Do you get tired of your songs when working on them?

[beatmunga]

That's too deep for me Psychoactive.

But I think I like it.

[Rinsemeister]

When I make a track I feel its like getting on a train and then getting off at the right stop. If you miss your stop the train keeps going and you end up lost . Keep with it and eventually the train does a full circuit and you get your chance to get off the train at the right stop again, but the train probably has a different driver at that point and a lot of new passengers.

Brilliant....................

That has perfectly described my ventures in the metropolis of musical greatness. The fail is strong.

[knotkranky]

Nearly all great composers have a serious deadline hanging over their heads. It's very inspiring. If your famous and promote your records too, you have no choice but to do it the best you can with the time available. So, every sit-down at your station has to be productive. They have limited time and so should we.

If you've mastered your setup, toss the track if it doesn't give you wood in a few days. If you have wood, finish asap.

It's much better to fail quickly than slowly. Or, It's much better to fail on 3 songs than on 1 in a given period. At least you had a better chance w 3. Play the odds.

[Tone Deft]

there are much more specific things which happen to me
I can lose the focus of the piece and I start doing generic things to it in the mix, such as making the drums more punchy just to add "excitement" ... when really the mood of the piece doesn't actually need that. So I'm doing things which are formulaic rather than fitting. "Harder kick drum!" , "ripping bass sound!", etc.

because I try and write music with a particular 'vibe' in mind I keep referring back to that 'vibe' in case I have drifted off the right path, and into the Generic Woods.
Often that means deleting hours and hours of work, because it was not in the interest of the piece. If I compare two versions and the older one has more soul then I delete the newer one.

On the subject of boredom : I think that the modern world has cultivated a very short attention span. Everything I see about electronic music making is about doing things quickly, and although certain music is great when produced swiftly - you either need to be a virtuoso (so everything is great quality!)or very harsh in killing your ugly babies in order to maintain a high strike rate.

Personally I enjoy music with complexity and obvious effort built in that rewards repeated listening. The only way to have music like that is to work on it at length, and learn how to do that.

TL; DR

joking

I'm starting to think that the whole issue of automation timing losing its sync as plug ins are moved around and inserted works against this. the more you mess with a track, the worse it might get.

I decided to finish a tune that's been lingering. I opened rev 28 and then rev 16. rev 16 was fine. the 'getting off the train' at the right time analogy nails it. what is the measurement of when a song is done? it can be a tough call, especially when we don't work with deadlines.

[H20nly]

I prefer to play them for strangers first, unless you're willing to cut through some fam n friend bs I speak for myself.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Friends can be too nice. Family can rip you to shreds... Or vice versa.

Strangers is probably the way to go.

the problem i've found with this is that people end up talking instead of listening, or you get the generic "it sounds good/great" answer.

i used to A/B test with a guy that played bass with us... i could tell that he was just arbitrarily picking one. i could go so far as to never actually change anything and he would swear that one version sounded better even though it was the exact same revision of the song. i'd switch them back and forth and he'd never know. the fucker played on the track and still couldn't tell.

i'm all for cranking out a song as fast as possible. for me, thats really hard though because i do vocals. by the time i get the track mixed well enough to record those vocals i have heard it so many times that it has no life left in my mind's eye. walking away and working on something else helps, but i've got to agree though that the notion of a looming deadline has yielded the best results for me.

[Angstrom]

yep, a deadline is the only real way things get finished.

Parkinson's Law - "work expands to fill the time available for its completion"

[fiocz]

I used to be very bored and had something like 2 or 3 finished tracks every year.Then I've stopped making 4/4 techno and built a little modular synthesizer system. Now I 've made more than 100 tracks in a year and I'm always excited when I make a new track.I've found my way when I've stopped thinking of what people may think about my music.

[knotkranky]

Best first post ever ^

Yeah, it's a pretty heavy load to take a song all the way through the steps ourselves. It wasn't done that way not too long ago. You can make the case that not mixing and mastering your own stuff is better for composing and composing is everything of course. Recording is pretty straight forward so that's no biggie. Yeah, I'm not going to even consider mixing or mastering for a good while. fuck it.

[juniorsfave]

Yeah it would be a bit tiring after playing the song a couple of times and you might also fall into making a 'generic' song. It would be best if you could bring along somebody else with you when you feel tired of your music that would listen along with you then provide his or her opinions. This would really refresh the tunes in your head since you are trying to analyze it from the input of another person.

[doghouse]

It always happens to me. Before I had ever recorded anything I always wondered why in interviews musicians would say they hated to listen to their own recordings, now I know why.

[Matt_Quinn]

'Art is never finished, only abandoned.'

-DaVinci

One trick I've used with some measure of success is simply limiting how long a track can be. Eleanor Rigby is 2:06 long, and is pure brilliance. Try marking off 3:00 or 4:00 in Arrangement & forcing yourself to work in that space. The time limit almost automatically forces you into some sense of structure and editing. I know my inclination is to always add MORE MORE MORE, so limiting time helps me edit out stuff my brain may be more attached to than my ears.

[Angstrom]

constraints are almost always good.
work expands to fill the time allocated.

I bet if I had an unwavering deadline to write and record 8 songs in 14 days I could do it.

[H20nly]

Angstrom... i need 8 new songs in 14 days*. this is NO BULLSHIT BOI!! get to it...






*this deadline shall not waiver, may cause gas, constipation, explosive diarrhea, infertility, receding hairline, and obesity. if lesions or hives appear please see your pharmacologist regarding rectally administered topical oral treatments.

[chrissobo13]

I went to school for composition and this is something we dealt a lot amongst the studio. Often times it led to class discussion, so this is probably a universal product of our art. Here are my two cents:

When you are working, listen objectively. Don't be wooed by your gnarly bass lines and massive build-ups. Stay on track, know what you need to do and get it done. As many times as I find myself thinking "damn, this is pretty good!", I also think "too boring, not effective, I should quit". Often during the same piece! So I've learned to not listen subjectively because it seems to breed over-thinking the merit of your music.

I've also learned that if some part isn't working, don't just make small changes. Try something completely different. Like as drastic as you're willing. That way the trouble part is on the back burner and might still prove fruitful after you've stepped back. The goal is just keep working. If something is bothering you and you can't find a solution, just move to something else.

[Tone Deft]

advice so nice I had to read it twice.