ADHD and music making over 400 tracks in 365 days, my first album

The Lounge General Discussion
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I have to post from this account because elektron thought I had multiple accounts

Hi everyone, as I started my official music making journey on Elektron gear, I figured I would share my story…

I run a ADHD support group called The Focus Warriors, and it finally pushed me over the edge to share my music…

I started making loops and sets with my gear but then slowly realized I had nothing to show for it. So once COVID happened I decided to learn Ableton. Well I would use Overbridge and try to make tracks, this became an obsession and anyone with ADHD knows that we like streaks and so I just continued every day. Some days were super hard some were easy. But when you HAVE To do it, you will find a way. Some days were just heard on the computer speakers, but I would just try to make it happen and do my best. Which is the most fun part about it! trying my best :slight_smile:

Here is my album 365 and a little write up about it,

I made over 400 tracks in Ableton last year—and here’s the crazy part: I had to create, finish, and upload each one to Soundcloud before midnight, every single day.

No one heard the album until today…

My album, 365 I, was finished at the end of last year, and I’ve been working on 366 I. But with all my current projects, it’s been tough to release it.

I kept finding excuses to hold back—until a Focus Warriors meeting last week made me realize:

I can’t claim I’m not afraid of failure if I’m still hiding my work.

So here it is, 365 I. I would recommend listening to it shuffled.

Here’s what I learned:

Creativity is a habit. I used many different creative outlets, its all about finding what works at the time… my favourites were my Elektron machines, and sample packs on Ableton—sometimes only hearing the final track on my Mac speakers before having to export it. I had to let go of perfectionism and focus on building the habit of creating, no matter what. I stopped being attached to the result, and attached to having fun creating.

This project gave me purpose, confidence, and balance. Alongside my 1 million burpees challenge for ADHD and the Focus Warriors, I realized that channeling my obsessions into creativity and physical activity helps me manage my ADHD symptoms.

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thanks @schoolbabyboy for putting on the album! i saw your post in the original message :slight_smile:

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awesome! putting in the effort to get the creativity rolling is not always easy but i have to agree the routines are very helpful! i feel like my life has revolved around finding my own positive routines the past few years and its truly a powerful tool to be able to provide for yourself. ill be throwing on your playlist to hear what you got cooked up.

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nice phrase.

one of the things that I see a lot of people struggle with is being constant. aparently you won that game :slight_smile:

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as a fellow adhd sufferer I think it’s insane you’ve endured a whole year, amazing job, I tried similar things with photography but never managed to have a flawless streak that long.
pretty great sounding music :slight_smile:

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i do have feedback: keep on showing up everyday, but drop that uploading a track each day. to be honest: FOR ME; its terrible to listen to because it’s not prepared for consumption: no cohesive package of tracks. they do have different volume levels, toooo many tracks, i would have liked some more refinement of details in composition.

maybe you could set a goal like: finish a song per week and work on it every day

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Thank you!! I totally thought I was going to master them, but I just kept using that as as excuse to stop from sharing the music.

I would like to go back and re export the tracks and master them, but some days I would finish the track at 23:55 and I just had to accept it.

After I get some feedback I will pick some favourites and spend more time on them

I love this idea of not being “prepared for consumption” never even thought of something like this.

Id say the tracks are just meant to be put on in the background while doing things, and you can just pass through them when the time is right.

I think that making one song per week probably was giving me fear as well!! becuse if i worked a week on a song I would expect it to be “better”

thanks for the honest feedback <3

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Well done on completing a mammoth project! You must have learned a lot along the way.

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Thank you! That’s exactly what I was hoping for. Every single day, I get better because I learn a something new. Some days, a lightbulb goes off, and it feels huge… It could be something as significant as realizing the importance of my EQ 8 or like my favorite 909 hi-hat is actually pitched differently than what I’ve been using for many tracks . It’s been so much fun to recognize when I’ve learned something new and to keep getting just a tiny bit better each time.

when you do it everyday you also realize the same habits you do, then you do them automatically and have time to learn something else

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‘Every day’s a school day’.

Without sounding like a broken record I tasked myself with making and sharing one tune a month at the start of the year (and that’s hard enough!). I find giving myself a deadline/rule helps me focus and pushes me on.

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I think that what you did is absolutely correct for someone with this condition, having a very short and strict time limitation is by far more useful to overcome productivity then having a whole week, a week time frame can easily lead to procrastination which will lead to frustration which will lead to failure to complete the goal, I’m in the camp of “it is what it is and I’m glad I did it instead of not doing it”.

that said, I think a nice secondary project can grow from this of “mastering” the whole playlist, load them up into a single project and just level them to a ballpark of cohesive playlist, which can also teach a lot about post processing as well. that project can be done in a week or so, so you can just setup a project, put a limiter and something like VC on the master to see what loudness/rms coming in and work the tracks to a “equal” balance.

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im really liking the wurbly synths on Shi T Dnb. as yall were talking about up there, these kind of projects help unearth little techniques that end up in future projects. im finding lots of learning and exploration in here!

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I hope to release my album 1/365 some point, but it seems I can’t even manage one track a year! Well done - simply for the sheer determination and output. I went right to the other end of the playlist and worked my way backwards - some solid work in there!

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I think this is really great, and cheers to you for sticking it through. I don’t care that it’s not mastered, but I also enjoy looking at artists sketchbooks more than finished pieces. This was clearly for you, and you went about it the way you did for a very clear reason, and the fact that you followed through shows you know yourself well. It’s honestly inspiring, as someone who suffers from perfection paralysis.

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just bounced through a bunch of these. pretty groovy! i strongly identify with having adhd of sorts. i have at least 50 songs 75% done and my personal goal is to get at least 10 of them to 100%. that’s been a goal for like two years it’s hard!!

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thank you so much for your feedback. you are totally right, It would lead to more frustration! I really liked being done and not attached with the song after it was over.

love this secondary project idea. I am eager to learn more about processing and getting better at this skill. This along with creating “leads” are the things I am most excited about to continue to learn about

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you telling me I have sheer determination made me tear up as there were so many days that I just had to push through the blocks. This is a character trait I have been working on having and no one can take that away from me.

I had to listen to myself make the absolute unbearable sounds for so long and its not easy being so horrible at something for so long. But I was sick of telling people “I wanted to make music” and not doing anything about it

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Really great work! Gratulations on finishing such a huge project. Very impressive. Shows what is possible when working with deadlines.I feel like the general quality gets better and better through the progression of the project.

Don’t know how much you want to linger on this but if I were you I would pick a few of the very best tracks for an EP or two. Maybe put some final touches to them without getting too perfectionistic and set a strict deadline to avoid going in circles. Then get someone to master them😊

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Love this concept… some of the tracks sound like rough Derrek L Carter demos :grimacing:

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400 in 365 days… Bro you sure that you’re not procrastinating something else very hard? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Insane stuff. I‘m already losing interest in a track irreversibly 4 hours after I started and got lost in stupid details. So I decided to do only live instead lol

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