do you experience any 'focus' problem or is it just me?

One suggestion is to start by writing a rough outline of your track before you tweak every effect, EQ every sound to perfection, create 100 little breaks and twists, add 50 layers etc. Start with the arrangement (once you have a cool base to work from of course) and when that is done, continue with all the details.

On 2006-10-29 11:38, br0d wrote:
You can try this. Go to your closet and get 4 hats.
Assign different titles to each one.

Such as:
programmer/engineer (beats, sounds, loops, etc)
arranger/songwriter (melodies, chords, structure)
mastering engineer (just mastering)
producer (final say on everything)

Or however you feel it should be broken down.
Keep in mind that the main problem in writing is the constant fight between the programmer and the arranger. The programmer wants to stay forever tweaking nuances of beats and basslines. This is fun stuff and you can do it forever because we have millions of tools and ideas being discussed constantly.

But the Producer wants a finished song. And he is the authority, so he gets to tell the programmer when to shut it. And when you reach that point where you're like "what am I doing" or "I am getting nowhere" that is the producer nagging you to quit wasting studio time. So put his hat on, and then give the arranger tasks. Take his hat off, and then put on the arranger hat. Etc.

The programmer has the easiest job with the least pressure. The arranger has a more difficult job and it requires more musical talent. The mastering engineer, well he just collects dust as these two battle. The producer is the guy who has to save the day and if you don't let him, you will get nothing done.

Keep in mind that sometimes the producer is really loud and insistent and you don't have to mess with hats or anything dumb like that. Usually this occurs when you have a deadline, or you are feeling under-represented musically, or really pragmatic and not anal retentive. At these points the producer is really loud and insistent. I used to write drunk a lot. It was easy to quiet the science nerd programmer because drunk people are more emotional, and the songwriter/arranger part of the work is more emotional and a more potentially embarrassing commitment. But embarrassing yourself comes naturally to drunks.

Unfortunately I am not so interested in getting fucked up for the sake of music anymore. Sometimes, yes, but I don't intend to die for a good song.

On 2006-10-26 19:20, Kitnam wrote:


it is not only one of the most difficult points to get beyond, in my experience i have seen enough people to give up at exactly this point which is resulting in hanging around in the studio for years with 1000 unfinished trax of 3-4 minutes (the magical line) but without any clear result!

On 2006-10-26 19:20, Kitnam wrote:
diskothek, its not you only. everyone i know who is producing including myself knows 200% what you mean. this is a generell problem while making music and it needs to be pointed out and discussed for sure.

it is not only one of the most difficult points to get beyond, in my experience i have seen enough people to give up at exactly this point which is resulting in hanging around in the studio for years with 1000 unfinished trax of 3-4 minutes (the magical line) but without any clear result!
it is also the point where your mental skills and discipline is getting very important no matter how talented you are, how good your ideas are, or how big your technical skills are. it this point this all doesnt counts anymore! inspiring moments and beauty visions doesnt help there.

i posted this a hundred times in this forum, because in my point of view it is massive important.
the only way to finish the track is finishing the track

it doesnt matter if the track is boring, stupid, sounding crap, etc. if you are disciplined enough to make 7 minutes rolling your are far far beyond many many bedroom-producers out there, no matter how the quality is. trust me! many releases of today proof my words.

if you finish your projects you will automaticly learn very important things about arrangement, building and the way of your producing which will make every next project easier and easier and your quality better and better. it is so important man to have a focused discipline on getting results, forget all about the music theories, technical discussions, how do i make this and that, its all secondary.

edit: ok this is all a bit theoritical how does this look in practice.

music doesnt comes from inspiration. if you think that, then you ar living in dreams. dont get me wrong, inspiration and vision is very important but it makes only 10% of your music. music means by reality: hard work.
this means that if your flow in the studio gets damaged, you need to make 10 steps forward and 9 steps backward. try and error, try and error. sometimes i sit the whole day there and it all sounds crap and after 5 hours i get one element which is ok. sometimes i delete days of work, but the trick is that you dont give up and try another 100 elements and ideas. but not closing the arrangement, and start a new project. this is the easiest way, which leads to the land of hanging around for nothing.

in every production it can happen that suddenly you pick up someting and the sun rises again. it can happen after 3 or 4 days and then it flows again. and every new idea is a killer. if you lost the flow you have to chase it again, dont wait for it to come automaticly. its just discipline to survice such difficult moments.

On 2006-10-26 00:10, diskOtek wrote:
hello!
i ve got this serious-i guess-problem!
i start a project and at a point cant focus on it -as a result i can barely get a finished track

do you experience this same situation?

it gets on my nerves,i sit in front of the pc and just do nothing or drink a beer and listen again and again what i ve already done plus various other irrelevant stuff!

is there a way i can regain my attention to the project?
or is it a matter of character and needs more effort to stay focused?

I find it helpful to begin with a melodic theme, and then develop varations based on this. Before you press space on your sequencer, hum or vocalize a phrase in order to generate a direction for your track.

On 2006-10-27 01:49, UnderTow wrote:
If the arrangement is cool, it doesn't matter that you have heard the track so often because you only need to work on details to make things interesting. The bits that have become boring with over listening, can be enhanced and tweaked to make them interesting for you again. This should also make them interesting to the listeners.
UnderTow

On 2006-10-29 11:38, br0d wrote:
You can try this. Go to your closet and get 4 hats.
Assign different titles to each one.

Such as:
programmer/engineer (beats, sounds, loops, etc)
arranger/songwriter (melodies, chords, structure)
mastering engineer (just mastering)
producer (final say on everything)

...........page2

On 2009-08-13 22:07, becktrank wrote:

but seriously, whats the ``play order track`` button on cubase does?