I'm stopping myself from making music

[Fused Productions]

Yeah, as the title says, I'm unintentionally stopping myself from making music.

I've been thinking about how I can stop this for a while, since I seem to be overtweaking every synthpatch I make into something very different from what I aimed for. Even if I know this sometimes can be something good, I find it incredibly annoying and I think it's hindering me from finishing anything. I know there's a very simple solution for my problem, just saving the patches regularly, but I never do 'cause I never think of it while producing and I just can't think of anything else than what I am actually doing when I do. Fucking annoying, guess I'll have to use an alarm clock or something haha.
Is there anything you do while producing, mixing, or making music in any way that you find annoying, disturbing, or like it's stopping your workflow/inspirational flow, that you can't stop or change?

Happy for any answers, peace

[RandoRando]

What to do next. Ie: just wrote the intro , made the initial drop, 8 bars of wobbling, now what?

[Fused Productions]

What to do next. Ie: just wrote the intro , made the initial drop, 8 bars of wobbling, now what?

Repeat aye!?

[ChadDub]

How hard is it to save presets? Just make a sound, be like "Yeah this is cool/new to me", and save it. Now you have a sound that you can write a bassline or a lead or w/e the sound is for, and then maybe tweak it if you want once the part is written.

[Fused Productions]

How hard is it to save presets? Just make a sound, be like "Yeah this is cool/new to me", and save it. Now you have a sound that you can write a bassline or a lead or w/e the sound is for, and then maybe tweak it if you want once the part is written.

Well, I did not say that the solution of my problem is the aim of my post as I already stated that I may have the answer. I wanted to know YOUR problems, as in other producers on DSF. It could be nice to know what others are struggling with so I and others could be, what to call it, proactive?

So is there anything you are struggling with, Chad?

[ChadDub]

ooohhhh, my bad dude.

I don't really like to think of me as struggling, because I constantly look for stuff I can improve on and I just improve those things. My weakest point is mixing though. Also drum layering. I just haven't broke that wall yet. My mixing has improved a ton in the past 3 weeks so I'm getting there.

My other weak spot would be song writing. I haven't really gotten into full song composition yet but I'm going to get there in a few days. I struggle with transitions and intros and just general stuff in that area.

What I'm doing now that is really helping me is I'll just be bored and I'll open up FL and make an 8 bar loop and try to just mess with stuff and make it as compelling as possible. And then after everything's composed I'll go in and mix it down. So I'm getting my writing AND mixing in. I'm working my way up to longer passages.

[Manic Harmonic]

What I would suggest, and do a lot, is to create a sound "good enough" to use in the song, get the composition done (or at least enough so that it resembles a song), and then perfect the sound later.

[Fused Productions]

Argh..

[Atac]

[FuzionDubstep]

I struggle with a few things and seem as though I like everything to sound almost perfect that can REALLY annoy me, I have actually broke things in anger because my snare has to much high end or the sub drowns out the mix ha ha! .. But I just take a break and listen to a song that has what I'm aiming for and think, what have they done? and how? and then just try do this myself.

Also I have trouble finishing songs I literally have like 10 work in progresses which are all like 1-2 minutes or longer.

And also I live next door to a policeman. You can imagine the problem with mixdowns etc! hahaha

[Fused Productions]

I struggle with a few things and seem as though I like everything to sound almost perfect that can REALLY annoy me, I have actually broke things in anger because my snare has to much high end or the sub drowns out the mix ha ha! .. But I just take a break and listen to a song that has what I'm aiming for and think, what have they done? and how? and then just try do this myself.

Also I have trouble finishing songs I literally have like 10 work in progresses which are all like 1-2 minutes or longer.

And also I live next door to a policeman. You can imagine the problem with mixdowns etc! hahaha

Yeah I guess our problems are kinda similar.. I usually look for a mix and lay down in my bed and listen to it for half an hour or so if I get too angry and that really helps and calms down haha And I don't think you are alone with having lots of WIP's, I think everyone has. I belive I have 4-5 atleast and atleast a couple more that I gave up on!

Aaw shit that gotta suck :/ I don't own any monitors myself so I so all my mixdowns on my headphones and it's really hard getting a proper mixdown on them! Will probably get a couple of monitors and a sub soon though, when I buy cdj's and a mixer and it feels incredibly great!

[TheHiddenProducer]

Sometimes, I'll love what I'm making but after hearing it too much it starts to get annoying so I don't finish it. It's really frustrating.

[FuzionDubstep]

Sometimes, I'll love what I'm making but after hearing it too much it starts to get annoying so I don't finish it. It's really frustrating.

Amen. I always listen to my own tracks to much and then get bored of them and never release them :L

[SunkLo]

What I would suggest, and do a lot, is to create a sound "good enough" to use in the song, get the composition done (or at least enough so that it resembles a song), and then perfect the sound later.

This!

Problem is, if you tweak a four bar loop on repeat until it sounds perfect unto itself, you have no idea where to go next. The track needs to need something in order for you to add to it. Gotta leave it a bit raw to get it all written then go back with the polish. Turn the loop off. Then it's obvious that you only have a short section made. Your brain naturally asks itself "What comes next?"

Things I've tried lately is just practising staying mindful when you're producing. The whole time thinking "What am I doing this for? How does this improve the track overall? Is this really important? How does this fit into the overall scheme? Could you be spending your time better?" Really just trying to maintain an objective view and stay focused. Your creativity is limited, don't blow it all on the details of one element. Work from macro to micro.

[Fused Productions]

Things I've tried lately is just practising staying mindful when you're producing. The whole time thinking "What am I doing this for? How does this improve the track overall? Is this really important? How does this fit into the overall scheme? Could you be spending your time better?" Really just trying to maintain an objective view and stay focused. Your creativity is limited, don't blow it all on the details of one element. Work from macro to micro.

Does it work for you then?

[FSTZ]

my main issue is time and not having enough of it

so my solution is to know how I want the song to sound and feel before I sit down at the workstation

and then I just execute and fill in the blanks

[ComfiStile]

Most of my problems stem from my fucking shitty USB hubs on my laptop.

I mean, they are ok, function wise (well, sort of ok, they are starting to break, which is a real pain), but there are only two.

I have a usb expander hub thing, but everything lags like fuck.

I have focusrite saffire, midi keys, mouse, phone charger and a nice samson condensor mic all of which run on usb power. Having to choose between all of these does my fucking tits right in on a cellular level.

[Fused Productions]

my main issue is time and not having enough of it

so my solution is to know how I want the song to sound and feel before I sit down at the workstation

and then I just execute and fill in the blanks

Damn that got to be hard :/
But I guess it gets easier and easier the more you learn about your DAW and synthesis and such huh?

[-[2]DAY_-]

someone's sig, i forget who.. says "stop fucking with the kick drum and make some damn music" or something to that effect. I really like that bc i'm bad like this too, i'll be switching out samples and fiddlng with knobs to get myself a perfect kick, and by that time i've forgotten why i needed a kick like that, and how i wanted it to sit in the track. It's often best to say fuck this, and start playing the beat. Then things will start to come together
U gotta go for the best sounds you can, but its a tradeoff between not ever making music, and never designing sounds/mixing... no one wants to get their sound by using presets....

anyway another point that helps me get past that is i'll be desperately working on a patch tryna make it totally awesome, but instead i end up dramatically changing the way it plays, like LFO patterns and timbre and frequency ranges.... so i end up not even knowing what i was gonna use it for, and i get caught up trying to cram all my best patches into one track. I gotta remember "fuck it, this beat is this beat. save that patch for the next beat, you can do these type of drums again if you want to"

and shit like that.

[Dystinkt]

i get told all the time that my tracks are just a bit too sparse, so id say having a lot going on without compromising the mixdown/tune as a whole, and also, i really hate what i make when i listen back to it. I just think, that is shit but then somebody will say thats a big tune mate and I just laugh at them.