How do you push yourself as a producer?

[Nephew]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

[AceLuby]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

When I'm in a rut I'll do one of two things:

1) Try to copy a song that I like, but sounds different than what I currently produce.

2) Steal something like a drum beat or bass line and make a song from there.

Both of these are more for ideas and pushing your limits more than actually creating a great song, but it really does help when you're in a rut.

[ARDJ]

what was posted above is a good start. I also get some friends in the studio, see how they work and let them drive for a bit. Sometimes you need to let go of the mouse to get new ideas Also, i always put like 10 new tracks a week in my car for my commute to work, helps me stay current and it's pretty much uninterrupted listening time (although my driving goes to shit due to the fistpump!)

[Moody]

Change your setup.

[nuxnamon]

just curious.. what do you mean "they sound the same".. are you talking about

1. the beats you make?
2. the synth sounds used
3. chord progressions?

sometimes i feel this too.. like sometimes my influences are so strong that I can't think outside them..

[3phase]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

When I'm in a rut I'll do one of two things:

1) Try to copy a song that I like, but sounds different than what I currently produce.

2) Steal something like a drum beat or bass line and make a song from there.

Both of these are more for ideas and pushing your limits more than actually creating a great song, but it really does help when you're in a rut.

why you just dot rob an old lady on the street and buy some booze?

[wascal]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

Take a couple of weeks off writing music and make sounds.

Turn all those samples you skip past in your library into complex velocity sensitive macro'ed up instrument racks with all manner of bizarre mappings. Get OCD on that folder full of breaks and slice all them to drumracks and make them into clips nothing like how they originally sounded. Go through the ableton presets and mangle them into something you would actually use. Make an absolute shitload of clips but forbid yourself from trying to turn them into tunes until you make a couple of hundred.

Thats what I do anyway - you'll end up with a whole new pallete of sounds and beats by the end of it and learn a lot along the way

[/ocd] [/geek]

[AceLuby]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

When I'm in a rut I'll do one of two things:

1) Try to copy a song that I like, but sounds different than what I currently produce.

2) Steal something like a drum beat or bass line and make a song from there.

Both of these are more for ideas and pushing your limits more than actually creating a great song, but it really does help when you're in a rut.

why you just dot rob an old lady on the street and buy some booze?

Excuse me, wha?

[beatflux]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

Everyone has their own internal set of rules that they follow whether or not they are conscious of it. If you want to break out of your mold, you're going to need to learn what exactly your mold is made out of. The more you can define your workflow and thoughts surrounding building a track, the more you can escape out of your own mold.

For example:

If you always use Vengenance Essential House Vol. 1 Samples, you can branch out and try something different. If you always put open hihats on the offbeat, you can change it.

It's worth it to listen to old tracks and see the similarities in them, so you can do something different. Changing gear, DAWs, instruments, effects, and samples doesn't usually do much to change how you think about constructing tracks.

[3phase]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

Everyone has their own internal set of rules that they follow whether or not they are conscious of it. If you want to break out of your mold, you're going to need to learn what exactly your mold is made out of. The more you can define your workflow and thoughts surrounding building a track, the more you can escape out of your own mold.

For example:

If you always use Vengenance Essential House Vol. 1 Samples, you can branch out and try something different. If you always put open hihats on the offbeat, you can change it.

It's worth it to listen to old tracks and see the similarities in them, so you can do something different. Changing gear, DAWs, instruments, effects, and samples doesn't usually do much to change how you think about constructing tracks.

You guys somehow really scare me...resident evil part x
thanks god the music you do has nothing in common with techno or house music..

[outershpongolia]

Simple question, I'm starting to hit a brick wall with this. I'm still making tunes and am liking them, but they are all starting to sound and feel the same. I want to try and push myself, but how does one do that exactly? Do you start projects with "rules" and try and build a track with those rules? i.e. no snare or off hi hats?

Curious to hear how you guys do it.

Take a couple of weeks off writing music and make sounds.

Turn all those samples you skip past in your library into complex velocity sensitive macro'ed up instrument racks with all manner of bizarre mappings. Get OCD on that folder full of breaks and slice all them to drumracks and make them into clips nothing like how they originally sounded. Go through the ableton presets and mangle them into something you would actually use. Make an absolute shitload of clips but forbid yourself from trying to turn them into tunes until you make a couple of hundred.

Thats what I do anyway - you'll end up with a whole new pallete of sounds and beats by the end of it and learn a lot along the way

[/ocd] [/geek]

I'm constantly doing this.. I call it all "Resources" , and I have a few project files that I drag 'n' drop things from when I'm in the creative flow.

I think it's great that I can still mess around and build up an arsenal of one shots or loops and not have to be in creative mode, but then when the time comes to actually make something I have anything from kicks and snares to risers and builds already made up that I did in my free time.

Its not like you're not being creative when you're just messing around and building up tools to use, you're just not in song writing mode so you don't have to worry about finishing a track

[Nephew]

Nice, like the idea's about working on making tools when I'm not in the song writing mood.

As far as by "sounding" the same, it's more the feel and arrangement of my tracks be it a techy laid back tune, heavy percussive house workout or a big room techno tune.

[merges]

Some people might call that a style.

[Rave]

Exactly /end thread

[snakedogman]

the solution:
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