This is now getting to me...

[jbird22]

Its all practice at the end of the day. Sorry 4 the pun but:
"practice makes perfect"

[kidlogic]

A producer I look up to said this to my girlfriend recently, as she was just starting to learn Ableton... "...at some point you have to ask yourself, 'are you a songwriter or a sound designer?'"

I find this comment confusing...

I believe with DAW's being what they are these days that what he's said are one and the same, especially in EDM.

I produce a lot of patches from scratch, but don't consider myself a 'Sound Designer' as such. I just have the means to design sounds when I produce and if I feel like it.

I can see what you mean, and how you would take it as confusing from that mindset. What I took from it though is are you making music to make a bunch of pretty sounds that sound good together, or are you trying to write a tune?

No reason you cant be both, tbf... but are you writing tunes because you like messing with synths or are you attempting to write something that sticks in peoples heads long after they heard it?

Like I was saying earlier... you can always go back and change sounds, or re-shape them to make them fit in the tune better, but for me, focusing on that too early in the process hinders my ablity to actually finish the tune, as I get too focused on one minute part and lose focus on the whole.

You can whistle a great melody, but can you whistle a great patch?

[tekton naggar]

i'd had a massive block for months until recently, then i started dicking about with patches i normal wouldn't use just fucking them up randomly hammering out freestyled riffs and then rediting the hell out of what i had, never being afraid to bin 90% of whats there and rebuild on top of whats left.

working on different tempos can help as well


i started a whole different direction with this method recently that i'm really enjoying.

[s & m]

I've been working pretty hard on getting my production skills up(ARRAGEMENT+MIXING=FINISHING SONGS) in the context of dubstep, and just kinda freaked out. It was too much. Too much pressure. I was feeling like I didn't want to sit down at my daw which is the dead opposite of how I normally feel.


Don't even think about 'innovating', making new voices or new sounds or new beat structures... forget about it for awhile.

Do some easy shit for a change, and have some fun.

Yeah man Im kind of in the same mode you were in. I've been trying waay to hard to make a "song" or have it evolve and flow like dubstep tracks I listen to, and it has really messed up my thinking when it comes to just sitting on the comp and having some fun. I'll try what you did and just have some fun because after all thats why I do it; it's fun. And listening back on the stuff I made 2 years ago, and listening to what I have now i'm miles ahead so i'm headed in the right direction!

[mycota]

well...it cant hurt to set your screen saver time for <5 minutes, and then look at this bad boy while your letting that loop

http://electricsheep.org/

[darkartois]

happens to the best of us, try smoking some weed

hit the nail on the head. have a toke and watch it all come to life

[connection]

So much good advice here people. Thanks!

I stayed up late into the night just working on creating random patches. Bass, pads, hits, atmospheres, and i got some nice basic patches to start working with at some point.

I'm going to limit myself to writing with just these sounds and try and evolve what I've got by trying to write in a different way.

I'm also going to try a new DAW. Think it'll give me a new lease of life too. Thanks again everyone. Much appreciation to the DSF crew!