I used to be able to create a song just by opening a VST and creating 4 chords, it would be enough to inspire me. Now I need something to get me started, like a chord loop or vocal, and it seems to be getting worse. All help is appreciated. I’d love to hear if anyone else has the same experience
For me it helps to ditch social media for a while, do a little dopamine fast
This sounds hard for me haha. I’ll give it a go thougu
yeah its hard as hel:P and maybe thats why it works lol
Not sure if anyone’s still here, but here’s an update. I listened to A LOT of new music these past day or two (mostly anime stuff and house). But I actually got offered my first gig (I said yes ofc) and I’ve been playing around with my old songs (making them work in a live setting) and I feel so much more creative, time will tell if this applies to starting new ideas but none the less I’m very happy and excited. Thank you all so much for your responses and help!
A 2-3 week break once I hit a block always seems to make me a better producer than I was before
I've been through this often. There are two things that I've found to help:
Listen back to your early productions or ones that have turned out well. I often am reminded of techniques and approaches to music that works for me. Sometimes when I loose my creativity, it's because I'm trying to produce music that isn't me.
Listen to a wider range of musical styles. When I was a kid I'd Listen to dubstep back to back with classical music because...why not. Pinching things from various diverse sources really helps to make your music interesting. At least that's what I think
I’ve been doing the second one a lot in the past couple days! I also agree with the first one 100%
Creativity is a muscle, the more u use it the easier it will be to maintain the momentum. I see it like a diet, if the only content you consume are highly addictive tiktoks and music u compare urself to (hyper focusing on an aspect ur weak at) the output will reflect that. Maintain a habit of writing, judging urself less, and consume good content and ur output should theoretically be better.
There is a place for judgement when practicing but not for writing. Ur less creative if ur goal is to sound good instead if adding what fits.
I also find writers block to be a part of the cycle of improving. You do want to hold urself to make something better but ur not able to execute it quite yet so the workflow is a bit slower , more self judging and your ears will get tired. It will pass.
My high school composition teacher had us do so many weird limited exercises. One was: record yourself reading a poem, then chop it up using garage band, and I forgot if there were more parameters. Usually limitations foster creativity big time. Before I knew anything about production I went round recording and chopping up absolutely whatever and made a beautiful track I love using my cockatiel’s random ass whistle.
Maybe put some gear away and only let yourself have certain things. Or next time you go out of town bring a small random thing like a recorder (as in the middle school woodwind instrument) and test all the things you can blow it into like mailbox or something and use a lil cassette recorder.
Oo I just got an idea! Pretend to be someone else (like a wizard or Britney’s y2k era producers) and make the music they’d make! Imitation exercises are also good
This sounds fun!
psychedelics and cannabis help when im not feeling the vibe in the studio. or just embrace the dead vibes and organize your sample folder or something
I think I’ll leave that one up to you. I don’t wanna do that at 17 haha
I am eternally grateful that I started psychedelics and cannabis at a young age. 17 isn’t even that young.
I’m not going to do drugs. Touch wood I have good physical and mental health, I have no reason to ruin it.
Bro are you really proud of yourself for pushing drugs on someone
Take my upvote.
they are plant medicines not drugs. and i’m not pushing anything.
So if you say they're medicines, then why recommend medicating something that doesnt need medication, but rather just a healthy change in mindset and a better understanding of the creative process? No doctor would push unnecessary medications just so someone can "feel" more creative. Also, legally in the US they are classified as drugs. So saying they're drugs isn't incorrect and if you followed the science behind them, you'd understand that they don't work for everyone.
It's a weird narrative to push someone to try cannabis or psychedelics for what is a mindset inconvenience and not yet a mental health issue. Hell, I'll even go as far as saying it's cringe to do drugs or "plantedicines" for the purpose of music.
I bet most of the music you love was written by people who were high as hell.
And that justifies it? That's like saying, "oh my brother tried fentanyl and he lived afterwards". Just because someone else does something doesn't make it justifiable for everyone else. Dumb way to think.
now you're comparing cannabis and psychedelics with fentanyl.
No, I'm not comparing them with fentanyl. That is an example stating that just because someone does something doesn't mean it justifies you to do the same thing. My personal opinion is that idgaf what you do, but you're not allowed to tell someone who's stated they're under 18 and I'm assuming in the US, to break US law and try things that you don't consider as drugs, but the law does. Just because of what I'm saying doesn't mean I don't support their legalization. They are however considered illegal here in the US and advising an underage minor to partake in that is highly illegal. If they're 18, then idgaf. Their decision legally.
just embrace the dead vibes and organize your sample folder or something
This is the real wisdom in the thread haha. this or clean up project files.
For me, the more knowledge I obtain as a producer the more difficult it is to apply it due to analysis paralysis.
When I was starting out, had half the amount of VSTs and VSTi, and a quarter of the knowledge, I was able to just create due to my own naiveness. I didn't take it too seriously.
Now, I'm faced with a thousand different options on where the song should go or how it should feel, what to use, and my personal standards have rose so high I don't like anything I make anymore.
This is SO TRUE! And I reckon it’s part of the issue for me
Same. 6 years as a mixing engineer since being mainly a producer have made my expectations SO HIGH for myself, it’s so hard to let things sound just pretty good while working on an idea and not feel discouraged.
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10d
Music requires creativity though. Brute force won’t help haha. (This happened to Porter Robinson)
Every music creator goes through this. I would take a break, maybe a month or two depending on how bad it is. In that time, maybe learn a physical instrument, listen to new styles of music, take up a new creative hobby. Wait to come back until you can't keep yourself away from your DAW
The hard thing is my parents have weekly production lessons (that I am so greatful for) but I’ll try producing a little less
I'd also recommend having "noise" sessions where you don't even try to make music. Just make noises in your daw with random plugins, distortion, effects, resampling, whatever. Don't make it "good", just make without thinking about it. You might find yourself accidentally making some killer music.
Not gonna lie this sounds really therapeutic
Hmm, you might want to be honest and ask to pause the lessons. Your teacher will definitely understand. Like I said, every producer has wanted to delete their DAW at least once out of frustration. For me, that frustration and burnout got really really bad because I never gave myself a rest. I was afraid that if I took a break, I would never come back to it.
If taking a complete break isn't an option, I would suggest working to remake your favorite tunes. This is a way to have fun, improve your skills, and create new sounds all without the creative burden of making your own music. This can help reinspire you and get you moving again.
I spend about half my studio time doing remakes. Whenever I feel burned out or frustrated that I can't seem to make anything, I download my favorite song at the moment, use fadr.com to separate out the vocal, and get to work recreating the instrumental.
Let me know if you want to talk more.
Yes!!
I don't think you have lost your creativity, it has just found a different way to come through to you. Is there an issue you have with using a loop or a vocal for inspiration? If you are hoping that u can open the DAW and create a good song the exact same way each time, you will be disappointed. Take the inspiration from any source that you possibly can
It just feels like it’s not completely original, my most recent song (that came out today) I used a house chords loop from splice but removed it later on. Whereas like 5 songs ago I would just make chords and bam, I could make something. But yes I do suppose my creativity could’ve found a different way to present itself
Ok so you are worried about it not being completely original, but I can guarantee you that the songs you did where u "made" the chords and progressions yourself have also been done before by other artists. Your focus should be on the end result, not the beginning. By the end, the track becomes yours because of the choices you have made along the way
I’m saving this! That’s very good advice.
Haha no problem, I went through the same thing. All music, but especially EDM is like this. You borrow from other artists and make it your own, nothing to feel bad about. Good luck!
Thank you! I’ll need the luck because I’ve got my first live gig next month (and I have a 8GB MacBook Pro 😭) I often produce on my 32GB desktop but obviously it’s not portable
Do sound design sessions, save your patches and instrument racks, bounce some audio. Then do some composition / jam with all your new sounds.
You could collab with other artists! It worked for me :)
No one wants to collab haha Edit: JK I’ll keep looking :)
You’ve gotta refill your well sometimes. It sound counter-intuitive but taking frequent breaks has been a game changer for me.
Go for a walk, workout, watch a movie, play a game or anything that can take your mind off music. Then come back with a fresh perspective.
Yeah this is normal. I go like 3-4 months of constant nothing but music, then do nothing but game for like a month before I go back and the music I make when I return is always wayyy better than when I stopped lol
It’s always satisfying when you come back from a break and almost immediately spot glaring issues in your mix.
I remember coming back to a song that was driving me mad because nothing I did made it sound better, I took a couple weeks off and when I came back I noticed a horrible ringing around 2-3khz and it all seemed so obvious what the problem was.
Learning. Learning a new production technique or music theory trick almost always inspires me to implement it in a new or existing song- which more often than not leads to more inspiration. Creativity id imagine is related to connecting different and disparate concepts you have in your head, so ideally if you put some more in there it will increase your creative output! Best of luck and have fun🤘
I like the sound of this! It feels like my process has become formulated because I almost haven’t learned new creation stuff (I’m doing classes but it’s only mixing stuff)
Forget music for a moment. It’s you. Tinkering around isn’t going to help. I suggest a little ‘Daniel-Son’ therapy to help remove the old cobwebs, reset, and begin to adopt a different mindset.
So do some gardening. Paint your kitchen cabinets. Re-do a floor. Clean all your windows. Fix up your car. Anything, so long as you are not making music but you are having to come up with new solutions to problems. You need to forget music for a moment. Photograph a local park. Take a rock climbing class. Good luck
Ok! Ill try, im a car guy so ill try doing stuff around that
Nice. I semi-fixed-up an old VW Vanagon recently. While it was at times hell, the whole process was really valuable. The sound system is great 😂
Oh nice! My favourite car is the WRX lmao
Go to a music fest, get a different creative outlet, take a week off, hit the gym, go spend time out in nature. Works for me every time
Awesome! Thanks for the response
Everyone should watch this. It’s a brilliant look on creativity and how to get better at it. Frequent- Creative Foundations
Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll listen on the weekend
Get an instrument and step away from the daw every now and then. Guitar playing opens up a lot of possibilities
I do love guitar tho
I used to play double bass so I’ll give that a shot again maybe :)
It sounds like you're fatigued from the sound of the recent tracks you've been making. My advice would be to try something new from a music theory perspective. This has worked for me before, and it has the added bonus of teaching you some music theory (if you don't already know much about it).
Try a chord progression in a different harmonic rhythm (how quickly the chords change) than you usually do. Maybe use some chords that are longer than others (2 beats, 2 beats, 4 beats; 8 beats, 4 beats, 4 beats; etc). Maybe make a 16-bar progression instead of a 4 or 8 bar progression for a bit more variety. Maybe try turning some of your triads into 7th or 9th chords. If you write in a minor key, try making your v chord a V (this means writing a part of your track in Harmonic Minor). One or more of these might help.
Ooh sounds interesting! I think I’ll go learn some music theory that applies to cinematic music!
One technique i don't see anyone recommending.
Try writing film score. By that i mean find a video or maybe a trailer. Sometimes just a vivid still img is enough. Try to compliment the mood or emotion of the video, try to find a cadence and tempo that fits.
Using imagery to can often inspire or awaken ideas in you that maybe you always wanted to try but never think of without context when staring at the blank canvas of your DAW.
You could struggle for hours to find a creative direction for a song. Or you could bring up a World of Warcraft render and start in with war drums and horns and foley because you already have ideas how to elaborate such a scene.
Or,, you could use some other images and get very different results.
I’m actually doing score for a project in my multimedia project but it’s very different to what I usually enjoy so I’ll try making one closer to something I enjoy! Thanks for your response
Recreate a track you like from another artist from scratch. Halfway through that process, your fingers will be itching to deviate and create or own version of the track.
Haha I’ll give it a go!
stop w**king
go out a lot
play video games / do something outside of music
forget about music for a couple of days..
travel somewhere
:)
Work with a partner, that always stops my creativity woes. You get hyped on the new bounce coming back your way and the changes, and you just feed off each others ideas.
Sounds like you need a well refill.
Take a few weeks off. Listen to lots of new music Watch inspirational docs on music Watch moves Read some inspirational books Listen to lots of pump up speeches. Watch some you tube tutorials.
But what ever you do, no matter how itchy you get to work on tunes. Don’t. Let the well fill to the top before you start.
If im in a creative rut its usually when im not listening to new music and getting tunnel vision on what music is. Id go listen to some some new artists youd been meaning to check out in a genre you dont produce but enjoy
Go for a drive or a walk and throw on an album youve never heard. Itll give you a new perspective on the possibilities and hopefully inspire ideas
Haha this hits close to home! I’ve almost exclusively been listening to Porter Robinson in the past like 9 months.
listen to classical music. Try and understand what they were trying to do in each piece. I like purcell - easy to hear what he is doing.
Lool yeah theres so much dope music out there to be inspired from. Something I heard from Mr Bill was that he likes to produce his songs over a longer period of time so that he can incorporate more influences into a piece and thus make it more creative. Where all just copying our faves at the end of the day but the more faves you put into a piece the more like you and original its gonna sound. Dont stress it too much and have fun!!
Awesome! I feel like I put too much pressure on myself to make something good but I’ll try and remove that!
Limit yourself and take a completely different approach. You mentioned you use VST synths, so don't use them. Try microsampling, a'la Justice, for example.
Go on Youtube and search for 1960's movie soundtracks. Grab an isolated string or perc sound, tune it to C and make a melody. Need a pad sound? Find a random guitar video and sample a single note, pitch it down, filter it, add efx and make a pad. Find a spoken word , gospel, or movie dialogue video for some vocal chops. You get the idea. It's a lot of fun and you'll get a sound that's very different than VST synths.
Thanks for the advice! I think this is a great idea, I’ll try it tomorrow :)
Awesome! If you get stuck/need some inspiration check out this vid about Justice and their microsampling techniques.
first, a question: how often do you enrich your life with a variety of experiences that inspire you? whether that’s going out into nature, partying with friends, listening to a genre of music you don’t usually, doing some exercise while subconsciously consuming music, whatever it is. these kinda of things subtly give you more inspiration in the long term. you need to give your ears a rest and spend time not thinking about music just as much, and at other times you also need to be opening your ears to other music and absorbing sounds where you can.
two, you say you can create unless you have a cool loop to start from? well, learn to create cool loops. for example, piece together elements into a completely fire 8-bar loop (something you might find in a sample pack) and then extrapolate it out, deconstruct it, whatever, into a full length track.
To be honest I don’t do much to enrich my life. I’m overwhelmed with school and the repetitive nature of everyday life
honestly, that could be it then. I am at creative high-points when I feel fulfilled by my day--to-day life. when I'm also overwhelmed with school and feel stuck in a rut, I lack pretty much any inspiration. I know from m own life that it's hard to enrich your life when you're inundated by external forces, but I've been trying, and it helps. I've been going for walks daily in the last few days through parks or the golf course nearby.
I have a pleasure of living in a rural area, which (whilst annoying when it comes to being far from lots of the things I want to be able to get to easily) means that nature is always close by and I can benefit from it. honestly these walks make me appreciate how nice the outdoors is, makes me feel hyped about nature and want to explore more. and of course, gives me creative energy as well.
That’s is very well put!
OP, how often do you go out clubbing, to raves, or fests?
Unfortunately I’m only 17 and because I’m in Australia I can’t. I love Porter Robinson so my parents took me to his concert so I could listen from outside and I actually met Porter himself and made a bunch of friends!
Hadn't heard of this guy but just gave him a listen. If you like this there was avbucjh of music that came out in the UK about 10 years ago I think you will like and get inspired by, that probably passed you by as you were a kid then. Check out Rustie, TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke and Linux), Lapulux, Koreless, Mount Kimbie, onepoint trix never.
Hopefully that provides some inspiration.
Also just to say dj heartstring and the trance revival is the most exciting stuff around right now for what it's worth. Check it out if you haven't heard it
Awesome! As others have said to listen to new music, I’ve been on the lookout, so I’ll listen to this! Thank you
No worries, hope you like some of it and it provides inspiration!
17 great, any day now you should fall in love and get your heart broken in a way that leaves forever changed, good news you should be able to get three albums out of it. Don’t forget to use a condom.
LMAOO
Ah ha! That’s the problem! EDM is first and foremost social music, but you’re completely disconnected from the scene. Not because you’ve lost the connection, but because you never had it. And it’s not your fault. You’re just not old enough yet.
The answer to your question is, be patient. When you’re old enough, start hitting some events. Spend a few month on the dance floors carefully listening to what the dj’s are playing, especially the underground stuff, see how it makes the crowd respond, and you will start getting all sorts of inspiration for new song ideas. Trust. Patience.
Ok! Under a year left!! My production teacher has talked about me playing some gigs so that could help too.
Creativity is a muscle and the idea that good and great artists only work when they are “inspired” is a myth. I recommend developing a process where you can finish tracks (or at least complete sketches of tracks) so that you know what you have to do next even if you’re not feeling inspired. Finish the track and decide if it’s worth releasing or not, and then do another one using the same process, and another one, and another, etc. By sitting down every day and doing the work you’ll find those really good pieces that turn into great tracks. If you don’t do the work you won’t be able to find them.
Sounds good! I think I need to dial back my perfectionism to be honest. But I think that’s a really good idea and will help me improve the later stages in the production process like mastering
More (or less lol) time with/on music theory maybe?
I personally can spark some inspiration by listening to a random song, and then I imagine how that song would sound in a completely different genre. That might work for you too.
I second this. Just about 3 days ago, I listened to that very popular song these days, the I Like The Way You Kiss Me song, and it inspired me to make a new track.
Ok! I haven’t tried that yet so I’ll give it a go
No idea.. same has happened to me. Maybe a break? Or go do something away from music to gain new experiences? This seems to happen to established artists, evident when the second album is whack compared to the first!
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My biggest inspirational push is go to a show your favorite DJ/artist is doing and just vibe. I went out this weekend and saw one of my fav DJs and I’m feeling super inspired. Think I just finished my next release