What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
G-force
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by G-force » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:36 am

I'll tell you what THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD THAT I''M SURE OTHERS WOULD AGREE! When you work at a job eight hours a day and stare at a computer screen, you don't want to go home and stare at another screen!!! :( This is the downside of the wonderful DAW that is Ableton--as well as others--it's another computer program.. I stare at spreadsheets all day and cells and formulae and also word documents and --- we'll, by the time I get home--I'm sick of the computer!!! :evil: Perhaps I need to get in another line of work??? Also, on the weekends, I find myself wanting to get outside, ya know? in the fall and winter it's more easier, but in springtime and summer, you wanna get out and do things-- you know--hang out with the your girly and such. I might also add that its not healthy to be sitting staring at a screen for eight hours just to come home and sit and stare some more! So, what do I do??? Well, I try and do some dabble here and there and fit it into my life. The good thing, though, is there's plenty for hardware to use instead of just sitting and staring at a screen. I really also appreciate all these little mini things in recent years-- you know, like the iPhone, iPad-- all the apps, and stuff like the Microbrute!!!! The Microkorg!!! and Bass Station II!!! :wink: All this new and affordable hardware really helps!!! Any hardware really! You can sit on the couch or lounge around and get some rough ideas or thoughts and then later put them on the screen. I guess I'll always love hardware and its intimacy and immediacy. :D

re:dream
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by re:dream » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:58 am

Amen.

Stromkraft
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:49 am

G-force wrote: When you work at a job eight hours a day and stare at a computer screen, you don't want to go home and stare at another screen!!!

Ableton Push prevents me staring. I work all day with computers.
Make some music!

tedlogan
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by tedlogan » Fri Mar 20, 2015 12:52 pm

While I prefer using Push for most operations with Live, I love PCs and their screens, and using them, even if for the whole day. There's just so much there to listen to, look at, read, watch and create with. If I look around my flat - there's just clutter. Outside, living in the city, is just more fuel for my loathing of going outside. I used to love going out in London. Now I lock myself in the recording room and draw the curtains.

...and then I look at TWO side-by-side screens.

Deviant, I know.

InLight-Tone
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by InLight-Tone » Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:56 pm

My abusive step mom yelling at me every night for 10 years, "You are a procrastinator!"...

mrdelurk
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by mrdelurk » Sun Mar 22, 2015 10:43 am

InLight-Tone wrote:My abusive step mom yelling at me every night for 10 years, "You are a procrastinator!"...
You got a gold mine on your hand. I'd sample the next outburst, distort & mangle it into something funny, and make a kick ass dance tune with it. :) Total hit potential with the young rebel dance public.

oblique strategies
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by oblique strategies » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:42 pm

G-force wrote:I might also add that its not healthy to be sitting staring at a screen for eight hours just to come home and sit and stare some more! The good thing, though, is there's plenty for hardware to use instead of just sitting and staring at a screen.
Evidence is mounting that sitting in a chair for extended periods of time is simply not healthy. There is a corresponding rise in the use of standing desks & workstations, as well as more people sitting on the floor.

I have all three: desk with chair & stability ball, plus standing & sitting on the floor workstations. In order of preference I prefer sitting on the floor, standing, & lastly sitting in a chair.

I've worked sitting on the floor for years, it's where I feel most creative & comfortable. Standing allows for more dancing around & similar exercise movements. Office-type chairs are inherently non-creative for me & I rarely use mine. A lounge chair, recliner, or sofa is better, but these put me in a more passive state.

Experiment!

Info on floor sitting:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/floor-li ... z3V9IGxG1F

InLight-Tone
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by InLight-Tone » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:33 am

mrdelurk wrote:
InLight-Tone wrote:My abusive step mom yelling at me every night for 10 years, "You are a procrastinator!"...
You got a gold mine on your hand. I'd sample the next outburst, distort & mangle it into something funny, and make a kick ass dance tune with it. :) Total hit potential with the young rebel dance public.
Ya, unfortunately that was many years ago, and now at 54 her "prophecy" indeed has come to fruition. I have spent years of my Life painfully procrastinating. Getting consistent creative work out of me is like pulling teeth. There's still time though...

c33
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by c33 » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:37 am

Mixing - because it's hard. I've yet to produce a mix that I'm fully satisfied with, but I'm learning new things all the time, and I know I'll get there.

Procrastination + thinking too much and too far ahead, and getting overwhelmed.

Procrastination sucks the joy out of the things I should enjoy and turns them into burdensome obligations hanging over my head.

mrdelurk
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by mrdelurk » Mon Mar 23, 2015 3:16 am

InLight-Tone wrote:now at 54 her "prophecy" indeed has come to fruition. I have spent years of my Life painfully procrastinating.
When I feel I procrastinated with my Main Work too long, and should have finished it at half my age (instead of next month, finally), I remember that for the first 30+ years of my life technology wasn't even able to do the sounds and procedures I heard in my mind. I was ready, technology wasn't.

Heck, I'm just developing a solution for this project right now (to do pitch bends while both hands hold chords) that didn't exist to this very day yet. And it's by no means the only innovation I had to do.

chef of def
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by chef of def » Mon May 11, 2015 8:23 pm

mrdelurk wrote:
LFO8 wrote:
chef of def wrote:Step one. Strip all junk and bloatware.
Shouldn't have installed ALL of Komplete 9 and ALL of the Ableton Live Packs then :roll:
Great point. I still get these "upgrade to Ableton 9 with this special" emails, and their main sales point seems to be 40 or 50 Gigs of soundware for free or nearly free (don't remember).

Hmm. Spend $$$ to switch to a V.9 file browser I never got comfortable with demoing V.9, and loose V.8 key shortcuts (like Ctrl-F) I use every second, to get a 50GB pile of un-selected sounds when I spent 5 years to hand-pick & hand-convert each single sound in my present 100GB work set from about 4TB. So where is ONE single benefit for me in this whole proposal?

(Looks like I avoided one challenge to completing songs... :twisted: )
3 TB HDD offers an ample amount of storage, and Komplete offers some good sounds and devices. I appreciate the candy store aspect of the package. I also enjoy designing my own sounds, however my skill set often leaves me in the weeds as I watch my initial creative idea slip away. Nothing wrong with royalty free presets to get the juices flowing. Then tweak tweak tweak away.
A great Live 9 max for live device is granulator 2, I sample one of my old demo tapes, and fiddle around.

Plugins and packs are only as good as the ideas you spit into them

mrdelurk
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by mrdelurk » Mon May 11, 2015 11:06 pm

With the benefit of hindsight... what kept getting me stuck for the longest time turned out to be missing pieces of education.

The pisser about it is, one can't tell that's the real cause while still afflicted by it. One has a vague notion that it wouldn't hurt learning it, but hey, life is busy, one day I'll get to it. Then one day one bites the bullet and learns the knowledge, and bingo, suddenly everything works 5x faster and doesn't get stuck anymore. "Oh shit, so THIS was holding me back! I thought program or hardware XYZ will let me fake this knowledge convincingly." Umm, yes, to maybe halfway, then one gets stuck. There is no substitute to learning what one needs to learn, no matter what the advertises claim.

The missing piece of knowledge that gets one stuck might be a lack of playing technique, or a lack of Ableton proficiency, arranging know-how, jazz vocabulary, it's different for everyone. But that lack is what's really stalling, not the lack of the latest XYZ gadget. That gadget is a convenient delusion: "I only need to spend $$$ on this XYZ and then I won't get stuck anymore." Er, nope, you'll be just as stuck, with an XYZ to learn too on top. There is no substitute for putting in the time and learning what needs to be learned. But one fully grasps the true extent of this out only after one did it.

Tagor
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by Tagor » Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:10 pm

BALANCE

musikmachine
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Re: What are you biggest challenges to completing songs?

Post by musikmachine » Sat Jun 13, 2015 11:47 am

oblique strategies wrote:
G-force wrote:I might also add that its not healthy to be sitting staring at a screen for eight hours just to come home and sit and stare some more! The good thing, though, is there's plenty for hardware to use instead of just sitting and staring at a screen.
Evidence is mounting that sitting in a chair for extended periods of time is simply not healthy. There is a corresponding rise in the use of standing desks & workstations, as well as more people sitting on the floor.

I have all three: desk with chair & stability ball, plus standing & sitting on the floor workstations. In order of preference I prefer sitting on the floor, standing, & lastly sitting in a chair.

I've worked sitting on the floor for years, it's where I feel most creative & comfortable. Standing allows for more dancing around & similar exercise movements. Office-type chairs are inherently non-creative for me & I rarely use mine. A lounge chair, recliner, or sofa is better, but these put me in a more passive state.

Experiment!

Info on floor sitting:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/floor-li ... z3V9IGxG1F
I'm curious about this, are you making music sitting on the floor? What about mixing and producing? I've seen the standing workstations and thought about getting one but can't say i've seen a studio that's floor based, i guess acoustics have to factor into it but i have a room i could experiment with, no need to buy a desk! I got one of those steelcase chairs recently and it's really good, have it set so it just supports the lumbar and my back is off the back but i try not to spend too long sat in it, take regular breaks.

As for completing songs, knowing when it's finished and staying focused on the original idea but sometimes it takes me a while to recognise that the track isn't working or what elements need changing or dropping altogether. So yeah being objective when i need to be.

@mrdelurk spot on but don't get too bogged down on the technical stuff, focus on finishing tracks and filling the gaps. :)

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