Argle Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 The process of writing and producing music, obviously. You can be as general or specific as you want. Has your stumbling block changed over the years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelCityOutlaw Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 The process of writing and producing music, obviously. You can be as general or specific as you want. Has your stumbling block changed over the years? The whole "producing" part with mixing and stuff. No good at it and don't even like doing it. Other than that, sometimes actually finishing songs is the hardest part. I have so many unfinished songs it's insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 The whole "producing" part with mixing and stuff. No good at it and don't even like doing it.Other than that, sometimes actually finishing songs is the hardest part. I have so many unfinished songs it's insane. Ugh, this. I'm such a tard when it comes to the actual technical stuff behind plugins and mixing and mastering that when I get to this point my progress slows soooooo much. It's disheartening, and when you realize at the end of that you just spent 3 days figuring out something that the music community would laugh at you for not knowing, you just want to crawl into a hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 For me, the hardest part used to be getting anything done. Nowadays I'd say my biggest challenge is recording parts. I hate it, honestly, even though it's a necessity sometimes. Having to balance musician and recording engineer at the same time is profoundly annoying to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avaris Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Music Theory, how to maximize the potential of melodies/chords using Music Theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnWake Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Mixing the low end is one of the most painful things ever. I always feel my kick/bass don't sound that great, even after a lot of tweaking. Also, finishing songs. I want to keep tweaking small stuff all the time... Writing the arrangements usually isn't hard for me. However, at times I think some parts of my arrangements are terrible and start re-writing a lot, especially when I'm remixing and I notice that my remix is nothing like the original anymore! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Mixing the low end, for me too. Not necessarily the low-mids, mainly the bass and sub bass. I tend to have trouble bringing the bass out, and I have to check between my Grados with clear bass and okay sub bass, and my Skullcandies with muddy bass but good sub bass. I have literally no good way of testing my bass. Other than that, just finding ideas to write a song at all. I didn't start listening to music until the 7th grade, so I have almost no inspiration other than ocremix and a few oldie artists. When I do find my inspiration, it tends to flesh itself out rather easily, within 3-30 days, depending on how complicated the ideas my brain wanted to create. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esperado Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 drum programming. it always sounds like a baboon with decent rhythm is slapping an mpd over and over again. Ive gotten a bit better at compression but i still havent been able to make really groovy drum parts. in all the songs ive made that people like i was using loops XD other than that I still have trouble making originals and making new melodies and chords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Mixing the low end is hard for me as well. I have to listen on minimum of three systems - speakers, headphones, and car. And even then it's a matter of repeated tweaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Getting over "the hump" of taking my original ideas for a remix and fleshing them out to get a nicely constructed, cohesive track. It's far to easy to get stuck in a rut 2-3 hours into a song and not know where to take it next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Getting over "the hump" of taking my original ideas for a remix and fleshing them out to get a nicely constructed, cohesive track. It's far to easy to get stuck in a rut 2-3 hours into a song and not know where to take it next. THIS! So much of this. I'll get like 16 bars of awesomeness going, and then be like, "wait, what do I do next?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Ugh, this. I'm such a tard when it comes to the actual technical stuff behind plugins and mixing and mastering that when I get to this point my progress slows soooooo much. It's disheartening, and when you realize at the end of that you just spent 3 days figuring out something that the music community would laugh at you for not knowing, you just want to crawl into a hole. You shouldn't feel bad, that 3 days was your personal moment of exploration and discovery--it's yours--more importantly, no one is born knowing this (some are born with great intuition) and no one who is any good is good without hard work and stacks and stacks of 3 days like yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ectogemia Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Getting over "the hump" of taking my original ideas for a remix and fleshing them out to get a nicely constructed, cohesive track. It's far to easy to get stuck in a rut 2-3 hours into a song and not know where to take it next. THIS! So much of this. I'll get like 16 bars of awesomeness going, and then be like, "wait, what do I do next?" This, but specifically instrumentation. Finding the right sound has always been my stumbling block. Otherwise, I'm never out of ideas and such; I could keep writing forever. But it's always finding the right sound... balralrahglh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 THIS! So much of this. I'll get like 16 bars of awesomeness going, and then be like, "wait, what do I do next?" ...Yeah. I'm in that rut right now with my Gunstar Heroes mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ectogemia Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 ...Yeah. I'm in that rut right now with my Gunstar Heroes mix. Lolzzz, my Gunstar mix... I wrote 16 bars and now I'm fresh out o' ideas. I love the game, but wtf, the music... why... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theory of N Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Once you come to the realization that you will literally NEVER run out of creativity, it becomes much easier to get out of that 16-bar rut. It doesn't matter WHAT you write. Don't be afraid to go somewhere completely different with the track. Deceptive cadences are always nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 (edited) Lolzzz, my Gunstar mix... I wrote 16 bars and now I'm fresh out o' ideas. I love the game, but wtf, the music... why... Somehow I managed like 32 bars, but yeah, I never seem to be home when I get the good ideas I want to try out, and I can never type out what I mean quickly enough. Sometimes I choose a tempo and it works for one section of a song, then when I write another section out, I listen to the new section and it sounds too fast or too slow, and I end up doing some sort of subtle tempo changing shenanigans to fix that. Somehow it works at times, but other times I wish I didn't have to try to get around that. Other times, I write a really nice section, but then when I come back later to write the next section, it's like the instruments I chose for that previous section don't fit in with the ideas I have for the next section, so I have to adjust to balance it out or the new section sounds out of place. I usually don't have an issue with finding the right sound, though. If I find one good sound, I find almost all the right sounds to accompany it. Sometimes I luck out and accidentally stumble upon an inspirational sound (like in my Gunstar mix. >), and when I go with it, it turns out badass. Try granular synthesis on a bass with an LFO on a band pass, it'll be sooooo heavy. Edited April 4, 2013 by timaeus222 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiFiSunset Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Getting over "the hump" of taking my original ideas for a remix and fleshing them out to get a nicely constructed, cohesive track. It's far to easy to get stuck in a rut 2-3 hours into a song and not know where to take it next. This happens waaaaay to often; but, then I usually find my way around it. Mostly because of what Theory of N said "we NEVER run out of creativity." @Timaeus222: I love it when I accidentally stumble on a new idea, or accidentally do something that turns out good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC2151 Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Mastering is a bitch. Inputting every single note everything by mouse/hand is a bitch. Listening to the same section of a song 600+ times over and over can definitely be a bitch. It makes the going very slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eino Keskitalo Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 I don't know if it's really a hard part, but after getting the arrangement down, and stating to actually mix the thing, polishing all the wrinkles so it starts to actually sound good instead of just me thinking it's fine, that seems to take hours and hours and hours for me. I can't believe people whip up tracks that are ready to go in just a couple of hours. I used to have no sense of structure, flow, transitions etc. I'm not sure I do now, but at least I realize you can't just slap two parts together and think it's fine.. or completely change into different style and practically a different song if you run out of ideas/skill how to progress what you have. Well, it CAN work, but I apparently used to think it would always work. Man, my old pieces are so bad. I was reminded of that by what Nutritious said, and I'm currently working on that exactly on my Gunstar Heroes track.. this is a Gunstar Heroes project mixers support group gathering.. turning the ideas into an actual structure. It's kind of hard, but mostly it's just lots of work. I feel that's different from actually hard. What's the hardest for me is that I'm trying to play lots of guitar on the track. Any live recoding I try to do, I have such a sense of ineptitude that it's really clouding my judgement. That's hard and I should just get over it, just work it, but I need to get past of everything sounding shit to me. Most of it does, but I'm sure there's that one take that's actually good, or at least good enough, and I don't want to miss it just because I get depressed. And the actual hard part is not having the time I wanted to make music. --Eino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixto Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 the creative part is what sucks for me. i have almost no creativity which is why most of my remixes are pretty much just covers and also why i will probably never release any original material. i can not create a melody to save my life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 I don't know if it's really a hard part, but after getting the arrangement down, and stating to actually mix the thing, polishing all the wrinkles so it starts to actually sound good instead of just me thinking it's fine, that seems to take hours and hours and hours for me. I can't believe people whip up tracks that are ready to go in just a couple of hours. This for me too. I can whip up a track pretty quickly but the mixing and balancing and tweaking and adding transitions and fine-polishing it can take me a month. And then another full month of second-guessing myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillRock Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Having to think about this one because I run into all sorts of problems, depends on the track. Sometimes I can't get the production right, sometimes it might be performance issues... sometimes it'll be getting stuck on a track and not knowing where to take it. For me, its probably a mix that becomes too convoluted. Sometimes i'll just end up doing a track thats just... too much of a good thing I guess, I'll want it to be really long, really epic, and i'll have loads and loads of ideas... and I just can't translate it quick enough. By the time i'm half way through, its not finished, and i've lost that spark for it and i'm stuck with half a great track - I KNOW where I want to take it but I just don't want to be arsed with it, so if I do carry on, it'll be forced and rubbish etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnWake Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Sometimes I choose a tempo and it works for one section of a song, then when I write another section out, I listen to the new section and it sounds too fast or too slow, and I end up doing some sort of subtle tempo changing shenanigans to fix that. Somehow it works at times, but other times I wish I didn't have to try to get around that. Oh god I really hate when that happens. Changing tempo in the middle of a song always annoys me, even if it isn't hard at all. It always makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, not sure why Also, like evktalo said, recording live parts can be a chore. I even waste time recording ambient pads when I'm feeling too perfectionist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiFiSunset Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Trying to figure out what new instruments should be added to the next section of a song to make it flow. Or, having an idea in your head...and not knowing what instrument or sound it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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