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Finishing tracks
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2019 6:31 pm
by brosk.ghostie
Ever since I bought a looper pedal I’ve been stuck in “loop mode”. I just layer and layer until I get bored. Even with the OP-1, I tend to stack and stack until I realize I have no idea where to go next. I’ve become a master of layering and collecting song ideas that never get completed. Any advice for correcting this problem??
Re: Finishing tracks
Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 9:17 pm
by KORTIKO
I think that only thing that helped me overcome that problem were deadlines. I am lucky enough to produce music for a living and that translates to music i make just out of pure love. Maybe you should set your goal to release EP or album at one specific date and start working. Work on one song until you finish it. That’s how i worked on “Decomposition”. No jumping from one song to another. Maybe that sounds too conservative, but it helped me.
Re: Finishing tracks
Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 11:06 am
by brosk.ghostie
That’s something I’ve actually been told before. Deadlines could certainly help. I think my issue with deadlines has always been that there is no REAL deadline when I’m making music solely for myself. I’ve definitely had deadlines for song submissions before, so that’s helped in the past. I guess the secret is just to take yourself seriously if you set one up with no real punishment if the deadline isn’t met. Thanks for the advice!
Re: Finishing tracks
Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:09 pm
by goodNightnoBody
I second the deadlines idea. The punishment is never finishing the track
For me, there's also always the secret deadline of having to beat my depression out the door. If it's ever going to happen, I have to push a project out into the world before I start listening to the part of my brain that's always going "this sucks and even if it doesn't nobody cares"
Also, with looping it can be really helpful to go into it with kind of a roadmap in mind -- like, maybe it's still improvisational as far as actual notes you play, but you have a general idea of a beginning, middle and end in mind. The end especially, cuz with looping you could literally just keep going forever.
For me that looks something like: okay, I'm going to develop this texture but try not to do it for more than two minutes, then guitar comes in, then synth and then we fade out
Re: Finishing tracks
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:43 pm
by Flunked Outta NASA
Definitely agree on setting a reason and a deadline to finish things. Maybe it’s a four track EP to soundcloud or Or band camp by the end of the year. Something achievable. Telling someone you’re going to do it also adds some pressure in a good way.
Specifically with looping, I did this too. I’d get into a looping session and find something cool, then ruin it, then find something else cool, but ultimately loose it all at the end of the jam. Now when I’m jamming or looping I run my little mixer straight into my DAW and just record two stereo tracks of whatever I’m doing. Then I save them and come back to them. That way if I have 16 bars of good stuff in there I can cut it into a new track and use it as the foundation for a proper track later on. Some times I use the actual loop I played, other times I re-record it properly. It’s a really good way to capture an idea you had on the fly, and use it as the building block for something more substantial.
Re: Finishing tracks
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:17 pm
by brosk.ghostie
Flunked Outta NASA wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:43 pm
Definitely agree on setting a reason and a deadline to finish things. Maybe it’s a four track EP to soundcloud or Or band camp by the end of the year. Something achievable. Telling someone you’re going to do it also adds some pressure in a good way.
Specifically with looping, I did this too. I’d get into a looping session and find something cool, then ruin it, then find something else cool, but ultimately loose it all at the end of the jam. Now when I’m jamming or looping I run my little mixer straight into my DAW and just record two stereo tracks of whatever I’m doing. Then I save them and come back to them. That way if I have 16 bars of good stuff in there I can cut it into a new track and use it as the foundation for a proper track later on. Some times I use the actual loop I played, other times I re-record it properly. It’s a really good way to capture an idea you had on the fly, and use it as the building block for something more substantial.
I definitely need to get into the habit of always recording, no matter what. That’s a very good point! Thank you!!