Ableton Forum

It's do or die for me, so lately I can't sleep, major insomnia, laying awake all night thinking about how to make a track better and which effects to use... does anyone else obsessively lay awake at night thinking about their tracks and effects? Lol.

I have nightmares about dying and not getting to finish the shit I'm working on

Happens to me at least once a week. Bad weeks consist of several nights with less than 3h of sleep. Being unable to fall asleep is so much a part of my personality and my music, i made it my name - tim somnia.

I am like this since i can think - i just forgot what kept me awake before it was music.

I mainly do this at work, I'm ok until I think of a synth or a track I'm working on then that's it. I'm just counting down the seconds day dreaming until i can go home. At night I sometimes agonise over gear purchases.

I'm never laying awake "thinking of how to make a track" , but my mind creates and plays songs constantly on a kind of mental radio with no off switch. When I'm in bed it is more noticeable.

It plays a mix of variations on the songs ive been working on, mingled with unknown songs which i will have to lay down/ capture in future. I usually tend to ignore the fact that life always has musical accompaniment, I only notice when it deviates from what I have laid down already. "wait, that's different than what I did!"

Usually what particular songs my brain radio likes to play gives me a good indication of which songs to persevere with, and what ought to be happening in them. There's one it's playing at the moment (for the last day or so) which is a variation on a song I did a month or so back and discarded. Apparently my brain thinks theres some merit to it.

Musical schizophrenia FTW

I always think of awesome things that I could do to track while I'm in bed, things that I dont think of while I'm actually working on it.
I've started to write them down or save them in my phone because I always forget by the time I wake up. Or sometimes I wake up all excited w/ a great idea!

I think you all need to find better things to do in bed...

When I used to play in a band I used to think 2 songs ahead being the front man you never think in present sense. When I produce it's about the same way so it does take a little longer. After I'm done with the basic track I leave it alone for a week and then load it fresh and make the major decisions as to what stays or goes.

I don't loose any sleep over that as much as anything else in life's foibles, THERE are better thing's to do in bed.

i think way too much in general, with music though i always seem to drop it all as soon as i walk away. i just think of the general task like "i need to take piano lessons" or "i should probably read more about effects soon"

Anybody else get a song stuck in their head when they're trying to rub one out?

Theo Void wrote:I always think of awesome things that I could do to track while I'm in bed, things that I dont think of while I'm actually working on it.
I've started to write them down or save them in my phone because I always forget by the time I wake up. Or sometimes I wake up all excited w/ a great idea!

not in bed, but this is kind of like what I do.

At stoplights on the way to work this morning, emailed this from the phone:

Try out triplets in camel space in song where you copied and pasted gated clips together.

Often, when I've been spending time writing a new track, I'll go to bed with the track running through my head. I'll hear new ideas & things I have not tried on a technical level pop into my head....... Conceptualising new ways to approach a track.

Yes, sometimes it's hard to turn off.

Like h3rtz, I find sleep difficult at times.

Sometimes,I lay in bed fretting over a certain sound,maybe I look at too many horror films,for my dark ambient stuff,ha,ha


But what I have is a white board,for ideas,and write them down,and that forms a basis of my ideas

My bed is where i wank.

I lay awake all the time thinking about music stuff, usually resulting in 5-7 days of barely any sleep a couple times a year. Even when I'm not having multiday sleeping problems, there's many a night where I can't sleep because I'm thinking of some new idea for a song, or something I want to put in my live set, etc.

I also can't sleep while music is playing. Any kind of music, just about anywhere, it keeps me awake if I can hear it.