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I complete about 5% of projects I have. I have hundreds unfinished.
But its not getting stuck. There's a huge misconception being created, worsened by social media, that artists just sit down, write a piece of music, then release it, then sit down, write another, then release it, nailing everything as they go. I'm sure some do, but they're probably hacks riding on other people's work hiring "engineers" to write patched for them. *
I'm not sure if you're trying to be offensive or just projecting your frustrations with your particular workflow.
Do you think King Tubby, Lee Perry, Miles Davis worked that way?
Or the BBC radiophonic workshop?
Do you think Juan Atkins or Plastikman did that?
Do you think early rave and garage was made that way?
Or House?
Or Jazz?
Or Blues?
Where does Madlib fit in your scheme of things, with his SP1200 and record player?
Would you consider a Dr. Dre or Kanye West a 'hack' because they work with engineers?
Or what about all those metal bands that often work with engineers from the start because they want the particular sound that guy can bring?
I come from a traditional art and design background where you learn that if 'an idea' can't come to fruition relatively quickly and organically, or at least lead on to new ideas.
It's simply a crap idea. Show, don't tell. If you fail, take your lesson and move on to the next one. In my school days it went like: don't bother showing up to class if you don't have
anything to show (visually) and just have a story to tell. Moreover, don't bother coming back at all if you don't show up more than once. Back then, it made me go: oh shit, slow down! How is this teaching
me anything? But now I know how valuable it was... because it stopped all those pretentious art school kids from trying to come up with their "Masterpieces" (that nobody was gonna care about) and got
them into the habit of relying on their intuition and raw skills more. That, or they dropped out, frustrated and blaming the school.
This may be a bit harsh, and granted it's just one approach to doing things. But what it does, creatively, is keep most of your creative process inside your head.. that's where the ideas live.
Once you put them into your DAW, a sample, patch or bit of MIDI, it becomes way too easy to rely on your machine's memory.. not your own. It's useful in a way, but can also be a total death trap where
you're getting stuck in the technical process, because you rely too much on your technical process for your creativity (if that makes sense).
That's why I've almost completely stopped saving patches and things.. jus utility things.
If you want that awesome bass sound you made a month ago, don't just load it up... re-create it from scratch. This way you learn the sound, like a musician learns his instrument. A guitarist instinctively knows
where to find the warmth on his instrument, or how to make it cut.. etc.
Again, this totally depends on what kind of music you want to make. You're obviously not gonna end up sounding like Hans Zimmer this way, but then he is a classically trained pianist from a young age
and then went through a very clear experimental phase before really striking out in film. He may have a super technical process, but I can bet you that somewhere in there he's found a way to tap into
that intuition/free spirit/ideas on clouds thing in his head.
And you shouldn't take this to mean that skill and knowledge don't have a part. The more knowledge and skills you develop, the more creative weapons you have in your arsenal.
But they're not the end goal.. the end goal should always be what you want your sounds to do: make people move, make them feel, make them feel comfortable or distressed.. that's the thing.
A lot of producers seem to forget that, which is why a lot of electronica nowadays is as formulaic as toothpaste.... and why I see a lot of people with very expensive kits getting completely outclassed
by some high ass kid still working with CoolEdit. It's why a lot of producers (especially in hiphop) start to suck as soon as they can afford gear and studios. Being creative isn't about getting 'good with gear'
it's about getting good with generating ideas and especially getting them OUT THERE.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not attacking you or how you work (I just have a confrontational way of talking... which is why I make music and don't, for instance, work in marketing)..
But then I'm also not the one assuming people (that are often a lot more successful than me) are just plain old 'hacks'.
To me that's exactly how hacks (as opposed to authors) tend to think, sorry to say...and pretty arrogant mistake. I'm not so much reacting to you personally but what you said is, to me, indicative of what I see a lot.
I'm also lucky enough to see and have met a lot of fantastically creative and succesful people inside music and out.. and they all seem have that creative intuition thing and open mind towards what others
are making, and how they do it.. no matter what artform it is. If you think music can get complex and technical.. try making a videogame, lol... still, great games are the ones where they don't let that get in the way of the fun factor...
I guess the long and short of it is... that the most important creative step is picking the right approach for the goal you're after. Don't bring your gun when a knife will do.. haha.