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Start and never finish -anyone else do this? (pg. 3)
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| Beautiful Beast |
artist and person are not separate entities and are both cause and result of the same thing: you.
BB |
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| EddieZilker |
| quote: | Originally posted by Kysora
Weird, this really doesn't happen to me. I don't start a project until I'm positive I have a solid idea. I'll noodle around with melodies and progressions for weeks before I find one I want to use, and then I'll usually finish it like 95% of the time. |
A little from column A...
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
I always finish my tracks. However, I differentiate that from just coming up with ideas. I'm constantly coming up with little snippets of ideas that come about from just playing on the piano. I don't really consider them "works in progress", though - they're just basic melodies/progressions that may be from 8 to 32 bars long, but aren't part of a larger arrangement. I just sequence it and store it away for later use. I have a lot of those saved on my computer and they're very useful for getting me out of ruts.
Once I take an idea to the next level, where I'm adding other parts around the melody and arranging it into some sort of structured song, that's when I consider it a WIP and I always finish it. Sometimes it takes days, but usually it's weeks or even months depending on my family/social/work schedule and the availability of the singer, but it always gets completed. It's also a lot easier to finish tracks when you're working with another person, particularly when it's a singer who calls you every day to find out when it's going to be done. ;) |
And a little from column B.
I basically like to start a track, experimenting with different musical themes. Sometimes I'll start with rhythm and others I'll have a melody in mind that I put to a skeleton of a rhythm track (simple loop with kick and hats). I don't save too many scratch pad ideas. My whole idea is with each song is to try and write myself into major corners and then have to work myself out of each corner in order to complete each song.
I probably complete about 97% of each song I start. I can count on one hand, the songs I have left, unfinished, in the past four years. With three of them, I exported the MIDI and combined them into another song.
It wasn't always like that. The proportions, honestly, were completely reversed with a 97% failure rate and maybe three complete songs - and those weren't even that good by my standards, today. |
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| Villan881 |
Some very interesting thoughts and ideas coming out here, particularly from Lolo.
Of course its different strokes for different folks but I like the idea of developing the track over time; refreshing your ideas and how it should sound; putting in some more details; changing a few items, tweaking the sounds.
If I had to figure how much time went into each track start to finish I would guess it would be around a week, full time, 40 hours, maybe a little less at times. My problem is elapsed time......:stongue: |
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| sako487 |
| Rulz said it, even if you have a ty bassline, go ahead and finish it to the best of your ability. Do this with every track and youll get better in no time |
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| Waza |
What I'm doing now is trying to finish a track a month.
no matter how much time i spend on it, it could be a hour a day or week but try and keep to the deadline of one month for each track.
So far i'm on target infact I only started it like one week ago and i'm already half way done. I think this is due to having this deadline. I must get it done kind of thing.
Take last night i spent 3 hours on it, just building up the percussion of the song. So now i have all my percussion laid out on the track, so that's that part finished. Strange though as this is one of my down falls in songs. |
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| Villan881 |
| Waza - I think thats good advice from Rulzz and a realistic target suggestion from you for peeps who have a day job away from their DAW's. I'm also going to stop starting new projects before I have finished the one that WIP.:) |
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| Energy_3 |
| quote: | Originally posted by rulzz
Set a timer to 2-4 hours and just start doing a track but you have to finish it before the timer ends. |
thats a good idea, i might start doing that I seem to be having this problem too, I just cant seem to TRANSLATE it from my mind to the computer... damm |
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| Kysora |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beautiful Beast
artist and person are not separate entities and are both cause and result of the same thing: you.
BB |
You can't say that what someone used to do defines who they are now when what they used to do was dictated by a lack of maturity they've since overcome. |
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| tehlord |
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
It's also a lot easier to finish tracks when you're working with another person, particularly when it's a singer who calls you every day to find out when it's going to be done. ;) |
LMFAO
Tell me about it.
Especially when you live with them too :D |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
I have problems finishing stuff as well. It's funny, when I was in school and had less time for production, I made a lot more music and finished more tracks than I do now. Now I spend more time dabbling around without following through on much.
Maybe I will try the "two hour time limit" thing. |
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| owien |
this may sound like a moo point but finding a daw that complements your way of working can make all the differance in getting projects done.
working out how you like to put tracks together can make a huge impact. |
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| Villan881 |
| quote: | Originally posted by owien
this may sound like a moo point but finding a daw that complements your way of working can make all the differance in getting projects done.
working out how you like to put tracks together can make a huge impact. |
And when you have done that, learning all your DAW shortcuts gives another massive productivity boost ;)
Of course, learning how your DAW works is a major step forward.:toothless |
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