Ableton Forum

Hi all,

I would like to know if there has been a time where you start a project and get to the point where whatever you try and do it just doesn't sound right and you end up feeling like starting a new project.

I'm a beginner producer only 2 years into this. I have completed a few tracks but sometimes when I start something I find it difficult to finish as either it doesn't sound right or I don't know how to complete the project.

Any comments in relation to this would be appreciated

Thanks!

I save intermediate versions of a project as I work on it. It really helps at times like this because I can work my way backwards to the point where I still loved the track and start working from that point again.

This is one reason I prefer to mulitple projects to work on at once. If I open a song and for whatever reason I'm just not feeling it, I can just work on another one instead. At least that way I'm still writing music and not just waiting until I feel in the mood to finish that one specific songs.

Also, there's sometimes that it might not be far along into working on a song where I realize that it's just not working at all. I used to stress over all the time I had spent up to that point, but these days I just delete it and start something new. I used to archive all my half finished ideas, but after 20 years of doing that I realized that if I wasn't exciting me at the time I was initially working on it, it's probably not going to excite me months or years later.

Thank you Tarekith and Richie Witch for reading and replying to my thread.

Its good to know what you guys did in this case. I have now resulted in opening up a previous project I started to keep my motivation and inspiration alive.

Thanks!

It can really help to work on multiple projects at once, as others have mentioned before. What has turned out to be an important aspect for me is to make sure the core of something is there before I leave it for later. This can either be that everything important is there in the music already or that you find some other way to define what this piece of art is about. A poem that was your inspiration for writing that song. A picture that has exactly the vibe of what you wanted to express. In my case I often write down what the surroundings look like, if I imagine the song to be a place in nature or a room. Is it a wide open space somewhere in Scandinavia, full of small plants and the air is filled with the sound of busy insects? Or is it a quiet cave, cold and humid, where you could hear every reflection crystal clear.

If you have something that will make you remember your emotion when starting the song, it is more likely that you will finish it in this way once you open the session again later. Whenever I saved my work too early and had no clue what it should be about, I picked parts from it later, did something completely different with it and noticed in the end that nothing makes sense. Being clear about the intention helped a lot to not waste time.

This doesn't mean that everything unfinished is wasted. Keep your stuff in some kind of archive folder and look through it whenever you are curious what you did a year ago. It can be inspirational and sometimes you have learned enough in the meantime to find out why it wasn't working before. Then it's just a little tweak here and there and the thing is on point.

I worked way too long on a song a couple of years ago. It was a collaboration with a friend and sounded kind of okay but never really took off. It just wasn't exciting enough on its own. As an artist, this is disappointing and it was a pity that we couldn't find out what was wrong with it. Later we were asked to submit some background music for a library. I found this unfished and unmixed sketch, cut out a couple loops and handed it over, together with way better stuff. It turned out that radio and TV love this "boring" loop and it brought us decent royalties. It wasn't exciting enough on its own but good enough to just be there in the background and create a certain vibe while someone else is talking on radio and TV. I'm more than glad that I didn't throw away all the half finished sessions. Let go of your songs if they just aren't working but keep them and listen to them later. Who knows what will happen with them one day.

All the time dude, its often good to just save the project and step away from it for a while. Ill frequently come back to tracks with a fresh look on it and the ideas will come flooding in. Sometimes you just cant move a track along, its best just to accept it and spend your time on something more worth while. Like the other guys were saying, working on multiple tracks really helps to prevent frustrations with something you're working on and helps to stop you from getting sick of a track.

As a side note a great way I get past the ''creative block'' if I'm stuck on a track is to take 1 piece the from the previous section, like the drum beat. Then keep using the same instruments and synths but just rebuild a new section back off of the drum beat (obviously try to stick the key you were already using, but you can always transpose if you have to). If the sections transition clumsily, make a little transition section. Works for me like 50% of the time

marlonzuri, florian_bl,

Thank you both for your detailed replies. Its good to know im not the only one to get stuck and feel to either create a new project or open up an unfinished one. My way of working is basically, 'When you start something, you must finish it'.

However in being creative, I think this way of thinking doesnt always work.

Cheers!