That terrible moment

Damn man, this is so recognizable! Just sold my OT, my DN. I constantly felt the need to engage with this machines, often resulting in hours of noodling and knob twisting. But the reason why I started making music (producing full tracks), was very often nowhere near in sight.

So upgraded to Live 10 Suite and also dusted off my old PSP and Nintendo DS, haha.

But I will be sure to keep the money from the DN and OT in my savings account, because surely at some point the GAS will kick in again.

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When I’m dry like this, I switch to sound design. And if I can’t get something beautiful, I go towards ugly/sick/weird.
Always useful at some point.

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The internet is an evil little monster and such a distraction for me. Constantly dangling new gear and videos of people using different setups than me convincing I need something new.

Pre internet I loved making music as I had my setup and never lusted anything else or thought I needed to change anything. I just made what I had work for me and was constantly learning and progressing.

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Instead going for a high value finished track, just try a few hours going for volume. Just high speed producing. One after the other, no fiddling always take first choices. Following your feeling leave the brain out.

After that. No need to do anything with what you have done. But a lot has been done and the outcome is not so important at this point.

I started doing this because I just have not so much time to spend on music these days.

Acoustic instruments do help for me too, lately I like to play with our toddlers instruments and little sound toys. No pressure, just flowing a little and have fun.

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Good point. I can’t say I’m perfectly shielded now (CS80 for real!!?!) but with my rule “one in needs one out” I’m making progress.

To come back to these dry times, I’d say take the opportunity to listen to this signal and identify what is wrong with your body/life. A good sleep being the better remedy in most cases, as stated above many times.

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Thats it! A lot of procrastination/failure complex/boredom and tiredness is a result of the internet. Pull the plug for a year and watch your musical journey begin.

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I know the solution: you should listen to music.
Being a producer is not just MAKING music, it is also LISTENING TO it.
Enjoy, your inspiration will be back, stronger.
:grinning: Relax.

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I find a lot of inspiration watching good jams/tracks with gear on youtube.

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Not everyday everything works out the point is the joy of spending time on being creative.Believe in what you do and in time it will reward you.Also as a wise man told me before its not good to have tons of gear in the room u 'll get 10-20 percent from each pick one or two instruments maximum and master them

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For professional reasons only, this became almost impossible for many of us.

Discipline might be the answer, again and again.

Like just talk straight to yourself for motivation: Am I going to make something (active) or hang around consume a little or just snooze (passive)? Both ok, but no space for regrets.

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XD this made my day…

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Thanks for your advices and your jokes, guys!

I’ve tried making music with a computer (started on reason 2.0 many moons ago) but the vast possibilities are too overwhelming for me and, like a lot of us, I already spend my days in front of a screen (I work as a motion designer).

My biggest problem clearly is lack of time: I can’t really get to know my more complex bits of gear, can’t really take time to experiment… each meager session I manage to have MUST be productive. As a consequence, lots of my boxes stay unused and I kinda corner myself in a blank page situation because of the need to justify all of this by finishing REAL tracks.

I would like to noodle on an instrument when I lack time but, sadly, I don’t know how to play. I used to play bass but my knowledge of it has gone since long…

Another problem I have is GAS and the need to buy new shiny boxes that seem to improve my musical needs at first… then comes the guilt from not using all my gears fully.

I thought about all of this this night and came to the conclusion that I kinda cornered myself with all these boxes, that I had to return to a point where I had a happier relationship with it… I remembered the excitement I felt when I saw the Volca Sample demo by Tats, and when my GF gifted me a Volca Bass and a Volca Sample, my two first pieces of gear. How happy I was just noodling with it on my lap. So I reached for my forgotten VSample this morning, turned it on and had some instant fun, nothing productive but good ol’ fun.

I think I’m gonna keep the little fella on my desk and see what comes out of it.

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I struggle with time a lot and have found my iPad a great tool to use when times limited. Been using it today lying on the sofa with a coffee writing 303 baselines and chilled electronica on cubasis. It auto saves and I pick it up throughout the day. Using it now while making dinner.

Then I can bounce down and Chuck parts into digitakt

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good decision. have fun, try to not take making tracks too serious

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I can empathize with the limited time to work with gear and wanting every minute used with these machines to be productive. I’ve personally sacrificed sleep to play with my gear and have had my performance at my job suffer because of it. It’s give and take I suppose.

Are you able to set aside time on a certain day to have with your instruments? If not, is there another activity you can sacrifice to make time for the music? At times I’ll be in bed just gassing over gear but I’ll turn my phone off and make my way into the studio at 11pm just to at least write a pattern or make some presets for my synths.

Also, you say you don’t really know how to play an instrument officially, but neither do I and many people probably lack traditional musical training, but still make great tunes. Use the sequencer, use scale modes, who cares, just cheat a little bit with midi chord generators. Don’t let these things stop you from trying to create. Use your ears. If it sounds good, it is good.

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Never use 2 pieces of gear to do what could be done on 1 is a good rule. There is a thin threshold for creativity when you start adding too many variables. Some people thrive under too many choices. Everytime i try to compose with more than 2 machines my creativity takes a nose dive.

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I think being self critical is part of being an artist…most people who are creative are in some way hard on them selves… i have found…

Something that pushed things forward for me a little while ago was understanding the circle of 5ths…blew my mind…

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I’m obsessed with the SH01A right now. And I’m obsessed with Ableton’s Analog synth. I wish I would’ve known a long time ago how cool Ableton’s Analog is.

With these two synths in mind I jammed this out in a couple minutes on my computer

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Yep. There’s no way I could stop myself being involved in music for a week let alone a year…The stakes are way too high.

I just read a book called Turning Pro–it’s pretty good but has me conflicted. It seems the idea is to always show up and do the job and put in the work (fair enough) but then after that he has a chapter on compassion, essentially telling you to treat yourself like a positive, encouraging horse trainer. The last line is “Never train your horse to exhaustion. Leave him wanting more.”

…But this confuses me because if I were to leave myself wanting more, then I wouldn’t be putting in the work and sticking through thick and thin. Generally if I work on a single project for a couple hours I’m done and can’t stand to work on it for the rest of the day–then I move on to another project. Then the next day I have to make myself sit down and do it, but once I’m in it I’m enjoying it.

Idk. Still, a good book. Seems a few of us could stand to read it.

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I guess it’s easy for me in that this is only a hobby for me and only ever will be.
I don’t have to suffer for my art, there’s no deadlines and my livelihood isn’t depending on it. If I’m not enjoying myself I just turn my gear off and do something else.
This is why I’ll never make anything that could be considered a work of art though…
I guess art requires a level of suffering. If you’re struggling it means you’re probably doing something that will ultimately make the struggle feel worth it.

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