Jump to content
psybient.org community members forum - share good vibes and enjoy
Kahawai

The boring side of producing

Recommended Posts

It's been 10 years willing to get into electronic music, and now I took the first big steps !

But from the start, I play the guitar, sings, and play a bit of didgeridoo, what moves me in music is playing, creating new tracks and pieces. Coming to producing I find it very difficult to get into the shaping of sounds that is IMHO a totally different job. The skills involved are far different, and I'm kind of afraid and ashamed not to get to the point I'm aiming at.

 

How do you deal with such thing personnaly ?

 

Creating and playing music with instruments is one thing. Shaping them precisely and fitting everything all together is something else.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Or by shaping do you mean mixing? Fitting sounds together' is more in choosing sounds that go together rather than any special production technique. 

 

Stick an electric guitar lead over the top of a growl bass, a vocal, and a didgeridoo, you will have a horrible time mixing it and it wouldn't make for great listening anyway.  Have a bass, some drums, and one lead instrument at any one time - piece of cake, probably only a bit of routine EQing needed. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I mean I engage with music by playing it. When it comes to producing, I'm kinda lost. Making an arrangment sounding nice by the end is far different from expressing something inperfect by playing music. I've got this feeling that it used to be a producer's job, when musicians would be playing, doing their best for goodness to come out. But when it comes to electronic music, it's straight away into some producing stuff so that you can end up with anything. I feel that it's relating more to the intellectual, cognitive side of the brain rather than the emotionnal and communicating side.

 

When I play with an analog synth, I make incredibly trippy sounds that I can even reshape infinitly through midi and ableton… this is great fun (however infinity can give a sense of vertigo as well facing too many possibilities). But I feel it is hard to be good at everything. In a rock band, you've got the guitarist, the vocals, the drummer and the bass basicaaly. Everybody will be better by knowing anyone else's playing issues. But everyone's got his own job he's the best at. Everybody's got a role. Now here with producing it comes to get to everything right at a time ! Wow, how frustrating, and so boring, can it be to face this huge amount of work when you could have focused on melodies, drums or bass lines of your own, relating on other humans, not performing an incredible compilation work.

 

But i can imagine i'm kinda twisted here. :-)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Getting good at everything is the name of the game in music production, and yes it is hard but the best things in life are hard work. You still get to do all the emotional and communicating side but you have to do the technical stuff also. 

 

You could form an electronic music band and share the work on projects., specialise.. but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who only wants to work on the technical stuff and give you free reign of the creative stuff - you would loose control of the direction of tracks and the overall artistic vision, and having everything exactly as you want it - the benefit of working by yourself.

 

If you find producing a track boring this probably isn't the hobby for you, it takes years of endless dedication to get to anywhere close to where you want to be with it, and you have to be keen to learn and improve in every aspect.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ooooookay man, now I understand. I understand the struggle, I got the same. I am trying to learn how to arrange properly and strictly mechanical way of this is really a bit boring.

 

Thats why I started first to learn how to play live and then how to arrange (I did this also because I am against pre-recorded "live" acts). I am trying to arrange, but in fact I still feel better during live playing even it's not so perfect as arranged and perfectly mixed tracks.

 

This hobby is for you, but you have to change the way you produce. Enlarge the setup, go outside the computer, connect everything with midi or cv/gate, prepare synthesizers, samplers, computer and other and jam. This video is very inspirational for me:

 

 

Go man, do it as live and as human as possible!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh guys :-) you're beautiful.

hugs and love

 

I really like Minilogue. Thank you for the nice insight.

 

I'm stocked with this

The great mystery from Desert Dwellers

And can't believe it when it comes to such a mastering of art

Collectivity by adham shaikh or http://store.blackswansounds.com/album/basswalla

 

That's the kind of vibrations i'am attracted to aim at playing along with

 

 

 

What a ride !

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Personally I don't really like Minilogue music, except ambient part of Animals that is one of my favourite. But I really enjoy their way of creating and I am feeling inspired by them. Once at the Goadupa Festival where Marcus played dj set I had a chance to talk with him (after that I met him at the Ozora Festival), the chat with him settled me down in surness that this is the way to play among the people.

 

That's why I choose two ways: live playing where I am showing something completely different than tracks I am trying to arrange (it's a matter of time that they will be good as I want). Someday I will three type of show: full live act, dj set from my tracks and dj set. And maybe dj set with live adds (I have some idea, but I need to check it). There is plenty of options :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...