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Segmenting seperate parts of your track for different days of the week..
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| DJ Robby Rox |
I've never went this long w/out producing before and it has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
People have recommended it in the past, when I'm in the midst of mid life production crisis and what not, but I've never really took more then 2 or 3 days off at a time. I've realized that really doesn't do a lot of anything at all. I'd go back after a few days and think "wtf that didn't change ".
I got back from a 2 week vacation from the virgin islands yesterday, and hadn't produced for about a week before leaving. When I came back yesterday, rather than compuslively open FL Studio the minute I got home, I took another day off and went to bed early (which I never use to do in the past).
I sat down today and chose to produce NOT out of compulsion, but because I actually wanted to enjoy myself making tunes. Its not like I chose it, it just felt right so I went ahead and opened Fl. And for the first time in my life I was able to seperate that compulsive insecure element of production out of my life. It really became visible how often I use to sit down just to go crazy trying to fix something when realistically it wasn't broke in the first place. I opened a kick and bassline and was able to hear it in the most objective way possible. Like "wow, this is just some ty preset bass but it really has potential as simple as it sounds..". Just sounds that I wouldn't even think twice about using, all seemed like they had potential all a sudden.
Its a mind blowing shift to experience. And I'm curious if anyone in this forum purposely has to remind themself that they really just should't be producing at all on certain days. I mean do you guys REALLY focus on how many days in a row you've been going for? And after a certain time force a break no matter what?
I'm not sure if I'm really making it clear how different it felt. But I'm just shocked how different a simple kick drum sounded. Much more wholesome and complete w/out feeling the need to change anything about it. I really think after this experience when you are producing habitually day after day for weeks or months or even years on end, you can really be screwing yourself over.
Maybe other people don't need to do this, and can keep their ears objective hearing relatively simililar sounds day after day, but I really don't think I have that ability. I'm just amazed how much perception alone can be tainted by impulsive producing. And taking breaks is now the newest "trick" in my skillset.
I am very curious though do most people generally have to force themself to take breaks? It seems so counterproductive/intuitive but much more important than I use to think it was.
edit: just realized the body of text doesn't really follow the title but just ignore it. |
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| Kthought |
you sound a great deal like me.
Compulsive is a great word to use, and it nearly eliminates creativity, and objectivenessness, and is very counter-productive. However; It stems from loving the music enough to smother and suffocate it. I'm glad you've felt some relief, go with it. I suppose we must learn to recognize when we are grinding too hard, i.e. Self Awareness.
It's been about 3 months since I've opened Live, but I promised myself the next time I started up, I'd be overflowing with inspiration, and I'm getting there :) |
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| Nightshift |
| quote: | | The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. |
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| Kismet7 |
advice: Don't attempt to produce a 'song' when you are starting a new piece of music...produce/develop indvidual 'ideas' instead. Once you've established a solid idea (this can be interchanged with many nouns like image, framework, scene etc), add onto that individual idea towards the direction of a complete piece of music or song.
This is a good way to give good ideas the opportunity to develop into a 'nice' piece of music over time. So focus on individual ideas, and complete songs will naturally develop in due time. |
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| Stephen Wiley |
^^^^ +1
Practice will sometimes lead to some cool ideas too. Think of it as brain storming. Also remember that some parts of music are reliant upon creativity, while others are somewhat academic. A good a example is this:
I rarely will process tracks unless it is absolutely needed as I'm producing them. Beyond mixing into a set Master (EQ -> Comp -> Limiter) I rarely will start busting out a lot of signal processing. Assuming you're like most you have more than one project going at once. If some days you don't feel inspired but want to work on your music, load those tracks up and start processing them. This is just something I do and I've found it works quite well for multiple reasons. I started doing this because I found it very unnerving, and realized how stupid I was, for sitting around tweaking a drum kit and a synth or two for 4 hours that I end up trashing 90% of the time. I don't start heavily processing a track until I'm fairly sure it'll be used in some way or another.
Another thing I recommend is MIDI loops. Some people might cry lame, but you will generate a lot of ideas by loading them up and running presets through the loops and experimenting. I've found analyzing these loops, how they're made, and how they can gel has added to my writing skills.
Sorry for the long post Robbie. |
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