Improving Workflow & Ethic?

[Static D0gma]

Since I've started making music, it has taken me five-ever to make a track. Because of my tendency to go back and try to fix things, and getting new ideas while I make a track. And sometimes I'll go days without working on music. I'm trying to make my first proper EP, but my work ethic is making it hard to complete it.

Any tips, or advice?

[GenericNameHere]

It's all part of the learning process really. If you keep coming back to improve your tracks, it means YOU are improving.

It sounds like you're putting too much pressure on yourself, by forcing yourself to put out an EP. You should just let these things happen. You can't force creativity. By doing so you'll only dig yourself into a deeper creative slump.

You might have wanted the vets to give advice, but whatever. Ask yourself why you want to create music,

edit: It's easy to feel pressured to put out a body of work and make a name for yourself in today's world where everyone is putting out tracks daily, but you need to focus on yourself and your vision so you can stand out fron the crowd. Don't be that guy who produces for the sake of producing, and thus makes soulless music. Do it from the heart, you know ... or some other trite bullshit.

[Static D0gma]

Thanks, that actually is good advice. I guess you're right about the EP, but I've making music for two years and I would really like to put out a EP that people notice and like.

[Benji]

What Generic said, I had the same worries to begin with but I learned to just work at my own pace and everything starts fitting together. Take your time making tracks and as you learn more you should become more consistent, a good helping of self control doesn't go amiss either but I think it's pretty natural to go days without working on anything. That's another thing that seems to come with time, I used to easily go a couple of weeks without doing anything but gradually it became an everyday thing. Also, setting smaller goals might be useful for getting into the flow of things a bit more

I hope that was helpful and not jibberish

[Static D0gma]

What Generic said, I had the same worries to begin with but I learned to just work at my own pace and everything starts fitting together. Take your time making tracks and as you learn more you should become more consistent, a good helping of self control doesn't go amiss either but I think it's pretty natural to go days without working on anything. That's another thing that seems to come with time, I used to easily go a couple of weeks without doing anything but gradually it became an everyday thing. Also, setting smaller goals might be useful for getting into the flow of things a bit more

I hope that was helpful and not jibberish

Thanks for the advice. I was trying to make working on tunes everyday a habit, even if it was just just for thirty minutes at a time. But I had exams, make-up work, and family issues, so it got kind of disrupted for a while. But now that's summer break, I can try again at making it a habit.

[Cyren]

I have put out 3 EPs already and I can barely listen to any of them because I find mistakes all over the tracks, but that's how it is if you get better at it I guess. If I would work on every track until I'm 100% satisfied I would have almost no output at all. So it's sometimes better to call something finished and put it out instead of wasting more hours on it (and maybe getting so sick of the sound that you abandon the track completely). You just have to know when to stop tweaking it. Casual listeners don't notice that any way in the same way as we do.

[titchbit]

In terms of work ethic, I find that forcing myself never to work on more than one project at a time, and to always either finish or ditch a project before starting a new one, helped me greatly.

[Static D0gma]

I usually don't have more than one project at a time, but atm I have three. I plan on finishing two of them this week.

[local space]

Hmm..come to think of it, my problem would be the opposite. I work too fast. I can do three tracks on a weekend and then spend maybe another day mixing them. So they sound rough and unfinished, but that's what I liked about dubstep in the first place. It's what got me into dubstep and what made me get out of drum n bass a couple years before. I just can't with that overly polished sound, although I have a lot of respect for the work that goes into it. But this is what works for me, and nobody listens to my music but me so who cares?

[Genevieve]

Just spending hours or weeks doing prep work.. making drum beats, basslines, effects, etc because it's both fun and educational is a good place to start. So then when inspiration hits, you can just grab from bits you've made and turn those intro trax.

[Static D0gma]

Just spending hours or weeks doing prep work.. making drum beats, basslines, effects, etc because it's both fun and educational is a good place to start. So then when inspiration hits, you can just grab from bits you've made and turn those intro trax.

That would probably be a good thing to do...