There is a life outside these walls that has gone achieved as well: mow the lawn, washing, other employment, house maintenance, shopping, spending time with others outside recording, family, meetings, your own downtime, marriages, etc. No wonder I got burnt out. My studio is a hobby I seldom visit these days.
I have ten songs that I will soon be putting out on an album. Been working on them for over ten years, LOL! In all fairness, I've been learning the software too. But at least three times I've thought the tracks were ready and then gone back after hiatus only to find that they weren't ready after all. That and every time I learn something new about mixing, I have to go back and redo stuff. I am getting close though as they are starting to sound better and better! I should finish by the time I'm 70.
Making music has been fun for me … on my phone … I am so optimistic … in mind I imaginate I’m already a big-time artist. .. discovering your rhythm is productive …
Feels like you just pulled me aside and just gave me the lecture I needed. With two young kids and a super-stressful job, I sort of convinced myself that I needed at least two to three hours to make any real progress on a track. That almost never happens, and as a result, I almost never finish tracks. I love that you speak so clearly to the process but also to the emotional roller coaster that comes with even trying. This helps a lot. Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing this. A perfect example of how we can slowly watch our dreams slip away due to a belief. My whole methodology is to build a life that supports your music. You can be the best "producer" in the world, but if your life isn't set up to support that, then forget about it. This is why I don;t focus on the techniques. There are enough of those out there, on the back of every cereal box... It's the mindset, the beliefs and the willingness to do that courageous thing that I think is most important. Finding a little "me time" in your day I believe is key just to human existence. Constantly at the mercy of ones job, family or what ever is courageous as hell, but don't forget to protect the asset... you! All the best. Let me know if you need more help with your journey.
@@mredrollo Love this. Thanks again. My first step in response to your video is to stop myself every time I'm about to click on a "tips/tutorial" clip and instead, 1) open up my DAW, or 2) listen to a track/artist that I haven't heard before. We learn more from active listening than just about anything else (in music and in life?). I appreciate the goodness you're putting out there! Sending you my best from the States....
These days, we're all making music just for ourselves pretty much anyway, so it doesn't matter. Just enjoy the journey! The act of creation is its own reward.
I appreciate this approach of course. Make art for arts sake. I'm only presenting the idea that people have a choice and that it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks for shairng.
@@mredrollo Once upon a time there was a music industry. Now, the 'industry in the music' is selling production gear/plug-ins and convincing the consumers that they will be heard in any significant amounts so that they buy.
@@RunOfTheHind you nailed it . I was a music Producer , Studio and record Label owner in the late 80’s to the early 2000 Years . With the upcoming downloading and streaming possibilities around 2001 - 2003 I changed my career and now work in the professional AV Industry ( expanding my skills in the IT , Rigging , Lighting and Video Sektion ) . In my personal opinion nowadays it’s only about selling music products ( gear ) . The true and unmatched masters lived in the 80‘s here is why . You had to study and the learning curve to become a true master in audio engineering was hard . Even during my time those who where willing to learn where separated by those who where willing to spent most of there money in hardware and those who where willing to live 24/7 for this job sleeping often in the studio . The good tracks where separated from the bad ones by label owners . A good band received enough money from a label so they had enough time to make good songs . There is so much more to say about those times and why the music and everything is so different from today .
@@Jeckyl72 Right on. I preferred it when we had supersized majors coz at least there was a ground to be under, y'know? Now, everything's 'underground', except for the stuff coming out of the BRIT school straight into the charts - all music stars in the UK are now middle class; no working class noise breaking out anymore; no musical movements coz everything's so splintered and diverse. I loved saving up a few hundred quid with my mates to go into a local studio to make a 4-track "demo" tape, which was actually, to us, as important as doing an album - they were OUR albums - and you had to go out and play shows to sell the tapes. Now, with the internet and DAWs/plug-ins etc, it's so much different. Sure, it 'democratised' music...but it resulted in the peaks being cut down, leaving just a sea of shit. Dive in!
This one really resonates with me. I started my musical journey when I was 13, and now I’m 23 with not a single song to show for it. It’s really starting to weigh on me that a decade has slipped by so fast and that if I don’t change the way I do things, my dreams will always just be dreams.
@@mredrollo We just have to remember we still have time and there’s still hope for us, sometimes when I see people my age or younger doing so much better than me I feel like I missed my window of opportunity. Truth is though most successful people took a long confusing road to get there.
The secret - The only person who knows this and is ashamed of you for it is yourself! 😂 Unless you have been dropping album hints to your friends for years with nothing to show for it… in that case, just shrug and let go. The pain you feel of having nothing to show for all that time invested is 75% you emotionally damaging yourself. Either accept yourself for being slow, and move on to get better, or don’t accept yourself and have that burden hang over you which will complicate any intended progression :)
The problem comes to making something totally original and unique that people want to listen too and most of all getting past the youtube algorithm that blocks everyone.
If you ease up on the idea of success, and branding, you may start sharing music you make. Even if it's not perfect or finished. Make a channel and upload your 16bar loops.
Fair play. Yeah, that's why I started with jam videos. Kind of a non committal why of getting ideas out into the world. I always had the "oh, this is just a jam video, not a REAL track" to fall back on though. Ok for a short time, but I caught myself in my own bullshit and decided to change all that. I'm so glad I did too!
This is so true. I recently drifted a little in all directions with my music which was great for experimenting. However, I also realized that I wasn't satisfied with the inconsistency of the jams knowing that a lot is not release worthy for me. So in the next week focus is again on the genre that I really love to make - and I know a project that is perfect for that! 🤘🏻
I had this similar experience for many years. It was great fun but also not very rewarding in the fact that there wasn’t anything tangible at the end. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but not when it’s the story of your life 😂
I have long bouts of writers block and Ive learned to accept them. But when the spark hits, it hits hard and can't stop working until the flame is out. Great advice and video. Thanks man.
In 1984 we just wrote stuff in our heads and played tunes on any instrument we could use. On the bus, on a bicycle….. singing. Then came MIDI tone generators , more gear and software. It’s a nightmare of wasting time today.. the most productive I got was 10 years ago where I churned out 5 songs on the weekend and got the singers to sing the parts as I sang it out. The musicians just needed some chords and rhythms. No need to commit to a production in a DAW. No software updates, compatibility issues. The most useful thing you can use on the go is a portable audio recorder the size of your palm. Or the one on your mobile phone. Sing out your tunes and tap out the rhythms on the go. Apply some structure to your composition. That’s about it. A violin piece might end up as an electronic music track. I’m now at my computer updating software because I need to do a mixdown. 😵💫 Please just stick to 40 plugins if you can. Dump the excess gear.
By far the best value latte you'll ever have. Buy this man a coffee. Having these bite sized reminders and advice get me making more music, less anxiety, more enjoyable times sitting at the DAW and remind me I'm human and its OK to suck and get shit days too.
I've been making music since I was 15. But I didn't get serious until I was 21. I'm 28 now and I'm just about to hit 1k TH-cam subs. I've been praised and gotten some mild accolades for my craft but I've always had bigger plans than I could truly ever execute. Thank you for this video. While I often feel that I am in over my head, this method is most definitely more sustainable than waiting till the weekend and dumping all my time into ONE track. I appreciate the words of wisdom and encouragement. I was just thinking this morning how my passion is fading, but it's not, it's the fear of the mountain. But if I attack it little by little and not worry about others, I'll get where I want to go.
My man - this one is a doozy. So so many projects on the drive full of creativity and countless hours of commitment yet no home for it to express itself further. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s a calling, isn’t it. It’s not something that can be turned off - even if I were to quit it entirely, I don’t think that feeling would ever go away. A motivating message this week - albeit, a bit depressing - but reality bites and best we hear it from a fellow producer and as transparent as possible. There hasn’t been a week yet where your messages haven’t resonated with me. You’re an important part of my journey now, brother. Please keep at it. 👍. I appreciate you.
I created my best work yet when I stopped making new music and revisited all my old projects and finished off as many as I could. The ideas are all there, they just have to be developed.
so true.. when I was "producing" and releasing music in the early 2010s I was always seeing this "mountain" of work and was putting so many hours in single sessions - but I wasn't really productive in my opinion.. I was so dissapointed by myself that, eventually, I stopped "producing"... after 5-6 years of not making music at all, I started again last year.. and now, most of the days, I work on my tracks for maybe 10-30 minutes - but every day with a fresh pair of ears.. and (almost) every day I can progress on a part of the track I'm working on and actually finsh my tracks... anyway, there often are days I don't do anything.. but still I feel I make a lot more progress this way than I made in my earlier "career"... (I also feel like I learned a lot in the years of not making any music at all, but that's another topic...) ...anyway.., my english sucks a lot, but maybe you understand, what I mean... and like I said in another comment: I really like your philosophy...! (and I still would love to have a drink, ehm, a coffee, with you ;) ) love your channel - keep up the good work!
Boom!! I love this. A clear real world example of the professional mindset. That rest and revisit with "fresh ears" is a fantastic lesson also. Each time I start banging my head on the studio desk I know I need to stop and revisit and almost always find the solution the next time round.
Yeap Ive been doing this this kind of work flow now, at first I did the 10-8 hours and fell off years ago, I came back after falling out of not wanting to put in long hours, but now Ill work on it for an hour max and then come back the next day,I feel that im progressing better and managing my time better as well. It actually works! Good advice 👍 cheers!
This is true. I find consistency over bursts of creativity always wins. What works for me is setting a realistic deadline for a release and work towards it and a little bit every day will get you to that finish line. It can be minor edits sessions to long ones as long as you remain consistent. My upcoming release took 6 months to make but in order to get there took constant work. I will advise after a release take time to reset your mind and creativity and then repeat the cycle. Great video man!!
This is what I search in these days..🖤thanku & this was inspired me..I'm making music but I can't manage the time that how much I work in making music.I think I got a idea now..😊
I just finished watching this (suggested next video from your tr8/push video) and I now realize I've not felt "inspired" in a very long time until now. Thank you. I used to make music all the time, I would churn out albums and ideas and maybe discard as many track as I completed but my output was high. That was 10 years ago and life was very different, I would stay up at night until my girlfriend left for work in the morning then go sleep for a few hours and repeat. Now I'm working full time days with a wife and a kid and a hell of a lot more responsibility, I love this life but your 10 hours studio sessions and making music fit into your life chat really resonates with me. Recently I've been getting an hour or so in each evening but its been mostly trying to establish a workflow as I'm more hardware focused than I was before. After watching this I feel I'm doing it right but I just didn't realize it. Thanks again dude, this really helped me.
Thank you for this. I’ve been struggling for years trying to get myself started recording my half to fully finished songs I’ve written on piano and acoustic. Been years trying to fight through my own resistance
Yes, this is me! 😄 I don't have a single track published and have been playing piano since I was 6 (thanks mom!) and guitar for the latest 6 years. One thing I'd like the add: I don't have anything to show because all I've been playing is other people's stuff. I have my repertoire on piano and guitar, but I have never made even a remix or my own interpretation of someone else's song. I'm basically a copycat player. But lately I have been jotting down some "ideas" on Garageband and I really need to start developing them. One more thing, maybe you've already touched this topic on another video: just get your tracks out there, even if you don't think they're good. I know I'm going to do this, I won't get stuck for an entire month on the same track trying to pursue perfection or discard a week of work because I don't think the track is good. I've been guilty of this years ago and I really regret it. Now I want to give myself a time limit for each track and then that's done and I'll publish it and move on.
At 64, seems I got all the "stuff" to make music , need time to learn it now? After my stroke I became very sensitive to certain phrases. After 3 years of learning how to play guitar again, I have the basics. It has helped me remember of what the doctors said I will NOT be able to do. I am lucky this way. Now to prove it. Thanks for the focus.
I have 315 songs on Spotify as of now, so can't really say there's nothing for people to hear anymore. But it took me a long time to get it out there, and be open about doing music to my family and friends. And look at me now: 30 monthly listeners, and nearly 60 followers on Spotify! 😁
Man, I can't express how true this knowledge is. This video has to viewed by every person starting or having trouble with the process. You hit me really hard with this one. Thank you.
Consistency, is key to success in all things, from weight lifting to music. Focusing on only a few songs at a time helps me and getting to a point where you feel comfortable saying "this is finished." Instead of doing another 20-50 takes, for a 1% improvement.
Thank you so much, this was a great video! I’ve been posting jam session videos for a while and now am trying to make my own music. I still have a hard time focusing and finishing my tracks, but consistency is key. I even started my own music journal to help me keep on track.
Creativity is not like 9-5 work. Have a passion for what you do and mingle with like minded folks to add to your inspiration and motivation. Never stop learning and improving your craft. Success will come. Its not the gear you have but what you do with the gear you have , that will give you the results you want.
You're right. You are the only one who can answer the question. Was there something you would rather have done that was not addressed? Music possesses an inherent reward. You get it right away from the very first note. It can be as simple as one note or complex as a symphony or anything in between. If you have a goal learn to quickly discern dead ends, turn around and correct your path.
FACTS - All of this Also, consider the way we currently break down the large chunks of work ahead, we don't. In the old system of albums, there were record labels. Record labels had a clear job and they created segments of monetized work and task requirements for different people. All of this helped the artist break down the work into manageable pieces. This was the good bit that labels contributed to the business. They actually structured the music industry into something that previously didn't exist. The 20th century model actually made electronic music possible. All of that is gone now and what we have is a kind of lazy "do what you want whenever system." It's a non system. Now people release EP's instead of albums which are 1/3 the track listing of a full length and that's if they're ambitious. Most seem to be on a single track at a time released whenever kind of thing. The lack of ceremony leads to lack of momentum which demotivates most artists and further exacerbates the sense of "why the fuck am I even doing this?" that most of us will feel even in the best of times. It's like we've gone back to music as a folk art. A time before superstars who got rich from it but we're all stuck on the 20th Century business idea that we're all supposed to get rich from it. We want to be a part of a professional class but we've destroyed the profession. I would love to see a discussion around where we're all going from here. Where do we want to go? What are the good ideas? What do we know not to do anymore and why? We should be able to build something cool and useful with all these tools!
That's so spot on! I only started releasing like 4 months ago, but I've been playing music for some time. I could come up with riffs but never actually finish anything because I didn't know how. So I said to myself, the only way you can become better at making music, is by making music. I started as a way to learn how to write and I'm enjoying it so far!
Dear Ed. Just discovered you with a few of your latest videos. I genuinely recognize myself in *every single* struggle that you develop in your videos. Not feeling creative, constantly comparing myself to the amazing talents popping up on the internet everyday, and slowly building up that 16-bar demos graveyard that no one is never gonna hear, etc. Your advices really hit home for me. I have yet to put all these into application but I'd like to say a huge thank you for saying all this. Honestly that's the first time I feel a video is specially catered for me. And seeing all the similar comments gives me hope, I'm not alone fighting these struggles. Take care man, looking forward to your future content!
Probably the best advice I’ve been given in a long time, whether personally or professionally. Once you get lost in the day to day, its hard to find your way back, unless someone calls you out. I literally just stared working on music consistently for an hour every day this week and my whole mindset is different.
Thank you so much ,what you say is exactly what i have discovered in my quest to make great songs, hopefully, and i am working on my third album of songs right now, and you are so right, the times i've changed my mind, thinking a particular song is not really good enough, and then i've changed my mind and put it on one of my albums, and i love it, because i realised after all my doubts that it is good, and thats why i wrote it in the first place, i have sold a few albums, and they've never exactly gone stratopheric, but i don't mind, because i have always believed in them, so, once again thank you.
Just what I needed to hear, as I'm at the beginning of my holidays, trying to figure out how or when I'm gonna spend sometime producing, while I'm going on holiday with family. Thank you very much. I'm buying you a coffee. Cheers to your career. David
The best advice I can give after producing for around 20 years, is learn the difference between something good and something bad that you're doing. Not everything you do is going to be good, no matter how experienced you are. So don't waste effort finishing every song, if it feels like effort to complete, it's not worth completing
Thanks again for these thoughts and insights. I just decided to make a house track. Not one aiming to be a good or fancy one. Simply a track in order to get something done, learn stuff, enjoy fiddling with that gear surrounding me and maybe get some free hugs from serendipity.
pretty awesome video. This is totally me and I tried to wrap my head around this problem of getting stuck in sessions and completely losing focus, organisation, mindset, vibe and also the feeling of time. This time, I reopened a project I started this year and went in three attemps to finish it and I haven't anything since two months or something and today, I took my smartphone, set a timer to 20 minutes and started. I went about 5 minutes over, but it's fine for the first time. I was more focused and was able to pinpoint things, like issues and try new things, with a fresher approach and a fresher mind. I will continue testing this and hopefully get some awesome results. Thank you very much
Very much enjoyed and needed to hear this , earned a subscription today. will gladly purchase you a coffee good sir , again thank you for sharing these constructive words. you sound like the bruce of music shaping the time of music as if it was water fitting into the sliver and cracks of our time consumed days .
Awesome content!!! I can definitely see this type of "simple/concise" videos being a huge relief for such an overestimulating community with 20seg intros, cinematic B rolls of their coffee, promotion sections and random af outros of their 40k+ loaned studio gear. Keep it up !
Everyone’s workflows look different - what are some examples of things you can focus on in half hour bites and feel that progress was made? I’ll throw out some of my ideas to start thinking about it. For me - I might spend that chunk of time with the time warp tool to get a guitar part solid. Or sit back and spend a half hour preparing the general outline of a song, write a few words about what I think it’s going to be about or mean or what the feel of the song should be… if it’s got a clear motivation such as being a dance tune or a thoughtful muse. Or if I have a tune in my head I need to get out, to lay down some recording, maybe do the same part 3 or 4 times over until it’s absolutely solid. Only takes a short time! Or to go through my short video recordings from the past months (this is how I take notes for sound, they go into google photos and I review them periodically) when I have had neat ideas and to finally “process” them, associate them, find a place for them in a song, etc. Or to lay down a rhythm section exactly the way I want it to sound, bass and drums and sub bass, fills, etc. Or to go through journals and pull some lyrics together that are a reflection of what I’ve written about, and compose a verse or chorus from it. To dive into the DAW side, looking at the different automations I can do to get the track sounding really solid - reverb, envelope/eq/filters, pitch, sidechain. To spend a half hour and zero in on a really good synthesizer sound for something I’m working on. I’m just throwing out ideas as I’m putting together my first “real” stuff this month, and the more I can think about what the concrete actions I could do are, the more it becomes easier to make it reality and simply sit down and get to it. I fall into the trap of romanticizing the process where I need to be in the mood to produce, but like I’ve read from Ray Bradbury regarding writing, just sit down and do SOMETHING and it will get easier every day to build the habit. Goals goals goals.
Great video. This is a recipe for success for just about anything you're doing. Can't tell you how many areas in my life where this has applied. From my professional career, to hobbies, to learning about new topics and even transitioning to new careers, it applies to them all.
my tip are: try to finish you track on your first 3 hours of session! looks like madness but actually helps me to never loose that "romantic" feeling about my work, if i spend 2 days making a track, i probably never gonna finish, because for me music works like photography, you need to capture a feeling on a moment, so if you keep trying to achieve that moment again and again (in my case) i think it looses focus. And theres another vantage on doing that: most of the time, i create something that really sucks, but when i get it right from the start (like first 3 elements fit together perfectly), i think the rest of music basically comes together really naturally, so 2 of these 3 hours go on structuring and modeling my track, doing simple things, and not being worried too much about mixing, just keep things simple and the track come together pretty easily. So yeah you can spend some days mixing and mastering your track, but this dont have nothing to do with your composition, mixing and mastering serves to improve your ideia, get a better understanding of what your saying (and you can pay someone to do this part of the process if you dont know how to do it properly btw)
I've heard & Known top Music producers literally take minutes to sketch a track out then can take months to finish that track its the way it is !! Just saying hahah.
I was in the pro Audio business as an equipment designer. I never got into the recording studio stuff but knew many. I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and had an epiphany. Build a cheap micro studio and do some music creation so your comments are very relevant to me. As a non keyboardist (I play Jazz trumpet) I sit down to compose .. .. Then spend the next 2 hours trying to figure out all the controls on the DAW to get it to do something. At the moment I spend more time watching tutorials for Cubase . I'm hoping at some point I will actually have some inspiration left by the time I get to create a grove or pad track.
Consistency is super huge for me! I used to try to make a track every 2 weeks and it worked, i did it but quality wasnt too bad but felt i was being all over the place genre wise without direction. Then it was at a point where i felt burned out and was being super critical of myself, scrapping track after track seeing how it wasnt what "I" envisioned it and not knowing how to get to that point. But now, i go in increments, take my time, learn my tools, the basics of production, mixing and mastering, listen to music i want to make and learn. Release when i know its ready but consistent basis and its made production a lot more fun, enjoyable, making strides in my quality and i dont feel as burnt out like before. Also doing artwork has helped on days where i havent been making music to fill the gap and get creative juices going and then from there, my art inspires the music at times as well. Sorry for my essay, been doing music production for a 1 1/2 years for fun but i love putting effort in what i do. Thankful for my community encouraging me not to be hard on myself and your videos for being a breath of fresh air, appreciate you and keep up the amazing content sir! :)
thanks for this. i come to music from an experimental and art driven place, so my methods are quite different from conventional music production. i am not looking to produce bangers, but rather my goal is to be fully present and focused on the sounds, rhythms and cycles of whatever i am working on, and allow that to be the work.
One of the simplest and best videos I have seen on battling my own inner demons on this particular subject. I relate to this big time and this came along right when I really needed it. Nuff love and respect amigo. Peace x
There was a very strange feature in this case, strange because of its extremely rare occurrence. This man had once been brought to the scaffold in company with several others, and had had the sentence of death by shooting passed upon him for some political crime. Twenty minutes later he had been reprieved and some other punishment substituted; but the interval between the two sentences, twenty minutes, or at least a quarter of an hour, had been passed in the certainty that within a few minutes he must die. I was very anxious to hear him speak of his impressions during that dreadful time, and I several times inquired of him as to what he thought and felt. He remembered everything with the most accurate and extraordinary distinctness, and declared that he would never forget a single iota of the experience. ‘About twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the criminals (of whom there were several). The first three criminals were taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them. Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live. ‘He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions-one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good- bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of them, amalgamated somehow with them. ‘The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea, ‘What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!’ He said that this thought weighed so upon him and became such a terrible burden upon his brain that he could not bear it, and wished they would shoot him quickly and have done with it.’⁵
Again a gem of knowledge from you ! I'm so glad i've found your channel in this particular moment of my musical journey, your experience and wisdom help me a lot, thank you for that my friend.
I watched some videos from The Art of Improvement (YT channel) about flow state and deep work, and honestly it has made a huge difference to the productivity of my sessions. No trying to find the time for an 8hr session, no trying to get past the anxiety and pressure of approaching such a long haul, no internalizing the exhaustion and poor execution that happens by the end of such a marathon. No. Instead, consistently set aside one or two hour chunks at a time, maybe twice per day on a weekend, coming at it with intent and focus. Then, when the energy and focus and good decision-making start to lag, call it a day. Leave some gas in the tank, leave yourself good notes on what still needs to be done next session, and shut it down. Definitely recommend watching those videos and giving it a try.
I seriously needed this, wow! I just fulfilled a lifelong dream of building a studio and acquiring most of the gear I have ever wanted. When I think about actually sitting down to record anything, I don’t.
I really appreciate the video. thank you! I do what you say subconsciously. also because my day is too full to do long sessions. i love making music so much. it is my way out of everyday life. every evening for 30 minutes and i'm making good progress and learning a lot. I watch tutorials during the day when I have time. I wish everyone out there a lot of fun and success with the production!
Your content quality omg, they don't fit your subscriber's amount at all, you deserved more. Everything you talked about music just woke me up everytime, THANK YOU!!!.
This is how i do things, fire things up once while when I have some inspiration. Fiddle around for a bit and see where it takes me. I probably have hours upon hours of recordings and just as many project files on my hard drive and sometimes I go back a couple of years and look through old stuff and ideas, sometimes I continue on them, make something new or nothing at all. Its a journey
The only way this will happen is when we make time, we wont all of a sudden have time. Because we have it right now! It's about making time. Perhaps your job is the most important thing to you atm just keep the time factor in mind. All the best!
There is a life outside these walls that has gone achieved as well: mow the lawn, washing, other employment, house maintenance, shopping, spending time with others outside recording, family, meetings, your own downtime, marriages, etc. No wonder I got burnt out. My studio is a hobby I seldom visit these days.
When music is that important to you, balance is easily achieved. It really just comes down to what you value most. For me, it’s music.
I have ten songs that I will soon be putting out on an album. Been working on them for over ten years, LOL! In all fairness, I've been learning the software too. But at least three times I've thought the tracks were ready and then gone back after hiatus only to find that they weren't ready after all. That and every time I learn something new about mixing, I have to go back and redo stuff. I am getting close though as they are starting to sound better and better! I should finish by the time I'm 70.
Making music has been fun for me … on my phone … I am so optimistic … in mind I imaginate I’m already a big-time artist. .. discovering your rhythm is productive …
so true... and this is the key to succeed with most things, be it exercise, creating a computer game, etc...
Feels like you just pulled me aside and just gave me the lecture I needed. With two young kids and a super-stressful job, I sort of convinced myself that I needed at least two to three hours to make any real progress on a track. That almost never happens, and as a result, I almost never finish tracks. I love that you speak so clearly to the process but also to the emotional roller coaster that comes with even trying. This helps a lot. Thank you!
You describe exactly what I think when watching this video. Job, kid and music...
Thanks so much for sharing this. A perfect example of how we can slowly watch our dreams slip away due to a belief. My whole methodology is to build a life that supports your music. You can be the best "producer" in the world, but if your life isn't set up to support that, then forget about it. This is why I don;t focus on the techniques. There are enough of those out there, on the back of every cereal box... It's the mindset, the beliefs and the willingness to do that courageous thing that I think is most important. Finding a little "me time" in your day I believe is key just to human existence. Constantly at the mercy of ones job, family or what ever is courageous as hell, but don't forget to protect the asset... you! All the best. Let me know if you need more help with your journey.
@@mredrollo Love this. Thanks again. My first step in response to your video is to stop myself every time I'm about to click on a "tips/tutorial" clip and instead, 1) open up my DAW, or 2) listen to a track/artist that I haven't heard before. We learn more from active listening than just about anything else (in music and in life?). I appreciate the goodness you're putting out there! Sending you my best from the States....
You are not alone...I am here with yo...
Well, you're not alone, at least! 🤘
OMG! Same boat here. A mountain of unfinished music on my plate, with too young boys, and a wife. Gotta love the pressure🙂
I followed your advice and finally I m making good progress and hopefully releasing a single soon. Thanks 🙏
So good to hear!
These days, we're all making music just for ourselves pretty much anyway, so it doesn't matter. Just enjoy the journey! The act of creation is its own reward.
I appreciate this approach of course. Make art for arts sake. I'm only presenting the idea that people have a choice and that it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks for shairng.
@@mredrollo Once upon a time there was a music industry. Now, the 'industry in the music' is selling production gear/plug-ins and convincing the consumers that they will be heard in any significant amounts so that they buy.
@@RunOfTheHind exactly
@@RunOfTheHind you nailed it . I was a music Producer , Studio and record Label owner in the late 80’s to the early 2000 Years . With the upcoming downloading and streaming possibilities around 2001 - 2003 I changed my career and now work in the professional AV Industry ( expanding my skills in the IT , Rigging , Lighting and Video Sektion ) . In my personal opinion nowadays it’s only about selling music products ( gear ) . The true and unmatched masters lived in the 80‘s here is why . You had to study and the learning curve to become a true master in audio engineering was hard . Even during my time those who where willing to learn where separated by those who where willing to spent most of there money in hardware and those who where willing to live 24/7 for this job sleeping often in the studio . The good tracks where separated from the bad ones by label owners . A good band received enough money from a label so they had enough time to make good songs . There is so much more to say about those times and why the music and everything is so different from today .
@@Jeckyl72 Right on. I preferred it when we had supersized majors coz at least there was a ground to be under, y'know? Now, everything's 'underground', except for the stuff coming out of the BRIT school straight into the charts - all music stars in the UK are now middle class; no working class noise breaking out anymore; no musical movements coz everything's so splintered and diverse. I loved saving up a few hundred quid with my mates to go into a local studio to make a 4-track "demo" tape, which was actually, to us, as important as doing an album - they were OUR albums - and you had to go out and play shows to sell the tapes. Now, with the internet and DAWs/plug-ins etc, it's so much different. Sure, it 'democratised' music...but it resulted in the peaks being cut down, leaving just a sea of shit. Dive in!
This one really resonates with me. I started my musical journey when I was 13, and now I’m 23 with not a single song to show for it. It’s really starting to weigh on me that a decade has slipped by so fast and that if I don’t change the way I do things, my dreams will always just be dreams.
Maybe you can rest easy knowing I only figured this one out at 35 😂
@@mredrollo We just have to remember we still have time and there’s still hope for us, sometimes when I see people my age or younger doing so much better than me I feel like I missed my window of opportunity. Truth is though most successful people took a long confusing road to get there.
I love music. I need nothing more. I am an artist. I’m trying to break down my walls to be free and serene
I’m 50 and I’m making dance music! Never too late to get started 👌😀
The secret - The only person who knows this and is ashamed of you for it is yourself! 😂
Unless you have been dropping album hints to your friends for years with nothing to show for it… in that case, just shrug and let go. The pain you feel of having nothing to show for all that time invested is 75% you emotionally damaging yourself. Either accept yourself for being slow, and move on to get better, or don’t accept yourself and have that burden hang over you which will complicate any intended progression :)
The problem comes to making something totally original and unique that people want to listen too and most of all getting past the youtube algorithm that blocks everyone.
If you ease up on the idea of success, and branding, you may start sharing music you make. Even if it's not perfect or finished. Make a channel and upload your 16bar loops.
Fair play. Yeah, that's why I started with jam videos. Kind of a non committal why of getting ideas out into the world. I always had the "oh, this is just a jam video, not a REAL track" to fall back on though. Ok for a short time, but I caught myself in my own bullshit and decided to change all that. I'm so glad I did too!
This is for me 😔
Thank you
the music world is all scam feeding ego anyway like everything esle the darkness is running the show in the music business
thats where i am! im working on my sound and work flow, and ive been taking baby steps :)
@@brennygamblinobeats See you at the top
The best music making is when the character drives the ship, and only a series of reactions happen, rather than decisions being made.
This is so true. I recently drifted a little in all directions with my music which was great for experimenting. However, I also realized that I wasn't satisfied with the inconsistency of the jams knowing that a lot is not release worthy for me. So in the next week focus is again on the genre that I really love to make - and I know a project that is perfect for that! 🤘🏻
Hi there 😬
@@sebastiansalt hey Sebastian 👋🏻
I had this similar experience for many years. It was great fun but also not very rewarding in the fact that there wasn’t anything tangible at the end. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but not when it’s the story of your life 😂
@@mredrollo so true 😁 the focus now is clear!
I have long bouts of writers block and Ive learned to accept them. But when the spark hits, it hits hard and can't stop working until the flame is out. Great advice and video. Thanks man.
This is so true. One brick at a time. 💪
Loving the Minilogue XD front and right. ❤
In 1984 we just wrote stuff in our heads and played tunes on any instrument we could use. On the bus, on a bicycle….. singing. Then came MIDI tone generators , more gear and software. It’s a nightmare of wasting time today.. the most productive I got was 10 years ago where I churned out 5 songs on the weekend and got the singers to sing the parts as I sang it out. The musicians just needed some chords and rhythms. No need to commit to a production in a DAW. No software updates, compatibility issues. The most useful thing you can use on the go is a portable audio recorder the size of your palm. Or the one on your mobile phone. Sing out your tunes and tap out the rhythms on the go. Apply some structure to your composition. That’s about it. A violin piece might end up as an electronic music track. I’m now at my computer updating software because I need to do a mixdown. 😵💫 Please just stick to 40 plugins if you can. Dump the excess gear.
I really felt this one bro, beat block/writers block is frustrating
By far the best value latte you'll ever have. Buy this man a coffee. Having these bite sized reminders and advice get me making more music, less anxiety, more enjoyable times sitting at the DAW and remind me I'm human and its OK to suck and get shit days too.
Always a pleasure my friend! ❤️
absolutely amazing! its like the conversation that's been going on in my head for 17 years, so so fucking helpful.
I've been making music since I was 15. But I didn't get serious until I was 21. I'm 28 now and I'm just about to hit 1k TH-cam subs. I've been praised and gotten some mild accolades for my craft but I've always had bigger plans than I could truly ever execute. Thank you for this video. While I often feel that I am in over my head, this method is most definitely more sustainable than waiting till the weekend and dumping all my time into ONE track. I appreciate the words of wisdom and encouragement. I was just thinking this morning how my passion is fading, but it's not, it's the fear of the mountain. But if I attack it little by little and not worry about others, I'll get where I want to go.
My man - this one is a doozy. So so many projects on the drive full of creativity and countless hours of commitment yet no home for it to express itself further. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s a calling, isn’t it. It’s not something that can be turned off - even if I were to quit it entirely, I don’t think that feeling would ever go away. A motivating message this week - albeit, a bit depressing - but reality bites and best we hear it from a fellow producer and as transparent as possible. There hasn’t been a week yet where your messages haven’t resonated with me. You’re an important part of my journey now, brother. Please keep at it. 👍. I appreciate you.
I created my best work yet when I stopped making new music and revisited all my old projects and finished off as many as I could. The ideas are all there, they just have to be developed.
so true.. when I was "producing" and releasing music in the early 2010s I was always seeing this "mountain" of work and was putting so many hours in single sessions - but I wasn't really productive in my opinion.. I was so dissapointed by myself that, eventually, I stopped "producing"... after 5-6 years of not making music at all, I started again last year.. and now, most of the days, I work on my tracks for maybe 10-30 minutes - but every day with a fresh pair of ears.. and (almost) every day I can progress on a part of the track I'm working on and actually finsh my tracks...
anyway, there often are days I don't do anything.. but still I feel I make a lot more progress this way than I made in my earlier "career"... (I also feel like I learned a lot in the years of not making any music at all, but that's another topic...)
...anyway.., my english sucks a lot, but maybe you understand, what I mean... and like I said in another comment: I really like your philosophy...! (and I still would love to have a drink, ehm, a coffee, with you ;) )
love your channel - keep up the good work!
Boom!! I love this. A clear real world example of the professional mindset. That rest and revisit with "fresh ears" is a fantastic lesson also. Each time I start banging my head on the studio desk I know I need to stop and revisit and almost always find the solution the next time round.
Yeap Ive been doing this this kind of work flow now, at first I did the 10-8 hours and fell off years ago, I came back after falling out of not wanting to put in long hours, but now Ill work on it for an hour max and then come back the next day,I feel that im progressing better and managing my time better as well.
It actually works! Good advice 👍 cheers!
This is true. I find consistency over bursts of creativity always wins. What works for me is setting a realistic deadline for a release and work towards it and a little bit every day will get you to that finish line. It can be minor edits sessions to long ones as long as you remain consistent. My upcoming release took 6 months to make but in order to get there took constant work. I will advise after a release take time to reset your mind and creativity and then repeat the cycle. Great video man!!
Great work ethic! Realistic goals are super helpful!
One of the most insightful producer channels on TH-cam, highly needed.
This is what I search in these days..🖤thanku & this was inspired me..I'm making music but I can't manage the time that how much I work in making music.I think I got a idea now..😊
Wow now that is a really great heart to heart. So true. I'll watch this video often to keep inspired. Thank you !
I just finished watching this (suggested next video from your tr8/push video) and I now realize I've not felt "inspired" in a very long time until now. Thank you. I used to make music all the time, I would churn out albums and ideas and maybe discard as many track as I completed but my output was high. That was 10 years ago and life was very different, I would stay up at night until my girlfriend left for work in the morning then go sleep for a few hours and repeat. Now I'm working full time days with a wife and a kid and a hell of a lot more responsibility, I love this life but your 10 hours studio sessions and making music fit into your life chat really resonates with me. Recently I've been getting an hour or so in each evening but its been mostly trying to establish a workflow as I'm more hardware focused than I was before. After watching this I feel I'm doing it right but I just didn't realize it. Thanks again dude, this really helped me.
So glad to hear it!!
Reached for the like-button 30 seconds in.. that intro was spot on what I’ve been feeling.. great video, great advice! Thank you.
Thanks so much!
Thank you for this. I’ve been struggling for years trying to get myself started recording my half to fully finished songs I’ve written on piano and acoustic. Been years trying to fight through my own resistance
Thank you for this ! I needed this!!
If I learned one thing in college it's that consistency is key and this was a nice reminder. Thank you for taking me back to that lesson.
Yes, this is me! 😄
I don't have a single track published and have been playing piano since I was 6 (thanks mom!) and guitar for the latest 6 years.
One thing I'd like the add: I don't have anything to show because all I've been playing is other people's stuff.
I have my repertoire on piano and guitar, but I have never made even a remix or my own interpretation of someone else's song.
I'm basically a copycat player.
But lately I have been jotting down some "ideas" on Garageband and I really need to start developing them.
One more thing, maybe you've already touched this topic on another video: just get your tracks out there, even if you don't think they're good. I know I'm going to do this, I won't get stuck for an entire month on the same track trying to pursue perfection or discard a week of work because I don't think the track is good.
I've been guilty of this years ago and I really regret it.
Now I want to give myself a time limit for each track and then that's done and I'll publish it and move on.
Where have you been? We needed your videos for soooo long!!!!
So grateful for your channel! Keep it up !
At 64, seems I got all the "stuff" to make music , need time to learn it now? After my stroke I became very sensitive to certain phrases. After 3 years of learning how to play guitar again, I have the basics. It has helped me remember of what the doctors said I will NOT be able to do. I am lucky this way. Now to prove it. Thanks for the focus.
Keep it up mate. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this super relatable video - refreshing AF!
Thanks for sharing!
I have 315 songs on Spotify as of now, so can't really say there's nothing for people to hear anymore. But it took me a long time to get it out there, and be open about doing music to my family and friends. And look at me now: 30 monthly listeners, and nearly 60 followers on Spotify! 😁
You can do it. Make yourself proud!
Thanks for the pep talk Bro. I felt like you were talking to me directly!
Glad I could help
Man, I can't express how true this knowledge is. This video has to viewed by every person starting or having trouble with the process. You hit me really hard with this one. Thank you.
Consistency, is key to success in all things, from weight lifting to music. Focusing on only a few songs at a time helps me and getting to a point where you feel comfortable saying "this is finished." Instead of doing another 20-50 takes, for a 1% improvement.
Thank you so much, this was a great video! I’ve been posting jam session videos for a while and now am trying to make my own music. I still have a hard time focusing and finishing my tracks, but consistency is key. I even started my own music journal to help me keep on track.
You hit me with this one! Thank you so much for great content 💯
So good to hear!
Creativity is not like 9-5 work. Have a passion for what you do and mingle with like minded folks to add to your inspiration and motivation. Never stop learning and improving your craft. Success will come. Its not the gear you have but what you do with the gear you have , that will give you the results you want.
Something like that yes 😉
Thank You for motivation ! ❤
You're right. You are the only one who can answer the question. Was there something you would rather have done that was not addressed? Music possesses an inherent reward. You get it right away from the very first note. It can be as simple as one note or complex as a symphony or anything in between. If you have a goal learn to quickly discern dead ends, turn around and correct your path.
I needed to hear this. Thank you. Today. I start today.
FACTS - All of this
Also, consider the way we currently break down the large chunks of work ahead, we don't. In the old system of albums, there were record labels. Record labels had a clear job and they created segments of monetized work and task requirements for different people. All of this helped the artist break down the work into manageable pieces. This was the good bit that labels contributed to the business. They actually structured the music industry into something that previously didn't exist. The 20th century model actually made electronic music possible.
All of that is gone now and what we have is a kind of lazy "do what you want whenever system." It's a non system. Now people release EP's instead of albums which are 1/3 the track listing of a full length and that's if they're ambitious. Most seem to be on a single track at a time released whenever kind of thing. The lack of ceremony leads to lack of momentum which demotivates most artists and further exacerbates the sense of "why the fuck am I even doing this?" that most of us will feel even in the best of times. It's like we've gone back to music as a folk art. A time before superstars who got rich from it but we're all stuck on the 20th Century business idea that we're all supposed to get rich from it. We want to be a part of a professional class but we've destroyed the profession.
I would love to see a discussion around where we're all going from here. Where do we want to go? What are the good ideas? What do we know not to do anymore and why? We should be able to build something cool and useful with all these tools!
This has been life changing… Thank you 🙏
That's so spot on! I only started releasing like 4 months ago, but I've been playing music for some time. I could come up with riffs but never actually finish anything because I didn't know how. So I said to myself, the only way you can become better at making music, is by making music. I started as a way to learn how to write and I'm enjoying it so far!
Great to hear!
I definitely relate to this video. Thanks for the advice!
Dear Ed. Just discovered you with a few of your latest videos. I genuinely recognize myself in *every single* struggle that you develop in your videos. Not feeling creative, constantly comparing myself to the amazing talents popping up on the internet everyday, and slowly building up that 16-bar demos graveyard that no one is never gonna hear, etc. Your advices really hit home for me. I have yet to put all these into application but I'd like to say a huge thank you for saying all this. Honestly that's the first time I feel a video is specially catered for me. And seeing all the similar comments gives me hope, I'm not alone fighting these struggles. Take care man, looking forward to your future content!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks!
I really appreciate it! thank yoU!
Probably the best advice I’ve been given in a long time, whether personally or professionally. Once you get lost in the day to day, its hard to find your way back, unless someone calls you out. I literally just stared working on music consistently for an hour every day this week and my whole mindset is different.
This is a great example of a shift of attitude towards music. Sometimes the simplest of actions can make the biggest gains. Awesome stuff!
Thank you so much ,what you say is exactly what i have discovered in my quest to make great songs, hopefully, and i am working on my third album of songs right now, and you are so right, the times i've changed my mind, thinking a particular song is not really good enough, and then i've changed my mind and put it on one of my albums, and i love it, because i realised after all my doubts that it is good, and thats why i wrote it in the first place, i have sold a few albums, and they've never exactly gone stratopheric, but i don't mind, because i have always believed in them, so, once again thank you.
Anytime 🙂
Just what I needed to hear, as I'm at the beginning of my holidays, trying to figure out how or when I'm gonna spend sometime producing, while I'm going on holiday with family. Thank you very much. I'm buying you a coffee. Cheers to your career. David
The best advice I can give after producing for around 20 years, is learn the difference between something good and something bad that you're doing. Not everything you do is going to be good, no matter how experienced you are.
So don't waste effort finishing every song, if it feels like effort to complete, it's not worth completing
I wish I could, but the goals I set myself make me impatient :/
Very lucid and clear thoughts! Subscribed! With the notification bell!
Thanks!
I needed to hear this. Thank you. Keep making content.
You got it!
Thanks again for these thoughts and insights. I just decided to make a house track. Not one aiming to be a good or fancy one. Simply a track in order to get something done, learn stuff, enjoy fiddling with that gear surrounding me and maybe get some free hugs from serendipity.
Subscribed. This is the advice and guidance that gave me that aha moment. Thank you so much! ❤️
pretty awesome video. This is totally me and I tried to wrap my head around this problem of getting stuck in sessions and completely losing focus, organisation, mindset, vibe and also the feeling of time. This time, I reopened a project I started this year and went in three attemps to finish it and I haven't anything since two months or something and today, I took my smartphone, set a timer to 20 minutes and started. I went about 5 minutes over, but it's fine for the first time. I was more focused and was able to pinpoint things, like issues and try new things, with a fresher approach and a fresher mind. I will continue testing this and hopefully get some awesome results. Thank you very much
Very much enjoyed and needed to hear this , earned a subscription today. will gladly purchase you a coffee good sir , again thank you for sharing these constructive words. you sound like the bruce of music shaping the time of music as if it was water fitting into the sliver and cracks of our time consumed days .
Awesome, thank you!
Awesome content!!! I can definitely see this type of "simple/concise" videos being a huge relief for such an overestimulating community with 20seg intros, cinematic B rolls of their coffee, promotion sections and random af outros of their 40k+ loaned studio gear.
Keep it up !
Hahaha summed up beautifully.
Everyone’s workflows look different - what are some examples of things you can focus on in half hour bites and feel that progress was made?
I’ll throw out some of my ideas to start thinking about it.
For me - I might spend that chunk of time with the time warp tool to get a guitar part solid.
Or sit back and spend a half hour preparing the general outline of a song, write a few words about what I think it’s going to be about or mean or what the feel of the song should be… if it’s got a clear motivation such as being a dance tune or a thoughtful muse.
Or if I have a tune in my head I need to get out, to lay down some recording, maybe do the same part 3 or 4 times over until it’s absolutely solid. Only takes a short time!
Or to go through my short video recordings from the past months (this is how I take notes for sound, they go into google photos and I review them periodically) when I have had neat ideas and to finally “process” them, associate them, find a place for them in a song, etc.
Or to lay down a rhythm section exactly the way I want it to sound, bass and drums and sub bass, fills, etc.
Or to go through journals and pull some lyrics together that are a reflection of what I’ve written about, and compose a verse or chorus from it.
To dive into the DAW side, looking at the different automations I can do to get the track sounding really solid - reverb, envelope/eq/filters, pitch, sidechain.
To spend a half hour and zero in on a really good synthesizer sound for something I’m working on.
I’m just throwing out ideas as I’m putting together my first “real” stuff this month, and the more I can think about what the concrete actions I could do are, the more it becomes easier to make it reality and simply sit down and get to it.
I fall into the trap of romanticizing the process where I need to be in the mood to produce, but like I’ve read from Ray Bradbury regarding writing, just sit down and do SOMETHING and it will get easier every day to build the habit.
Goals goals goals.
Thanks for sharing!
Great video. This is a recipe for success for just about anything you're doing. Can't tell you how many areas in my life where this has applied. From my professional career, to hobbies, to learning about new topics and even transitioning to new careers, it applies to them all.
my tip are: try to finish you track on your first 3 hours of session! looks like madness but actually helps me to never loose that "romantic" feeling about my work, if i spend 2 days making a track, i probably never gonna finish, because for me music works like photography, you need to capture a feeling on a moment, so if you keep trying to achieve that moment again and again (in my case) i think it looses focus.
And theres another vantage on doing that: most of the time, i create something that really sucks, but when i get it right from the start (like first 3 elements fit together perfectly), i think the rest of music basically comes together really naturally, so 2 of these 3 hours go on structuring and modeling my track, doing simple things, and not being worried too much about mixing, just keep things simple and the track come together pretty easily.
So yeah you can spend some days mixing and mastering your track, but this dont have nothing to do with your composition, mixing and mastering serves to improve your ideia, get a better understanding of what your saying (and you can pay someone to do this part of the process if you dont know how to do it properly btw)
I've heard & Known top Music producers literally take minutes to sketch a track out then can take months to finish that track its the way it is !! Just saying hahah.
Like the 2 - 3 hour idea 💡
Thanks for sharing!
The intro music is so good. I've just added it to my Spotify playlist.
Thanks so much!
I was in the pro Audio business as an equipment designer. I never got into the recording studio stuff but knew many. I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and had an epiphany. Build a cheap micro studio and do some music creation so your comments are very relevant to me. As a non keyboardist (I play Jazz trumpet) I sit down to compose ..
.. Then spend the next 2 hours trying to figure out all the controls on the DAW to get it to do something. At the moment I spend more time watching tutorials for Cubase . I'm hoping at some point I will actually have some inspiration left by the time I get to create a grove or pad track.
You must know my man Cee Lopez then 😉
Subbed because of this video. Lucky to be in the position where I can work on music 2-3hs a day pretty much every day. Helps learning new gear!
That is very fortunate! Thanks for the sub
@@mredrollo thanks for the content!
Consistency is super huge for me! I used to try to make a track every 2 weeks and it worked, i did it but quality wasnt too bad but felt i was being all over the place genre wise without direction.
Then it was at a point where i felt burned out and was being super critical of myself, scrapping track after track seeing how it wasnt what "I" envisioned it and not knowing how to get to that point.
But now, i go in increments, take my time, learn my tools, the basics of production, mixing and mastering, listen to music i want to make and learn. Release when i know its ready but consistent basis and its made production a lot more fun, enjoyable, making strides in my quality and i dont feel as burnt out like before.
Also doing artwork has helped on days where i havent been making music to fill the gap and get creative juices going and then from there, my art inspires the music at times as well.
Sorry for my essay, been doing music production for a 1 1/2 years for fun but i love putting effort in what i do.
Thankful for my community encouraging me not to be hard on myself and your videos for being a breath of fresh air, appreciate you and keep up the amazing content sir! :)
This is a beautiful journey. I love that you spend your "off days" doing artwork... such a good way to keep your creative mind fresh!
can relate to this hard lol
Healing speech😊
I think most artists are trying to reach a point in their careers where the music they create consistently satiates their own internal tastes.
thanks for this. i come to music from an experimental and art driven place, so my methods are quite different from conventional music production. i am not looking to produce bangers, but rather my goal is to be fully present and focused on the sounds, rhythms and cycles of whatever i am working on, and allow that to be the work.
Thanks for sharing!
One of the simplest and best videos I have seen on battling my own inner demons on this particular subject. I relate to this big time and this came along right when I really needed it. Nuff love and respect amigo. Peace x
So happy to hear this. Thank you for sharing!
Ha, yes. True words and thoughts!
I know right!
There was a very strange feature in this case, strange because of its extremely rare occurrence. This man had once been brought to the scaffold in company with several others, and had had the sentence of death by shooting passed upon him for some political crime. Twenty minutes later he had been reprieved and some other punishment substituted; but the interval between the two sentences, twenty minutes, or at least a quarter of an hour, had been passed in the certainty that within a few minutes he must die. I was very anxious to hear him speak of his impressions during that dreadful time, and I several times inquired of him as to what he thought and felt. He remembered everything with the most accurate and extraordinary distinctness, and declared that he would never forget a single iota of the experience. ‘About twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the criminals (of whom there were several). The first three criminals were taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them. Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live. ‘He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions-one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good- bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once
for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of them, amalgamated somehow with them. ‘The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea, ‘What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!’ He said that this thought weighed so upon him and became such a terrible burden upon his brain that he could not bear it, and wished they would shoot him quickly and have done with it.’⁵
Again a gem of knowledge from you !
I'm so glad i've found your channel in this particular moment of my musical journey, your experience and wisdom help me a lot, thank you for that my friend.
Welcome aboard!
I watched some videos from The Art of Improvement (YT channel) about flow state and deep work, and honestly it has made a huge difference to the productivity of my sessions. No trying to find the time for an 8hr session, no trying to get past the anxiety and pressure of approaching such a long haul, no internalizing the exhaustion and poor execution that happens by the end of such a marathon. No. Instead, consistently set aside one or two hour chunks at a time, maybe twice per day on a weekend, coming at it with intent and focus. Then, when the energy and focus and good decision-making start to lag, call it a day. Leave some gas in the tank, leave yourself good notes on what still needs to be done next session, and shut it down. Definitely recommend watching those videos and giving it a try.
I seriously needed this, wow! I just fulfilled a lifelong dream of building a studio and acquiring most of the gear I have ever wanted. When I think about actually sitting down to record anything, I don’t.
I’ve been there, don’t worry!
Can relate, the biggest one for me is lack of motivation to learning something new instead of playing around with what you know.
Breaking up sessions into sound design/sample making and then another session on production+ arrangements also works pretty good
Nice!
Thank you so much! Just that
Anytime 😊
Thanks for the advice mate
THANK YOU !!! Needed This !
thank you ❤from aussie melb bass player 👍
I really appreciate the video. thank you! I do what you say subconsciously. also because my day is too full to do long sessions. i love making music so much. it is my way out of everyday life. every evening for 30 minutes and i'm making good progress and learning a lot. I watch tutorials during the day when I have time. I wish everyone out there a lot of fun and success with the production!
I love hearing these real world examples rather than just concepts. Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re very good. It was a good subscription this one. Cheers!
Loving the tough love many need to hear. Keep going!
Thank you!
Your content quality omg, they don't fit your subscriber's amount at all, you deserved more.
Everything you talked about music just woke me up everytime, THANK YOU!!!.
Thanks so much!
definitely needed to hear this rn!
Thanks a lot for this video! That's exactly the thing i needed to hear to start progressing more in music 🙌🏻
This is how i do things, fire things up once while when I have some inspiration. Fiddle around for a bit and see where it takes me.
I probably have hours upon hours of recordings and just as many project files on my hard drive and sometimes I go back a couple of years and look through old stuff and ideas, sometimes I continue on them, make something new or nothing at all.
Its a journey
Thank you for this. 🙂
Drum machines/synths/samplers/mixers and amps, All Boxed away Due to being a 24/7 carer😭 Still keeping them for when i'm able.
The only way this will happen is when we make time, we wont all of a sudden have time. Because we have it right now! It's about making time. Perhaps your job is the most important thing to you atm just keep the time factor in mind. All the best!
Your voice is awesome!🎶
Thanks!
You nailed it .
Thanks so much mate!
‘Inspiration will come, but it must find you working first’.
Thanks Picasso 😉
Thanks mate. Really valuable message. Perfect timing
Glad to hear it!