Guys, thanks for these responses. I'm glad people are willing to open up and share.

I'm not able to smoke weed (or do other drugs for that matter) in my current job, so that's off the table.

I do, however, like to sip bourbon from time to time while producing.  I find it relaxes me, and like others, takes the "risk/worry/anxiety" aspect out of it, so there's more enjoyment and less self-criticism.  Obviously, alcohol (as with most drugs I imagine) gets to a point where there are diminishing returns, but I don't find myself in that position often.

A short anecdote.  I remember listening to 009 Soundsystem's "Dreamscape", aka the "theme song of youtube": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsTegvGDioc

The lyrics are kinda druggy, trippy, with religious/spiritual overtones.  When I listened to it, I was a bit conflicted TBH.  I am a religious person, so it was one of those weird deals where I thought, "is this okay to listen to?"  "could this be harmful?"  This may sound like nonsense to some of you, but I can't describe it - the song did (and still does to a certain degree) give me a "weird" feel.  Not sure if it is the chord progression, lyrics, both or what, but there's weirdness. 

I asked a friend at the time who was into electronic music more than I was (My only real exposure was searching for "trance" on limewire..): is a lot of electronic music inspired by drugs?  He seemed to think that a lot of it was.  Don't know if this is accurate, but regardless, the topic still piques my curiosity to this day.

Keep the stories and the experiences coming people.  Thx.

Quote from: bryan on April 15, 2016, 01:39:45 pm

I force myself to go to sleep. I have work in the morning.  Wish I didn't, but I do.

But are you able to do it soon enough? I work too, I know I'm gonna screw ap at work if I won't sleep properly. ...yet for some reason a lot of times this rational thinking just isn't working at 2am and I let myself limit sleep time to like 3 hours a day or something.

I am able to do it..only because my body is pretty well trained to do so.  In other words, my circadian rhythm is strong!  For instance, I can't remember the last time I pulled an all-nighter. It's just not something I ever do. I enjoy sleeping and I think I respect the benefits it provides.

That being said, there are times where I've felt creative and inspired but had to work the next morning...so the bed beckons me away from Ableton..

Oh well. The flip side to this is that at least I don't have to DEPEND on making music for my income.  While I realize that may be the goal for a lot of people (and me sometimes in my head), that is a bit more pressure than making music for fun.

Classically-trained pianist Mitis is giving me the feelz today:
The whole EP is pretty solid too. Pretty. and solid.

Is it your interface?  I had a bad interface once that caused similar problems.

So I've had xfer's LFOTool for quite a while now, and recently purchased cableguys' volume shaper (because I liked the interface so much).

I've typically used them for sidechaining sound elements to the kick, but I know that LFOTool especially has a lot of different options (trancegate, stutter fx, etc.) that I've not utilized.

Other than typical sidechain ducking and transient shaping (e.g. shorten the bass tail of a long kick), how have you used these plugins?  And do you have a preference between the two?

Most modern monitors, including the KRK's, will do the job. The key is to "learn your monitors", meaning learn how their frequency response is.  Are they bass heavy compared to most standard car stereos?  Do they give a clear response on the high-end?  All of this comes with experience with your monitors.

Sure, it's preferable to have acoustic treatment, but for a lot of people that's not possible or necessary.

My advice: pick ones you like in the price range that you can afford (like the rockits). Search around for the best deal.  Get them.  Get a decent audio interface, too.

It reminds me of one poignant moment in this interview with deadmau5, where Joel talks about how he doesn't have developed social skills and he seems to get a little emotional.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zeb3dGbhvTM

I guess the point is it's not always rainbows and butterflies, and sometimes "excellence" or "success" comes at a cost.

I have a full-time, stable job that has nothing to do with music and isn't entirely "fulfilling" either.

But I once heard a good thing about having a job - you have the ability to say "no".  Meaning: when you don't have a job, you sort of need to take whatever comes your way if you want to live, eat, etc. But by having a stable job, you can evaluate your different opportunities and pick the best one for you from a place of leverage, not desperation.

So - sure, my job has nothing to do with music and it sounds wonderful for me to get paid what I'm getting paid now for doing musik stuff...but that's not easy to come by.

I'm working through this "job vs. passion" thing myself..