physical stress 2)I sometimes notice little spices and make mental notes as to what to use in my track.

3. Listen to some old-er music - e.g. your favorite non-trance tracks and see how that music is constructed. inspiration can come from many different angles.

4. forget about leads - make a new patch of your favorite synth. You just may discover a sound that will make your track. Like this one time I found a really weird reverb effect that when combined with a certain LFO pattern resulted in a very cool and unusual arp pattern that I captured for baseline.

5. Remember: DISTORTION IS ART. Pick a patch and try to distort it or FX it or reverb it, you may find sudden inspiration.

6. Experiment: do something you would never do. such as run output of your computer into a synth (if you have hardware synth) and try to process it that way.

7. Go to Guitar center and buy a guitar FX pedal - The last thing you should plug into it is a guitar. Try running your sound through it. You'd be surprise what kind of sick sh!t you can come up with. I once ran a kick drum and snare layer through guitar pedal - hhhoooooly shnikes! I could literally feel the punch in my stomach each time it kicked.

so, overall have fun. when you run out of ideas - play a video game.

don't worry - this too shall pass.

As promissed Thread 1

Thread 2

as you can see - this is quite common...