Track In progress

[Karinn]

Just wanted to ask if anyone here has had a hard time writing a track cus all of the ideas floating in your head.

It usualy takes me a month or more to write a whole track. Main reason for this I thinks is bcus, when I write something I realy like it at the time, but after few hours working in the song, It feels all wrong and I start over.

After few start overs, I've perhaps got the Intro for example just the way I want it, but then I intend to wander off and begin to make lines and stuff that isint realy related to the track i'm working on, but wanting to use them I begin to change the intro and the entire track often just so this "line" fits in. and on this goes. In the end, I end up with 4 min track or so that I wrote like 6 times all through cus I of a silly chapter that I had to add in. this makes my writing process slow,and often ending with not beeing able to use all the samples I originaly planed using.


So my questions are:

1.Do you end up with a lot of samples u would like to use but u cant ?
2.Have u been in same situation?
3.what's the longest time you've spent on a single track?
4. do you think I'm drunk right now ?

Peace

[Aquila]

Yep it's all part of writer's block. Sometimes you can only make a fraction of a song, sometimes you get 90% through it then suddenly have an epiphany that it's shit. It's usually because you've heard it too many damn times.

Happens to me all the time. I have well over 200 started or half-finished tracks on various sequencers and trackers. I deliberately shelve them so that they get forgotten about, and maybe one day I'll turn to them once more in search of some fresh ideas.

oh by the way, happy birthday!

[lothario]

happy happy, happy!

[Highvoltage]

i did the same thing for years. now i concentrate on finishing my best 10 tracks. so i can work on any of them if i get bored with one.

its usualy a very good idea to have like 15minute breaks while making the tune, cause you must rest your ears anyway. (that said i rarely can do that.) but i know how good it feels if you take a break to eat something and you come back and it all sounds much more coherent, and you dont listen to it knowing your tracks but as a whole.

another very good approach is, if you only concentrate on the arrangement first and not the technical side. you take some basic sounds, a bass , a lead, some chords, and write the whole body of the song. and then, you just have to fill it in with your magic.

i read an interesting article about left vs right brain fuctions. it said that for creative processes you use the right side of the brain, eg. when youre composing. so when you'r mixing your track, you obviously have to make objective decisions of sound and balance, therefore you use the left side of your brain.
and i know most of us mix the two and that's not a good approach. I was always so into the habit of making everything sound right on the first time, that i didnt ever see the big picture. i made perfect little loops, tweaking them for ages. then i realised i lost all my creative freshness, and abadonned it. THats why we all have thousands of unfinished projects.

so i say if you dont want to fall into that trap, you must think a lot before you even load up the DAW. just make up an idea of what you really want. where do you want it to go, how shoudl it build up, should it be monotone, or more like a journey.. blahblabhalbh

[Highvoltage]

ah, an i might add something interesting to that brain thing,
i read when you wake up, you use mostly the functional side of the brain (left), so thats why its unwise to listen to your compositions in the morning.


http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... 75,00.html


ps.: i already had the habit of never listening to my late night mixes after i wake up

[Karinn]

Yea I've tried to make first just the basics, but always end up making one loop perfect and so on.
But I guess it's worth another try.

I realy like the Idea of thinking the whole song through before sitting down and writing it on your computer. but have you any good ideas how to write the ideas down on paper ? ..
Can you for example understand notes and write em down also ? or u just write down the basics. how it should be built ?


Aquila - Lothario: Thanks

[VeiN]

Hmm due to limted spare time for making music i`ve started something different, still dunno if it`s gona work fine but it`s more fun for me this way ^^. I`m creating many variations of main melodies with prepared prec loops for many of these variations, trying to get to the edges of possibilities. It`s quite cool esp. when I often don`t have time to make music every day - every part is like new variated project. Is simply make parts for pure fun .

This way I don`t get bored. Then I pick the most interesting ones mix them up, work more on perc, add effects, background melodies ect. While mixing adding and matching parts I still have so many possibilites that I don`t get most of the times bored.

[ulonix]

1)i don't use a lot of samples, just the basic stuff, drums and voices sometimes
2)yeahh!!
3)a year(but producin other tracks at the same time)
4)really? jajaaj

[Aquila]

i read when you wake up, you use mostly the functional side of the brain (left), so thats why its unwise to listen to your compositions in the morning.

So THAT'S why I always feel like cleaning in the mornings!

[Darkwave]

but then I intend to wander off and begin to make lines and stuff that isint realy related to the track i'm working on

Hmm i usually focus to my target...if something else comes..i make a second project called "track1(additional melody)".If it sounds cool too then i take a break.
The next time i will open the project i will have decide what to do.