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Haven't made music in months


Audioblysk

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I have a studio sitting downstairs that I haven't touched in around 6 months. I used to make loads of music, on the shittiest of gear and with nothing but pirated programs... Now I have a studio with 2 really nice and powerful synths, a decent sequencer style drum machine, mashine mk2, half dozen guitars, some microphones and processing gear.

 

And I can't make shit. It's super depressing and I feel like an idiot for having this much gear, being able to use it piece by piece, but then when it comes to setting it all up and trying to get all the ideas out - it's just one thing after another (levels aren't right, microphone needs to be moved, need to record this or that into a DAW and loop it, setting up an outboard effects chain, cutting samples of gear that can't be triggered by midi cuz my computer can't trigger things tightly at all, ect)

 

I'm probably preaching to the choir, I just feel pretty shit about my current creative state. The only time I'm inspired to go in there is randomly at work or thinking of tunes in the car. When I'm there, zilch, nadda, zip and me futzing with something as simple as what chords to play.

 

Gaaaaaaahhhhh

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I think the answer might be right in front of you. From what I understand from the post, the big studio is your issue, you might want to downsize. It must be difficult, having spent the time getting the gear, and then having your block, but if the fact that you have so much gear is impeding your creativity it seems, then you'll have to be honest with yourself and downsize. All the gear in the world isn't worth much if you don't use it... well I guess it has weight in money but still.

Unless I'm misreading something...I don't know your workflow so. Either try to improve it and make things run smoothly or downsize until it does.

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You can figure it out dude, don't worry, you just need to learn the skills to work with that equipment - my advice is to start simple with just one or two bits of kit and get comfortable making music on them, then gradually expand. Also - start with whatever basic thing comes to you and gradually build on it.

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just use a cheap midi piano sound and build a song with it. If this base song sounds good you can replace it with better instruments playing your melodies. You will not lose focus because of all the gear that is distracting from writing a good solid song in the first place. All great songs can be covered with a guitar or a piano so have to sound good when played on them. This helped me a lot to get over my perfectionism and gear tweaking without getting anything done.Creating a solid song just with midi piano sounds is much harder than it looks!

 

Once thats done check this http://forum.watmm.com/topic/87826-any-good-videos-where-you-just-watch-artists-produce-thought-itd-be-a-good-way-to-learn-please-state-genre-and-link/and you will get some ideas for effective workflow. Noisia for example has two workflows: 1 for tweaking and one for arrangement so they do not get lost in tweaking and sounddesign while doing the arrangement. They sample everything they create while tweaking and then just throw the sampled stuff together without care for any details in sound design so they can focus just on arrangement without distraction.

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Guest Chesney

We all have blocks and can totally understand the gear thing. I feel the same sometimes. I was alot more creative and free when I had a modest setup and no knowledge. Now I have alot of stuff and more knowledge but almost to many options to focus.

I love gear and i'm lucky I found pieces that really suit me and inspire me when I turn them on so I can still get a start with some good inspiration.

You might need to just let yourself go and forget about musicality and chord progressions. Sounds like you need to find usefulness out of randomness. Do something you have never done before, rout something into something else and set up in a different way. start from a new point. etc etc. Hard to say not knowing what gear you use and your typical process but i'm sure there are millions of ways you can get inspiration from your existing gear.

What do you use?

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Do you like the space you have in your studio? I want to spend all my time in my studio because I've made it a cool space of my own and it gives me reason to hang out in there.

 

If you're struggling to focus with all your gear maybe picking 2-3 random pieces and resolving to make a track with just those will give you a new perspective on approaching a track, maybe the challenge will give you something to do. Once a track starts coming together you might naturally bring your other pieces in and before you know it you've got an all-out jam going on and suddenly it clicks and you're in zen mode and out of your rut. That's my idea anyway.

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Sounds like you need a workflow. I don't know what your music sounds like but I find it's great to start off with a chord progression so that you have a key established and a bit of a rhythm going.

 

For me, I do almost everything in the box. I have a few pieces of gear, sampler synth, tape recorder and i usually goof around and record what i have from my gear into the computer so i can chop it up and arrange it. I see gear as more as little toys to work out ideas or to just mess around in a non-serious way.

 

Also, i've found when i have a block, its usually after finishing a decent loop and not knowing where to go with it. I'll copy the loop and do whatever i want with it, change it to the point where it isn't like the first loop. This usually involves adding or deleting layers, figuring out with elements I want to keep throughout the song and which elements are exclusive to each section of the song.

 

Idk, everyone has their own personalized workflow. It's such a tricky issue but i'd say just get everything recording in the computer because there's so many options

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Guest kymppinetti

I feel bad for you, I really do. I mean, you have bought whole lot of good gear and now you're thinking what the fks now. It's like your passion is dying. Just thinking about your state makes me uneasy.

I'm not saying it's all over. I guess you're in a some kind of intermediate stage, which is tricky to win over. And it just goes worse in the fact that your not producing anything.

Meaby you need to try something really different what you have done. Like try to imitate whole-new-music-genre-for-you with your gear. I don't no, something like japanese folk music or something lol. I could be really fun. Or peking opera with electronic instruments. Now there would be something nobody never heard of.

 

Or just simply pick up one item and go for a holiday with it. Rent a hotel room and play your drum machine in there. Well not in literally. Go with simple, forget the whole picture.

 

Or produce 'lazy' tracks. Build up some vibes half minded, record them, and have fun listening to them. I usually do this and it's great therapy. :D

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I haven't made anything decent for years :( I know these feels. I've put a lot of my passion creatively into photography lately, but hopefully I can put it back into making music.

 

I think a lot of people here have the right idea with maybe downsizing your studio, paring down to just the essentials. If you're hardware based, it's easier to do. The best music I made was with my hardware, and it was a fairly smallish setup. If you're using VSTs, force yourself to use only the essentials.

 

I should fucking listen to this advice one of these days...

 

good luck mang

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Do your synths/guitars' tone "emotionally" inspire you? I believe it's useless to have a fantastic synth if it doesn't give you goosebumps when playing a random note. And sometimes we stick to gear that we know we should love, but that we don't like that much...

It took me +10 years to come to the conclusion that I'm all about the sheer tone of the oscillators/filters/enveloppes..., while I thought I needed tons and tons of possibilities.

 

Can you jam your set-up? I went through a painful 2/3 year long creative block myself years ago (and it's always been hard to finish tunes ever since), during which I actually wrote tons and tons of loops and jams... They didn't meet my expectations, no matter how good some of those bits were. And that led to massive frustration (but I was too stupid then to understand that).

 

Most of the time, as it's already been said, it's only about letting yourself go, and creating without any kind of agenda. We were all incredibly productive when we started producing (right ?), because we would then complete any tune just to make the next one, and so on. It was pure fun, wasn't it? I guess that's the challenge we all face, keeping it all fun.

 

So yeah, maybe you simply need to let some of your synths/guitars gather dust and just focus on that very special one you cherish, to play it for the pure joy of listening to its sounds..

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If it's the environment, work on making it a nicer place to work.

 

If it's the hardware, maybe just use the stuff you're really happy using. Forget the money you've spent and set a goal of making a wicked track with one piece of hardware or a really minimal setup. This could help give you ideas for future tracks where you can incorporate your other synths. At the end of the day it's just about experimenting and having fun. I've spent way too much recently but what was I pissing about with early Friday AM? Volca Keys, beats and a delay pedal...

 

</pissed>

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I've been in the exact situation for over a year. Getting into Max/MSP got me out of my situation for a while, but I've gone back to doing nothing. I just play other people's songs on guitar now.

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You are probably smoking too much weed.

 

also something that legowelt said in an interview (i'm paraphrasing): your studio is more than just instruments and speakers. it is an audio environment so you need to approach it as an actual environment. Legowelt had tons of potted indoor trees and plants around his synths and pictures of nature around. I couldn't agree more with that sentiment and maybe its not the gear you have but the environment in which you created it for. When you have a mishmash of dodgy gear cabled messily and frantically together to get out some creativity, that is a part of the sound environment and leads to motivation to follow through with what you got going. It can be so much as having a window open in visible eye sight or even depriving yourself of audio and environmental elements to achieve a similar outcome.

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Guest Chesney

Do you have all your gear patched to a bay? Sometimes if a piece is not easily routable I will leave it alone and go for something less hassle. If you need to re wire to use pieces maybe you just can't be bothered and loose interest? If you don't have one, get a patchbay, it's one of the most important bits to a studio with more than a few bits of hardware.

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Okay WATMM... I didn't want to unleash my secret so early. I'm not sure if the world is ready for it... But what ya need is to get yourself some producin' SHORTS. If you find yourself a good pair of producin' shorts all your worries will be over and you will become extremely prolific. Your family will start to worry about the sheer amount of tracks that you are popping out and the quality of them will be unmatched. Your co-workers will be envious and the women (or men) will be all over you bro! Not to mention the fact superstar EDM DJs will be spinning your shit at live sets across all corners of the globe! You will become rich and successful beyond your wildest dreams.

 

I really didn't want to let the secret out but it will have to come out sooner or later.

 

So there it is. My secret,

 

Love,

Richard David James (aka Skrillex)

X X X

 

HJLkTwC.jpg

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Guest skibby

the answer is simple, time to buy a new synth. try out its presets until you hear one that blows you away, then record it. tweak the parameters while you record.

 

repeat as needed.

 

sometimes it is tough to remember to turn the knobs, and im not even being facetious.

 

simply turn the knobs, even if the power is off. just stay in the zone of turning the knobs.

 

when you have a dull moment, stop everything and look at your hands. make it a habit to look at your hands by holding them before you in the air, once or twice a day. it sounds nonsense and rubbish now, and i can't tell you why, but if you just do it you should be pleasantly surprised and rewarded in an unexpected way.

 

as far as making music, listen to the lyrics of this song again:

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I have a studio sitting downstairs that I haven't touched in around 6 months. I used to make loads of music, on the shittiest of gear and with nothing but pirated programs... Now I have a studio with 2 really nice and powerful synths, a decent sequencer style drum machine, mashine mk2, half dozen guitars, some microphones and processing gear.

 

And I can't make shit. It's super depressing and I feel like an idiot for having this much gear, being able to use it piece by piece, but then when it comes to setting it all up and trying to get all the ideas out - it's just one thing after another (levels aren't right, microphone needs to be moved, need to record this or that into a DAW and loop it, setting up an outboard effects chain, cutting samples of gear that can't be triggered by midi cuz my computer can't trigger things tightly at all, ect)

 

I'm probably preaching to the choir, I just feel pretty shit about my current creative state. The only time I'm inspired to go in there is randomly at work or thinking of tunes in the car. When I'm there, zilch, nadda, zip and me futzing with something as simple as what chords to play.

 

Gaaaaaaahhhhh

I think this is ok what you're going through, the only part thats not 'ok' about what you describe is your own self worth and the pressure you're putting on yourself to force creativity. Creativity cannot be forced, it may take a while maybe even 6 months from now for you to feel a major spark again but let it come naturally. Don't block out time when you aren't feeling creative to force yourself to sit in your studio and just end up frustrated. I've gone for an entire year without making music once and I let it get me very depressed, i started to convince myself I had lost my skills and the things I had learned but it was all in my own mind. Eventually and organically i started to feel inspired again. Having a hardware setup can complicate things, so maybe use your non creative energy to just dial in your studio setup and work out the technical kinks so for the next time you're feeling creative you can set things up very quickly with little problems

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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.

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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.

 

no, just put in a cupboard - it's clear that focussing too much on having the right equipment has not been successful for him so far

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Guest Chesney

Depends if you use certain pieces of gear or feel forced to do so.

I have sold plenty of good gear but stuff that just didn't work for me. One I can think of off the top of my head was the Korg Radias. It was a great bit of kit, Got some good bits from it but it felt like a lot of work getting into it. I had to really force myself to use it as I spent good money on it. Then I thought fuck it, sell everything I have not used in a few months and buy something more inspiring. It worked and I got so much more and still do out of the new gear. I only have stuff I really gel with now. Just about ha.

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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.

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Guest skibby

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.

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