Author Topic: What you wish you'd have done differently?  (Read 17093 times)

FarleyCZ

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What you wish you'd have done differently?
« on: April 22, 2016, 12:01:15 pm »
*Cheesy topic alert!*
Similar to "top tips" topic, but that's about current advice. I'm more interested in your own reflection. If you could make a phone call to your few years younger self, what would you tel him/her? What advices would you give? Let's reflect a bit, so new guys can learn from our own flaws.

Mine would be:

Find likeminded people.
...as soon as you can. I mean truly likeminded. They are hard to find. You can have hundred friends. ...supportive ones even. But usually they don't see inside your damn brain when it comes to music. You need people that do. And when you find them, keep them close as much as you can. Chances are they'll bacome your frineds anyway.

Go local.
Learn that damn decks and get yourself out there. Not your damn SC account, yourself. Otherwise a point comes when you get affraid to do it.

Take chances.
Failure is a good thing. It will happen a lot. You really do need to learn from it, but don't be scared of it. Chances you won't fail are actually really thin, but you'll never find if you run away from it.

Forget your past.
Focus on who you want to become. On a lot of levels, including your music taste. It all shows in your music, trust me.

Don't listen to every advice.
Getting obsessed by a detail is much easier when you have tons of contradicting advice hanging over it. Throw it away and filter only stuff you feel applies to your kind of music.

Share.
When you are happy about something, get it out. When you can't crack something, get it out too. It's easier not to, but it leads to "nobody would care" doubt ... which is a killer.

I'm still battling with few of these, but it might have been easier if I realized them much sooner.
Yours? :)
« Last Edit: April 25, 2016, 11:12:08 pm by FarleyCZ »
"Earth is round right? Look at it from right angle and you'll be always on top of the world."
...but don't overdo it, because that's called being a d***k.

AnnieTP

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2016, 12:17:48 pm »
Looking back at when I first got FL, I think I should have watched some more tutorials so I knew (or, at least, had an idea of) what to do. I didn't have any starting plan, so it took me a while to actually get momentum going. I wanted just to mess around in FL, which I did learn from, but not as much as I could have by watching at least a couple tutorials.

-Annie

vinceasot

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2016, 01:43:10 pm »
hmm.. probably sound design and creating melodies

thats what makes the track


Marrow Machines

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2016, 06:38:02 pm »
Not spent all my time and money chasing weed and actually saved up for quality speakers.

But that process helped me understand myself to this day.
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.

Lydian

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2016, 08:23:19 pm »
Don't give up your sanity as a human being for music.

I think I've mentioned this in another post of mine. Before I was a producer, I was pretty deadset on becoming a serious guitar player. I was basically a jerk to anyone or anything that prevented me from reaching my goals and would do everything I could to ensure that all my free time went to studying music.

This was a stupid decision cause I missed out on a lot of "stupid high school stuff" because of it and now I'm stuck with all this knowledge with nothing to really show for it.

So yeah. It's not necessary to turn yourself into a savant to get better at this or anything for that matter.
A young 14 year old me with a really bad haircut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMbftWV75w

FarleyCZ

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2016, 08:38:13 pm »
^ Oh this is good one. I might be kinda guilty of this too.
"Earth is round right? Look at it from right angle and you'll be always on top of the world."
...but don't overdo it, because that's called being a d***k.

Marrow Machines

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2016, 08:40:30 pm »
Don't give up your sanity as a human being for music.

I think I've mentioned this in another post of mine. Before I was a producer, I was pretty deadset on becoming a serious guitar player. I was basically a jerk to anyone or anything that prevented me from reaching my goals and would do everything I could to ensure that all my free time went to studying music.

This was a stupid decision cause I missed out on a lot of "stupid high school stuff" because of it and now I'm stuck with all this knowledge with nothing to really show for it.

So yeah. It's not necessary to turn yourself into a savant to get better at this or anything for that matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5XKpthBc8

but then you wouldn't be able to be the master of the universe if you aren't looking to be so dank...
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.

Lydian

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2016, 08:57:15 pm »
Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5XKpthBc8

but then you wouldn't be able to be the master of the universe if you aren't looking to be so dank...

Lolololol. Just saw this last sunday.  ;D
A young 14 year old me with a really bad haircut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMbftWV75w

Amrith

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2016, 07:49:36 am »
I would've spent more time with people and less time obsessing over my music. I went as far as going to online school in order to make more time for my music, but the isolation burnt me out where it really mattered. We find inspiration, happiness, and creativity when we invest time in people who want to invest their time in us. Now I'm too cynical, and that's something I have to break free from because I know that then I'll start moving in the right direction.
Some emo kid couldn't start a band, so he picked up a computer instead. That's going pretty well.

mrotsdnaS - eduraD

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2016, 02:22:01 am »
*Cheesy response alert!*

I would tell myself to have more faith in my abilities as a musician and as a person. I wish I could have believed in myself more.

We all (or at least most of us, I believe) struggle with self esteem among other personal issues to some level, but sometimes it can feel nearly crippling. I would remind myself that everyone else is fighting their own battle and that in order to be the best version of myself I can't be so pessimistic about nearly everything that has to do with my personality or my achievements.

We're all great people despite sometimes coming off as condescending, cocky, shy or even gawky to name a few, and even though the awesome parts of us wants to be brought out, we become limited by our flaws.

We all have a limited amount of time to make the most out of our lives, and despite still being pretty young I wish I could live by that mentality and make the most out of whatever time I do have left to enjoy life

Arktopolis

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2016, 04:39:02 am »
^ That's such a good point about working smart. Lots of people seem to obsess about the number of tracks you have to produce, about how many hours you have to work before you hit a certain level of expertise. But those hours of work are not progress if you don't keep actively learning new things.

Marrow Machines

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2016, 03:40:27 pm »
^ That's such a good point about working smart. Lots of people seem to obsess about the number of tracks you have to produce, about how many hours you have to work before you hit a certain level of expertise. But those hours of work are not progress if you don't keep actively learning new things.

quantity works if you are actually active in the learning process though...

But it's the acknowledgement of wanting to get better is the key.
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.

alanisnotcool

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2016, 02:14:37 am »
I would've spent more time with people and less time obsessing over my music. I went as far as going to online school in order to make more time for my music, but the isolation burnt me out where it really mattered. We find inspiration, happiness, and creativity when we invest time in people who want to invest their time in us. Now I'm too cynical, and that's something I have to break free from because I know that then I'll start moving in the right direction.

I know what you mean.  I did the same thing the first 3-4 years that I started producing.  My mentality was that I had ALL this catching up to do and I didnt care about the sacrifices I made such as a social life or taking a couple years off college to focus on music.  Honestly I do not wish I had done anything differently because I believe that type of thinking holds you back.  I would not be as experienced as I am now if I didn't do what I did, and I don't regret it. 

Building your social life back up takes a little bit of time but having a small circle is better anyways. 8)

bst148

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2016, 05:00:48 am »
Less is more .

ZAU

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Re: What you wish you'd have done differently?
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2016, 01:07:35 am »
I wish I didn't get caught up on the third party plugins bandwagon and just really learned how to use Logic's built in plugins.