Haven't made music in months

  On 6/15/2015 at 11:13 AM, pierlu said:

Well, you're probably lyou're trying to do it the way you suppose you should be doing it, instead of just doing it. So just do it. And if you don't feel like doing it, don't do it.

 

it's just as simple, really.

lol

I would just get the songs written first and worry about all the other crap later...I used to do this cart before the horse thing both in software land and hardware land. these days I try to just write a song w basic sounds in any gear scenario and get the rest levels eq dynamics sound design after i have a song written.

  On 6/15/2015 at 5:45 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

getting rid of *some* gear could be a partial solution though. maybe replacing unused, neglected or just not exciting gear with new stuff? buying new gear outright will probably just make it worse. After owning several pieces of synthesizer gear for 10+ years its a pretty easy call what stuff I absolutely couldn't live without, what kit i could replace with software easily and what stuff that I like but for some reason or another could never imagine playing live with. There are a lot of different factors that can go into wanting to sell a piece of gear, like if you own a DX7 and its just taking up too much space in your studio, maybe its time to replace with the (Cheaper and more space saving) Tx7? Are you trying to squeeze life out of an esoteric/complex rack synth (like an FM- fs1r ) that feels like a constant uphill battle? maybe time to downgrade to something a little more user friendly that doesn't have quite as powerful of a synth engine, you might end up getting a lot more mileage out of something that doesn't feel as daunting.

 

another approach might be to make a sample library out of all your hardware. This way you won't have to fully dial in your studio each time you hang out in it and just slowly make your way through all your gear sampling textures/pads/drums/whatever. Try composing things with a sampling library of your gear entirely on the computer. For these times the oblique strategies method can be helpful too, there used to be a java applet that would shuffle a deck for you and spit out random cards. I think Watmm collectively could probably come up with a much more applicable and useful deck for computer/electronic music composers than the original Brian Eno one though.

I have oblique strategies bookmarked, great little thing to get out of a rut (just don't spend all your time drawing new cards)

http://tools.blackhat-seo.com/strategies/#

  On 6/15/2015 at 11:52 AM, skibby said:

Creative energy is just energy and attention and intention. There is a finite amount i get during a day, and i am spending some of it writing this post. My hypothesis is that you are expending your energy elsewhere. Studies, gaming, socializing, internetting for example.

hmm yeah I like this

Thank you all for the constructive replies. I think I was a little low on blood sugar and happiness the day I wrote this. I have been so busy lately with work and life that I really haven't put much of work into getting into a work-flow with the equipment I have. I expanded my gear pile when I had much more free time and finally reached an income where I could buy all the toys I'd lusted for when I was broke, single, and spending every moment I had at home ignoring my shitty roommate and cranking out tunes. I've been taking on a ton of work, spending time with my girlfriend, working in my gardens, and it seems when I am trying to make music, I'm just out of energy

The gear itself is not the problem, I know how to use all of it aside from just getting around to learning Maschine's software. I do jam quite a bit with the gear in small pieces, much more so than with software anymore, I like the instant accessibility of programming with mah knobs and buttons. My problem stems from not having a good workflow of recording it into the computer for mixing for making 'songs' and the amount of $ I'd need to spend to go pretty much all the way out of the box (sequencers, bigger mixer, ect) would be a step in the wrong direction as apposed to doing what I used to do and working with and around limitations and putting the effort, time and energy it takes to make the music I know I'm capable of making.

I have decided to sell one of my deadweight synths because I'm learning to hate it more and more (jx-3p + pg200) that fucking midi sucks.

Ah, i'm in the same situation to be honest. Having unknown midi problems so I cannot sequence from Logic as well as I would like. Cannot sync Drum machines to it etc. Would love to be able to just sequence from the daw midi with a Kenton and run my analogues and midi all into a decent mixer. Much like that DMX crew track from scratch YT vid in the other thread.

I get by just fine I guess but a more streamlined way of working to get all the pieces jamming instead of playing, recording then playing over the top etc.

  On 6/16/2015 at 12:53 PM, Chesney said:

Would love to be able to just sequence from the daw midi with a Kenton and run my analogues and midi all into a decent mixer. Much like that DMX crew track from scratch YT vid in the other thread.

That is pretty much my ideal setup if I could afford it, but holy hell, to get all that rigged up is not cheap. Maybe someday. I've even started to get weird about timing with my midi stuff, nothing is more infuriating than trying to make a snappy bassline with midi-lag or really any timing issues when trying to sync all outboard gear to the same clock. I'm a rhythmic OCD kind of person and coming from being trained as a percussionist it's a little funny I program drums when I can play most anything much quicker than I can program it.

have you tried using Abelton Live for mixing a bunch of hardware/gear tracks inside your computer? Its very easy to slightly shift - / + time on any track in milliseconds. For me this is probably one of the best arguments for using Live with gear, is that you can real-time monitor and record everything in sync (even with midi lag or clock delay) by slightly adjusting the tracks that are off. Before i figured this out the issue of trying to synch up a lot of hardware at once was driving me fucking nuts (because usually it was just one thing that wouldn't behave)

Take a break and try something else. Spend a bit of time organizing your studio, building up your sample libraries or build patches? If you don't want to make music don't - for a while at least.

  On 6/15/2015 at 7:19 PM, Berk said:

 

  On 6/15/2015 at 11:52 AM, skibby said:

Creative energy is just energy and attention and intention. There is a finite amount i get during a day, and i am spending some of it writing this post. My hypothesis is that you are expending your energy elsewhere. Studies, gaming, socializing, internetting for example.

hmm yeah I like this

ditto, good post.

Also, hardware destroyed my workflow. Just throwing that out there.

it can because it can make more problems and is less flexible. But if you prefer physical interaction then it can be liberating too.

  On 6/14/2015 at 5:22 PM, QQQ said:

what ya need is to get yourself some producin' SHORTS.

 

So there it is. My secret,

 

Love,

Richard David James (aka Skrillex)

X X X

 

<3 <3 <3

how can you give this stuff away for free???

  On 6/18/2015 at 4:32 PM, Fuxcs said:

 

  On 6/14/2015 at 5:22 PM, QQQ said:

what ya need is to get yourself some producin' SHORTS.

 

So there it is. My secret,

 

Love,

Richard David James (aka Skrillex)

X X X

 

<3 <3 <3

 

how can you give this stuff away for free???

Don't fret my dear boy.

With these tips I am investing in the future of IDM (industrial death metal).

Skimming this thread, I don't think I'm saying anything new here, but for what it's worth:

If you don't feel inspired to compose in your studio, then don't compose in your studio. I tend to compose in my office, as simple chiptune-like pieces made with dozens of simple SubTractor patches on my laptop. Once I'm happy with the piece, that the actual music side is finished, then I go into the workshop/studio to actually wire up the real patches and record it.

This is typical of creative processes. Some people can't write when they're staring at a word processor or a blank piece of paper. So go for a walk and think about what you want to do then, without actually doing it until you get back. Or try to visualise the story or code or... audise..? the music, just before you drift off to sleep. I'm always e-mailing myself ideas from my bed to my office, to implement the next day. I swear I've solved programming problems in my sleep a few times. This is the kind of thing your subconscious really excels at.

I'm in a bit of a rut right now, too. I'm just not really excited by plugging away in a DAW so I'm getting some hardware to tinker with. I'm getting excited about playing and recording again instead of modifying rectangles on a screen.

Also, I'm in a hardcore band that I can put my creativity into. It's a lot of fun. Definitely not as technical.

I haven't made music in a while either. I've just been too busy with work and another (music-related) personal project lately. But man, I heard some old 90s jams today and I really wanted to fart around with a sampler! Gotta hang onto that feeling, I guess.

I like the advice in here to resample a bunch of synths and stuff so that when inspiration strikes, you can just get up and go. That's something I haven't invested much time into for a couple years now and it sounds nice.

  On 6/19/2015 at 6:20 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it's fun too cus if you don't feel like making music, you can just make sounds to use when you do feel like it.

My workflow (or lack thereof) for the last few years has been to combine design & composition and I think a lot of the time this just makes both suffer. Separation of concerns sounds like a breath of fresh air.

  On 6/19/2015 at 6:20 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it's fun too cus if you don't feel like making music, you can just make sounds to use when you do feel like it. sampling and sound design is a totally different activity to composition for me, but they sometimes cross over (like making a patch or effect chain specifically for a part in a track, or conversely when making the sounds leads to the start of a song)

This is a really good point, I've never thought of it like this before.

To give an update. I've been in there more and more the last week or so. The first day was all nuts and bolts. I got around to removing all my unwanted VST's (SO MANY OF THEM), installing midi-maps for the mashine to live suite, got all the patch cables I need to have most of my gear hooked up at once in the outboard rack, set-up a new 'recording booth' out of polystyrene panels and learned how to dial in my microphone to the space in there, recorded some samples from a few of my outboard synths and a few drum patterns kicking around on my drum machines for cutting later.

I've found myself being happier just doodling in there when I stopped caring so much. It's all progress. I've started taking chords I'd never play on keys (lack of knowledge/chops) and transcribing my guitar stuff into midi for that. It's resulted in better musical progressions as I can think of the 'whole song' and pieces of it better when I write all the music on guitar first. I'm looking into getting a midi guitar from a friend as well, with the more complex stuff, I've been taking my guitar, putting a mute on it with a sock and then playing the complicated finger picking stuff at half speed, using live's audio to midi and then using it for midi data for other instruments. It's pretty inspiring, but sortof time consuming. I'm working to streamline it currently.

I sold my Jx-3p & PG-200 for 700$ to some indian guy, he had the thickest accent and wanted to make 'synth pop' and wanted to get 'that roland sound' - I told him to keep me posted as it will either be the best music ever, or terrible beyond all comprehension. It's nice to have 700$ lying around, don't really know what to buy with it a the moment.

Thanks again to everyone who offered help and I really took this stuff to heart and it's helped. I'll be back on the track making horse soon

good news!

Excellent Audioblysk! :)

  On 6/18/2015 at 10:28 PM, ZoeB said:

f you don't feel inspired to compose in your studio, then don't compose in your studio. I tend to compose in my office, as simple chiptune-like pieces made with dozens of simple SubTractor patches on my laptop. Once I'm happy with the piece, that the actual music side is finished, then I go into the workshop/studio to actually wire up the real patches and record it.

 

This is typical of creative processes. Some people can't write when they're staring at a word processor or a blank piece of paper. So go for a walk and think about what you want to do then, without actually doing it until you get back. Or try to visualise the story or code or... audise..? the music, just before you drift off to sleep. I'm always e-mailing myself ideas from my bed to my office, to implement the next day. I swear I've solved programming problems in my sleep a few times. This is the kind of thing your subconscious really excels at.

I compose/produce in a similar way. And also write obscure notes to myself all the time...

To me, it's quite similar to the writing/recording process when being in a band : you compose alone in your bedroom with your electric guitar unplugged, then practice/rehearse in your garage, then record it to cassette, to finally re-make it in a proper studio.

I love the challenge of preserving that original something that made you write a whole tune out off a simple hook/gimmick/pattern, while shaping those raw ideas into a finished and refined piece of music.

nice. :) with that 700$ you would consider getting: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/82500-clavia-nord-drum-anyone-have-one/

it should fit in any studio.

  On 6/21/2015 at 5:52 AM, Audioblysk said:

To give an update. I've been in there more and more the last week or so. The first day was all nuts and bolts. I got around to removing all my unwanted VST's (SO MANY OF THEM), installing midi-maps for the mashine to live suite, got all the patch cables I need to have most of my gear hooked up at once in the outboard rack, set-up a new 'recording booth' out of polystyrene panels and learned how to dial in my microphone to the space in there, recorded some samples from a few of my outboard synths and a few drum patterns kicking around on my drum machines for cutting later.

 

I've found myself being happier just doodling in there when I stopped caring so much. It's all progress. ..........

Ive been in a creative block as well, and what i do is patches and organising stuff. i realised my FX wasnt in the best position and moved it, and wham instant creativity being able to reach them easy. it was there in the back of my mind that i needed to do that..

FX can really define your sound btw.. if the track doesnt sound right, and your getting frustated, try sticking the whole thing through different reverbs and see if it helps. did it today on an electro track and nailed a good sound, softened out the harsh highs

congrats man, we all go through this at some point. recognizing how you got out of it is the best thing you can do!