Do you end up getting tired of your own music from the production process?

[The_Hidden_Goose]

I tend to tweak a lot while I'm messing with that loop, so it ends up quite different each time around an, when it works out right, I get some kind of musical narrative going on.

If nothing emerges then I tend to get sick of it and move on. Sometimes I'll save it if I feel I might return to it another day with fresh ears. Other times I'll save it as there might be elements that I'll re-use in something else.

Only problem with this is that I can sometimes get stuck in playing with it and never ending up taking it anywhere beyond that. Still....I enjoy mucking about with sound, so I get something from it.

[rockstar_not]

As soon as it becomes tiresome, I move along to something else that is entertaining - a new song, a new patch construction, a new guitar riff, etc.

I make music almost entirely for hobby reasons - sometimes it's something as crazy as figuring out how to use a plugin like KT Drum Trigger to supplant vocalized beat-box with drum samples. Very fun, but my beat box 'skillz' are not rhythmically up to snuff. So, once I figured out how to do it, I posted it here at KVR and ModulR picked it up, with legitimate beat-box skills, and ran with it - and I had a big smile.

I've never had delusions of making money doing this hobby. If it ever gets to that point, then I think the fun will/would disappear.

So, if you tire yourself with your own music due to spending too much time on production, move along to something else. Take a class on jazz improvisation, or classical composition techniques, or whatever entertains you. Employ one learning in music production, expand your horizons, etc.

-Scott

[LokiFoki]

Sometimes playing it back at a different speed (and therefor different pitch) can sound somewhat fresh after you got tired of a song/melody. For example playing a 44.1kHz file at 48kHz.

[chickenhide]

I work in a very linear way now but what i found is to really focus on getting the skeleton down of the track. By this i mean really focus on getting the main melody and rhythm down. Take existing loops and add a few things and just keep going until you have something that can be recorded. Once you got the loops and main "spirit" of the track down you can start going in and adding little details, changing parts etc.

This is the best advice as far as composition goes

[lotus2035]

Yes, perhaps anilingus is he answer!

I hear they have some special offers on flights to New York around this time of year.

[robogone]

Yes, perhaps anilingus is he answer!

I hear they have some special offers on flights to New York around this time of year.

...and some cheap ones flying to the Pacific Rim...

[Aleatoriac]

Yes. To the point right now that I'm not making anything. All I do is practice guitar chops. Haven't recorded anything in about 4 weeks. But it comes and goes. Imagine it's pretty much the same for most people.

[satYatunes]

Setup a goal if you want to finish something. Works for everything in general not only tracks. Until you set a deadline it's not going to go anywhere cause there is no pressure. If there is no pressure then there will be no seriousness. If there is no seriousness then there will be no finishing of tracks.

[Sendy]

Artificially imposed deadlines are useless to me, because the music has a life of it's own. "It's time to stop - forever" would just fall on deaf ears.

The "skeleton first" way of working also doesn't work for me - obviously there are some details you can only fill in at the end but in general I like to get something (a section, idea or moment in the track) more or less finalized before I move on, because often it's the tiny little details, like how a couple of sounds interact together through FX, or little auditary illusions that crop up through masking, that shape the rest of the track. If you want arrangement and sound design to fuse together, they must be worked on as a whole.

Putting your loop in the middle and working backwards is something I find myself doing more and more. I usually start from the first fully formed idea, work forwards, then the more I extend this forwards the more material I have to cull for that all important intro.

[Delfinoverde]

Setup a goal if you want to finish something. Works for everything in general not only tracks. Until you set a deadline it's not going to go anywhere cause there is no pressure. If there is no pressure then there will be no seriousness. If there is no seriousness then there will be no finishing of tracks.

I agree with you regarding the "goals" - but not with the pressure. Most artists don't like pressure nor to work under pressure! Artists love FREEDOM. Some don't listen again their songs after having finished them, others only if some time has passed after the production.

If you get tired in the progress of your music production, take a break or just skip it and do a new project…just to fool your (controlling) mind a little bit. Eventually you'll come back to the older work(s) in the "flow" with more enthusiasm & energy - without any (self)pressure!

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[datroof]

One thing you can try to do is reduce the number of times you're listening to your song, and thereby reduce the over-exposure. It's easy to get in the habit of just listening repeatedly, waiting/hoping for inspiration to happen. Lately, when I'm working on something, I've been trying to cut down on "empty listening", ie, I try not to listen unless I'm listening with a specific purpose, usually to a specific section, etc.
I'm old enough to remember composing without DAWs, when you couldn't just hit the Play button. If you wanted to hear what you were working on, you had to play it yourself on an instrument (or have someone play it for you). So as a result, you weren't getting nearly the repetitions, and you had to retain the material in your head longer (a useful skill). The reason I bring this up is that, as truly wonderful as DAWs are, they do encourage some bad habits and lazyness.

[Delfinoverde]

…The reason I bring this up is that, as truly wonderful as DAWs are, they do encourage some bad habits and lazyness.

I don't think that DAWs are responsible for laziness or bad habits.
It's so good that we have not to rewind/fast-forward like in the old days with the tape recording machines! Consequently we have more time to work on the substance of the audio material. The only negative thing with DAWs is: there are no real faders & knobs anymore.

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[datroof]

…The reason I bring this up is that, as truly wonderful as DAWs are, they do encourage some bad habits and lazyness.

I don't think that DAWs are responsible for laziness or bad habits.
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Dude, you just quoted me in your own post, before misquoting me.

[Mikelo]

Pick another genre, this helps with the dilemma of being in a rut.
If you do dance music for example, try doing rock instead.

[Igrewsome]

I tend to tweak a lot while I'm messing with that loop, so it ends up quite different each time around an, when it works out right, I get some kind of musical narrative going on.

Yeah, I got to say I do the same. I use Riffworks, which separates each riff as a separate unit. As I'm playing through the song, building it, I usually am setting my volume and pans right away. I'll often double my guitar lines and immediately pan them to left and right.
The keyboards, due to how filters and sweeps function, it's easier for me to record my keys once and then duplicate my riff.
Even through I'm basically "writing songs in the studio" so to speak (which I'm sure in this age of DAWs that EVERYONE does now!), I'm mixing as I go along. And then I usually only have to listen to the song twice at the end to listen to overall mix, pans, and volume levels. I used to compress a lot more in the beginning than I do now - the more keys I layer now, the LESS compression seems to work.

But everyone's got their own producing/engineering style.