having a life

[Echoi]

@Outbound - Indeed, shared accom though, so headphones only, but I can live with that

[elyhess]

yeah breaks can be nice sometimes, family bikerides are fun too lol. Its never good to get stuck in the funk, when it aint a good funk

[Huts]

I spend less time making music now than when I started and my output/quality of tracks is better than ever before. Don't force yourself to sit in the studio for hours on end, go outside, play some video games, watch a t.v series, get a girlfriend (jk that's the real timesink).

[Dub_Fiend]

Its never good to get stuck in the funk, when it aint a good funk

This guy knows about good funk...

[nowaysj]

And the bad funk too.

[bouncingfish]

I think about this stuff a lot dude. I want to tell myself that I'm choosing to produce rather than going out/having fun because I enjoy it more but the truth is I'm not sure what I'd be doing if I wasn't producing, probably wouldn't have a life anyway. So it's not the production that gets in the way of my life - it's my personality, the production is just an excuse for not doing fun stuff that I don't do.

I mean I do have friends, a band, people I talk to like me and I'm pretty social but I just don't call people and hang out, I honestly have max 1-3 people that I could call right now and ask if they wanted to do something without it being weird. SO I'll just hide in my music until... yeah until I dont

[nowaysj]

Nice hike to Castlerock with the fam, and kids friends, and some of their fam. Good times.

[Dub_Fiend]

I think about this stuff a lot dude. I want to tell myself that I'm choosing to produce rather than going out/having fun because I enjoy it more but the truth is I'm not sure what I'd be doing if I wasn't producing, probably wouldn't have a life anyway. So it's not the production that gets in the way of my life - it's my personality, the production is just an excuse for not doing fun stuff that I don't do.

I mean I do have friends, a band, people I talk to like me and I'm pretty social but I just don't call people and hang out, I honestly have max 1-3 people that I could call right now and ask if they wanted to do something without it being weird. SO I'll just hide in my music until... yeah until I dont

This is pretty much me all over.

[bouncingfish]

I'm not the only one then. :/

[Dystinkt]

I think this is where you have to make the distinction between music as a hobby or potential career. if you like doing music as a hobby then your social life is more important. If you're serious about a career from your own music then you have to fuck your social life off to a large degree. I made the choice to do that this year and it paid dividends for me personally. But its completely down to what you want to get out of making music

[legend4ry]

If you're just writing bass music I don't see how you can get that sucked into it?

It honestly takes no longer than 3 hours to finish a track, if that.

My weekday end up like this when I go out:
Wake up at 6 > Work till 5:30 > get home 'bout 7:30/8 > Pub till 10 > Make tunes for 3 hours > Wake up at 6 for work.

Weekends
Wake up at ??? > Work on tunes till ??? > go out at ??? > Sleep at ???


I did go through a stage like Echoi, we actually used to sit on AIM and talk during both our cast away period haha but really, is this your career or your hobby? A hobby is supposed to be an escape from your day to day - do you really want 2 full time jobs? Music can be stressful, the whole 'creative block' thing (which i've recently discovered is a nice word for describing "I haven't learned how to play an instrument proficiently") as well as the whole marketing yourself and pushing social media which is all a part of it now.

If you would rather sit in doors then go have a social life than it says more about your friendships than anything else in my opinion.

I'm just going to be 'that' guy and say that out of what, 68k people who've signed up to this forum probably less than 100 are actually making money from this genre to call it their primary income and most of those don't even make it anymore, if you want to make music a career, master an instrument and become a session musician and work on creating music and not beats and unless you're in your mid-teens, find an actual career. Its really not worth the hassle to chase a dream what'll probably only happen to 1/10,000 of us.

[fragments]

^Appreciate the honesty/true speak here.

[xtcvsmistycold]

It honestly takes no longer than 3 hours to finish a track, if that.

For you.

yeah breaks can be nice sometimes, family bikerides are fun too lol. Its never good to get stuck in the funk, when it aint a good funk

i like some distortion on my breaks coupled with a fairly long reverb tail

programming them can be a bit long though especially if you want switch ups all over the place

[bouncingfish]

yeah breaks can be nice sometimes, family bikerides are fun too lol. Its never good to get stuck in the funk, when it aint a good funk

i like some distortion on my breaks coupled with a fairly long reverb tail

programming them can be a bit long though especially if you want switch ups all over the place[/quote]

ahahahahah

[legend4ry]

It honestly takes no longer than 3 hours to finish a track, if that.

For you.

No this is completely the perfect time to see if your idea is going to work or not If you can't make something happen in 3 hours then you're forcing yourself to finish the song and it won't be as good as one you bang out in a single session, granted that some tunes you need to sit on for a while but honestly in the last 3 years I have only finished about 5 of those tracks what i've 'sat on' everything else has been in a single session lasting no longer than 5/6 hours.



So I just finished a new tune. (3 hours & 3 minutes according to Fruity).

Here is my run down of how I spent time.

--
First hour

First 20 : Played chords till I find something nice.

Next 20 : Built a loop of 64 bars to make the 'first section'. Drums & pad mainly.

Next 20 : Sketched out rough full track. Added some fills and tried some weird drum patterns to make it 'interesting' but the chord progression called for something soft, smooth and quite 'stiff'

--

Second hour

Next 30 : Made bassline, had some trouble with this - I first picked up my bass guitar but I opted for distorting a sine and running it through a bass amp on Amplitube to make it sound like a real bass.

Next 30 : Keep looping track now its about 4 minutes long and see what it needs. Came up with a melody using my harmonica then used a kontakt instrument I had of a better sounding one to replicate the melody

--

Third Hour

Starting to get tired of the track and I usually would just give up and delete it without even saving it but it just had 'something' about it

Next 20 : Saved it and came up with a name - committed myself to finishing the track.
Kept it on loop while I made a cup of tea and had a cigarette.

Last 30/40 minutes : added splashes, altered melody, added FXs and gave everything a rough mix.

---

Fourth hour

Bounced stems and uploaded to soundcloud.



Now I don't -want- to make music all day, I want to go out so this is how you can get over this anti social behavior people have, if it ain't there that day don't force it!

[wub]

Like the process breakdown, good work mate

[JBE]

I really don't understand these posts when I see them. If you wanted to make music and have a life then you'd do both. If making music is not your primary source of income then there is nothing forcing you to actually do it other than yourself.

Basically what you're saying is that you enjoy making music more than hanging out with your friends and family. I really don't see a problem with this to be honest. It's nice to take a break from people for a few days, or months if you so happen to want to go that long.

[Dystinkt]

I get what your saying legend4ry, the best tracks always write themselves! I think the fact I'm a really introverted person (I'm INFP, 4.5 % of the population so we're a rare breed) kind of plays into the whole not being social to make music thing, I enjoy doing things on my own just as much as spending time socialising and going out. And as well I'm 19, so I'm still young enough to at least try chase the dream!

[xtcvsmistycold]

It honestly takes no longer than 3 hours to finish a track, if that.

For you.

No this is completely the perfect time to see if your idea is going to work or not If you can't make something happen in 3 hours then you're forcing yourself to finish the song and it won't be as good as one you bang out in a single session, granted that some tunes you need to sit on for a while but honestly in the last 3 years I have only finished about 5 of those tracks what i've 'sat on' everything else has been in a single session lasting no longer than 5/6 hours.

For you.

Every track I've finished in a single session hasn't been good enough to send out (except one) in my eyes.

All the music I write I write over multiple sessions on different days.

Everyone has a different way of working

[Altron]

I think a lot of producers struggle with this problem. In my case...I live with a girlfriend...so this tends to make things a bit tougher. I think of things a bit differently now. My music production is sort of on a time schedule, and it forces me to really get as much as possible done in a specific slot of time. Devote a schedule to when you work on music...and when you do other things besides music...let inspiration take hold. I have an audio recorder on my phone, and it actually makes it so even when im outside enjoying a nice day, I can pop it out and record sounds from anywhere. I've recorded a cat before and turned it into a lead sound, and i've recorded me banging on a 1950's jail cage in the middle of nowhere, with awesome results. I even record the sound of rain and other natural occurences sometimes! =p Don't be afraid to just record samples when you think something is interesting, it will give you more versatility as far as samples go, and kill 2 birds with one stone while doing something other than audio production.

As for video games, I have a ps4 and an xbox 360...both of which I havent played in about a month. They are fun to play every once in a while, but I truly get addicted to games and it has gotten in the way of my production in the past. Its ok to enjoy games, but if you're spending 100 hours on games, then you are likely neglecting the process of learning production and honing your skills. One thing video games really turned me onto though is the process of scoring a game. For a while now, i've been very interested in working on audio for a video game =]

Just try and live your life, and incorporate what you do with music into your life. One big deal about professionals that work in a recording studios, is that they dont have lives either most of the time. Most recording jobs at nice studios require like 12+ hr overnight shifts. Music production in general is very time consuming...so just make the best of the time when you're not sitting behind some monitors spamming the play button, and let music effect your life as a whole. Also dont forget to take breaks. If i sat for 24 hours behind my DAW, i'd probably end up with a messy layout for my song. I like to limit myself to sessions of 5-6 hours at a time. Maybe go in early and do some work, then take a day or 2 to collect more inspiration before continuing work on the same song. This helps me focus on what needs to be done, rather than taking a song and turning it into something entirely different...though i've had some pretty boring songs that turned into totally different entities before.