Something I've been thinking about recently after reading @lxfsn's reply in this thread:

https://audiosex.pro/threads/im-looking-for-two-producers-to-onboard-for-private-coaching.84552/

By the way, this isn't a criticism of what @lxfsn shared, it's just my way of thinking through the process of finishing music. I really appreciated his comment because it made for an interesting observation.

I know we hear a lot about building good production habits. Show up, put in the work... and honestly, there's nothing wrong with that. But the longer I make music, the more I see it from two sides.

Sometimes not showing up is the right call. Not as an excuse or a way out, but because a producer who's burned out isn't the same as being lazy, and knowing the difference is actually part of the process.

The catch is you can only know that if you've shown up consistently enough to understand how you work first. Which I think is exactly what @lxfsn was getting at. The advice isn't wrong, it's just incomplete. And for a lot of producers who struggle to finish music I think getting that balance wrong is a big part of why that is.

I wrote something about this recently that uses parenting as a frame... which sounds like a stretch, but bare with me:

https://aymat.org/two-things-can-be-true-with-music-production-habits/

Curious if anyone else has wrestled with this one.

 

Last edited: May 21, 2026 at 1:04 PM

Spoiler: Der Mensch ist keine Maschiene. (In deutsch geschrieben, KI frei !)

Der Mensch ist keine Maschiene. (In deutsch geschrieben, KI frei !)

Manche Menschen funktionieren nur mit einer DeadLine, also eine festen Abgabetermin, das heißt wenn die Zeit knapp wird, fangen sie an die innewohnenden Kräfte zu mobilisieren, die Zähne zusammenzubeißen und zu arbeiten. Manche Menschen kennen das Gefühl unter Druck zu stehen, deswegen teilen sie sich die Arbeit in sinnvolle Abschnitte ein, um die ganze Sache durchzuhalten und weder Stress noch Burn out zu bekommen. Das eine ist Vernunft und das andere harte Arbeit.

Was sie machen @aymat, ist Ihren Körper zu trainieren um mehr Leistung und Stress zu bewältigen, das ist genau de richtige weg, den Du ja auch auf deiner Webseite beschrieben hast ob man das mit einem Sandsack oder 20 Kilometer Radfahren erreichen kann bleibt mal jedem selber überlassen.

Wenn Sie Unternehmer sind und viele Aufträge annehmen müssen sie entweder mehr Arbeiter einstellen damit die Arbeit geschafft wird oder intelligent und schneller arbeiten damit die Aufträge geschafft werden, denn dafür bezahlt man sie ja einen Auftrag fertigstellen wie vertraglich vereinbart.

Das ganze basiert auf Können und einem gelernten Handwerk als Beispiel. Wenn sei kein gelernter Pilot sind werden sie keine Boing 737 fliegen und landen können. Wenn sie also eine Mix nicht fertig bekommen ist es einerseits versagen, andererseits nicht können der Materie, für einen Song der nicht richtig abgemischt ist oder das ende fehlt werden sie kaum Geld bekommen.

Bedenken sie das eine fundierte Ausbildung wichtig ist, wenn sie Schwächen haben, trainieren und lernen diese Schwächen auszugleichen.
Wenn sie einen Mix nicht fertig bekommen, lassen sie Ihn liegen, wenn sie zu viele Mixe liegen haben suchen sie sich eine heraus wo sie das Gefühl haben, ich hab eine Idee oder es geht weiter. Sie können sich auch sagen ich setzte mir 3 Tage Zeit um Ihn fertigzustellen, denken sie vom Ergebniss her, hören sie sich vielleicht ältere Stücke an die sie schon gemeistert haben, wenn sei schon etwas Berufserfahrungen haben werden sie das auch meistern erwarten sie nicht unbedingt das er der Nächste Nummer 1 Hit wird, sondern eventuell nur mittelmäßig.

Schauen sie sich großen Bands an, Nummer Hits sind selten, besondere Song sind auch eine Rarität. das meiste ist halt solide Handwerkskunst. Hat auch was mit Glück zu tun. Manche Musik will einfach in die Welt.

Humans are not machines.

Some people only function with a deadline, a fixed delivery date. When time is short, they start mobilizing their inner resources, gritting their teeth, and working. Some people know the feeling of being under pressure, so they divide their work into manageable chunks to persevere and avoid stress and burnout. One is common sense, the other is hard work.

What you're doing, @aymat, is training your body to handle more performance and stress. That's exactly the right approach, which you also described on your website. Whether you can achieve that with a punching bag or by cycling 20 kilometers is up to each individual.

If you're an entrepreneur and accept many orders, you either have to hire more workers to get the work done or work smarter and faster to complete the orders, because that's what you're paid for: to complete an order as contractually agreed.

This is all based on skill and, for example, a learned trade. If you're not a trained pilot, you won't be able to fly and land a Boeing 737. So, if you can't finish a mix, it's partly a failure, partly a lack of skill. You'll hardly get paid for a song that isn't mixed properly or is missing the ending.

Keep in mind that a solid education is important. If you have weaknesses, practice and learn how to compensate for them.
If you can't finish a mix, leave it. If you have too many mixes, pick one where you feel you have an idea or can move forward. You can also tell yourself to give yourself three days to finish it. Think in terms of the result. Maybe listen to older tracks you've already mastered. If you already have some professional experience, you'll be able to handle this too. Don't necessarily expect it to be the next number one hit, but perhaps only mediocre.

Look at big bands. Number one hits are rare, and truly special songs are also a rarity. Most of it is just solid craftsmanship. Luck plays a part too. Some music simply wants to be out in the world.

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I'd say that mostly depends on why you're making music, and your mindset.

You might have the "GOTTA GRIND BRO" mindset, which will make you push through any deterrence and force yourself to create, even when you don't feel like it. Which personally doesn't work for me, and leads to burnout.

Maybe you have lots of work on your hands and deadlines to meet, which also might require you to push through, whether you feel like it or not. Or face the consequences.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you might wait for "Inspiration to strike", whenever that happens. And don't do anything until you feel like doing it, and you have something in mind that you want to do.

Which works perfectly fine for people doing this as a hobby, just for fun, or whatever reason that doesn't have any urgency to it.

And lastly, the (in my opinion) best path, is as usual, the middle one. Where you don't wait forever twiddling your thumbs until cupid's arrow finally hits you. But you don't force yourself to create at all costs when you don't really have anything to create. But give it a try sometimes.

As Pablo Picasso famously said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working".

 

It's interesting and layered topic, as you said, two things can be true at once, think one should try everything, take a break or push himself from time to time, exercise his skills, break some habits, try some other approaches, genres, gear and etc.

Working with other people is great exercise too, making music for other people too, making music on the spot, remixing something on the deadline, making music with just one piece of gear, flipping one sample, composing whole piece on one instrument, arranging on paper and etc, there's so much stuff one can try, we could probably make a whole thread with these challenges and approaches, it's all valuable.

Sometimes I would just take laptop and go out, visit some cool place, another artist, hang out with people, listen to music with them, make music with them, going to concert and parties always sparked something, even watching parties, movies and etc.

If you take music making as 9-5 job, making new music every day shouldn't be only thing there exist, you can pretty much work on few projects, do few automatons in one, little mixing on another one, mastering on third, some sound design on the side, demo some plugin on the way, go through your samples/presets and etc. Revisiting your older projects too, remixing yourself, improving old ideas and etc.

I'm speaking here from hobbyist perspective, someone who is there to make music for the sake of doing it, doing this as day job in professional matter is different mindset and set of challenges.

 

@PulseWave - Absolutely agree in regards to your reference on procrastination, because I was in that camp for a very long time. Not specifically for music because it's always been an outlet for me. But for work, procrastination is something I've had to learn to overcome exactly as you stated, through consistent training.

"...if you can't finish a mix, it's partly a failure, partly a lack of skill." - I feel like this a good example of two things can be true as well. The reason being is I'm learning that more often than not it isnt for lack of talent or skill. Some producers are perfectly capable of finishing a mix, they simply get stuck. Its the strangest thing and I'm completely fascinated by this psychological aspect of finishing music. Most of us have everything needed to do so, especially NOW with so many tools and resources available to us. And yet so many producers still struggle to finish music. It's like a deer in headlights.

"Some music simply wants to be out in the world." - this 100%. I also think a lot of producers don't realize just how much of that music exists that didn't come from big bands or what some professional would consider special... and yet somehow it does because it resonates even if it doesn't follow a formula or expectation of what professional music is supposed to sound like.


@oFcAsHeEp - I'm the same regarding "gotta grind" mindset. That mentality doesn't appeal to me at all. However, what I do find interesting is the perspective behind it. Because for some people what appears as "grinding" might just be someone else's default state and what they consider grinding might look completely different.

Regarding consequences, its a great point and something that doesn't get attributed as a motivating factor nearly as much as a reward. It's actually a great topic for an article

I think you hit the nail on the head with the best approach, which is mine as well. I find extremes to produce less than ideal situations for making music. but that Goldilock zone right in the middle is just right. Which really at the end of the day is finding balance, which in of itself is different for everyone.

@Melodic Reality - I agree. Making music is so open ended and just so many ways to approach it. I think that's the beauty of it though. Its different for everybody. For me personally, I'm just open to what comes from it. I don't have any particular expectation or goal, I simply just love making music for the sake of it like yourself. Sometimes I wonder how much I would enjoy making music on a professional level if I had the skills to do so, but the idea of monetizing something I love fills me with such dread I don't think I could ever do it.

 

For me, this is clearly psychological, and the reason likely lies in childhood or upbringing—perhaps even inherited—the lack of independence, the fear of not being able to meet high expectations, possibly also an obsessive-compulsive disorder about making lasting decisions, or perhaps even shy children who can't make decisions. In any case, people should be told this so they have a chance to heal themselves. It takes practice, then you can get it under control!

Thanks @aymat for your valuable text and the exchange of experiences!

 

Man, I agree with this absolutely 100%

It's interesting you brought up childhood upbringing because its a topic I plan on using in a future article, specifically because how it affects us not just as producers but in almost every aspect of how we show up in our daily lives. And you're absolutely right, knowing how that affects you I have personally found to be the best way to heal and work through it. Thank you for bringing it up and also for your insightful comments as well. I enjoy reading and talking about this immensely and it really means a lot.

 

It's great that you have more planned and that you're continuing your musical intellectual development and expansion of consciousness.

I'd like to introduce the concept of conditioning and, more specifically, the process of dissolving false, negative conditioning—that is, deconditioning. In other words, we often make life very difficult for ourselves with false, learned beliefs.You're the Pope! That's called a cult of personality. That needs to be broken. You're just as great as Robert Moog or Pink Floyd.

"It has to be this way or that, and I'm right," but there's definitely another way; let's see who has another way to solve a problem. The key phrase is: problems must be solved. Or, problem identified – danger averted.

I'd also like to add that the band Metallica had a psychiatrist present at their rehearsals for a while. The result was that the guitarist and singer underwent alcohol therapy, which is how they saved the band. There's also a YouTube video about it. By the way, the drummer goes jogging.

 

At one point I was making music for clients, it was soul crushing experience, some of the creative people involved look at music on most superficial level and their customers are on whole another scary level. I'm not for any of that, constant revisions, deadliness, trying to decrypt someone's vision, throwing out my own thing in blink of the eye, even working on something that I truly don't resonate with. Worked with people before, co producer, ghost producer, amount of stabbing in the back, worst kind of people I ever met in my life, never again.

But guess I kinda gained useful workflow out of it, KISS/minimalist approach, prioritizing things, looking at big picture and etc, but I despise this shallow assembly line approach, let the music take you where it needs to go, live with it, be your biggest fan, be someone who is truly moved by it. Caught myself too many times approaching it like evil alchemist who is there to deceive someone on other end, perfecting spell and hypnosis, optimizing ultimate trap for the listener/medium or doing bare minimum of right moves in order to satisfy what someone expects from me.

Yesterday I caught this video, it perfectly paints the picture, guy is having doubts because something he wants to do doesn't align with what he is expected to do, imagine working on whole project with these kind of restrictions on every step, not just sneaking one melody line.

 

Great stuff Artic, this reminded me to actually check my voice notes, I have been recording ideas for years and not once it occurred me to actually listen to them again, probably have some gem's there.

 

This is how I've always approached writing, music, and art. It's basically riffing... anything that pops into my head I just jot down. Almost all the tracks I've made are just repurposed old sketches. I've also picked up several potential ideas for articles just from this discussion alone. It's why I like talking about music here, lots of interesting perspectives.

The only difference recently is that I've had to reacquaint myself with creative writing. I was a writer for several magazines for years doing instructional content, and I also helped run a magazine as an assistant editor for over a decade. Some of that wasn't too bad, but nowhere near as enjoyable as just writing about something I actually care about. The stuff I did for magazines was very structured with lots of revisions, it wasnt at all like how I approach writing now which is more free-form, stream of consciousness writing which I play with until I can find an angle that works. But I totally agree, just writing as much as you can is key.

 

Last edited: May 22, 2026 at 6:21 PM

Thats sounds awful

Honestly, I could never function with that level of stress. That literally confirmed my biggest fears... and exactly why I'd have zero inclination to make music for money.

Silver linings... although I'm sure the temptation is always there. I work in marketing and I know the levels of evil that come with it. It's definitely a slippery slope.

My friend who started coaching sessions with me had asked me about this a while back. I haven't watched the whole video yet but I will. I thought it could make for an interesting article as well.

I think it's rare to find producers that only stick to one genre, at least the ones I personally know, myself included. I feel half the fun in making music is just trying stuff out even if it doesn't fit a specific mold. Although I know a fairly well known house producer who mentioned once that he had something like 30 different handles just to release music he wasn't most known for. It is a weird thing... the fear of diluting your "brand." Some people get really bothered by it, others not so much. I don't have any judgement on either side, but I think the people who have the most success releasing across genres are the ones who just commit and couldn't care less what anyone thinks.

 

This is a very long and nuanced discussion and Thanks for the mention, I only have a phone these days and it's not comfortable to write so I'll write this one brief reply, which may also suddenly jump topics.

Yes, in general two (apparently opposing) things can be true. No argument against.

At no point I said or implied that a grind mindset (no matter what) is necessary. But why music production is a grind in the first place? Why brushing teeth is a grind? It's all in the mind: I'm actively looking forward to have my teeth clean, and before falling asleep I'm actively looking forward to to doing more production-related activities tomorrow. That's not a grind attitude anymore. There's a thousand things that are not about writing down a melody: learning the daw, auditioning presets and samples, compressing/eqing/distorting random shit just to hear and learn these, lots of "administrative " things to do. But almost always what we drag the most, is what we need to focus on more. The gym buddies know best.

"If x would be that easy, everyone will do it". Not true. Back to the gym again. A big part of losing weight is just eating less (ok, there's a whole strategy, but at the beginning, just eating less is the way). It's not even about doing something more, but actually about doing less. Guess what? Half of the "western" world is obese. Everyone can do it. Most of them don't.

Why 200? People are motivated by solid, palpable targets. 200 is reasonable for anyone serious about music. achievable in a relatively short time span. It's also a sort of target that self-regulats the process, because it teaches things: what's important in a mix, whats fluff; trains the ear (ear training takes time); trains the taste (taste tranjng takes time); trains the creativity (today I have only 4 elements in the entire project, how can I make an entire track out of them?); and more. It also filters out the people not cut for this. If 5 years passed and you still don't have 200 shitty songs under your belt, you'd better be off soing something else. I have an acquaintance "making music" since 2010. Got nice monitors, all acustica plugins, interfaces, hardware synths. 0 finished tracks. 0.

The natively talented (fast learners) don't have this issue, they're also not on forums, they do their thing.

All the rest need their 200 tracks crawling through the mud. It's the mandatory filter. If they already release music and top charts by the time they're 20 tracks in, even better. But if they 300th mix still sounds shitty - this is the second filter. Do something else.

Music is not for everyone. I consider this forum a place where people want to actually make music, and improve their skills up to be on par with their favorite artists. This is why I said these things here. If I were to comment on, whatever mixbustv community, where the chief head and the entire following just talk gear and never make music... yeah, I don't comment or follow there

That's it. If you're serious about your craft, do the craft.

 

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with your take. This is just a bunch of half-baked analogies and feels like watching a Gary Vaynerchuk speech about how imagining your family dead increases your motivation.

Motivation shouldn't even need to be an issue. If you need to motivate yourself by reaching for an arbitrary number (200), why are you even doing it?
You either WANT to make music, or you don't. It is really that simple. If it's not that simple for you, you should think about what you're doing and why you're doing it some more.

Also, I don't have any science or proof to back it up, but every single bone and instinct in my body tells me that you would learn more by making 5 well thought out, well produced, finished songs. Than 200 whatevers, just trying to reach the number 200, for the sake of reaching the number 200.

Sometimes I finish a song in a week, another one I worked on for 5 months. I like them both in the end, and I think both stand their ground as decent pieces of music. But I learned MUCH MUCH MUCH more, while working on the song that took 5 months, than the one I slapped together in a week.

If I really wanted, I could probably make 200 crappy songs over the next 2 months, rush through everything, just trying to add a +1 to my arbitrary song count, imagining that somehow, when I finally reach the magic number I WILL FINALLY GET IT.

NO. You do not learn by reaching arbitrary numbers. It is entirely possible that you repeat the same mistakes over and over and over, for your whole run of 200 songs. Or even 2000 songs. Or your entire life.

You learn by...wait for it...LEARNING. Understanding. Not by chasing numbers.