More I learn about production... less inspired I am?

[python453]

I recently went and sifted through all the project files I've ever made, and I can't even believe I made all that stuff.
The production is absolute SHIT.. I'm talking like when I first started to use fruity loops, but some of the melodies are miles beyond what I come up with now.
Just wondering if any of you guys also feel like the better you get at producing the less creative you are?

P.S.: Already starting to remake these melodies using my production knowledge now haha.

[nowaysj]

Well, you can be just plain gifted with great musicality, a great ear for hearing what is going on in professional tracks, and your own, and you can just make killer tracks, that's like 1:1,000,000,000 people. Like there are 7 people alive like that. Or you can pay your dues and really learn how to express yourself through modern technology, and produce good tracks. That process is going to be really hard, and certainly can crush your love of music. I hope it doesn't, but it can. Find a way to have fun through the difficult times. Try to focus on song writing, and let the technical production related bullshit follow along. It really is less important than good song writing.

[Hertz]

did you expect to be (insert fav producer here) as soon as you installed your DAW? lol. Gotta start somewhere ..right? I was going to suggest reworking some of the melodies you already have..but you are already doing that.. Personally, no.. I don't feel that way, I feel the opposite.

[Hircine]

As I get better, I filter my inspiration. I'm only producing tracks that I really like, if I know that it's good, I will work 1 to 2 weeks on it.

[Triphosphate]

Look up ill.methodology chapter 1 on YouTube... And really really watch it... I suffer from exactly what you are describing, and you're not alone... But seriously, watch that... You're letting your analytical mind take over your production, and you need to improve your workflow till you no longer have to think about what you're doing, and thus can let your artistic mind take the helm again. My advice? Try to finish as many tracks as you can as quickly as you can... I'm talking about like 10 hours per project in two 5 hour sessions. Practice good gain structure and mixing strategies as you make a track EVERYTIME until it becomes second nature, and you can skip the analysis part that distracts from your creativity. Strive to think less and to do more. Don't expect to make AMAZING tracks this way, and don't let it discourage you. The point of the exercise is not to make great tracks, but to get good at producing and good at using your DAW so you can make music without overthinking it, like you were when you first started. Any great tracks you make on the way are both a convenient byproduct of the exercise, and a sign that your production/compositional skills are more in harmony.

[Majin]

Do the best mix you can on one of your tracks, save it as a template and use that as a rough mix for your next track.

[Echoi]

I was having this exact conversation with Stealth Elf a few motnhs back.

Did the exact same as you, went through my old files, found that although the poduction levels were poor, they were far more interesting than almost all of my recent projects.

The guy who introduced me to music production, said he was kind of envious of me just starting out as it meant i could work with no boundries. The more you learn the more boundries you put on yourself, as you're taking notice of far more things you sometimes tend to forget the most important elements.

[JBE]

I don't think it has anything to do with your inspiration so much as your lack of knowing your limitations. Early on when you just get started you don't really know how to do very much, and you don't care if you don't know how cause you think you could do it, or should be able to do it. So now when you're listening to things and you hear something cool your first thought is to try to replicate it and do something cool to. Even though if you did manage to get something similar you still probably wouldn't know what to do it with it after that.

As you learn things, and start to understand what it is you're doing and to some extent what other people are doing, you start to understand your limitations. So now when you are listening to music or watching tv or something and you hear something interesting your first thought may be, "I really like that, I would like to try and make something like that". But your next thought might be, "But I know I don't really have enough understanding to create something like this". Even if you still end up trying, the fact that you have a better understanding of things, you come to that realization of not being able to do it much quicker.
What's interesting is that until I hit that stage I couldn't really listen to other people's music without analyzing every single second of it. It really ruined the entire music listening experience for me.

Of course this is just my interpretation of this. At first I thought the same thing. Maybe there was something wrong with me or maybe I was completely losing interest in it. But then I started realizing that I'm not really losing interest in it, I'm just thinking more logically in terms of my abilities. Every time I make a track I love it as much as I ever have, the difference is just now those tracks are fewer than they used to be, but the quality of them is much better. I'd rather make 1 or 2 decent tracks a month than 9 or 10 bad ones.

[4rantare]

I don't think it has anything to do with your inspiration so much as your lack of knowing your limitations. Early on when you just get started you don't really know how to do very much, and you don't care if you don't know how cause you think you could do it, or should be able to do it. So now when you're listening to things and you hear something cool your first thought is to try to replicate it and do something cool to. Even though if you did manage to get something similar you still probably wouldn't know what to do it with it after that.

Amen.

I realized how fucking hard producing was after 1-2 weeks (I have only produced for 1 month lol). I used to make classical music, jazz, fusion, rock and it was all easy and nice because I never really had to record anything or care for the mix. I actually thought producing would be the "easy part" of making electronic music. I have all kinds of crazy ideas and I never lack inspiration. However I definatley have a hard time getting stuff sounding the way I exactly want it to, i.e. my producing skills are lower than my musical abilities. Sometimes my stuff starts sounding like someone else and at that point I just trash whatever I have and start over.

[VirtualMark]

I've had this problem, when i first started out i had lots of ideas but no skill to make them happen. Now i have a bit more skill, but over analyse a lot of stuff. The past few weeks i've stopped writing stuff, and just worked on sound design. Then i'm going to revisit some of my old ideas and make them a lot more polished.

[outbound]

I have to admit it yeah the more my production has gone up over the years the less creative my sounds have become.

I wouldn't say I was less inspired it's just when you spend so long practicing the technical side of things you stop paying as much attention to the musical side. The other thing is when your brain is stuck in engineering mode when trying to write, which means instead of going "I'll put this here and that there and do this" your brain is overly critical instead going "I'd put that here but won't that clash with this and I want it to do this but it would sound crap with this"

I think both sides are important for a decent production so always focus on the one that needs more work. Atm my method of working is seeing how much of the track I can lay down without adding a single FX unit (can only adjust levels) this is helping with better sound selection and focussing on writing and arranging.

[baseband]

the solution to this is simple. you need to kick start your creative side with a bit of lavish indulgence. what sort of lavish indulgence? im talking of course about cough syrup and red bull.

drinking a lot of cough syrup fires up those creative juices and gets your head back in the zone. but it makes you a bit sleepy. thats where the redbull comes in. it keeps you alert and perk while you hammer out track after track of strung gold.

i may or may not have tried this. do not actually do this, might be dangerous. i am not a doctor

[dublerium]

Get your head away from reading and only trying things when you read about them. Just don't get confined by things you learn and keep an open mind as possible, pretty bate advice but that's what you got to do. Tbh though coming on a forum to express something like this is pretty shit, a break from it completely for a few weeks is probably best, you'll have a clearer mind and will return to your DAW/hardware with some of that production innocence your after.

[DubMikey]

I personally feel that the more technical babble you learn, the easier it gets to express yourself through your music. I am most certainly no god when it comes to all the technical stuff, that's for sure, but the more I learn the easier it gets to express myself. Just keep at it and I'm sure it'll come to you.

I myself have periods of time where I feel much less creative when it comes to music.

[dublerium]

I personally feel that the more technical babble you learn, the easier it gets to express yourself through your music. I am most certainly no god when it comes to all the technical stuff, that's for sure, but the more I learn the easier it gets to express myself. Just keep at it and I'm sure it'll come to you.

I myself have periods of time where I feel much less creative when it comes to music.

For me learning the technicalities of music production is an enjoyment in itself. Obviously you loose that innocence you start with but I think a lot of people constrict themselves with what they read and don't step outside what they've learnt. Loosing that innocence has not been a bad thing at all for me, my tunes are just getting better as time goes on, technically and musically. Just take everything with a pinch of salt, don't take everything you read as law, and most of all just enjoy making tunes. If your not getting satisfaction from it or feeling like you've accomplished anything take a break is the best thing to do imo, no point drilling yourself into the ground about it.

[DubMikey]

I personally feel that the more technical babble you learn, the easier it gets to express yourself through your music. I am most certainly no god when it comes to all the technical stuff, that's for sure, but the more I learn the easier it gets to express myself. Just keep at it and I'm sure it'll come to you.

I myself have periods of time where I feel much less creative when it comes to music.

For me learning the technicalities of music production is an enjoyment in itself. Obviously you loose that innocence you start with but I think a lot of people constrict themselves with what they read and don't step outside what they've learnt. Loosing that innocence has not been a bad thing at all for me, my tunes are just getting better as time goes on, technically and musically. Just take everything with a pinch of salt, don't take everything you read as law, and most of all just enjoy making tunes. If your not getting satisfaction from it or feeling like you've accomplished anything take a break is the best thing to do imo, no point drilling yourself into the ground about it.

[ketamine]

the solution to this is simple. you need to kick start your creative side with a bit of lavish indulgence. what sort of lavish indulgence? im talking of course about cough syrup and red bull.

drinking a lot of cough syrup fires up those creative juices and gets your head back in the zone. but it makes you a bit sleepy. thats where the redbull comes in. it keeps you alert and perk while you hammer out track after track of strung gold.

i may or may not have tried this. do not actually do this, might be dangerous. i am not a doctor

You know, I literally started my morning today with that combination. Plus a Xanax. And now I'm at work barely able to keep my eyes open...

[Sharmaji]

PRACTICE!!!

also, this is just how EDM evolves. anyone remember dev paradox's rant about overly-technical d&b in 2006 or so? Lots of folks on DOA were saying that the mixdown mattered more than the song... which is right when d&b fell off the relevance wagon...

[JBE]

PRACTICE!!!

also, this is just how EDM evolves. anyone remember dev paradox's rant about overly-technical d&b in 2006 or so? Lots of folks on DOA were saying that the mixdown mattered more than the song... which is right when d&b fell off the relevance wagon...

This is actually an interesting thought. I never really thought much of it but the more technical I try to get the more insecure I become with my productions. I find that I do spend more time tweaking knobs now than ever before. And not the knobs in the synths either, I'm talking about the stuff on the mixer. I literally can spend hours with the music playing, but instead of listening I'm looking at meters and analyzers. The saddest part though is I don't think it's making anything better. In some cases things actually get worse. I've almost become OCD over it.

[hutyluty]

I think this happens to most people, if not all- losing the first throes of enthusiasm where you think anything is possible when you encounter your limitations. As you move further on with the technical side then you will gradually get to a point where you'll be able to express yourself, through expanding your limitations, you'll be inspired and making stuff which sounds good.

Basically: stick with it.

Lots of folks on DOA were saying that the mixdown mattered more than the song... which is right when d&b fell off the relevance wagon...

sounds familiar....