What has been the most challenging things for you as a producer?

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destinmoffett

New member
Hey team,

This is my first post so I apologize if it's not up to futureproducer standards. I simply just wanted to find out from you guys what biggest obstacle has been in your journey of producing music. Let me know!
 
Finishing that damn' song has been a major challenge for me. Ideas fly into my twisted brain just like that, so I've always been tempted to work on the next new thing without finishing, what I have begun before. And fine tuning the arrangement, the sound and the mix takes way more time and effort, than laying that raw idea and arrangement down.

Realising that having a break about every hour helps me a lot moving forward faster (and forcing myself to have breaks) has been a major breakthrough for me.
 
My third biggest problem is that I love to start a new track and get it 40-60% of the way there, then abandon it. My perfectionism tells me not to finish the track, though I should. And my incomplete skill set discourages me from proceeding past the point that lyrics need to be written and performed. But that's definitely where I need to push through.

My second biggest problem is that I'm addicted to learning techniques and shopping for gear, and I use valuable music-focus time doing those things instead of creating.

My biggest problem is that I work a very stressful job to pay my bills, and it requires unpaid overtime. By the time I get home, I'm too exhausted and stressed and angry to do anything productive. If I'm going to get anywhere in music, I need to quit this job. I'm a week or two away from handing in my two weeks' notice. Don't tell my boss.
 
Milo Burke said:
My third biggest problem is that I love to start a new track and get it 40-60% of the way there, then abandon it. My perfectionism tells me not to finish the track, though I should. And my incomplete skill set discourages me from proceeding past the point that lyrics need to be written and performed. But that's definitely where I need to push through.
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Milo, producing and songwriting is a steady work in progress. Like everything else in life. There is always room for improvement, regardless how good you are. And that's what it's all about. To hone your skills and get better, regardless of your current skill set.

My second biggest problem is that I'm addicted to learning techniques and shopping for gear, and I use valuable music-focus time doing those things instead of creating.
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I overcame my gear addiction, when I realized exactly that. That I've been wasting valuable creative time and energy hunting for the latest gear (that I ended up not using because I spent my time hunting for the next gear). This didn't make sense at all. AND some of the best music has been created with just an MPC and a turntable;-)

My biggest problem is that I work a very stressful job to pay my bills, and it requires unpaid overtime. By the time I get home, I'm too exhausted and stressed and angry to do anything productive. If I'm going to get anywhere in music, I need to quit this job. I'm a week or two away from handing in my two weeks' notice. Don't tell my boss.
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Go for it - Milo!
 
LOL as people said here. It's finishing a track. As a producer I get a burst of energy immediately when something sounds right. I can put 3 elements together well. I start getting the vision of what it should sound like. This is when arduous (if I used that correctly) task of adding or finding the other 40% of stuff to make it complete comes in. Then laziness. Then boredom. Then your brain goes elsewhere lol
 
Yeah, when i started beatmaking i was a gearslut to. Wanting all that gear just because it looked cool.
But when i switched from hardware to software that gearlust went away for the most part. I still want to have a lil studio for myself though.

I recognize that perfectionism in myself to. That's the reason why i never finish any beats. Cause i have a feeling that "I NEED" to do this and that in every beat i make.
 
I think having gear and a small studio is very inspiring to work in. I still need an Audio-Interface.
That perfectionism is a habit for finishing stuff but if you listen to my tracks it has many change-ups. I'm not happy with just a loop and drums.
 
Running out of CPU when you're 90% ITB. Been killin' me and my motivation for years. Eventually I'll just have to shell out the dough for a super computer, the problem is I have a Mac and everything I have is for Mac, but to get a Mac that candle hand that level of production (I use Ableton Live, which is CPU heavy because of lag-compensation and other things) you gotta drop a lot of dough.
 
Kalm said:
LOL as people said here. It's finishing a track. As a producer I get a burst of energy immediately when something sounds right. I can put 3 elements together well. I start getting the vision of what it should sound like. This is when arduous (if I used that correctly) task of adding or finding the other 40% of stuff to make it complete comes in. Then laziness. Then boredom. Then your brain goes elsewhere lol
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Exactly! For me the motivation makes lot of it. Searching all day and night for finding the right stuff that really sounds good when you put it together... Also, because i'm still new to it, the correct "hearing" of frequenzies (specially for percussion) is still a problem. Oh yeah, for sure, the other problem is that you will never know everything even if you keep learning 24/7 but even if it just gets you inspired it's worth it.
 
InvertedRatHunter said:
Running out of CPU when you're 90% ITB. Been killin' me and my motivation for years. Eventually I'll just have to shell out the dough for a super computer, the problem is I have a Mac and everything I have is for Mac, but to get a Mac that candle hand that level of production (I use Ableton Live, which is CPU heavy because of lag-compensation and other things) you gotta drop a lot of dough.
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I know exactly what you're talking about, lol. My workaround is freezing or printing tracks. Then keep on working from there. Not the most convenient way to work, but hey...producing music 10 or 20 years ago has been a lot less convenient AND a lot more expensive than that.
 
Use Audio!

InvertedRatHunter said:
Running out of CPU when you're 90% ITB. Been killin' me and my motivation for years. Eventually I'll just have to shell out the dough for a super computer, the problem is I have a Mac and everything I have is for Mac, but to get a Mac that candle hand that level of production (I use Ableton Live, which is CPU heavy because of lag-compensation and other things) you gotta drop a lot of dough.
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Hey! The best way to fix this problem is to bounce the MIDI tracks into audio files. I am working on a track now that's over a hundred tracks, but because its all audio my computer doesn't have a problem. Hope this helps!

Destin
 
destinmoffett said:
Hey! The best way to fix this problem is to bounce the MIDI tracks into audio files. I am working on a track now that's over a hundred tracks, but because its all audio my computer doesn't have a problem. Hope this helps!

Destin
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You and labeat make a good point, though my computer could never handle 100 tracks unless most of them never played at the same time, regardless of whether they're midi or audio. I think part of it is because I use Ableton.

The other thing is I'm such a freaking perfectionist, it's tough for me to bounce audio and not want to change anything about it later. But that's more of a personal problem than my computers fault haha :rolleyes:
 
The hardest part for me is trying to work with talented musicians that think they are jesus christ superstar, and then having to turn them right back around and out the door they came in. They add parts in songs not to try and make the song better but just to hear themselves in a song. Stubborn assholes.
 
The most challenging to me as a pro engineer has been to bust all of the myths out there, because almost all of the information out there about producing/engineering is not entirely true. Your authenticity as a creative artist must be protected from that, else it will go downhill from there. So the challenge is to grow your most authentic vibe in a technical landscape where there is tons of stuff that can take that energy from you. The same about the kind of music you produce, it's critical to have good music and audio hygiene as a creative artist.
 
A project is never finished. There's always some room for improvements. You have to leave a project for another one. Mastering a mix is a good end point. ;-)
 
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1. Learning chords
2. Learning the daw
3. Learning synths: fm
4. Learning EQ
5. Confidence in myself

major, minor, diminished, sus4, 7th , and best you can learn is by trying to cover different songs with pad chords you get the feel of how you supposed to make cool chord progressions

Learning a daw is kinda challange a specially if you are not good in english and you dont even know what save means

EQ was hardest for me to understand and i am still not 100% there

Confidence and psychological approach to the music and the clients was difficult for me because i was always felt a big difference between my beats and what i was listening on the radio like sound design, creativity that was there, that perfect mix and all that
 
arrangement has always been a pet hate of mine, i have tracks that are practically done where ideas and riffs are concerned but the arrangement never feels right to me. for every way i try to arrange it some other issue comes up and i have to start again. there are the occasional days though that everything just falls into place and i could have a whole track done and dusted in a few hours.
 
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