keep your ears fresh!

[terly]

I spend about 30mins - 1hour getting an idea down, and then usually switch to something else, unless I think I can finish it right then. A lot of my favourite tracks of mine were finished in under 2 hours. When I start spending too much time, I lose sight of the concept and/or add too many superfluous elements. I produce a lot, so if I do 3 tracks in a day and one of them is half decent that's good for me.

[dubdub]

I used to work on lots of tracks at the same time but at some point it gets confusing and starts feeling like a fucking factory or something so now I'd rather try working on one track at a time. Usually after about half an hour or an hour I know if I should just bin it completely and start something new, render it and be done with it, or keep working on it. I usually try to mostly finish it at the second session (or just render it if it's not that great on a second listen) and do the final mix etc. at the third session. I probably end up with one "real", finished track for every 10 loops/sketches but I think that's just the nature of doing this stuff.

so in 3x getting back to the same project, you get it finished ?
pfff, I wish I could work that fast man...

I try to but I "finish" (I don't properly develop most sketches I start) most stuff in 1-3 sessions. I used to take a lot longer but I've stopped being anal about mixing and automation (because they are just tedious as hell to me) and it makes everything ten times faster.

[Hades]

I used to work on lots of tracks at the same time but at some point it gets confusing and starts feeling like a fucking factory or something so now I'd rather try working on one track at a time. Usually after about half an hour or an hour I know if I should just bin it completely and start something new, render it and be done with it, or keep working on it. I usually try to mostly finish it at the second session (or just render it if it's not that great on a second listen) and do the final mix etc. at the third session. I probably end up with one "real", finished track for every 10 loops/sketches but I think that's just the nature of doing this stuff.

so in 3x getting back to the same project, you get it finished ?
pfff, I wish I could work that fast man...

I try to but I "finish" (I don't properly develop most sketches I start) most stuff in 1-3 sessions. I used to take a lot longer but I've stopped being anal about mixing and automation (because they are just tedious as hell to me) and it makes everything ten times faster.

man, that's most of the time exactly the stuff that takes me forever.
but tbh, I never really regret it in the end.
I mean, one of the things I should learn is that when listening to your end result, it's whatever you did that matters,
not what you haven't done.
But yeah, stupid old me... whenever I listen to most of my tracks weeks or months after I considered them finished,
I will always "hear" what I haven't done, which is totally stupid because everyone else won't hear that of course...

[Hades]

honestly, when I try to look at how I "finish" tracks normally...
I'm pretty convinced that 80% of my tracks would never even sound half ok if I didn't spend so long on the finishing process.
They'd just be a simple idea and nothing more.
As if it's only during the arrangement and mixing process that I take an ok idea into a "certainly good enough" level (at least to my poor standards) or something...
Every separate part of the track needs to earn its specific place to be wherever it is in the arrangement.
It needs to feel as if there was simply no other option for part A or B or Z to be where it is now.
The track needs to feel as if it's some kind of organically grown element.
It needs to grow on me during the constantly re-listening process I have when trying to finish my track.
And I can't imagine that happening if I didn't spend at least 20 or 30+ hours on the finishing process.

anyway, enough rambling...

[dubdub]

Interesting, very different approach from mine - I've found that with stuff that sounds good after a couple of hours, I usually don't have to do much to finish it and if it sounds like crap at that point, i'm not good enough to polish that turd anyways.

[Hades]

any links to your music dubdub ??
right now I'd love to listen to music that was finished in such a spontanious manner.

[dubdub]

The last one I posted in the members track section - http://subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7927

Took about 3 sessions if I remember correctly

[Merah]

No rules, try to enjoy the moment of creation, if it sounds good save it. If you ears get tired decide if your enjoying yourself regardless, be happy with your time making music.

[surface]

I find it difficult to see things through. It's been a long time since I got excited about what I'm doing. I miss that, getting a buzz out of it. That's what it's all about in the end ..

[arkos]

I find it difficult to see things through. It's been a long time since I got excited about what I'm doing. I miss that, getting a buzz out of it. That's what it's all about in the end ..

Try switching genres.

[Barfunkel]

I find it difficult to see things through. It's been a long time since I got excited about what I'm doing. I miss that, getting a buzz out of it. That's what it's all about in the end ..

Try switching genres.

That definitely helps, both in the motivation front and in the end, in your main genre as well. It's so easy to get stuck in the techno loop, making something a bit different, even if it's just another club music genre like house or drum&bass often gives you new ideas and methods for techno as well.

[arkos]

I find it difficult to see things through. It's been a long time since I got excited about what I'm doing. I miss that, getting a buzz out of it. That's what it's all about in the end ..

Try switching genres.

That definitely helps, both in the motivation front and in the end, in your main genre as well. It's so easy to get stuck in the techno loop, making something a bit different, even if it's just another club music genre like house or drum&bass often gives you new ideas and methods for techno as well.

It did for me, went from Reece basses to Reverb'd kick drums and I've been much more into it since

[Merah]

@ arkos, id love to hear some of your dnb work.

[arkos]

@ arkos, id love to hear some of your dnb work.

It was pretty much all done on hardware and Emulator-X, hardware I sold years ago and the Emu soundcard died.
So I'm not sure if I still have any of it, I was way to lazy recording stuff back then.... Must have been all that weed
But thank you for the interest bro, was mostly just Ed Rush and Optical ripoffs anyway and the mixing probably terrible

[Hades]

So I'm not sure if I still have any of it, I was way to lazy recording stuff back then.... Must have been all that weed

man, I used to be an almost walking weed plant in my early twenties.
It was getting back into synths and especially trying to learn sound design that slowly made me quit that stuff.
I just couldn't learn that shit while being stoned.
I replaced most of my old habits with beer though.
Not so sure if that's any better...

[arkos]

man, I used to be an almost walking weed plant in my early twenties.
It was getting back into synths and especially trying to learn sound design that slowly made me quit that stuff.
I just couldn't learn that shit while being stoned.
I replaced most of my old habits with beer though.
Not so sure if that's any better...

It's probably a lot cheaper though so more cash for beer and gear, I guess that's a win
I use weed to be able to concentrate on one thing rather than one thousand

[Hades]

yeah I'm always shocked when I hear weed prices nowadays...

[christianmdp]

as planet hemp used to sing... "não compre, plante!" "don't buy it, grow!"
and i just can't concentrate on production while on weed.. it starts ok, but after some minutes i catch myself doing things i shouldn't.

[arkos]

as planet hemp used to sing... "não compre, plante!" "don't buy it, grow!"
and i just can't concentrate on production while on weed.. it starts ok, but after some minutes i catch myself doing things i shouldn't.

It's exactly the opposite here, if I'm sober I overthink everything and get distracted or annoyed straight away. That's why I'm never sober

[disparate]

Kinda old school really, more like working as a band would, but it means my sound tends to be more thematically and tonally consistent. Just doing a new track each week, or 2 or 3 seems to stifle movement, it prevents an overarching "feel" or direction from developing. It just becomes "tracks".

That's interesting, haven't really thought of doing things that way (for the last while I've just been doing one track then another and so on, and "always finish what I start" unless it's a complete lost cause...) but can see how it'd be good for doing a consistent set of tracks for an EP or album or something, or just exploring ideas more fully. It'd definitely be correct to say my tracks don't really have that consistent a 'feel' from one to another. Maybe I'll switch for a while.

Regarding breaks, I like to take one around every hour, maybe just walk around the flat, or do a bit of tidying, get a drink, go for a walk in the park if it's a longer break I need, whatever gets me away from my seat and listening for a few minutes really. Stops the ear fatigue coming on as fast (monitoring at sensible levels is good for this too) and can help if you're starting to go round in circles a bit. When I'm at the stage of mixing down the breaks get more frequent or I start to lose objectivity pretty quickly...