Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 Ever get so obsessed with a tune that you can't move on? About this time last year I downloaded a Japanese ambient mix off some obscure club site... there was this one tune I couldn't stop listening to... and to top it off, the sounds it used were like nothing I'd ever heard before in electronic music... So for the past year, as much as I've really not intended to, I'd spent most days reverse engineering this tune and trying to nail every last sound - every drum beat, ambience, melody line - and every month or so I learn something new, and get a step closer... It took me about a day to figure out how to do Future Engineers style dnb programming - this has taken me about 365 - but I've finally done it... Learnt more during this time than I have done in years... But I still can't move on... I want to use what I've learnt, but everything I do I'm compairing directly to this tune... and it's screwing with my head... Is this a trap anyone else ever falls into? How do you get back to making your own music? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 ya want to post a sample of this tune ? sounds interesting. must be the tits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 ya want to post a sample of this tune ? sounds interesting. must be the tits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest taxman Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 i have a subconcious habbit of binging on other peoples music for a while and then only listening to my own music for a few months after that. for the month or so that i listen to other bands i get all kinds of ideas (which i sometimes write down) and i listen to all the little details. then i start making my music and i stop listening to other music completely. i don't really mean to but i get absorbed in my music and don't really think about listening to anything else. i guess it helps me keep my music original because for the most part my head is clear of any other music... i don't really know if it works. i like to think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcinsu Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 you can''t make a post "ive dedicated a year of my life to this track" and not say who or what track!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest boo Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 science/fiction by end has this bassdrum (+ reverb (simple)) + a strange, squidgy sound combination that i couldn't recreate when i tried for a while (not a year though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squee Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I've got a track I've been working on for 4 months now and I can't get on with it. I have absolutely no idea where to go next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ezeh Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 i´ve obsessed with several tracks but i always manage to move on. it can last like one week or two. my obsessions is generally more towards a certain chord progressinos or harmony, that you can figure with certain ease tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ~ism Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 threads like this really amaze me. why do people spend so much time on details but never post any work? i'm intrigued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Author Share Posted March 10, 2006 you can''t make a post "ive dedicated a year of my life to this track" and not say who or what track!! That's the worst part - I can't even find out who it's by... The mix was off some Japanese chillout site which doesn't seem to exist any more... I've got friends in Tokyo who I could ask to get in contact with the DJ for me, but I'm almost hesitant to do so... What if whoever made this tune has 5 albums out? I could spend the next 70 years recreating his(/her?) music... I suppose this is how you learn anything - from walking to reading to writing, certainly music - it's all through immitation... Without that music wouldn't evolve at all, and we'd still be living caves... But then again, at what point do you move on and accept that whatever you do write will probably only ever end up being a compromise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylonbitch Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 best way to learn a new piece of gear... do a cover version, and make it EXACTLY the same as the original... or as close as you can. can you post an mp3 of your facsimile swifty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iep Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 Ever get so obsessed with a tune that you can't move on? About this time last year I downloaded a Japanese ambient mix off some obscure club site... there was this one tune I couldn't stop listening to... and to top it off, the sounds it used were like nothing I'd ever heard before in electronic music... So for the past year, as much as I've really not intended to, I'd spent most days reverse engineering this tune and trying to nail every last sound - every drum beat, ambience, melody line - and every month or so I learn something new, and get a step closer... It took me about a day to figure out how to do Future Engineers style dnb programming - this has taken me about 365 - but I've finally done it... Learnt more during this time than I have done in years... But I still can't move on... I want to use what I've learnt, but everything I do I'm compairing directly to this tune... and it's screwing with my head... Is this a trap anyone else ever falls into? How do you get back to making your own music? hmm it sounds like your all out of musical ideas. if you want to make something, and if you know what you want, it shouldnt be to hard to get started (even if you cant nail the perfect sound). if you arent inspirated you shouldnt even try to compose music (you'll probably only end up frustrated). threads like this really amaze me. why do people spend so much time on details but never post any work? i'm intrigued. i'm wondering the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Author Share Posted March 10, 2006 I don't think I've really got a shortage of musical ideas - or concepts - it's combining the two in a worthwhile way which I find really challenging... It's what I get from this tune... It's not the engineering, not the melody, not the progression - it's just the way it manages to be both a modern, relevant sounding work, and a completely uncompromised piece of music... Much like great anime or videogames soundtracks - where you've got that balance of real musical ideas and technology - actually putting technology to good use - not just technology putting you to good use... It's like you've got Dali at one end and Shrigley at the other... I think with electronic music the ideal is always to come across as though you're both - but invariably one or the other ends up massively compromised to accommodate the other... ...and you can't just go about feeding Debussy into Logic and think it'll work with a load of electronic percussion instruments... Having anything that doesn't need to be there makes music like that almost unlistenable. I'm in an analytical phase btw... I don't ever post anything... It's nothing personal... I've got myself an agent so any writing or music I do that I'm happy with goes to Japan and usually ends up somewhere... Supported myself since 1999 doing this... Just a way to justify the time and the lifestyle... I've got a friend who spends about 20 hours a week writing for fanzines like Grooves, and even amazon.com... He's a brilliant writter too, but he has to spend the other 40 hours a week doing temp work... I always ask, if you like writing so much why don't you just do commissioned work instead of filling space on other people's sites while they get paid for the advertising? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylonbitch Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 presumably your agent wouldn't be too assed at you posting a cover of someone else's tune.. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Author Share Posted March 10, 2006 Nothing good would come out of it... trust me... Either you'd feel it was a massive anti-climax or you'd spend the next 12 months glued to a laptop trying to recreate it yourself... I still don't know whether these things are curses or blessings... Download some Japanese ambient/world mixes and you'll probably find better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylonbitch Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 fair enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 HEY JUST UPLOAD DA GODDMAN BEAT WOULD U!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcinsu Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 so you have music published in japan? why not give us a link? surely theres got to be clips somewhere online or something? Cause I'm really intruiged as well... on the one hand, you seem to know a great deal about music, but on the other hand, I've never heard your work, and I believe theres are BIG differences in knowledge and application. I'm just really curious is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Promo Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I like the fact that even though I try and copy other peeps style I end up producing my own style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lo-fi Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 The world is a better place now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Author Share Posted March 10, 2006 so you have music published in japan? why not give us a link? surely theres got to be clips somewhere online or something? Cause I'm really intruiged as well... on the one hand, you seem to know a great deal about music, but on the other hand, I've never heard your work, and I believe theres are BIG differences in knowledge and application. I'm just really curious is all. My agent, Junji, gets me all sorts of random commissions... Like ringtones, synth and product demo's, tv ad's, short films, dvd's, etc... It's mostly a case of going through old CD-R's and cassettes, looking for old loops and unfinished tunes... Do a bit of editing, send off the odd wav file or two and every so often they get used for something... It's ideal for me because I never finish anything... Just a way to get a little something back from your work. I've been messing around for too long though - as soon as I get through this phase I'm doing a 5 track ambient album + Flash site... It'll be therapy for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcinsu Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 so, question... for someone who says they never finish anything, why did you decide to get an agent? edit: and how much has he gotten you gigs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ~ism Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I'm in an analytical phase btw... no shit... but thats why i always enjoy yer posts swifty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulie Walnuts Posted March 10, 2006 Author Share Posted March 10, 2006 so, question... for someone who says they never finish anything, why did you decide to get an agent? edit: and how much has he gotten you gigs? Well he's actually the agent of a good friend of mine - gets him gigs and shops his albums around to japanese labels when he's over there... He ended up getting all sorts of other offers too, film and tv work, videogame soundtracks, etc... and he started putting quite a bit of mastering work my way too... So at some point I suppose he just started to represent me too... Never done gigs - I'd maybe do some net broadcasts some time though - otherwise I think I'd rather play other people's music... I do get analytical - I wonder why we make tracks, with beginnings, middles and ends... Why we name them and what they're actually supposed to be... Maybe we're making things too complicated for ourselves? It's like we're still stuck between song writing, which does need to be linear, and tell a story, and looped music, which really doesn't seem to imply that... When I make music for myself I never arrange it or name it - it just doesn't make any sense to me... If I want to listen to my own music I keep it as loops with all the different elements layered on top of each other... Then I can keep that interaction with whenever I want to listen to it... If I decide, right, the intro needs to start with just the pad sound, then I bring in the drums, oh and I'll call it "Magic Day In Spaniel's Eardrum", it's like I'm setting it in stone and closing a door... I sort of prefer to keep everything active and evolving... and without an agent or label to kick my arse and make me produce things which are presentable, I'd probably just make loops forever... and of course, loops are often all that's needed for these things anyway. I'm quite keen on the idea of doing albums which self-generate... So a track is just a collection of ideas and variables... Then it develops itself for as long as you want to listen to it... I think Autechre could probably pull it off better than anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celatid Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 POST SOME FUCKING THING ALREADY YOUR MUSIC THE MUSIC YOURE OBSESSED WITH SOMETHING POST SOMETHING GODDAMMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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