Re: Are you a creative Consumer or Producer?
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:23 pm
Oh jeez,
this is a slippery slope.
One thing I think is a very important and valid question to ask yourself is where do you see yourself fitting in all this?
Some people like the idea of writing songs, but don't have the critical hyper judgmental opinionated ears to make anything
that they don't discard for lack of interest. Seriously if you buy a synth with a better than average sound set and don't immediately discard 90% of the presets, then spend time tweaking the rest to your 'needs', then most likely you'll have a hard time finishing songs IMO. It's not the vast pallet that's available now in all in one DAWs and VI's etc. that gets in the way of creativity, or even the desire for new gear, it's the lack of ability to hone in on what exactly you like about music, and carve out a sound from that. Like I said, I'm not going to win any friends with this, but so many people these days write songs that all sound exactly like they're writing a song on a DAW. Shit you see this in pop music, the total lack of creative thinking that is the Autotune trick, or glitch FX etc.
The thing is there IMO never has been that many good one man bands, it's the most difficult thing in music to pull off. I decided against it. At some point you have to think about what you love doing, I like writing melodic/noise parts in music, not that good at or interested in writing percussion parts, especially when I know great drummers. I don't sing, and not many people are interested in seeing a 40 something guy singing warped electro rock, and I know a cute and creative lyricist. Believe me, it's hilarious how much more interested booking agents and people in general are in your music if the singer is even passably good looking.
Anyway to make this ridiculously long and explain myself a bit here:
I think a lot of people love the idea of being a composer/producer, but don't have the internal melody/beats going that it requires, and believe that the next big purchase or music lesson will put them over the edge. Some of that can be fueled by a self loathing/insecurity issue that stops them from taking the 'spotlight'. I've had friends say that because they had great music taste, they will naturally write great music, but were incapable of stepping up to the plate because of their idolization of those that came before them.
In any case, have fun with it, and if it dawns on you that you can Master a track splendidly, but cannot write a track, offer that up to the world.
I know personally I hate mastering my own tracks, and once I have the money to hire people that can do it better, I will.
this is a slippery slope.
One thing I think is a very important and valid question to ask yourself is where do you see yourself fitting in all this?
Some people like the idea of writing songs, but don't have the critical hyper judgmental opinionated ears to make anything
that they don't discard for lack of interest. Seriously if you buy a synth with a better than average sound set and don't immediately discard 90% of the presets, then spend time tweaking the rest to your 'needs', then most likely you'll have a hard time finishing songs IMO. It's not the vast pallet that's available now in all in one DAWs and VI's etc. that gets in the way of creativity, or even the desire for new gear, it's the lack of ability to hone in on what exactly you like about music, and carve out a sound from that. Like I said, I'm not going to win any friends with this, but so many people these days write songs that all sound exactly like they're writing a song on a DAW. Shit you see this in pop music, the total lack of creative thinking that is the Autotune trick, or glitch FX etc.
The thing is there IMO never has been that many good one man bands, it's the most difficult thing in music to pull off. I decided against it. At some point you have to think about what you love doing, I like writing melodic/noise parts in music, not that good at or interested in writing percussion parts, especially when I know great drummers. I don't sing, and not many people are interested in seeing a 40 something guy singing warped electro rock, and I know a cute and creative lyricist. Believe me, it's hilarious how much more interested booking agents and people in general are in your music if the singer is even passably good looking.
Anyway to make this ridiculously long and explain myself a bit here:
I think a lot of people love the idea of being a composer/producer, but don't have the internal melody/beats going that it requires, and believe that the next big purchase or music lesson will put them over the edge. Some of that can be fueled by a self loathing/insecurity issue that stops them from taking the 'spotlight'. I've had friends say that because they had great music taste, they will naturally write great music, but were incapable of stepping up to the plate because of their idolization of those that came before them.
In any case, have fun with it, and if it dawns on you that you can Master a track splendidly, but cannot write a track, offer that up to the world.
I know personally I hate mastering my own tracks, and once I have the money to hire people that can do it better, I will.