Frustration.....

[zosomagik]

I've just been having a really hard time lately with producing. I'll get super inspired from a tune or video or something, and open up my DAW, but after getting a main idea out the flow just stops. I've really been having the most trouble with arrangement, but that's kind of besides the point I'm trying to make. I'm starting to get frustrated with not being able to produce anything that I'm proud of to the point that the thought of opening up my DAW is starting to instantly have negative connotations.... Does anyone have any advice? It's like one half of me loooooooves making tracks, but lately there's this other half that just gets really frustrated and hates it.....

[Nevs]

Take a break, it will still be there when you return. I stopped writing for a couple of months and then came back with a fury, I've almost finished my second original track and I'm quite proud of both of them. Before that I had only done remixed of video game tracks I enjoy.

One way I like to produce is to take another persons song that you really admire and try to copy it, copy the structure, try to recreate their drum timbres, and before you know it you'll bounce in a trajectory into something completely different, but keep that track there to reference I case you lose inspiration. It's worked great for me on my latest tune I'm writing, and I've written it faster than anything else.

Remember to have fun, there's no obligation to write so don't be hard on yourself, we all do this for enjoyment. There's not much money in it for most producers, so you can't be in it for gain.

[wub]

Have a session just on sound design. Write patches, program synths, bounce out as you go along, maybe stick a recorder on the master to capture real time noodling. Listen back to it. If its shit, have a laugh and delete it. If its half decent, save it for adding to your sound library.

[m8son666]

Have a break imo whenever i have 'writers block', however pretentious that sounds lol, i force myself to not open up ableton for a couple weeks like even if i really want to i don't. Then eventually when you do start producing again you have loads of ideas and motivation.

[zosomagik]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna take a beak for awhile. At least at trying to produce and arrange something. I think I will just open up the DAW and do some sound design stuff or layer up some drum sound etc. It just sucks because sometimes I get sooooooo hyped to produce, and then 30-45 minutes later I'm just pissed that nothing worked out.

[nowaysj]

Go meta on yourself. Work, but watch yourself work. What are you doing when it is happening for you, what are you doing when you lose interest?

Figure that shit out. It is like the seasons, but of yourself. Study it. Study yourself, and your way.

I think this, and most everything, is process related.

Like if I really knuckle down and do what I have to do, I can produce anything in any genre. But over time, you see certain genres have certain requirements, certain ways of working, and if you don't like working in those ways, you're going to be dragging ass. Even if what you are producing is good. It's just not going to be any fun.

And really as a footnote, 50 minutes, an hour is like ingrained into Americans as a focus period, I think from school. Like the school day is broken into these 50 minute arcs of attention. If that is the way and duration of your focus, walk away when you run out of attention. Clean some shit, do some pushups/situps, go for a bike ride, do some shit I'm sure you're neglecting by engaging in the decadence of music making. Then, you can come back and keep going.

And footnote two, you can have one process but several workflows - if you hit that 50 minute mark, your attention wanes, move the project to another device, or do part of the project on another device, or in another environment. Sometimes the novelty is enough to get the happy juices flowing again.

And footnote three, I think I recall pics of your studio, hells of dark if I recall. Get some natural light G, get some natural airflow. Lighten it up. We're subtropical animals, act like it.

===============

Mason how many decades before you can just say writers block without being self conscious? You're a producer, and an artist, get over it.

[zosomagik]

I feel you brotha' I hate natural light though don't ask me why, because I have no idea. I'm just gonna take like a week and make a new pallet of sounds, maybe layer some new drums up, also buy some new xmas lights to hang up and some candles. Just get a new vibe in the place, get all sensual and shit. I'm also gonna switch my style up too, I've been trying to get way into that LA beat scene sound, but I'm just gonna pick a random tempo and some sounds I wouldn't normally use for awhile.

[wub]

I've been trying to get way into that LA beat scene sound

May be of help if I've not already recommended it;

http://www.dubstepforum.com/forum/viewt ... 8&t=172592

[topmo3]

learn your production tools. load up a song in your daw and try to recreate it as accurately as possible. do this enough times and you'll have an "arsenal" in your mind that consists of sounds, drum patterns, chords, melodies and whatever that you have acquired along the way from the songs you've recreated. this way when you get an idea you can just make it happen

also if you have fukload of money buy MIDI keyboard or even an APC or some other type of controller which makes making tunes more intuitive and fun

[nowaysj]

Yeah, zoso, if you're into the la beat thing, are you doing it live or all programmed in the pc? Do it live. Much harder, much realer, much more fun to do and practice. My sig track, while not LA, it is all one take on the sp.

[_ronzlo_]

Lots of good suggestions here.

Also:

Radical mode shifts can sometimes kickstart new enthusiasm. Try a radically different workflow, start with a source you don't normally fuck with (live instruments work well for this), try humming out an entire tune into a recorder and then rebuilding it in your recording setup, even using something like Oblique Strategies - just come at it differently.

[blinx]

+1 on taking a break.

I didnt produce for a good 6 months, did some Djing but i just lived life and spent time with my wifey.

Then a month ago, got inspired to work on a remix for another local artist. It reignited my flame and i have started 5 new song/bootleg/remix ideas that sound better then anything i have done in the last 2 years.

Sounds counter intuitive but give it a rest for sure.

[nowaysj]

Taking a break IS working on music. If you are really working hard on music, and then take a break for a month, 6 months, a year, I absolutely SWEAR your brain is still processing that whole time, piecing together all the lose ends that you have to let get past you when you are making music. I've observed this in many areas of my life, but especially in sports and music. I took a year off racquetball, and I swear to god I came back so scarey good. Like roll out after roll out. The level or precision was just amazing. I recently took roughly a year off music, and came back just so much more together, finishing songs like it is nothing (it is still something, still ends up in a 10 hour 5am final session, but still so much easier than before).

BUT

Just a couple of weeks I was getting burned out, not by music, but by sitting here in front of the pc. The 404 came into my workflow in a much bigger way, and the juices are still flowing. So I could have just walked away again, but instead, I changed my tools, changed the workflow, and stuck in there, and did some stuff I'm really happy with, and is just leading to more goodness.

And also, don't bail on music before you're done with the sample flip! Haha, you started that thing!

[zosomagik]

Hahaha nah dude I'll definitely be doing the sample flip and a couple more tuna's. I really need to get the 404, and get a different workflow. Switch things up and spark some creativity.

[Huts]

Make a new genre. Nothing helped me have more fun that making something outside of my comfort zone, because being comfortable was boring. That and just open your DAW and play some piano with no intention of making a track, maybe something comes of it, if not you're working on your keyboard skills!

[Eskimo]

Mason how many decades before you can just say writers block without being self conscious? You're a producer, and an artist, get over it.

Powerful, did you come up with or steal this?

[nowaysj]

Leasing it.

[m8son666]

lol i didn't see that.

I like to maintain a certain false humbleness in order to avoid accusations of pretension. LOL

[titchbit]

didn't read all the posts in this thread, but i get the same as OP. it's pretty frustrating that Wen i started producing I could pump out tunes in like a few days, now it takes me months to make something i'm happy with. sometimes i wonder if it has something to do with ableton. the workflow is kind of....uninviting? for lack of a better word. session view is so comfortable, i never wanna move over to arrangement view which is where all the real writing happens imo.

[SunkLo]

I've been in a rut for a while as well. Took a long break, switched DAWs and stopped smoking herb. Basically have to completely relearn my production habits. These phases of difficulty always precede a big jump in skill though so it's a good thing. The process seems to be: get bored > take time off >come back and have to grind to get your chops up > end up way better than before, repeat.

Have a session just on sound design. Write patches, program synths, bounce out as you go along, maybe stick a recorder on the master to capture real time noodling. Listen back to it. If its shit, have a laugh and delete it. If its half decent, save it for adding to your sound library.

This has been working well for me lately. You can have a no-pressure session where you just generate endless content. Then once you've got all the puzzle pieces, you fit them together until you have a picture and throw out or save any excess ones. It's so much better than trying to make a picture with a few pieces and then tacking on more shit without it feeling bolted on. I find you can take as long as you want to build up your palette and then assemble everything with the big picture in mind. You already know the extent of your finite sonic resources so you can appropriate them in a strategic way.

Something I've been doing over the last week is, getting a cool patch or effects chain made, mapping relevant controls to my keyboard, and then recording 32 bars of fucking around. Then using Ableton's slice to midi on quarter notes to get 128 slices of that audio in a drum rack. Then you can just noodle on the keyboard and try different patterns of snippets. You'll invariably have something catch your ear almost immediately. You basically get a bunch of tonal and rhythmic variations at the press of a button. Much easier than trying to program or perform those variations on the fly with live midi. You can just do it over and over. It's great for making static things like pads more rhythmic. Just slap on a bunch of different delays set to random intervals and other modulation effects. Slice up the 32 bars of audio and start tapdancing on the keys.