I'm not behind this at all now!
At a few years off 50, I've 'been there', and I foresee this as only going in one direction.
All this material is only stuff that would naturally come out along the way, as one is truly becoming a channel for writing.
Unless you put more into all these, you are just going to be left with a load of sub-standard tracks.
Why have lots of those but not one or two finished gems?
You're not writing greeting card messages or schmaltz for commercial radio adverts.
The only people who will try and utilise that skill will also be the type who have no appreciation for music other than it being a sellable commodity.

Having said that, you are getting a nice overall sound. You know how to do that.
And I like that you know a formula for adding elements of interest instrumentally and vocally, but it would seem that you are just going though the motions.
As I've said before here, I don't believe that every creation is worthy of being aired publically. Maybe you do?
I can see many reasons for not sharing everything, only the gems.

 

Hello. I go back to my earlier point.
This is a hobby. I have no grand illusions that it will ever be anything else.
However the reason for doing this, is that previously I have very little output to show from the hours and hours of time spent in a DAW every week. (I will open my DAW most days).

So the two main points of this exercise is....

1) by putting a commitment out there in the public domain (even if it is to a small number of forum users), it is forcing me to focus on generating something to share (and that I can look back on and review and possibly see progress).
2) I am finding that arrangement is a significant skill-set in itself that I practice rarely. In Ableton, you can get away with spending hours in the session view and make nice sounding loops that gel together, but if you don't get those into the arrangement page, you don't develop the skills on how to make transitions, builds, building energy in the track etc etc. So again, I believe I am learning a lot by trying to create something new in each track.

The downside of the self imposed timescales is that it tends to force you into a process whereby there is a danger that you tracks use the same methodology.

i.e. I suspect I've used the same chord progressions in several of the tracks. This was not intentional but again the focus here is on turning the source material into a structured track rather than focusing all the efforts on generating a unique sound or riff.

I may not ever to get to any "gems" but if I do, I have to get better at arrangement. If the way to do that is again that public commitment then so be it.

I would like more feedback though on the production side even if it's just people saying what they don't like, or why they think it's shit.

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2021

I must admit...

This feels more like I'm getting there.



2 more tracks next week to hit my month 1 target.
Harder than slimming world this!

 

What qualities do you feel you have brought to this that make it unique in comparison to the original?

 

I started it this morning trying to get a vibe going like Jamiroquai's Little L.
Added some chords, and discovered it was in Ab minor.

Searched my folder of downloaded acappellas for that key and that was one of the matches.

The phrases seemed to match the groove so went from there.

When I finished, went onto YouTube and listened to the original (I honestly had never heard it before) and was pleasantly surprised that mine sounded nothing like it.

 

Let's talk about sex.
Perhaps the aspect of sex that most closely mirrors music.
Anticipation.
Or we could even say foreplay. The build up. The feeling of excitement of not knowing what is to unfold.
The flaw in your approach is you don't have time for this. The track you posted just jumps right in at the deep end and it's over in three minutes while you could have spent three minutes teasing out the beat and the bassline. Except you don't have a bassline. You have a slap bass in lockstep with the kick. That isn't how bass propels a track.
Instead of moving on to the next track I would suggest you revise this and make it an interesting six minute track. You will learn so much more than adding an accapella to a beat.

 

Yep I get it. But if you notice, all of the tracks are purposely in 3 min format.
I'm not trying to create "club tracks". I personally find the format boring. Why have a 1 minute intro followed by a 2 minute build just to pretend an imaginary DJ needs it to mix in from the previous track???
If I'm listening to other people's soundcloud, most of the time I tend to hit fast forward to the middle to see if it's worth even bothering with.

With the 3 format format, you have to get into the hook by the time you get to 40 seconds. If it isn't strong enough, then so be it, but no point dragging it out to 6 or 7 minutes if that's the case.

 

I'm not sure from what you have said that you have ever been to a club. You can't tell a DJ to skip, what you call "the boring bits".... a well planned set isn't just a collection of highlights. If you go to clubs and you dance, you should know this.

 

Let's just say I'm focusing on the imaginary radio plays rather than the imaginary DJ plays

 

Cringe-joke buttons at the ready...
"You personally are never going to reach 100 - you are destined to get stuck in the 80's"

But seriously...
I like your well chosen educational goals and I like the great supportive advice you've been getting here. One (other) reason why this should work is because when you push the pace like that you inevitably start doing things more subconsciously - that's always better. Slow conscious attention is great for learning (like learning to drive a car) but fast subconscious is better for performing (like actually driving a car). I always like trying to acquire more dumb skills - they're valuable.
Critical thinking and planning is all good - but just putting in the hours is more reliable than over-thinking it.

 

But this is practice. Same as anything.
Yes, technique is important, but irrelevant if you can't finish anything.

Good point made here about quality, but putting something on Soundcloud is not the same as commercial release, right?
It is like performing at open mic night...to later regret and cringe and make you strive to improve so as to NEVER BE SHAMED LIKE THAT AGAIN!

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2021

Ewwww.. gross.

 

Exactly. What's wrong with a three minute shag anyhow?

 

Do unto others...

 

Why not save yourself some time and fast forward straight to the end?

 

Yeah that's way more respectful to the journey, pace, and structure of a fellow human beings' song.

 

It's pointless me listening to music that I don't enjoy particularly in my own time.
I can't stand the type of music Adele makes. Clearly hundreds of millions of people disagree.

Similarly as I've said before, club music bores me so I'm not going to waste my time listening to a 4 x 4 kick drum and some percussion if the "drop" has nothing out of the ordinary going for it.

Conversely I listened to that "out of tune" demo about five times over two days as I appreciated what it's potential could be.

People ask for opinions on here. If they are wanting technical advice, then I'll leave it that to those better qualified than myself. Most people are just asking whether they have a good vibe going.

All is good. I don't mind people listening to 5 seconds of my stuff and deciding "not for me".

And yes I've fallen behind on my schedule. Had "real world" distractions to deal with over the past week.

 

So still going but significantly behind schedule due to real life issues.



Not a cover or a mash-up.

Created the music first but then needed to find an acapella in a close enough key that would fit.

Admittedly it does sound in the genre of the original acapella but that's a coincidence. Attempt 1 was a Madonna acapella but auto-tuned down sounded like a demon.

The schedule is back on.

 

Last edited: Feb 11, 2021

Just re-posted a new version. On listening back 24 hours later, some of the parts were quite annoying.
(You may think the whole track is still annoying )

 

Personally, I prefer to work on many tracks at the same time, and when I say many, i mean 8-10 tracks at least, because sometimes I just don't feel inspired to continue one, so i'll just switch to another one, and with inspiration there's also very often quality.
And about finishing more tracks, I just feel that to make what I want my music to sound like, I would need more free time. At the moment I have to study for exams and all the time i spend making music is time i feel that i'm "wasting" because I really should just study, and obviously it's impossible to finish tracks with this mindset. In the future when i'll be free to do whatever I want in my free time without feeling like this, it will be easier to finish everything. Also, I mostly make music just for myself, not a fan of sharing my music with the world :D