What's your biggest obstacle in making music you're happy with?

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

Finally, many thanks to you @William_WiLD:)

I often think/feel that lots of other makers can be judging of taste, quality, knowledge. Most likely just me and not actually true, but that’s the fear I have. And then there’s something like your Lowend101. Instead of showing off your knowledge, you succeed in explaining things in a way where you comfort the reader that it’s super normal to not know everything yet.

(I’m currently making notes to help out with some language proofing, but regarding the tóne of your text I really love it - it doesn’t make me feel dumb, which stimulates me more to learn)

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#22

i’d say time and also some sort of feedback from those who listen to the musical outcome, although i’ve learned not to take that much into consideration along the way/the years, but i think it does help to move forward

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#23

Thanks @lesstalkmoredisco for the kind words. :wink:

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#24

My ego and daily level of fluctuating humility

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#25

Time. The lack of it makes me work on things quickly and I may miss details along the way. Though working fast does have benefits in that your ideas are put to work before they fade I suppose. Two kids and a full time job make it difficult to dump tons of hours into my craft, but I try and “make” time often.

Self control. Throwing too much at a track, it ends up being just too muddy and the elements can’t breath. Need to scale back. Sometimes it’s not what you put in, but what you leave out.

Mixing / Master. I go back and forth so often with my headphones, monitors, and car before a release. It’s annoying, but my mixes over time I’ve came a long way.

All in all it is difficult, but anything in life worth doing typically is. Keep going, don’t stop creating. We all naturally improve over the course of many hours spent on our craft. It doesn’t come fast or easy. Btw, I just found that Ira Glass quote after getting some heavy feedback on my latest upcoming release and was feeling down. It def. gave me more hope.

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#26

To quote Bruce Lee:
“ It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

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#27

Wise words from a very wise man. Musical elements, I think of like seasoning, just a little goes a long way. Off topic, have you ever read the “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” ? There are some great lessons in there.

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#28

Myself

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#29

I judge my own music to a standard that I would not use for even my most liked music, while I am far away from able to produce their standards.
I hear myself talking about „I would never allow myself to do that“ a lot, when I listen to music together with my wife. On parts that I like on others music.

Second thing: my attention span is horrible. Even if I have a basic song that I like, I don’t get myself to do that extra mile to make it cool. (Adding effect sounds, making every bar of the song interesting etc.). Impetus so frustrated about my self at that moment, that I stop and do something knew. The first hour of a song is way doable by myself than the missing 23h…

Oh, and I find myself searching for reasons for it in gear a lot! 5 days into a new toy, I look for stuff that I might need to get the feature that I am missing.

I envy people who are able to be successfully creative with a single digitakt/m:s/Circuit/whatever a lot.

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#30

Procrastination.
Computer games.
Social life.

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#31

much like with wood working, my only limitations are time and ability/skill/experience. but both are creative pursuits, welcome time away from computer screens, and a time to make something tangible. i realize it’s a journey and don’t stress about it (aside from the multiple unfinished projects in my basement, including the bureau i promised my wife almost two years ago). i don’t plan to make a living doing either music or woodworking (or cycling or running or baking), so they’re just little bonuses in my life.

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#32

I remember those, they were awesome!

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#33

:joy:

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#34

This forum is beautiful and reading all your stories is very recognizable. Thanks you all :+1: Keep on having fun with music and everything that comes with it! Cheers

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#35

I have, a while back I collected a lot/most of his quotes, I’ll try to attach them:
Bruce Lee.pdf (43.4 KB)

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#36

This

And that

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#37

Definetely mixing. Never able to get the sound as I would like. Especially the bass. Over the years I improved a bit. But still far from optimal.

Also my beats often lack variations and probably are a bit lame in general. As a kid I learned to play accordion. So I am just better to come up with melodies. But have no clue about the rhythm section :sweat_smile:

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#38
  1. Talent, knowledge, skill and ability
  2. Realising I enjoy designing and building synth stuff more than playing it :frowning:
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#39

One of the first and most important lessons I took away from art school was that you probably have to do a hundred versions of something before you get something really, really good and original and creative.

We literally did 50-100 versions of each project each week. It was difficult, but it got to a point where I worked really fast, didn’t stress the details early on and just worked, and elaborated on some of the really good ones that I liked.

I can’t take this approach in my professional work, but I’d like to bring more of that to my creative work.

As for my own obstacles, mostly it’s time and troubleshooting. Finding time for this “hobby” has become more and more difficult as I get older, but even worse is when I do get that time and I’m farting around with firmware updates or why something isn’t working properly.

I’m hoping to spend the end of this year figuring out my work space to mitigate some of those issues, and do a LOT more recording.

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#40

I need time and discipline, not commenting on my own talent hehe. If you have all three (time, talent, discipline) you have the potential to be really great at what you do. Two should also enough to be succesful.

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