Sounds like if we all worked together writing songs, we'd have every craft it takes on board.
I love writing bass lines, by the way

 

This is why i love this place so much, Threads like these.

 

This.

 

This is some knowledge right here.

For me the hardest part of writing is getting the song to a point where it starts to write itself.

 

Letting go of perfectionism. Especially hard with OCD.

I used to spend WAY too much time designing, refining and "perfecting" the sounds I was using. After tens of minutes became hours, it pulled me out of that creative headspace I would be in. I could spend hours designing an awesome sound but it became meaningless because it wound up clashing with many things that came after.

Now I just bring up a default preset that sounds close to what I want and spend, at most, 15-30 seconds quickly shaping the sound and move on.

 

I suck in: all the true musical parts: composing, arrangements, and so on

I excel at: all the technical stuff. Most of the times I even doesn't use it when I'm finished..

It's like, "oh, great, I managed to set up my laptop as a slave DAW with my desktop one as master using Reaper Reamote functionality that normally crashes with Kontak ... hell yeah, I'm the man.. "

(20 seconds later)
"now, why I did this for again considering I don't need it AT ALL?...."

(5 min later)

"okay, let's grab a beer at the bar or turn on Netflix and forget this happened"

You know, there's some debate among sound designers about this. Can you do by yourself good tracks plus carefully crafting every sound/synth used? By common sense I've always thought your conclusion is the right one. I mean, there's only 24h a day.
Unless your name is JM Jarre, Vangelis or the modern geniuses counterparts, that is

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2018

@Xupito My excessive sound design began to lead to (what sounded like) sporadic and random sections in my arrangements. This killed any theme or progression and the tone was all over the place, despite my efforts to keep everything harmonically stable. I think a good balance (for me) is to shape the ONE predominant sound I hear and lay in everything else quickly using default patches. For me it's inspirational because potential new rhythms and tones begin to reveal themselves.

Then I usually cut everything I possibly can while retaining the mood and go back to sculpting sounds and repeating the process.

I will also admit that I am one of those people who spend hours setting up virtual/MIDI routing between DAWs, hardware, mobile devices and apps then asking myself "Why?"
Not always but it happens.

If one has the patience and the mindset, I believe so but it requires a certain focus. Not expecting or seeking happy accidents and knowing exactly what you want to hear.

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2018

That's the always difficult part: balance. You don't want to start with a shitty sound. But if you invest too much time before at least a good part of the composition done not only can you lose track of the whole picture but you can find yourself tweaking again that time-spending sounds.
Because in the mix/composition/with that new instrument layer doesn't fit, and so on

I'm the specialist in that area. You employ(ed) too much time designing sounds, I do it with technical things. Occupational hazards, to every one his thing lol

I meant that even if you do it right, with the correct mindset/workflow, it still is an humongous lot of time.

 

I struggle with naming my songs.

 

I too can easily fall into the morass that @Xupito and @Pinkman speak of. Way way too easily. (so don't think I'm downing you guys!) It's practically second nature to me to obsess on the 'sound.'

Soooooo...

I actually do a lot of my writing on JUST piano (digital, so I can record the ensuing mess) Even multiple overdubbed pianos. Forces me to not worry about 'the perfect sound'. When I first start to pick it apart for arranging, I'll use the GM soundset on the piano, just to see how the parts work together. If it works with those crap sounds then it has hope. THEN I start working on the real sounds that somebody someday might actually hear. The arrangement then moves forward based on the combined need of the music and the sounds to work together.

Obviously this only works for certain styles of music. Can't see doing beat based tunes this way, but then I rarely do such.

My roots of actual modular hardware are both a curse and a blessing.

A curse because I just LUUUUUUV sound design, and can get lost in it for hours (or days).

A blessing because when I actually know what sound I want, I know how to go there.

I'll occasionally just play with an arpegiator and tweak sounds, but most of the time these excursions turn into little more than musical masturbation. It's fun, it feels good at the time but the end result is usually a mess.

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2018

AudioZ

 

I feel you so much... lol

Sometimes I try that (a very simple piano plugin in my case)... only to discover myself half hour later trying the last ampsim plugin just for fun lol

Procrastination is big in my brain...

 

Last edited: Jul 6, 2018

That freaking muse and the overwhelming feeling that I'm about to compose (or composing) the most epic piece of shit. However, the following is something I wake up every morning remembering since I read it:

I've always felt that inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.

I read it from Jordan Valeriote (Silverstein) quoting it from Chuck Close. I know, you've no idea who those guys are -Don't give a shit. Just heed the advice. It's actually great advice.

Peace.

 

for me it's melody and harmony, song structure.. and it always worried me i will get bored of a track before i can say it is finished. so i have dozens of songs which i leave until i "forget them" and then hopefully they have a new lease of life when i go back to them... The technical side of things just fascinates me. i have no problems there as i can 'switch off' my mind doing that stuff...

 

Don't think of it that way. It's not procrastination, it's uncontrolled adventurism.

Sometimes however I just have to stay at home and put the adventure off for another day. Believe me I know the feeling. Every time I pull up a synth VST I just want to PLAY with it. Never mind if I'm actually doing something useful, I'm like a kid at the beach trying to make the worlds craziest sand castle. It's meaningless, it won't last, but it ain't about to stop me. I just have to compartmentalize myself and my time:

'This' part of me gets to be the 'wild and crazy guy' for 'X' amount of time and 'That" part of me has to go: "okay we have work to do."

It's actually a trip I learned from a late friend of mine who did a lot of movie/ tv scores. He always said "have your fun but know when it's time to work, because that's what's paying for your fun'

 

very interesting thread

 

Time constraints.

not enough time as would like, or just have to fit a lot in any amount of time.
always feel like i can't give enough attention to things as i would like and bothers me.

 

Last edited: Jul 6, 2018

For me, the hardest part is hitting the right notes at the right time!

 

Isn't it everyone's?