To me it sounds like your trying to force making music. This does not work in some context unless your on a deadline and even then you will probably say that was not my best work.

Try different ways of making a track.

I created a track in 3 hours a few days ago, which is almost complete apart from Eq'ing the finer points and some Fx's etc but the arrangement and the elements are there. It's not my usual style that i tend to work with, but i was finding it difficult to do my usual trance so i decided to try another genre.

I'm using Ableton and i'm finding if i work in the session view and build the track in that, i find i can finish a track more easily. then you can add all your fx and fills in the session view where you want them to be.

When i'm working this way i'm only doing small eq adjustments so i don't stop the flow of my work.

Also try and get your idea down first even useing a preset for your bass, then maybe later saying, hmmm i think a dirty bassline would fit better. as you might have some pads and a nice lead in there that you will say you know what this type of bassline would be perfect.

Stop twidling those knobs for your perfect bassline after all it might sound good in solo but shite in the mix. If you have created a cracking bassline then make that the more dominent sound in your track focus on that more. change the bassline's groove so it's always changing. So the punters don't get fed up with it.

So stop punishing yourself as everyone gets stuck in a rut.


Edit: Just so you know it usualy takes me over a month to do a track.

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Last edited by Waza on Feb-18-2010 at 10:36

Ugh!

Honestly, about 90% of the advice here, I'd ignore but between any two of us, I am not sure that either could come to any conclusion about which 90% to ignore. It doesn't really matter, anyway. I do know what works for me and what has worked and has not worked for me in the past. I used to have a metric fuck ton of partially completed tracks. I stopped drinking and started completing tracks. It doesn't make sense for me to tell you to stop drinking. You may do perfectly well for yourself, drunk as hell.

That said, I never, ever have partially finished tracks just sitting around. I start one and finish it and then I'm done with it. I have yet to revisit any one track, apart from the occasional WIP I have put up for the sake of feedback.

If I'm stuck, listening and critiquing other people's work has always helped jog my creative process. Sometimes, however, I'm stuck because I've painted myself into a corner - then as another poster has alluded to - the song has pretty much taken over the song-writing process. I just have to let the song finish itself - sounds very esoteric in a metaphysical sort of way but it's not. It's just relying on intuition as to what to do next.

I listen to every critique. I might not agree with it, at the time, and they may have actually misunderstood the intent of what I was trying to do but I, at least, have a view-point of someone who has expressed an interest in my music. It will be heard in the back of my mind as I'm in the writing process and the challenge isn't to block it out but to just let it become part of the process and to make that other person's advice a part of my own technique. I know it's impossible to please everyone but trying to anyway is part of what I find fun about it.

I listen to my critic's music. The more crap they have in their signature for me to plow through, the more valid their advice. There's always one or more songs or DJ set I need to hear. It puts their criticism into a solid context. Their entitlement markers are also their credentials and if I hate it (I have never hated anything my critics have had to show off) then I can rest assured in discarding their critique as merit-less.

I have no recipes. I only need a rhythm and I'll usually wind up changing it if it's the first thing I start off with. The bottom line is that there are no hard and fast rules I follow with any particular song.

If it doesn't challenge me, it's not worth doing. If I'm not having to compel myself to have multiple takes, I'm not happy. It's when I nail the track I fucked up sorely ten times before that I get my biggest high.

If there is one piece of advice I agree with - have fun. Apart from that, take what you like and leave the rest. Your first post seemed to me about you reclaiming the process and, honestly, I didn't feel any compulsion to put anything down until this thread ballooned up to page four. That's exactly what you need to do - own your process...

...and have fun.

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

Is Robby even following this thread still?

I would hate to see all this writing go to waste,

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Regarding the OP, I was/ still am at that point of frustration. I have been on a 5 year break. Just thinking about starting a new track does not appeal to me anymore. The main reason was comparing my tracks to professional sounds I had wanted to achieve. When I have time again, I will hopefully be back at my noob mentality.

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Phunktronix Mixes

Ok well I have to admit a ton of good did actually come from this thread.
The main thing that changed is when I sit down rather then having a vision of something or a goal, I keep my mind 100% blank.

I also stopped working on the kick/bassline first and I think that was the most important. Sure I'm not happy with the track, theres a lot of parts I felt I had to "cop out" on or otherwise I would have never got past the break.
Even the first 9 bars was a huge cop out because I basically just threw an atmosphere sample in as I wanted something other then drums to bring the kick in.
My original plan was to make a melody out of the pulsing synth that runs through the break, but I tried several different progressions and they all sounded too cheesy so I really didn't do anything.

My only goal was to get farther then the break because I know at that point I can finish a track no matter what. Its not finished but tommorow I'm gonna sit down and add another 1-2 minutes to climax one more time and break, then hopefully I'll have my first finished track in 16months.
All and all listening to it I can't help but focus on the 100s of things I could have done differently, but at some point I need to really just learn how to swallow my ego and finish a track.

It is funny though because ONE THING has changed in my productions immensely and its my basslines, I haven't really done anything but bass for over a year so its interesting to see how much my older tracks were lacking in that area.
I wasn't going to post it but I need to have some confidence in my work regardless of how I feel:
Back to Newbie

When I finish it completely and clean all the sounds up I'll post the last track I finished and this one in its finished version so people can compare, then you can see what 16 months can do to your bassline. Its funny though because technically everything besides the bass/kick is now 16months behind where it should be.

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Sequencers: FL Studio 9XXL & Reason 3.
Main Synth Bass GTs - Pro-53, V-Station, Sytrus, Subtractor, Trilian, Blue, Sylenth & Z3ta.
Main Synth Lead/Pad GTs - Z3ta, Sytrus, Sylenth, Vangard, Albino & Nexus.
Main FXs GTs - Waves Plugins, Soundtoys, Volcano, FL Native FX.
Hardware - Truths, Echo Audiofire, Virus Snow, & Novation Xio Midi-Synth.

I like the fluid spacey nature of the bass on this track. Also a good sense of drama and tension. The drums sounds seem a bit old fashioned and basic though. The kik in particular reminds me of those Billy Nasty was using in about 96. The snares in the rolls are just really cheesey for me.

Liking the breakdown here.
Overall a warm and spacey mix, just sort the drum sounds!

Melody / personality wise it needs work as at the mo it's like a background to a film with people running or something.

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https://soundcloud.com/butlerrichard

I still consider myself in the learning process.

but as theory, production, mixing skills reveal themselves to me... i find it easier to call something a "good take" and move on. It was described to me as such:

Back in the days of DAT recording from consoles you had a limited amount of time and tape space to get the takes right. Basically you had to get it right and get it in good time. In Digital Audio Production, we have unlimited time to dick around forever (you, lol). Try to Imagine you are paying for your time to record in a studio, and more than 6 wasted takes will piss off the engineer you're overpaying. By no means "settle" on a sound for bass, Just dont get caught in the trap of being able to adjust the same loop for 6 straight sessions, its wasteful and shows no concept of workflow.

I'm not trying to be preachy or rush creativity, This is just some thoughts that motivated me into finding my anchor paramaters, my choice of oscillators, metaphorically hitting the record button, and moving on. Then the beauty of the DAW comes in later, when a near finished project needs a slight adjustment, change that bass square to a saw to match your pad.

I really enjoy the shit out of this threat btw.

quote:

Originally posted by Kthought I really enjoy the shit out of this threat btw.

You F**KIN' BETTER!!

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

I'm not going to read this whole thread because the answer is very simple.

Get your idea of what you want to make in your head. Make the entire arrangement. THEN start working on your sounds. It's much easier to make objective decisions on scrapping a sound or what to tweak when you can listen to it in the context of how you'll be using it instead of in an 8 bar loop. All the times I have done this it makes things so much less stressful and it allows you to approach things in sections.

Basic sound design, arrangement, re-design/clean up sounds, work on mix; done.

I still won't allow myself to finish a track in less than a month because I want to make sure the IDEA doesn't change; but as far as all of the actual production work and especially sound design; that gets done in about 5 hours.

I have to agree with your whole post Robby. I fall into this exact same trap. The more I learn, the less productive I actually get. While I may pick up a few good techniques here and there, I never seem to actually finish anything worth a damn. On the upside though - I never feel like I waste time when I spend 6 hours on a bassline and end up not liking it - its all experience.

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There are two secrets to success: 1. Never tell everything you know.