Happy New Year PT Community!
Tis the time of year for making resolutions, and seeing as goals are pretty useful in any creative endeavour, why don't we share some? I'll start
By the end of this year, I want to have recorded an album - a fully realised, balanced project of 8-10 songs that fit together, tell a story, and are varied enough to not just be an EP style wise, and cohesive enough to work. Gonna take a lot of work but lets go....
What are yours?
Nice one @SamuelClouston for getting us started with this.
I wish you all the best with that and hope you share your progress on here..
I have 3 goals:
1. Having moved house and I currently dont have a space at the moment that is conducive to creativity - my main goal is to create that space as well as organise my samples to enable a more streamlined workflow.
2. I am looking to get a couple of EPs for the end of the year. (a DnB and a Christmas related one) - mostly adding to what I have already created in that space so thats only a couple of tracks in each style.
3. I really want to get my DJ friends to play my tracks out - so my 3rd goal is just to get better and make people dance!
Thankyou @smillington
Those are three great and very attainable goals. I hear you about not having a creative space at home, I think that's a common issue for a lot of us (myself included) so great thing to aim for.
Good luck with the two EP's and if they're up to your standard then I'm sure friends will play them.
Not ready yet to actually start producing. I have bought tutorials for a lifetime but the problem is I haven't watched and played along (nearly) any. For some reason I am easily turned off when for instance I am expected to watch an instructor tweak a kick for an excruciatingly long 45 minutes etc. I am still looking for those courses that really connect with me and make following them a breeze. I am fully conscious that without studying a bunch of tuts I simply won't make any progress and I have been stuck in this yes/no/maybe mental quagmire for way too long.
For 2024 I have subscribed to both ProducerTech and Sonic Academy and my plan is to finally put in the work hoping that my tut aversion will abate and I get into some daily grind groove seeing those tuts as an essential chain of steps toward actual production. To make good on this (self)promise I intend to keep track of the stuff I actually watched, with one or two paragraphs added with my personal evaluation of each course. I'll either incorporate this in my PT profile or include a link to some online resource like Google docs assuming I won't lose my cherished (illusion of) online anonymity.
I don't think I am the only one wrestling with this reluctance or outright aversion for the hard work of tutting along, as a matter of fact (and I won't win the Mr. Geniality title for this) in most musical pieces by PT "students" on the PT site or linked from it, I can hear pretty obvious beginner's mistakes making me think these budding producers could do with a few weeks (or months!) extra of tutorials... Obviously, tutorials are not the same as talent, but they could/should provide solid skills that could compensate or mask (to some extent) a talent shortage. What's talent anyway? Most olden time success stories were one-hit-wonders.
Hey Deltadio
I hear you - Producing can be daunting, but I guess that's what beginner's courses are for :D. You may get to a point where spending 45 mins tweaking a kick is something you enjoy - only time will tell.
Yes, if you do create a doc detailing your thoughts on courses, be sure to share it with the rest of us, sounds very useful.
And yes, isn't there an old adage that success is 5% talent and 95% hard work? - plus you should really be doing it for fun, not worrying about what others think is good/bad!
Wow deep - @deltadio! - Well done for making the financial commitment and I hope you find a way to break through into production. My recommendation to you would be to start small use as many short cuts as you can to begin with and share stuff to seek feedback. There are lots of people in the community here as well as tutors that are receptive to being asked to give feedback. It never ceases to amaze me the considerations others identify when I seek feedback, that help me realise some areas to work on.
I feel your pain having spent whole evenings listening to kicks, or over analysing the little details that end up making minimal different to the end result, losing inspiration and missing out on things that could make big differences to the track.
Also, I personally found it beneficial trying to follow along a course that runs through the end to end process and copy the tutor throughout - I end up finding multiple tangents (e.g. different samples or different synth sounds that speak to me), resulting something totally different from the tutor.
Anyway - I hope that helps and I wish you the best with your aspirations
Thank you @samuelclouston and @smillington for your encouraging feedback. This week I kinda proved to myself I do have the endurance to watch tutorials for hours on end on most days of the week but it was for non-musical subjects, i.e. Python and Unreal Engine. I did mix in a little LoopCloud (edit mode) playtime and a smitten of MinTech tutorial. I've got to find the optimal mix of all these activities but the fact that, surprisingly, I am able to switch to (a sustained) learning mode is already a huge breakthrough for me. The Python and Unreal Engine btw I do in order to make my own music videos. Ever since I learned the word/concept GESAMTKUNSTWERK I am fascinated by it, imagine that you have musical, lyrical, videography and animation talents (and what not) that come together in a medium like 'music video'. Obviously, it is at the lower (or lowest) end of the Gesamtkunstwerk spectrum but I still like to arrive at that point some day, in a not to distant future... The end result probably won't blow anybody's mind but it will be something I set out to do and then after putting a lot of work in managed to bring about, to create... Warms the cockles of the heart even just thinking about it!
As for little bits of music to share in order to learn, I'll definitely give it a go (in humble appreciation) once a musical piece can pass my own brutal QC, the fact that media on the Producer Tech Community are accessible to non-members world wide is not particularly alluring to me.
Thanks for teaching us the word GESAMTKUNSTWERK - I love it already. I'm a big fan of total art - designing the artwork, video, making the music, promoting it etc. Keep working hard!
And yes, please do share some bits when you can - when you finally do, you will probably realise that you were worrying about nothing. I often find producers realise they've been holding back from sharing good music for years just due to worrying about what others will think - it's never worth it!
