Hey guys, so lately Ive been feeling rather unproductive in my music making world. It's not that I can't make a beat or anything, I just feel like I over obsess about a song to the point of being left empty handed in the end. Maybe I'm just being a stubborn perfectionist and don't wanna export the wav. cause I always feel like there's room for improvement. but I get to the point of just wasting precious time and energy.

Well I feel good today because at least i'm in the final stages of finishing a beat that im happy with so far, just have to adjust some automation and fine tune the eq's and then master it. I use Logic X by the way.

Lol kind of off topic but I (would have) had my first day of music theory class at junior college if it wasn't for that stupid bus driver storming off like no ones buisness!!

just wanted to see what you have to say about this topic or possibly give some tips on the matter at hand. I would guess that you become much quicker over time when it comes to finishing projects and stuff like that. I'm fairly new to producing (1year and counting) so maybe i'm just over reacting.

 

The problem with music is,
it's never finished, there's always something you can do.
you can always go back to that kick and add a bit more compression, or maybe that synth needs more reverb, eq or whatever.

fact is, if you're not up against deadlines or anything does it matter? take as long as you want.

but you could set yourself a deadline and say ok this track is finished musically, i'll only spend 1 day mixing 2 days 3 days a week etc.

I've been engineering and producing for about 6-7 years and i can't help but go back and tweak stuff.

last week an artist i did some recording for asked for a copy of one of their tracks (they must've lost it or something) and at this point i knew they hadn't yet released it.

so while i loaded up the project i couldn't help but just tweak the eq and reverb on the vocals and the eq on the strings.

and then i went back and changed alot of the settings on the drum buss.

there was nothing wrong with the track beforehand, there was just other things i wanted to do.



a solution i have for this problem though is.

Export your track load it into itunes or whatever, and listen to it, note down what you're not happy with and what you want/have to change and if you cant think of anything

ITS DONE.

 

Usually when I tweak too long and too much on a beat/song, I end with 2 beat different beats/songs instead of being empty handed.

One thing you can do is, when you have the first idea of the beat, save it right away. Then as you gradually work on it and feel like it's going nowhere, open and listen to the save you made at the beginning. That tends to bring me back my first inspiration I had for the beat. And you can compare with what you started at first and have now.

 

Last edited: Sep 1, 2015

Disagree... Knowing when it IS finished.. is the key.

Teach yourself how to not and it will go a long way towards productivity.

 

What rickbarratt said is absolutely spot on with regards to any creative pursuit, this is well known and documented. But not knowing when it's finished is like starting to make a Spaghetti and not knowing when it's done. There must be a problem with the original inspiration not being clear enough or not enough of it, and this has lead to not knowing what the goal was.

 

Some of my best work took me years to get done and it took so long because I stepped away from the project. Like One Reason said , Two years later I sent it off for Mastering. Now that project is golden,

Bottom line is not to overthink , never be your own critic

 

Two options I feel might help you.

1) Set a timer and work to that schedule. It's possible if you push yourself, you could find that spark of magic hits you a lot quicker.

2) Work on a few different projects, so when you feel you have given one plenty of time and effort, leave it for a while. Inspiration can come from looking at something when you are fresh from being away from it.

 

Perfect use of that 'flogging a dead horse' smiley

 

I'm 19 and I'm nothing compared to experts here at audiosex.pro.
so read at your own risk, as I'm mentioning the things that worked for me.

Watch these:

How to Finish Better Music Faster (final step 8):

How to Finish a Track You're Bored of (part 1)

Don't believe you can make music your life?

Joining the course or not is up to you, I didn't join but I write him about the problems I'm facing and he replies and it does help (a lot).

All videos except one free private webinar:
https://www.youtube.com/user/startnowfinishfast

Take a break come back and listen if you are making multiple projects leave the one for 10 days and work on other projects.
Do you know: James Dymond, one of my favorite trance producer leaves the finished project on his pc for 2-3 months before sending it to a label. I know hardwel finished spaceman within no time. Same solution every time might not work.

Take a break and If you are high watch these:

Also There is a post related to creativity on audioz. Search!

Best of Luck!

 

Last edited: Sep 2, 2015

Good post Rohan!

One Reason, the flogging a dead horse point is an excellent one for creative people to learn. If a project isn't working or exciting you must as a creative learn to just get rid and start another.

 

Another thing that helps is to learn to let go and let loose a while...

Being too rigid and nit picky about everything or complaining about originality or it has to be like this or like that, or hating the music that's around these days never helps with being able to be productive and actually make things happen for yourself...

When being productive and finishing off tracks you need to feel motivated and energetic and also a little wild in the sense that you can just quickly start and finish a track out of no where. But having a bad attitude about things never helps either...

Often when people become more professional or knowledgable about a certain area, their motivation decreases and their criticism increases, often leading them to be hateful and complacent about everything. This isn't a good mentality to have...

You gotta learn to appreciate other peoples music and whats out there and you have to appreciate the process of application. As weird as it is, knowledge and application are two seperate abilities. You can have the knowledge and theory, doesn't mean you have application ability, so you gotta keep practicing and applying and getting better at the application process, eventually leading off to completing tracks you can be happy with.

Of course, no track is going to be perfect, but you can always get better with every track...you just gotta complete it and then you will get faster after every song is done

 

Couldn't agree more (.) (.)

A smart person (Be it in music or otherwise) will always be willing to learn something new.

 

I associate that ^^^ with an athlete running off the final bend and winning because he or she was able to relax in the knowledge they had put in so much hard work, they knew they were good enough to win without stressing.

 

yes that happened to me many years ago but to beat that from happening to you you have to do 2 things :
1) Never ever think that you are not that good
cause what kills a lot of musicians work is lack of confidence & doubt in themselves
believe in yourself that you are good at it (cause if you do that, you will give your creativity a chance to show up in your work)

2) Second more important thing is :
try to improvise and never try to do what others do (like can i do that type of synth or piano) originality is the key to success​

 

thanks guys for the great input, i agree with whats been said so far. i think it will take me far.

 

may I add few things here to illustrate further more what the cool guys have posted before.

Try this :
Working in 2 sessions /
Morning session => to clean, mix , edit your work

Afternoon/Night session => leave your inspiration go beyond, limitless.

To explain it in the simplest way, during the morning our brain is more
powerful for all task about calculating, having a real critic vision, being precise.
Against the afternoon/night where it is more into creative work.
I won't let go further just check this it will explained it better than me

Try to have pause during your work, it's very important don't play with this, really.

Obviously ev' have their own way(s)/routine(s) -or not- to work. But sometimes, where we are lost, tired, stressed,
a kind of rules can make the difference a lot.

For my side, I don't use this rules all the time obviously. But since I began to write, produce music (m/l 20 yrs),
it came to me this: it's always the same, trying to not mixed creativity spot with clean/mix/edit spot 'cause it push you on "a messy
jammy world" where you are lost quiet quickly, if you're not warned. Again this is my own and humble experience.
But sometimes, mess with these spots, gives astonishing great results too! So I 'm joining ArticStorm about this.

 

Another thing to mention is the pressure we feel nowadays to succeed. I'm 55 years old and compete with kids that are young enough to be my grand children. And the speed with which success is attained nowadays is perpetuated by the fact that we now live in a digital world. "Success (we believe) is only a "click" away!!"
As a composer of music however, knowledge remains king. The fact that I have experience has led me down a path where I've "succeeded" at many levels.

The point being, don't succumb to the pressure to succeed. You may be trying too hard to make this next track THE HIT.
You only set yourself up for failure BEFORE you've even started your beat!

All the songs, tracks or beats that ever succeed are a result of someone that does art for the sake of the art. Not to make money.
That is when "originality" prevails. That's also when some stupid-fuck Rolling Stone critic will curse the artist for eternity by painting the poor sap as a "genius". We are all "geniuses" when left to our own bare-naked, stripped down, sense of intuition. Write from the heart... fuck everything else. That's when you will develop your style... don't put pressure on yourself to be the next sensation. You're destined for failure.

The absolute flip-side to my rhetoric is to become a musical whore (me). I was the guy I just wrote about. I've now seen the grass on both sides of the fence.

Now I've become the musical whore... and you wanna know why?

BECAUSE I'M 55 YEARS OLD, THAT'S WHY!!!!!!!!
(and it pays well).

 

Last edited: Sep 2, 2015

I fail to mention that I went from A to Z and some will call me a hypocrite but the fact remains that knowledge is king.
I have managed (through the course of time) to gather enough information to make an educated decision. My decision isn't going to leave me wondering "why? why haven't I succeeded?"... I am not advocating you do one or the other but rather (as a teacher) you do it in the proper order (as I described above). Nothing beats an educated decision that you are comfortable going to the grave with...

Best wishes to all of us.