Stop thinking about the end product. Stop worrying about what genre you’re making, or what your artistic voice is about. You’ll be scrutinising your ideas before they’re fully formed and it will cripple your creativity. Do stuff that’s fun, and that you enjoy, without worrying about the end product, and you’ll find that you aren’t stuck anymore.
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This is true. It could come down to just settling for one style right now, to get something done, and be comfortable with the fact that the others are still tempting, and their time will come, if they’re still relevant to me after some time has passed.
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Yep. Right now, I’m using only an Analogue Four MKI and a Rev2. Once I have something, I record it into the Blackbox and add textures and layers if appropriate. Then, I master into the Analog Heat, which I also use to record the result directly to computer, at which point I’m done.
So there’s not a whole lot going on in terms of gear, which I think also highlights this even more. I kind of like that’s is so exposed.
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Oh, thanks. Much appreciated, I’ll check this out for sure.
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I need some mix of the following-
More music theory
More IRL collaboration
More projects obliged to external responsibility for completing
Less options
Less VSTs for endless wanking and tuning
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I’m dragging this thread back from the grave. I feel this is exactly what I’m going through right now. I haven’t produced anything even remotely resembling a track for more than 8 months – since finishing an EP last October. At first, I was messing around with different genres, playing with new gear, and telling myself that I’m looking for the next direction so all of this experimentation for the sake of it will payoff once I get down to it. But now, I’ve been getting frustrated, bored by my own stuff, and feeling like nothing is working out despite playing every night. I have musician’s block, for sure!
So, @circuitghost, since making this thread, you’ve gone on to produce at least two brilliant EPs (that I know of) that are absolutely drenched in your own voice. I’ve played ‘All That We Lost’ multiple times and I’m just getting around to absorbing ‘That Which Remained’. Both are fantastic. Congrats. What changed to help you get out of the rut? I notice your setup has changed a fair bit judging by the gear mentioned here compared to other threads I’ve seen. Did that help? Maybe it was a different approach that worked for you? Did you end up taking a break from music before finding a new lease of life?
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Be very interested to hear circuitghosts take also. Certainly been very active on the forums and also purveying many gears over the years. I suspect constant investigation and development of process played a part, but interested to hear more.
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I thought this was a current topic, my B.
Thank you @craig for your lovely words on my work. I am flattered and honored you wake this thread from the grave, with such a fine context.
To reply to your question and @mattleaf a few things happened that took me forward -
First, the gear exploration over the year, was critical. Just trying out everything from interfaces to techniques to sound design and workflow, was part of the training and learning. I actually think we’re too quick to call gas on our fellow musicians, just because there’s lots of musings and thoughts going on about gear. Trying out, trading and pursuing new kits are not vain attempts to drench something else. It’s as likely a curious and healthy way to approach learning as it is something else. At one point, I stopped listening to people who said I was compensating for other things in my gear pursuit, and accepted instead that this was part of the learning process. The fact that the pursuit slowed down after some time, helped me reaffirm that notion. These days, I don’t much care about new gear and when I do, it’s a very specific kit I get for a very specific reason. But I wouldn’t be in that place if it wasn’t for the years that went before it.
Then, I had to give up a few very firm ideas I had about how I wanted to make music. I’m a fairly skilled pianist. I always assumed that keyboard playing would be an integral part of my music making, since I’m, well, good at it. But the results I found most interesting, always came from other interfaces - funky sequencers, grid controllers or such. So I decided that being a pianist was one thing, writing electronic music another. That removed a big part of the block.
Also, I feel that beats and percussion were always central to my stuff. I was often told, I had a certain skill for making grooves. So I insisted to myself, my music should always have a clear and cool groove. And I love making beats, so it made sense. But while people seemed to enjoy those grooves, it seemed that the more abstract stuff attached to listeners in a completely different way. And my beats were quite ordinary, to be honest. Whereas the abstract more free-form stuff, they were what they were, but at least they were something more distinct. So I gave up on the idea that I was a beat maker. I simply wasn’t.
Another thing I had to give up, was my idea on sequencing. I was making music composed entirely in sequencers, all following the same clock and beat. I didn’t realise that this approach, while certainly quite common, was part of the reason I felt stuck. The pianist in me preferred more free form, floating stuff. When I got the Chase Bliss Mood and explored looping for real, together with the way the 1010 Blackbox works, that’s when things started to fall into place. Separately recorded pieces that joined together in a free form environment, but still following the same overall lead - just each of them in their own way, though closely related. That’s very far from the “Start - and stop - and start - and stop”-sequencer of say the Elektrons. I had to give that idea of control up.
And finally, the Prophet 12. It took me some time to learn that instrument. But once I started understanding it, I realised, these were the soundscapes I’ve had in my head for so long.
When all these things came together, that’s when I started making music that spoke to me. But I reached that place by just keeping at it, remaining curious, thinking this is still going somewhere - as long as it’s moving, it’s still worth it.
I even remember the very first piece I did, where I went - “Hang on … I might be on to something here.” It’s this one, not really a great piece by any means, but perhaps in this context, interesting to listen to -
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Wow, thanks for the thoughtful and though-provoking response. That’s certainly inspired some ideas (and because of you and your music, I’ve been looking at the Sequential line up, but I will have to stick with Repro-5 for now until I’m in a better financial situation haha). A lot of gear has passed through my hands (especially Elektrons as you mentioned) but I’ve not really lost much money while trying things out - I see it like paying to rent something for a while in a way. I will keep plugging away. I think I’m intellectualising things too much and spreading myself too thin in terms of genre and all that jazz. I should just do me. I especially liked your idea of picking the elements that you and others find appealing and doubling down on that rather than trying to do all the things at once. Cheers again!
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Thanks for saying 
well, you know, at certain points, we just have to do things in a certain way to move forward. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong process here, which is why advice should be given and received with caution. Perhaps you need to be in that place, listing features, comparing stuff like memory size and amounts of steps in the sequencer and such, just to get closer to your actual self. Just understanding things, getting an idea of why they are what they are, is an important part in finding yourself in all of this. It’s easy to listen to these pros who’s been doing their craft for decades and the wisdom they share. But usually, they share it from where they are. Not where you are. I don’t much care if a musician who’s been at it for thirty years think I’m overthinking gear. I’m not where he’s at. I’m where I at. If someone doesn’t understand your context, their advice won’t work.
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This is really tweaking my ‘he’s right you know!’ sense right now.
I’m totally bereft of musical ideas, haven’t made anything music-wise for years. Actually that’s not totally correct. I have a fucking million ideas I just don’t know how to express them. Actually that’s not correct either as, in reaity, I have plenty enough hardware and software and skill to render anything I can think of - I mean, these days you can just do everything on a friggin iPad! I think I just lack the will to craft ideas into anything meaningful, once I’ve scratched the initial itch. I can’t finish anything. Actually finishing something is so far from me I barely even START anything let alone finish it. I think I just get utterly bored with my own stuff the second it becomes reality. It does come down to interfaces with me, a lot. It took me years to realise that. But there’s never a ‘perfect’ interface is there? It always lacks something or does something that frustrates you. I think this is the ultimate gear curse.
I’ve started drawing. I used to draw when I was a teenager. Actually I obsessively drew birds and was actually good at it. Then I drifted away from it and lost confidence. I decided a while ago that each day I would take a single pen and draw something, anything, and share the results with a couple of friends (one of them a really fucking brilliant artist and illustrator). The first couple of weeks were fucking hideous. Not that the drawings were that bad but sharing something that way, regardless of my perception of it’s ‘worth’ has actually been quite liberating and my confidence has increased exponentially. There’s a lesson here that I should probably apply to music making but I haven’t really found a ‘pen and paper’ interface with which I can make a piece of music and be happy with the results. I think I find the art of music something which requires more completion and polish than my art of sketching. I think that’s why I get bored. Who knows 
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Did you finish making this album? If not, why not?
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Daring to share is vital, I’d say. No one creates only for themselves. Approaching it that way can be part of moving forward, but in the end, we all want an audience. It’s fine if it’s just friends and family, though.
As soon as you put something you’ve done before someone else, it grows into something bigger than yourself. Even if it’s just you showing it to a friend, your spouse, sibling or kid. It takes on a life on its own and that is an experience worth having, big or small.
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I’m just not a very good beat maker. I had a few ideas and some tracks recorded, but it’s like, Lindstrom wrote the best piece in this genre ever anyway, and I enjoyed listening to his work more than I enjoyed writing my own. So I just didn’t have the skills to make this happen and once I was fine with that, I moved on.
Sometimes it helps to define a session, I think, like, say, as sound generation, adding things to a bank. Rendering out segments and passes. Not rendering can be so unproductive, just leaving everything all as midi tracks. And then other sessions, which are about organisation. I agree modern sequencers can beckon us to have to ‘write’, but plain old noodling - just creating material for later - can really help create some currency for down the track.
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this year i discovered that the only way to finish tracks is, well, doing sessions (depending in your workflow) with intention to make finished track(s).
i filled up my a rytm save slots then just didnt make music since
I feel like when we stop putting labels on ourselves that’s when can truly express ourselves… it kind of feels like thats your conclusion as well, all this growth seems to have happened whenever you stopped describing to a certain label.
And i fully agree with the gear acquisition, it has been a constant exploration for 5 years trying to find gear that complements me… I feel like I’m close and much like yourself the closer I am, the less I feel the need for the next big thing, cause I realize that a) I can already do “that” with my current devices or b) I don’t need “that” to create the music I want to create.
I also want to state that creativity and musicality is much like your muscles and you need to rest your muscles in order for them to gain strength. So for me staying away from music for a cpl of weeks have really reignited my passion for creating music.
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…first of all…u’r not alone…
circuitghost is a perfect brand for a timeless legacy…
it’s never U, who can tell what it’s “worth”…only time can tell…
and the people who spent some of their precious attention time with ur sonic creations…
does’nt matter if it’s “only” a hand full…or millions…
u can never choose ur audience…the audience is choosing U…
so just make sure, they can find u…the more options to stumble across ur output, the better…
don’t join the army of click me click me shout outs…
be a god of understatement…
and whenever u feel lost in styles…
be aware of the fact that “circuitghost” is a perfect frame to touch and cover and cross them all…always work with what is THERE…so never stop finishing and releasing stuff…
if u can’t see ur common ground, others will…
cause as said…not u, but only time will tell…while u’ll never know…
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