Author Topic: How far have you come and where are you headed?  (Read 22470 times)

felyxsnow

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2016, 11:38:05 pm »
I think the biggest hurdle in my growth has been between finishing a project.Ive been known to start projects and just get tired or bored with a track so then I quickly delete it and start back at zero. I feel this stems from not being confident in my skills. For the longest time I kept freaking myself out comparing my music to the music I listen to regularly (which is terribly unfair...) I knew if the music I listened to was "good" but I was too afraid to write my own for fear of it not being any better.

Recently, I took a term off from school to get my head straight and I promised myself that I'm gonna finish something. Don't care how shitty I think it is at least it'll be done. Was a rough start at first. Lots of ideas but no follow through. Then I read a book called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Amazing book. Although I don't necessarily agree with EVERYTHING I did find it super helpful to begin distinguishing what was really keeping me from doing my work. With a few weeks left I got somewhere with a small project that I feel comfortable with but still isn't where I want it to be. Posted it up to SoundCloud and asked some friends for feedback which definitely helps kill the nerves for me. Now, I feel like I'm at a point in the craft where I'm able to get ideas down and expound on them but now it's just failing a bunch and learning. I'd say I've gone from a traditional Jazz Trombone player and traded that in for a more modern form of jazz. Now it's just finding the style in which I want to communicate.

As for the future... I'm not sure.

I'm about a year and change from graduating from school for Production and Sound Design and the classes I take have really been impactful in my development. I have a few classes coming up that really paint the electronic music landscape by doing 4-week long deep dives into various genres from DnB to Acid House to Electro and Trance. The class goes for 24 weeks and we end up making tracks in each genre to really hammer in the production techniques of each one. Genuinely excited for that class. But after school, I have no idea. I still don't feel developed enough (right now) to be a full time artist but I'm not sure how happy I'll be doing a 9-5 desk job.

In the end, I'm still developing. And I don't think I ever wanna stop. As for an end goal, I'd just be happy being able to make music on my own time and make some money to live. If there's anything this 12 week break taught me is, when you have something worth working on, you get this sort-of high. That's where I wanna be. That's where I'm headed.

UsernamesGiveMeAnxiety

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2016, 11:40:16 pm »
About 6 months. My songs are NOT audible at all.   :-[
I'm trying to aim higher, "to be a pro".

Hey man, learning this stuff is like climbing a long flight of stairs that never ends. You won't be able to get to the top in a day, but every day you can at least take a step. With enough time, you'll look behind you and be surprised at how far you've gotten. Don't think about it like "aiming higher". Everyone aims high. That won't make you better, at least not now. Aim to have fun, and to recognize failure as a learning opportunity. That will get you far if you stick to it.

Good luck!

Austin K

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2016, 07:11:59 pm »
I feel like I have come quite far. Every project I work on, I feel like it's exponentially better than the last (not to say there isn't always a vast amount of room for improvement). I don't feel stagnant at all, and I feel good about my ideas and stick to them, so I'm happy about htat.

I like most of the songs I have made - I feel like I'm usually able to come up with good musical ideas, but the older tracks have a less polished and less full sound.

LittleNycto

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2016, 10:57:53 pm »
I'd say that i still have quite a ways to go but im glad to have made the decisions that i did to get me to where i am now. My biggest hope is to eventually be able to compose memorable and beautiful tracks that i can consider immortal like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPa5DSJPjM&list=RD6yPa5DSJPjM

Final Kindgom

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2016, 02:02:42 am »
I feel like I have come quite far. Every project I work on, I feel like it's exponentially better than the last (not to say there isn't always a vast amount of room for improvement). I don't feel stagnant at all, and I feel good about my ideas and stick to them, so I'm happy about htat.

I like most of the songs I have made - I feel like I'm usually able to come up with good musical ideas, but the older tracks have a less polished and less full sound.

I feel the exact same way. The constant progression is so motivating!

SoapySkylines

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2016, 04:32:48 am »
this is about the fifth year i've been doing this, and i've come from attempting to dick around in openmpt to becoming somewhat competent at fl. i've learned a ridiculous amount as time's gone by--like a lot of other people in this thread i listen to my old tracks from time to time and laugh at the shitty execution. i feel like i'm finally really close to actually full-on knowing what i'm doing now and it's invigorating!

comparison: three years ago https://soundcloud.com/soapyskylines/wanderlust-dreamscape-remix/s-3YZ0d

december 2015
8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
ok google how do i get good at beat please


aspenfox

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2016, 07:12:36 pm »
I found my love for electronic music to be too much and I downloaded Ableton for the first time in 2011. I started experimenting and "trying" to teach myself how to produce. I went through a pretty natural transition of sitting on my ass playing RuneScape aalll dayy to sitting in front of Ableton all day. I messed with as many features as I could and watched hours of tutorial videos (mostly massive tutorials though *facepalm*...I just really wanted to make those "l33t wub wubss").
Not too long down the road I started to get lazy - but I've always been an artist (visual before sound) and the drive to create in my new favorite medium was always there. I got so comfortable with how much I had learned (which felt like a lot then but was NOTHING in reality haha), and with my approach to production, that I just started coasting down that path - spending weeks/months busting out mediocre tunes with atrocious mix downs. ...And then I'd rush to upload them to soundcloud and attempt to send them to promo channels in hopes of actually getting somewhere (imo; all a mistake now that I look back. You know how some producer's have said "don't put out anything unless you're absolutely sure of it?" ...yeaah i'm an example of what not to be in that case haha. don't be like me! the proof is still up on SC though i’m easing into the deletion of my old tracks lol). I was really just fucking around, but I was kind of taking things seriously at the same time because I've always had an insane amount of passion for art and what I do. I think the reason why I was so motivated to stay on that path at the time was because I already had a small following to start with because of my activity on YouTube (as a runescaper l0l) before I started producing. I was getting good feedback from friends and I think I started becoming blind to my progress (or lack thereof) as a producer. This dragged on for a few years and I started to get frustrated and discouraged.

2015 finally rolled around, and i'll be honest, only three weeks into the year I had a very personal, profound, psychedelic experience that hit me with a strong wave of motivation and kind of sparked a domino effect of epiphanies in my life - one of them being about my progress as a producer and the use of my free time. I could go into alllll kiinds of detail on this but, at that point I really stopped to take a look at my life and faced some harsh facts. I realized I could have been working so much harder, and I should have been (considering the fact that I dropped out of college and i've been dead-set on making a career in music since 2012). Subsequently, I started changing my ways. I changed my goals from shit like "maybe get on this label someday" to "simply produce something you're proud of." ...So, I started pushing myself. I started reading again after years of not picking up a book and throughout the course of the year I plowed through 9 on different aspects of music (theory/mixing/history/the industry itself..everything I could get my hands on). This was all a nice chunk of new knowledge that I was loving but it still felt like it wasn't enough.. So I started watching tutorials again - MUCH "heftier" ones this time. I started keeping to myself more and deactivated my facebook account for a while, drastically cutting back the time I was spending on social media (much needed!). My boyfriend and I even went as far as to sell our TV and xbox when we realized how much time we were dedicating to unnecessary gaming and netflixing. Perhaps that was too far, but it was getting unhealthy for us... it's definitely been weird getting used to that, but no regrets (that's also forced us to be more social when we have friends over haha).

Now that it's 2016 (and nearly a year since my experience), I can't say that i've made it anywhere, but I can say that I'm on a better path now. I learned a lottt in 2015 and while it was agonizing to keep shoving information down my throat at times, I don't regret a second of it - i'm staying on that roll. I've also been working harder on graphic design and was fortunate enough to become MartyParty's (also 1/2 of PantyRaid w/Ooah of The Glitch Mob) official graphic designer which also opened a few doors to musical opportunities. He’s been a producer that I have looked up to for a long time, and we've developed a friendship and team of sorts. I worked up the guts to start sharing my music with him - he's one of the few people who's heard what I've been working on in the past year and he straight up said he wanted to collab with me/start a side-project, and release on a label (perhaps one of our own) later in the year. I didn't expect ANY of that to happen and it's been a huge motivator! (We're also nerding out, building an iphone app that i'm confident you guys will dig, because it's gonna smash the post-reach problem we all know and love >:] ...in a way haha).

Now I have 4 songs in the works for this year and they're already sounding better than anything i've done in the past. Just in the past two weeks i've written two songs that i'm actually really proud of (that's a first tbh!) and i've subsequently laid down the concepts and base of an EP which is something that I didn't think I'd be doing for a few more years at least. The ideas spontaneously hit me along side a wave of creative motivation and I rolled with it - it actually feels so right. :)

I feel like i'm kind of in the dark still, just working hard with absolutely NO idea what the future truly holds... but i've never been more confident and excited about my art and my goals in life. 2015 was like my year of learning, so I hope 2016 is my year of doing.
So that’s where I’m at so far! (sorry for the novel) Good luck to everyone else out there!

aspenfox

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2016, 07:21:00 pm »
About 6 months. My songs are NOT audible at all.   :-[
I'm trying to aim higher, "to be a pro".

Hey man, learning this stuff is like climbing a long flight of stairs that never ends. You won't be able to get to the top in a day, but every day you can at least take a step. With enough time, you'll look behind you and be surprised at how far you've gotten. Don't think about it like "aiming higher". Everyone aims high. That won't make you better, at least not now. Aim to have fun, and to recognize failure as a learning opportunity. That will get you far if you stick to it.

Good luck!

For sure!! I think one of my biggest problems in the beginning was that I was aiming too high, without putting in enough work. Once I started aiming to have fun and do my best, I started seeing results..and naturally started having more fun with the process haha. :)

Lydian

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2016, 07:48:55 pm »
I'd say that i still have quite a ways to go but im glad to have made the decisions that i did to get me to where i am now. My biggest hope is to eventually be able to compose memorable and beautiful tracks that i can consider immortal like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPa5DSJPjM&list=RD6yPa5DSJPjM

That is quite an interesting producer.
A young 14 year old me with a really bad haircut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMbftWV75w

IKIS

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #24 on: January 19, 2016, 09:22:03 am »
Gone nowhere, going nowhere.

lyteside

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Re: How far have you come and where are you headed?
« Reply #25 on: January 19, 2016, 08:05:12 pm »
curious to hear "before & after" pieces from you!
Oh Geez.
Old:
4 of the oldest tracks I could find. All from around 2-3 years ago.
https://soundcloud.com/arrient/nitro-fun-dragonfly-arrient-remix/s-sH9f0
https://soundcloud.com/arrient/arrient-ghosts/s-Xj8YG
https://soundcloud.com/arrient/im-alive-arrient-remix/s-Nig4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tklVCf4xvDs

Some of my more recent tracks:

Here would be my favorite track Ive ever worked on:

Beautiful work! Great to see [hear] how far you've come. But also, just fantastic work regardless. Beautiful melodies and explorations :)
Check out my song "Alive" feat. Christina Novelli!
https://soundcloud.com/delta-s/delta-s-christina-novelli-alive