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Tips to help me finish tracks?
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bLv
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
13
Posts :
35
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 13:40
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Hi,
I need some tips to help me finish my tracks. I always get side-tracked and start tweaking the groove and not concentrating on the finished product. So I end up with alot of unfinished tracks and hardly any finished ones. I think that is half the trick in music.
Maybe ideas like bouncing to audio or using the freeze functions so that a single track cant be changed.
I kinda of get bored with the sound and then start changing things instead of focusing on the end track.
What you guys do?
  "We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams..." -- Arthur O'Shaughnessy |
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Input
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
24
Posts :
456
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 13:44
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Be happy it's a good stage, once you'll have a good idea for a track it will not make you bored so fast,
beside this- try to stay at least with one track until the finish whatsoever- i know what you're talking about just keep working and it will pass- don't worry
peace,
Space is the place
http://www.megabit.co.il |
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Spindrift
Spindrift
Started Topics :
33
Posts :
1560
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 14:38
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I think you are absolutly right that finishing a track is the hard part. And it sounds like you got a good idea about how to overcome it.
I think also that sometimes it can when you start going and changeing things that you thought sounded good from the start, everything can start turning in to a mess easily.
In traditional studio enviroments you normally record the tracks down, and only apply eq and fx at the mixdown stage. It can be very limiting in trance to work exactly that way, but I try to at least not completly change basic things like kick, bass and hats during the process. If it sounded great to you when you did it, and it sounds really boring after some hours of working on with the track, you probably just need a break. I think you need a quiet break at least ever 4hrs.
Also, try to do the track fast. Have fun just making some 16 bars looping, and keep adding parts on that loop. Make sure you a completly happy with one part before you add next.
When you have enough parts , start arranging. And don't listen thru every bar as you make the arrangement, just throw the blocks into the arrangement on feeling, at least some 2-3 minutes at each go.
For sure it will need tweaking when you listen thru it, but that way you have quickly have something to try to polish down to a finished track before you bored yourself with it.
It's a very common problem you have, and one thing that helped me was when a friend who is a quite sucessful rock producer told me to not change any levels when mixing. He reconed that if all levels where at some perfect eqilibrium the track would sound like a 80's production which the ears just fall asleep to.
One sound coming in slightly to load or quiet actually makes the listeners ears wake up. That one the mainstream producers figured out in the 90's. Unfortunally many trance producers haven't, and that's the main reason that bands like GMS etc sound so dead to me. My ears completely fall asleep after hours of perfectly polished sound.
Donno if all this can be of any help....and sure many people have other methods of working and completly disagree....but for me it works to just have fun and be unpretentious.... |
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fuzzikitten
Annunaki
Started Topics :
40
Posts :
603
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 15:25
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My answer was simple: to-do lists.
Before I write a track I make a list of everything it needs: kick drum, bassline, hihat loops, lead1, etc. As I write each I check it off and consider it 'done'. I make a point not to dwell too long on any one part, keeping in mind that my goal is to write a song, not write the perfect lead.
So grab a pencil, write down everything you can think of that's in a song, and start writing each part. Then arrange it all into something coherent. 
-Alex |
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WAVELOGIX
Wavelogix
Started Topics :
136
Posts :
1214
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 18:37
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fuzz great idea man ! (Y) |
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Mo-Dul
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
15
Posts :
135
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 18:48
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In my opinion the music we all do is more
creative. What I wanna say is that your
track's end should come from your mind and
your personal style.
Be creative man...
Peace...
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Mike A
Subra
Started Topics :
185
Posts :
3954
Posted : Aug 16, 2004 19:56
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Quote:
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On 2004-08-16 13:40, bLv wrote:
What you guys do?
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Just finish it.
You don't need to have the perfect first few minutes before you advance to the next track.
I usually work in some sort of a 2 pass method. First of all write the basic arrangement and leads and stuff, and finish the track by length. After that it gets much easier to finish the track with the small details, sound, etc etc.
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br0d
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
355
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 09:36
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The key is to truly understand the concept of diminishing returns. Let us address this with a grossly pseudointellectual math reference. Bear with me, it does make sense.
For the sake of quick reference, look at this graph of a hyperbola:
http://thesaurus.maths.org/dictionary/images/Hyperbola.png
The positive quadrant of this graph, even though I randomly selected it from google images,  in this case will roughly represent a curve of your musical or production efficiency. The X axis will represent "time and effort expended," and the Y axis will represent the production "flaws" or inferiorities in your music, as they approach zero--flaws being generally anything that makes you feel as if a song is not "done."
As you may know, a hyperbola can never reach zero and similarly, a song can never achieve perfection, or zero flaws.
Now imagine that there is a shaded portion of this graph on the positive axis, starting at X=3 and running off the right side of the graph. This portion is, incidentally, shaded green, the color of American money, but that color may differ depending on your country of origin. 
Imagine that the value of Y at X=3 on this graph (ie, 0.3) represents 98% perfection in your production, depending upon how you define "perfection." (In other words, it represents 98% "satisfaction.")
Now, if your "target audience" for your music has a "flaw threshold" of one Y unit (meaning that your listeners are incapable of discerning flaws below Y=1 units,) then you can safely assume that all of your effort which is undertaken at ANY TIME after X=1, is completely wasted on self-centered neurosis.
HTH |
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Spindrift
Spindrift
Started Topics :
33
Posts :
1560
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 09:54
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brOd, again a great technical answer. |
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bLv
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
13
Posts :
35
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 10:51
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yeah very nicely put ;-)
kind of reminds me 'bout gaussian distributions and confidence intervals... never really thought 'bout it that way!..
p3ac3
"We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams..." -- Arthur O'Shaughnessy |
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Triptocoma
Inactive User
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
296
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 17:38
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"Now, if your "target audience" for your music has a "flaw threshold" of one Y unit (meaning that your listeners are incapable of discerning flaws below Y=1 units,) then you can safely assume that all of your effort which is undertaken at ANY TIME after X=1, is completely wasted on self-centered neurosis."
haha so true br0d...
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Top-down
Inactive User
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
119
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 20:14
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Music can't be too good. The audience counts more than one listener. If you wanna produce good music don't hope for stupid audience.
btw Nice theory br0d
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WAVELOGIX
Wavelogix
Started Topics :
136
Posts :
1214
Posted : Aug 17, 2004 21:34
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i really think tht the virus is gradually spreading thru out the forum 
told these guys to install some freakin antidotes !!
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br0d
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
355
Posted : Aug 18, 2004 08:27
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The thing is, not only does most of the enjoyment take place in the first half of the writing process, but also most of the learning. So if song completion is not a motivating enough factor, then maybe the acquisition of experience should be. When will you learn more, when you're throwing down some crazy synths and spilling melodies out of your head, or when you're sitting there tinkering with a paragraphic EQ for 4 hours? |
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