remember the days...

[Hink]

It's pretty simple, guys.

Sit down, give yourself a limitation per track.

I used to call up a friend and say "Okay, dude let's make a song in 1 hour, and we can use guitars, and ONE synth. No drums. Vocals. Ready, set GO!"

In an hour we each went nuts to create something, ANYTHING.

If you limit yourself in creative ways, and then give yourself a very quick deadline, true creativity is FORCED out of you, and it's exciting.

Here's a track that came out in one hour, I didn't even know how to do beat quantization at this point, but I'm proud of how it all turned out:
http://theconsolationproject.bandcamp.c ... all-around

I seriously think this is one of the best ways to get yourself motivated.

RonC

I dont disagree with you except for 'true creativity is FORCED out of you', I'm sure it works well for you but it doesn't work that way for everyone. One thing I have been doing that is similar, not forcing myself but tracking myself. I have a simple stopwatch timer on my laptop desktop and if I put the laptop to sleep it keeps counting. Now I dont use my laptop for music work except to go online for things and downloading, so when I go to my studio I kick on the timer, put the laptop to sleep and I'm starting to track my time so I can get a better handle on how much time I spend working on music, how much more time I can spend on music and how I can be more efficient with my music time and my time for other needed life activities

Meanwhile I also agree with braj that having to come up with work arounds often brought on inspiration. I think there is a phase though that many of us go through, I notice that every time something causes me to re-install things I install less and less. Tomorrow I get a new machine and once again I am installing even less. I go by the same rule my parents use to use when saving things that are not valuable or heirlooms...if you dont use it for a year perhaps you dont need it (note I said perhaps).

There was a time of me getting every thing I could (free or what I could afford) but that while fun did eat into other time as well. I think it's all quite natural but in the end you kind of level off and find the right balance that works for you. Of course with any pay ware you also have decisions to make as the time comes to update/upgrade and I dont know about anyone else but I cannot afford to keep up with every piece of software. Unfortunately this is the case with voxengo and though none of it being expensive to upgrade I do have a bunch of the older stuff but I have not upgraded because samplitude has got much of those things well covered.

I do find myself going backwards these days and more into hardware which often does not have an expiration date, this is especially the case with amp sims that I'm now sorry I spent the money for to begin with. I'll stick with one which will be AT but as far as GR and GTR I would have been far wiser to just try the demo because really that's all I have ever done with either.

[rpc9943]

Maybe force was the wrong word, but when you actually do something crazy like this, it will FLY out of you like no tomorrow. That's why I said force. I couldn't think of any other word because it's a FLOW, but at least for me, it takes charge.

[Hink]

Maybe force was the wrong word, but when you actually do something crazy like this, it will FLY out of you like no tomorrow. That's why I said force. I couldn't think of any other word because it's a FLOW, but at least for me, it takes charge.

I do understand what you are saying, I have been trying to increase my finishing of songs (and failing) because besides saying they are done and posting them I have no real reason to finish songs. You see I like playing my songs and though I could finish a song and still play it I never seem to do that, so I decoded to hit record a lot more often...one song has over 500 takes for one guitar part. Naturally I dont save all those takes but samplitude still indexes them as such. So at least I have a good grasp on how much time I spend doing the same thing now

[rpc9943]

Damn. 500 takes, dude.

I most often use the first of maybe 3-4 takes. Most often I keep the first take. If I spend more than 4 hours on a song, it's pretty much dead to me and goes in my "BSIDES" folder.

When I "practice" it's not practicing songs to make them tighter, it's practicing how I can express my feeling at the time through my instrument/fx. Because, after all, recording is freezing a moment in time. Mostly it works out the best when I am in a very meditative state not even feeling like I'm making a song.

But that's just how I work. All I'm saying is that I think you can have any amount of plugins you'll ever want, but choose your weapons wisely and DO NOT allow yourself to change in the middle of the process unless it is REALLY NAGGING at you to be added.

RonC

[braj]

Really, my point isn't longing for the 'good old days' and I'm not fighting with my tools, just limitations do make you more inventive, that is natural, you have to be like MacGyver and my main point is that in the 'good old days' a poor musician really had to struggle just to get the minimum gear to make some tracks, and on a 4-track tape deck that was by its nature very limited sonically. One new synth to your palette cost about $1000 minimum in 1984 from my recollection, not touch sensitive, probably not polyphonic, maybe no patch memory. Today you could produce an album essentially for free minus the cost of the computer and your time, you still have to be inventive a bit but you'll get some nice sounding radio-acceptable tracks if you have the skills. It is a blessing and a curse because you can get a little lost in fiddling with the technology and not working on actual music. When my only synth was an SH-101 I never spent any time trying to pick out what instrument to use for a part, that was all I had kin front of me, I had to live with the DR-110 drum sounds because i had no other options. So it had its utility in its simplicity, and it also had many limitations. But cost alone is a huge thing and that was really what I was marvelling at, that I can get a nice delay for free

[Hink]

Damn. 500 takes, dude.

I most often use the first of maybe 3-4 takes. Most often I keep the first take. If I spend more than 4 hours on a song, it's pretty much dead to me and goes in my "BSIDES" folder.

When I "practice" it's not practicing songs to make them tighter, it's practicing how I can express my feeling at the time through my instrument/fx. Because, after all, recording is freezing a moment in time. Mostly it works out the best when I am in a very meditative state not even feeling like I'm making a song.

I used to be a very shy and quiet person that was constantly insulted, and whenever I sit down in the studio I have to break through some kind of wall of release from those emotional scars, "you're nothing" etc.

But that's just how I work. All I'm saying is that I think you can have any amount of plugins you'll ever want, but choose your weapons wisely and DO NOT allow yourself to change in the middle of the process unless it is REALLY NAGGING at you to be added.

RonC

it's not practicing, I just love playing and once I get tired of a song I move on As I get older it takes longer for me to get tired of songs and I have a lot more in just such a state (and the list is growing) so I kind of go in a ever growing circle.

I agree a billion percent about the times you do not feel like playing, I call this 'accidental playing' and my best moments have been a result of going to check something on my DAW and ending up playing my guitar for hours.

I think a lot of how I am is because in my band days I was a serious coke head and one band was actually a lot about coke, I got to the point where I didn't want to play without coke and a band brings back memories of coke heads fighting. A very unrealistic view but to this day it still seems like a lot of work to find a band, work with a band and bond with a band when I can just play when the mood hits me (some restrictions apply though as I do have a life too ) I also do not hang around much with other musicians

btw ftr it's either going on 18 years or 19 years since I touched any coke

[Hink]

Really, my point isn't longing for the 'good old days' and I'm not fighting with my tools, just limitations do make you more inventive, that is natural, you have to be like MacGyver and my main point is that in the 'good old days' a poor musician really had to struggle just to get the minimum gear to make some tracks, and on a 4-track tape deck that was by its nature very limited sonically. One new synth to your palette cost about $1000 minimum in 1984 from my recollection, not touch sensitive, probably not polyphonic, maybe no patch memory. Today you could produce an album essentially for free minus the cost of the computer and your time, you still have to be inventive a bit but you'll get some nice sounding radio-acceptable tracks if you have the skills. It is a blessing and a curse because you can get a little lost in fiddling with the technology and not working on actual music. When my only synth was an SH-101 I never spent any time trying to pick out what instrument to use for a part, that was all I had kin front of me, I had to live with the DR-110 drum sounds because i had no other options. So it had its utility in its simplicity, and it also had many limitations. But cost alone is a huge thing and that was really what I was marvelling at, that I can get a nice delay for free

I can totally relate to this because for most of my time playing I was a one guitar, one amp guy...obviously not the case now. I remember getting excited just having any delay, your point is well taken

[Resonator63]

Really, my point isn't longing for the 'good old days' and I'm not fighting with my tools, just limitations do make you more inventive, that is natural, you have to be like MacGyver and my main point is that in the 'good old days' a poor musician really had to struggle just to get the minimum gear to make some tracks, and on a 4-track tape deck that was by its nature very limited sonically. One new synth to your palette cost about $1000 minimum in 1984 from my recollection, not touch sensitive, probably not polyphonic, maybe no patch memory. Today you could produce an album essentially for free minus the cost of the computer and your time, you still have to be inventive a bit but you'll get some nice sounding radio-acceptable tracks if you have the skills. It is a blessing and a curse because you can get a little lost in fiddling with the technology and not working on actual music. When my only synth was an SH-101 I never spent any time trying to pick out what instrument to use for a part, that was all I had kin front of me, I had to live with the DR-110 drum sounds because i had no other options. So it had its utility in its simplicity, and it also had many limitations. But cost alone is a huge thing and that was really what I was marvelling at, that I can get a nice delay for free

I can totally relate to this because for most of my time playing I was a one guitar, one amp guy...obviously not the case now. I remember getting excited just having any delay, your point is well taken

Very well put.

[lotus2035]

I have limited myself to a pair of spoons and a kazoo, since then I have released 4 hit albums selling 10 million copies (each) and I am at present working on Whitney Houston's official tribute album "I will always Kazoo" which will no doubt make me even more stinkin' rich.
LESS IS MORE (unless it's money in which case: MORE IS BETTER).

[braj]

I literally got back into computer music recently so I could play 'Dark Star' by the Grateful Dead over and over and over again......... I wanted a band to jam with. I rarely finish anything, and much of what I like IS fiddling with the technology

[braj]

I have limited myself to a pair of spoons and a kazoo, since then I have released 4 hit albums selling 10 million copies (each) and I am at present working on Whitney Houston's official tribute album "I will always Kazoo" which will no doubt make me even more stinkin' rich.
LESS IS MORE (unless it's money in which case: MORE IS BETTER).

May I suggest one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... Categories

I actually am gonna buy one soon I can't find my old one, and the new ones have updated humbuckers with little wah wah holes.

[Resonator63]

I never knew you could get an electric kazoo.
I want one.
Hmmm! which colour shall I go for.

[jasinski]

One of the things you loose when you have too many options for creating music is you miss a lot of the 'happy accidents' that come from a limited kit. Things you wouldn't have done or thought of because you were looking for ways to work around those limits.

I like the idea of the one-synth-challenge contests on KVR for just this reason.

[Neon Breath]

I remember the days where I had specific sounds in mind and not being able to create them, because of technology, budget & physical room limitations. Honestly, I would never like to go back where I started I'm really happy in the era i'm living into

[Hink]

I remember the days where I had specific sounds in mind and not being able to create them, because of technology, budget & physical room limitations. Honestly, I would never like to go back where I started I'm really happy in the era i'm living into

+1...but I'm glad I went through all that, I learned a lot that way