Committing to daily interaction with my studio

[michaeljk1963]

@Suspect_Frequency

Reducing your gear to concentrate on one or two pieces at a time is wise, writing out daily practice goals could help (on this day practice X, next day practice Y, repeat).

If you are dreading even turning things on and sitting down to create, then that is the first goal for the first week - fire everything up, sit down, success reached. Anything else you do in these sessions is extra credit.

This is a good suggestion. I am lucky enough to have an old log cabin in the woods up North. I can now even work remotely from there, so I will often stay there for a week or two, and bring one or two instruments to focus on. Last week it was the Hapax and MPC One, plus my MacBook Pro. Last Summer, I spent nearly a month there with only the OT and (mostly) overcame the intimidation I’d previously felt about it.

Your second point is really the crux of this thread and why I started it. I have realized that there is so much I can do if I just take that first step every day. In the past week, I have already learned how to route my many hardware synths through my MRCC midi router, using multiple controllers, while also using the Hapax to sequence it without turning on the computer. Now I am focusing on figuring out how to do all of that AND use it with my DAW.

@BLKrbbt

How about you make a track right now and post it in this response thread.

I want to hear what you got.

Let’s go!

I really appreciate your enthusiasm! I will consider it. It has been a long-ish time since I’ve posted anything to my soundcloud page and I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything here, but it’s worth a try.

Re-reading my OP and the many wonderful responses from you guys, I wonder if my OP comes across as more negative than I intended. In case it does, I should point out that I feel very grateful for having the resources to be able to do this as a hobby. And despite my intimidation at times, I still do find myself in my studio randomly selecting a specific instrument and getting lost in the rich, complex, and vast variety of sounds I can make with whatever I have chosen to play with that evening. It has always been a kind of meditative practice for me, when I am able to put aside my inhibitions and frustrations with things I have forgotten how to do, or haven’t learned yet, and just “be” with whatever sounds I am creating. When, on rare occasion, I do record stuff, I think of my recordings as something more like an “audio journal entry” rather than a song. I am also grateful to live during a “new golden age” of synth technology, with so many opportunities for sonic exploration and for the internet, which gives me all the information and community I find here and elsewhere.