What is your opinion about your own music?

Oh my! Let him on again just so we can hear some ‘hit’ singles … oh c’mon… its been a while since i heard a hit single.

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What you describe @Lemajik happens all the time when creating a track takes too long :wink: You want to make it perfect, you craft every single sound and after a while you simply loose track of the idea; the vibe - you once had. Im quite happy that i’ve realized this one day. Now i do my best to make a track in a day or two and if its not perfectly polished … well, so what :slight_smile: at least i get my stuff done and that’s what matters most.

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I make sounds or music just for fun nowadays. I had a crack at it once in a small studio in London producing a 12 inch but by the time it was sent out to djs it was old news.
I struggle to put a whole song together so nowadays if I like something I record it and wack it on youtube and secretly dream to be “discovered” (jizzmaster2000 if your interested).
But listening back to these clips, I really think they sound great imo.

@subbz2k I do exactly what you said. Make the most of the filling and that’s it. If the mix is not top notch so what… i managed to capture the filling. And that is why i make music after all.

It’s shit?

Yeah, this is a tough one
Lately I struggle with a couple things.
1 I think I would like to have a voice, or a vision if you guys know what I mean. As in a style that I can focus on, as opposed to spending time making tunes that might be relatively ok but aren’t focused. Having said that, as long as I am having fun I guess is ok. Also, I think a big thing for me is over doing my stuff, too many sounds and layers etc.
2 I am really rethinking my workflow as well. I think a simplified workflow would help a simplified sound and make it more my own. Maybe.

That said, I do enjoy making what I am doing which is a big thing, I am really enjoying getting more ideas that incorporate my guitar. And I do listen to some of my stuff to once in a while in my car, and actually enjoy some of it.

Interesting post @VDB - I feel/have felt the same.

A focus in subject matter or vibe is a cool way to go. Mates and I have been plugging away at an album for ourselves for a couple of years now (tracks are largely there but lyrics/vocals, as always, are taking forever!). At the mid point is this 13 or 14 minute long 4 part track that was unconsciously written about the oil refinery I live near (Grangemouth). That makes it sound totally shit haha but its a place that has some cool imagery. It’s like Blade Runner if you drive through it at night and at times of the year it can really light up the sky. It hangs together really well - would actually make a cool EP come to think of it.

I also went through a post-dubstep phase that I attempted to replicate but, like you, I over do things and find it impossible to let things breath. I think that’s why I tried hard to replicate the vibe as while the scene is layered it is done in a very different way.

Oh, and a simplified workflow has helped me a great deal. On a bit of a break just now while I transfer everything from one computer to the new one that is en route but really looking forward to sitting down with Push 2, AR, AK and FS1R. Bases covered and, thanks to Overbridge, the only one I need to muck about with a little more is the FS1R.

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I am generally never 100% happy with my trax, even when complete and even when released.
I generally feel they could use more work, but it gets to a point where I can be working on the same track for a few months and have to say it’s done just because I am so sick of hearing it.
The creative spark has long gone generally after hearing the same song looping for 3 months :loopy:

I might being going to reason on a surface pro, sampled into octatrack and a4, possibly add my bass station in there too. We will see once I get back home. I also need to really button down and learn the a4. Good to know others are having same issues or thoughts as I am tho!

There’s a healthy dollop of uncharacteristically Scottish optimism served with a wedge of poetic licence …
:heat: :wink: :heat:

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haha! Another semi-interesting related story for you - I’m a Falkirk fan and when the club spent some millions on a new stadium sited not far from Grangemouth they were looking into non football related revenues. So, one business venture was to put in a restaurant on to the top floor with views over the pitch and, beyond, Grangemouth. Mostly what you see is industrial land and the refinery towers with the flames constantly on in the distance.

Anyway, this restaurant had a head chef that allegedly worked in some michelin star restaurant in New York. So, my parents go for dinner. Food was lovely and the chef comes out to chat to some customers. He was European, we think French, and says to my Dad while gazing out of the window - “Ah aren’t the views lovely? Reminds me of New York” This is pretty much the view (though at night its a lot more “lit up”):

The picture doesn’t do it justice but my Dad couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

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i’m pretty much critic about what i do musically (and not only)…probably as per many others here, what i do the day before doesn’t always impress me the day after :confused:
it does take me quiet some time to produce a track/liveset and usually i can find myself listening to the same pattern/loop/… for ages.
that’s been happening a lot lately as i’m transitioning from a ‘mixed setup’ to an hardware only one so i’m still adapting to it.
time and real life play a big role in my music production though…don’t always have enough time/resources to express myself the way i want to so…mm…overall i like the music i make :relaxed: i only wish i had more time for it :expressionless: (making a living out of it would be a super-bonus…any vacancy out there? :grin: )

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:smile::grin:

dunno how you do it that it takes months until you cant hear it anymore … for me, im already done after a couple of days and cant listen to the stuff anymore :smiley:

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You really need to learn the A4? There are plenty tutorials out there (i did some on my YoutubeChannel as well). Have you just bought it? The A4 is quite easy to master imho - classic subtractive synthesis … if you learned it once on a synth you know them all :smiley: one way or another :wink:

IT SUCKS!!! Can’t enjoy my own music, love making it . Have no problem with sharing it but listening to it and enjoy it is impossible always hear production faults wonder if it’s sounds right if the construction is not to chaotic.

Yeah, it’s new to me, the a 4 not synths, thanks for assuming I am an idiot tho!
And I haven’t figured out the fm stuff or the conditional trigs yet!

thats not what i wanted to say! Did not knew that you have enough background already. No offence!

I’ve noticed - in the past - though, that there seem to be alot of people buying an A4 - or another analog synth these days who mainly used tons of presets on their Massive’s and Serum’s and Sylenth’s before … and now that they have a real machine at their hands they suddenly struggle and notice “fuck - i should’ve used less presets before” :smiley: Good for me though :wink: I like doing tutorials and i love if people have learned something from them!

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Lol no problem, I will try and check out your videos!

Good thread, I don’t record anything that I don’t like in some way, then I try to get it finished as quickly as possible, often a few hours or less, then record and forget about it for a while, move onto next project. Then some months later listening back I might not even remember the tracks :smiley:

But sometimes it doesn’t go like this, and I get stuck in the rut of lots of nice beats and loops but nothing finished, so I just leave them alone, then one day I might just record a quick jam with them. It can be fun putting things together that were not created with eachother in mind.

I tend to work best when I set myself goals, concepts or limitations, I never ever worry about “arrangements” and pre-defined 8 bars of this followed by 16 bars of that etc - to me that is both boring to do and makes for boring predictable music, also by the time I have finished micro managing I would be sick to death of the track, so I avoid working like that. Not having a DAW is a big advantage for me, those endless possibilities are too tempting and the whole endless maintenance cycle is a massive turn off for me.

For music use, computers stopped being interesting to me when they started having bloated operating systems, waiting around for booting/loading and troubleshooting kills my buzz. Graphical arrangement and little blocks, eq and filters shown graphically and too much visual information also make me focus on what looks right rather than what sounds right. I don’t mind the tracker style interface, but last time I used those in any serious way was on an Amiga.

I once read a definition of techno which went along the lines of “machines tended over” and it has always been my way of working, a few machines, a bunch of patterns, press start and make it up as I go along. Not being a “musician” the performance aspect for me is manipulating sounds and sequences rather than notes, I have no real interest in musical theory, preferring just experimenting with what pleases my ears. Fortunately this approach has served me well, and has kept my interest for 28 years so far. I do go through times where I won’t create any music for some months, but I don’t mind as I often come back with new inspiration.

“Don’t think, feel. It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon, don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory”

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