so i'm kind of stuck

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:50 pm

i can't stop making these really pretty dubby loops and i have no particular direction i want to take them in, even though i feel like they deserve to be fleshed out "tunes"
has anybody else had this problem?

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:09 pm

I have this happen to me every single time I try to record something. 90% of the stuff I do record goes unfinished.

=/

Techboy · Post by **Techboy** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:20 pm

just be like boc and take like 8 months per track

Negamuse · Post by **Negamuse** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:26 pm

Some times 10 seconds of audio is 10 seconds of audio.

bored_of_canada · Post by **bored_of_canada** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:41 pm

MrMessiah wrote:Some times 10 seconds of audio is 10 seconds of audio.

yes. so well put. nowadays, especially in this and related genres, artists feel like they have to release everything they ever record.

2020k · Post by **2020k** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:19 pm

Yes.

As a matter of fact, I don't know any musician who DOESN'T have this problem every now and again. If you don't, speak up and tell us your secrets please! :lol:

Torn n Frayed · Post by **Torn n Frayed** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:08 am

I would say if you have some solid ideas try and make them longer. Map out the songs flow and progression on a piece of paper so you can visualize what needs to be added to make a complete song. Even listen to other peoples songs and take notes from them on song structure to learn it. Music is all about tension and release, build it up once or twice and then let it go, or keep it built up and never release it.

For me I have a few solid song ideas that I keep working on, just made the switch over to Logic X from the woeful Tracktion and love it so far. I sometimes have spells where I just want to make the gnarliest sounds that I can with no plan on ever making them into songs, just get stuck in and start tweaking knobs but I make sure record everything even if it's just a line out on my mixer into my R-09.

Perch · Post by **Perch** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:25 pm

Just continue to have fun with them! I had the problem for a solid few years, but after a while when I finally started to get the hang of finishing certain things I was working on, I had this wonderful little back catalog of sounds. What you consider unfinished now may become your go-to library for sounds in the future when you want to focus solely on the producing/editing element of it all.

machinea · Post by **machinea** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:49 am

Honestly so many times I have a great hook and get stuck there. It seems like stuff I'm less satisfied with turns into tracks more often because I have to temper it and tweak it more. Not saying i don't like inherently what's there. But still I've noticed it.

Anyway a lot of people have this happen. I mentioned on another thread, and thought it was a good idea myself, that Bibio takes a lot of his unfinished stuff and makes files of it to play on bike rides and then his mind gets ideas listening to his stuff outside with movement. And I think its great, I know i hear different stuff when I drive, movement, the road, outside seems to really make my creativity work differently.

Techboy · Post by **Techboy** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:31 am

machinea wrote:Honestly so many times I have a great hook and get stuck there. It seems like stuff I'm less satisfied with turns into tracks more often because I have to temper it and tweak it more. Not saying i don't like inherently what's there. But still I've noticed it.

Anyway a lot of people have this happen. I mentioned on another thread, and thought it was a good idea myself, that Bibio takes a lot of his unfinished stuff and makes files of it to play on bike rides and then his mind gets ideas listening to his stuff outside with movement. And I think its great, I know i hear different stuff when I drive, movement, the road, outside seems to really make my creativity work differently.

That sounds like a good idea; also w.r.t. the "great hook" thing - BOC talk about a method of just recording that stuff straight into a sampler and waiting for the perfect time to use it, once, and properly, as a little moment that your listener really wants to come back to

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:24 pm

I'm not a musician*, but I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever done any kind of creative work will have had this problem.

I've lost count of the number of times I've sat staring at a photo in GIMP trying to figure out exactly what it is if needs to make it special or how I imagine it.

Take a break, come back to it, play around, do something different or new with it, you'll get there...

(* - despite my best efforts; hammering through Cracking Up by the Jesus & Mary Chain does not a musician make...)