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i reckon its really important to try and finish the tune even if it's not that good. You need to set your self a benchmark so that you can see yourself improving each time when you are finally exporting those tunes to wav.
you gotta realise the first tunes you finish are probably going to be shite even if you think they sound good yourself. Noones first tune was a masterpiece!

i finish more or less every single track I start, whether the world or anyone else ever actually hears them is a different matter though.

as someone said its good to begin with the main loop of your beat so you have something to work towards and around.

imo it is worth pushing yourself through that finishing barrier as often as possible cos it may sound obvious but a tune isn't really a tune until it's finished and you have a wav or mp3 or CD to play someone. also i think it's very difficult to honestly assess what you have created before it is complete. until a tune is done and dusted there is the temptation to think "yea ok that bit sounds a bit crap but if i finished this tune off i would change it." yea? well, finish it and lets see! what i'm saying is, until the track is locked there is a tendency to fool yourself with regards to its quality or potential. once it's finished there's far less room for argument.

my advice is: mix down what you have. then forget about that track for a couple of days, or a week or so. come back later with fresh ears. sit down with a pad and a pen, listen to it on your mp3 player or stereo or whatever and make notes on what you think need to alter in order to consider it finished. then force yourself to finish it, reflecting the ideas that you wrote down when you were listening to it. in this way the 'never finishing tracks' phase turns into a constructive part of your compositional process. finishing a track often takes different skills & techniques to simply starting one, and these skills require practice in their own right.

what i do is mash three unfinished tracks together and call it one track. that way i finish EVERY track

Serox wrote:I am in no hurry to finish a track. I would rather spend my time learning shit instead. If I finish a track its a bonus.

^^^

Enjoy the music and the production and don't worry about forcing yourself to finish a track.

I only finish like 1-2 tracks out of every 10 that I start. I don't feel the need to force myself to finish tracks. If I'm feeling it I'll finish it.

manray wrote:

Serox wrote:I am in no hurry to finish a track. I would rather spend my time learning shit instead. If I finish a track its a bonus.

^^^

Enjoy the music and the production and don't worry about forcing yourself to finish a track.

I only finish like 1-2 tracks out of every 10 that I start. I don't feel the need to force myself to finish tracks. If I'm feeling it I'll finish it.

Saying that tho. I got a nice loop on the go so will try move with it for a bit and see what happens.

I am prob going around things in a long way but I like to start with a loop and go from there.

manray wrote:Enjoy the music and the production and don't worry about forcing yourself to finish a track

obv having fun is key! and if its easy for you to finish tracks then only finish the ones you're feeling.

but if you have never finished a track and never intend to finish a track its going to be difficult to become a good producer

Misk wrote:the solution: finish tracks.

just finish tunes. constantly. even if they suck. i have to say that it's that last 20% of the tune thats the hardest for me.

Pretty much man. Finishing tunes is a big part of production. Just have to develope the decipline to finish things you start. Don't start another tune until you finish the last one, even if it does turn out to be shit. Just count that one towards experience and start anew. It's not that hard once you get a couple of tunes finished and out of the way.

If anything, a tune is never really finished, only abandoned.

i like to take agess on a tune like 3 weeks of a few hours a day got a few on the brew at the mo