A story for the OCD like myself

**mpetersen3** · 12-03-2009, 03:04 PM

When I started getting into/learning about production a few months ago I would start trying to make a track by raw synthesis and didn't want to do what I felt was cheating (using premade plugins). I thought I would sound generic someday if I did this. However I have realized that I spent so much time focused on having my sound perfect that I would spend hours tweaking a single instrument, only to get frustrated and start again another day.

I was lacking the musicality (if that is a word), or a sense of rhythm, because I was shooting to make my tracks technically perfect (ala sound design). I have come to realize that sometimes it is smarter to use plugins to quickly get the general sound that you want and then go back and redo/tweak the track to make it sound more professional.

This came to me after a friend who produces soul influenced hip hop and is a computational media major told me that he was taught to make 15 rough sketches for a design and then select the best one. This method seems to work much better for me, so if you have this problem I hope it helps.

**de_stilj** · 12-03-2009, 04:47 PM

Yes composing straight on piano before you put any complex sound is really good too. You will end up with a better melody and progression.

**wrong chris** · 12-03-2009, 05:02 PM

haha yeah i often get caught up more with programming synth patches than my song structure.

hence 10 years of being a producer and 0 finished songs.

but i'm working on it! :P

**sine143** · 12-03-2009, 06:15 PM

Yeah, as someone whos is just starting to get into digital music production (although abelton is being stupid at the moment), I am finding that I suffer from the same problem.

I have no trouble at all composing/performing fairly well developed songs on acoustic guitar or piano, but when I enter the ableton program, I find myself tweaking knobs for hours (mostly because I'm trying to learn the in's and out's of sound design from the ground up though). I've yet to produce a full track... but I do have some cool synths now!

**kowesav** · 12-04-2009, 08:50 PM

lol i love stories like this, it never ceases to amaze me the reactions of some people xD

**cancunphoto12** · 12-09-2009, 06:10 PM

Thank you very much for clarification.
I bookmarked these info and will be back soon for further discussion. THanks again for sharing!

**Anachroschism** · 12-10-2009, 11:35 PM

Same story here, Ive spent the last year and a half learning ableton and the ins n outs of true audio engineering. Jumped into it thinking itd be like a fancy serato but......negative ghost rider, pattern is full.

Ive spent so much time fiddling and learning and researching that ive actually made jack shizznit. Finally feel like I know enough right now to get going, so thats what im trying.

key word trying. I hate the internet.