My songs are so repetitive!

R

Retrograde

New member
Hi,

I mainly produce house music (future house if you want to be more technical). Every track I hear just about follows the EXACT same structure as mine: intro with percussion (for DJ) -> some synth and/or vocals fades in (track starts) -> drums are brought back in -> build up -> drop -> calm down from drop (soft instruments) -> back to the intro where all elements are present (drums, synths, vocals) -> drop -> end. Some how though my tracks seem so repetitive. I thought it first of all might of been because I have been working with them for so long but it happens with every track.

I just can't see why my tracks seem so repetitive? I use the 8 bar rule (add an effect or element etc. every 8 bars). I use noise sweeps, reverse crashes and risers to make all my transitions interesting and smooth. I add breaks within the percussion and synths, again, to add interest. I use filters, reverb and other effects. I am literally losing the will to live! My older tracks flowed fine but in the past few months I been having a real mental block, possibly because I've tired myself out from producing so much. I can't even get past the intro of my tracks without giving up! I need to finish a few tracks to use in my interview in order to get into a school I want to join. Plus, I want to send some stuff to record labels.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
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I personally think following a specific song structure can make things get very repetitive. Personally, I just open up the DAW and start making things. Of course having a good song structure is important but following that same song structure for each and every song can cause things to get out of hand.

All I can say is try something new. Change the tempo a bit, don't put percussion in the intro, deceive your listeners, etc. If you try to follow a specific standard to what you think your music should be, I think it can cause problems. Jump out of your comfort zone for a bit and perhaps then you'll get new fresh ideas :)
 
steffeeh said:
Care to show your tracks, compared to the artists you're looking up to?
Click to expand...

Here is the intro and drop of a future house track I am currently working on. It is not fully mixed, nor is it mastered, but it should give you a vague idea. It's Curbi and Oliver Heldens influenced:

 
Electro DGX said:
I personally think following a specific song structure can make things get very repetitive. Personally, I just open up the DAW and start making things. Of course having a good song structure is important but following that same song structure for each and every song can cause things to get out of hand.

All I can say is try something new. Change the tempo a bit, don't put percussion in the intro, deceive your listeners, etc. If you try to follow a specific standard to what you think your music should be, I think it can cause problems. Jump out of your comfort zone for a bit and perhaps then you'll get new fresh ideas :)
Click to expand...

I completely agree, you shouldn't limit your creativity on a certain structure. But, unfortunately for me, I am pretty useless at just coming up with ideas on the spot. When I make a track it is because I have been influenced by another artist or song and I need that structure to help me base my creativity around something.

I definitely do need to come out of my comfort zone. I am what's known as a 'safe producer' - I don't like experimenting too much, I just stick to convention and what I think should be normal. The problem is that a lot of the skills like making interesting drum beats ect. I find just to fiddly and tedious. When I produce a song I want my production to flow; not me spending half an hour on one drum beat that will only be in half the track.

I think the main problem is that since day one of me producing I have constantly been bombarded with: "stick to what everyone else is doing" or "don't be too experimental as record labels want marketable stuff". This has I guess limited me in a way as I am so used to producing in a certain way that it has: a) tired me out and b) made my songs seem repetitive.

Thanks for the advice, it has actually made me rethink my production qualities. :)
 
Dude the track you showed has an amazing melody idea, seriously!

Maybe, the points you have room to improve and can guide you are:

-Layering/sound design
-Transitions to break/buildups/drops
-I've read in a well known book for producers (just forgot the name right now hahah) that one melodic line longer than 16 bars where the energy level doesn't change is one of the sources of "bad repetitiveness" (thats some of my bad english right there haha =p).

Hope I've helped!

-4ngus
 
Retrograde said:
I completely agree, you shouldn't limit your creativity on a certain structure. But, unfortunately for me, I am pretty useless at just coming up with ideas on the spot. When I make a track it is because I have been influenced by another artist or song and I need that structure to help me base my creativity around something.

I definitely do need to come out of my comfort zone. I am what's known as a 'safe producer' - I don't like experimenting too much, I just stick to convention and what I think should be normal. The problem is that a lot of the skills like making interesting drum beats ect. I find just to fiddly and tedious. When I produce a song I want my production to flow; not me spending half an hour on one drum beat that will only be in half the track.

I think the main problem is that since day one of me producing I have constantly been bombarded with: "stick to what everyone else is doing" or "don't be too experimental as record labels want marketable stuff". This has I guess limited me in a way as I am so used to producing in a certain way that it has: a) tired me out and b) made my songs seem repetitive.

Thanks for the advice, it has actually made me rethink my production qualities. :)
Click to expand...

I share a similar problem as you, as often I find when I create a new song I will follow the same "safe" arrangement as I did my previous song. I have tried to change this however, and it's working I would like to think. What I did was I stopped looking at "reference" tracks, and my reason for this is that I found myself listening to a certain song (or producer) and trying to do what they did. And hey look, that isn't bad considering the producers I was analyzing were some of the best in the world -- BUT -- a copycat will never become the best.

Sure, I could make a song with a Showtek stlye, Blasterjaxx style, etc. But guess what, it will NEVER be as good. NOWHERE near as good.

> In your post you mentioned how you didn't want to spend half an hour on one drum beat that will only be used in a short section of the track... and this is my one issue with your post (no offense intended). If you truly want to produce the best music possible, whether for sheer self-satisfaction, or for society to listen to, you MUST spend the half hour on that single 4 bar drum loop. Producing music is not easy. It is something you must dedicate every ounce of your free and leisure time on. That means you will have to spend that half hour on a single four bar drum loop if you want to be that good. That four bar drum loop could possibly be placed elsewhere in your song to give you that "experimentation" that makes your track less boring.

I don't mean to be offensive in any way with my post, as I don't even know you, however I tend to believe that honesty and blunt statements will often facilitate the best reaction and benefits in the future.

Best of luck my friend :)
 
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Retrograde said:
"don't be too experimental as record labels want marketable stuff".
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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I completely disagree with this. Record labels want marketable things? Yeah they want. What for? So THEY can make MORE money that they already do.

You need to think more about YOU instead of others. What YOU want to do? What makes you feel HAPPY about your music?

I'm gonna give you my own experience with music: I don't do "pop" or "record label" music. I do experiment (and wish I could be more experimental) with my music. I try to break the structure "rules" for anything that I'm making.

What this led me to? A very tight niche, yeah, but I feel happy everytime I get someone to download my music (being it for free or being it paid), or get someone to comment on my tracks on soundcloud. Those people are the ones you want listening to your songs.

My advice: experiment MORE and don't wait for people to think you're the new deadmau5.
 
Perhaps your creative process is boring you and it's coming out in your tracks. I would try and use a different method of making music, experiment with a hardware sampler, get out of the box, change things up, basically dare to experiment!
 
I don't think the problem with your tracks is repetitiveness as such - it's more about playing so completely by the book (as you've hinted at yourself) that any chance of a pleasant surprise is ruled out because you know exactly what will happen before it does. It just becomes background music. I mean, look at this list you posted:

Retrograde said:
I just can't see why my tracks seem so repetitive? I use the 8 bar rule (add an effect or element etc. every 8 bars). I use noise sweeps, reverse crashes and risers to make all my transitions interesting and smooth. I add breaks within the percussion and synths, again, to add interest. I use filters, reverb and other effects.
Click to expand...

It's not a description of music; it's a checklist of features. If you already have a solid, effortless workflow, breaking out of the mold & re-adjusting your flow to fit the new frontiers shouldn't be impossible. Change will take time and effort, of course - and finding your way will also produce a lot of stuff that simply doesn't sound very good...but that's something that has to be gone through before coming up with something that isn't just a pale imitation of someone else's work.
 
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