Am I normal?

[ollyb303]

Making the break from noodling away in session view to actually farming it out in arrangement is difficult and I (and I'm sure many others here) have a hard drive littered with the lifeless embryos of tunes that never made it that far, but at least some of time, you have to make that break.

Chances are that by the time you've heard it as many times as you will have by the time you're nearing completion of an actual arrangement, you'll be bored shitless of it, but guess what? Finish it anyway. Then go back to it a week or two later and listen again. Sometimes it'll be shit. Suck it up. Other times it will not only pleasantly surprise you, but actually inspire you. Either way, you finished a track.

Rinse and repeat.

Brings me more happiness than a lot of other stuff.

[Xander415]

It took me a while to finish tracks in Live too. Although in my case, it had more to do with learning how to achieve a specific production quality. For arranging, I basically just record everything I do in the Session view. That leaves me with a bunch of material to work with in the Arrangment view. From there it's just a matter of extending parts and editing.

Also, don't be afraid to dream big. A few others have in this thread have talked about tempering expectations, which is good advice that can applied at times but be careful of downsizing your ambitions too much. If you go into this thinking "Oh it's just a hobby, I'm not a good musician, etc." you'll end up talking yourself out of the whole thing entirely. I set high goals for myself because doing so gives me the drive and motivation to improve and succeed.

[seattletruth]

Sometimes I get stuck in your predicament.. But usually it's the opposite.. Meaning I start with something and get kind of "stuck", don't think its enough for a full song, but a day or two later I come back and come up with more ideas that makes it way better than I thought.

I know what you mean about transfering from session to arrangement view... Here's a tip that works for me though. Don't focus on coming up with only "one loop climax" in the session view. Focus on comming up with two totally different climaxes and then start working them together.. that will give you more to work with and a more diverse song...

Also if you get stuck writing your own stuff with VSTs, try switching it up with sample based music.

[sporkles]

I know exactly how you feel. I'm gonna go right ahead and plug Tarekith's take on how to overcome the "stuck in a loop syndrome", before he jumps in and does it himself

[regretfullySaid]

I made a lame post-work syndrome post n/m.

[chelemasty]

This happened to me while using Cubase...lol Maybe Ableton is just not for you, try something else. Sometimes, a change in User Interface helps.

[kmika99]

If you are just doing it for yourself, and more importantly by yourself...(like i usually do).

you may find (like i did!) that it's alot of fricking work to do everything!!!

So i usually spend an hour just making sounds, beats/guitars/synth arps and then look for loops to match...
the best thing about live is how easy auditioning sounds together works..

in many years, i probably have 20 finished tracks..but that's ok..it's a treat when something comes together...

don't pressure yourself...just have fun and see what happens...if you are noodling aimlessly..call up an old track...
i have found that as time goes on and i build up little riffs that i realize a couple things may go together, and that motivates me to get more detailed..

here's another trick i tried...invite some friends over to listen to a couple tracks next weekend...create a real deadline, even if the deadline is only related to the horrific embarrasment of not having done to play when they come over..

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

I very frequently encounter this problem to. Maybe we're all abnormal . I used to use this program called LMMS and I'd always finish tracks in it, I haven't actually completed any tracks in ableton for almost a year . I don't know if it's because the interface is incompatible with the way I think or if it's my fault. I noticed the more I started learning technical aspects, the less I actually got done because I'd get discouraged if my music didn't live up to professional standards. Would any of you guys recommend trying out a different program like FL studio or something? Or is it foolish to assume that a change of program would help? I'd rather not lose time getting familiar with a new program if it isn't going to improve things. Any thoughts?

[kmika99]

i would not change programs.

i think if you can stay disciplined and learn one daw by experience, it makes things alot easier..

on the odd chance that you get something you really like going, you don't want to be figuring out new software...you probably know alot more about live than you think...and i bet you could easily do a couple things to improve your sounds..

[Dalski]

Blimey...am I witnessing one of the first threads i've seen on here in ages where there's good friendly advice and all positive? I must check out what phase the moon is in tonight! Lol

Yes it's normal to feel like that mate. The key thing is to have fun doing whatever you're doing, read lots, don't be afraid to experiment with sound or bizarre concepts and above all else...NEVER delete any unfinished projects you think are crap! You can use them as a reference point later to see how far you've come in your production skills development...and you may be surprised to find that you've got some half finished ideas there that can be polished and added to with your new found skills over time! At the very least, the smallest bit of noticeable progression can spur you on to keep going with your chosen hobby.

Have fun! And good luck with your first success, whether that be a top 40 hit, an underground dancefloor smasher or the first track you see your little'un dance to in the living room

[Tarekith]

I just posted this earlier in the week:

http://tarekith.com/finish-what-you-start/

[Saxer]

finish even bad sounding tracks. maybe they are not sooo bad as you listen to them later. every beat or loop gets boring and unemotional if you listen to it for one hour. structure first, than polish.

it´s like painting a picture: you don´t start in one corner with all colours, you start with a pencil sketch. after the structure is ready, you fill the colours. last step is texture. make it sound like bob ross

[Miki_Mundi]

Phew, thank God I'm normal too

[patrick.olson86]

Great question!

I AM a musician, and I never finish anything in Ableton (or any Daw for that matter). But to be fair, I usually use this for my own side projects. It doesn't help when I want to start an electronica project one week, and rock project the next, a dub/reggae project the next, etc etc etc...

One thing we do as a band that really helps and you can apply to yourself too is this:

Spend one day writing ideas - riffs, drum ideas, bass tracks, vocal ideas, whatever. Maybe do this for a few days. Then, designate a day to completing the ideas - take that riff and turn it into specific parts like a verse, chorus, bridge. BUT, you must dedicated and block off time. 4 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour even. Don't answer calls, avoid the urge to surf the internet, don't turn on the TV, put duct tape over your roommates mouth.

THEN, once you have your parts down and arranged (or if you approach it with a DJ mentality you'll do the arranging on the fly) you can start dedicating time to mixing. From my experience, mixing takes as long as it takes. I usually start by shaping the sound of each track (eg - add your effects, eq, compression, etc). Then, I'll start adjusting volume and play around with panning. If you don't like the finished product, strip it down and remix until the parts are sitting where you like.

Dang, I'm going to have to start following my own rules.

By far the hardest part is dedicating the time to it, especially if you have lots of ofther distractions/ADHD.