Your host/DAW of choice (Poll)

[Jace-BeOS]

I don't do unfinished. I have abandoned a couple of things. Rare, quite rare for me.

I don't have that same self-discipline. I set things aside and often revisit them with different ideas or impulses. I'm better at changing things than inventing things, it seems... so I kind of trick myself into being productive by revising older work.

There are 50-some tracks I cannot fix except to deal with 'em in a mastering setup and there're no worries there, since my ex-landlord stole and sold my Mac Pro with those projects on drives in it. No, he didn't just toss a big expensive-looking item, he's in it for the money.

That's theft, and the sale of stolen goods. I'm presuming you couldn't find any legal recourse for this situation(?).

I don't know what I'd do in that situation other than feeling horribly violated and seething with rage.

[jancivil]

it's conjecture. It's going to be some time before I cool off completely about this. But hard to feature the guy jusi doing 'f**k Civil, I'm tossing this' as the money-grubber he surely is. We have no contract so there's no legal anything here.

If I have a decent workflow such as I had with the big machine I'll just work until I drop, it's ideas all the livelong day. It's tougher with 6GB and a 5400 RPM spinner. I'll buy the SSD in May though. Thanks for interest.

[EnGee]

At the same time, having tons of UNFINISHED projects is a sign of procrastination. Get that shit out the door...

That's true mostly! I need to be more serious with my music and be more productive

Same here... I guess. Thing is:

1. Music doesn't pay. My priority is to change my life situation. Music isn't going to do that for me.
2. I'm not remotely entrepreneurial, and
3. I hate self-promotion.

Put all that together and I have no motivation to work harder at making music. Relying on my [mostly extinguished] artistic drives for my hobbies is all I have.

Still, my projects matter a great deal to me. So I keep re-visiting them. That's why I've converted everything from the PC/Sonar setup I was on years ago.

If my music mattered to other people too, maybe I would try to publish them in some way other than SoundCloud (which does me no good at all). But I don't have any interest in the streaming services, which pay shit anyway. I want to publish as I myself buy music: a nice CD package. I really like the visual and tactile aspects of holding a piece of music as art in my hands and placing it on my shelf. I don't understand why vinyl is a big thing again. Put the CD in a nice package, scale it up like vinyl, if the REAL complaint is that CDs have tiny art (CD is a nice size for collections and the art is bigger than tape FFS, which is also seemingly making some kind of demented comeback).

Blah blah blah...

This is why I don't get how people change platforms and DAWs so easily. I guess most people make stuff, upload it to the internet, and forget about it (and I presume make more stuff).

Well, for me, the cause might be depression. Sure I have some kind of mental illness (PTSD), but of course I'm not crazy well, sometimes maybe!

Anyway, 30 years ago I recorded a tape that had 13 'musical' pieces in 2 days. 20 years ago I did something similar and it took about one week. The last 10 years, I did maybe 4 to 5 pieces only!

The funny thing is I have everything I missed when I was 20 years old but I miss the only strong thing which is 'motive'.

You did well! I visited your SoundCloud page and you have many finished work (also most of the others that have SoundCloud or YouTube channel). It just the day to become rich and famous will never come! But the primary and realistic goal is to make music and feel you have created something (it doesn't matter what tools you have used, although keep using the same tools is the norm, but not a condition).

[jancivil]

They told me I was depressed (manic depression, now it's 'bipolar' which sounds so much less exciting, doesn't it?) but in fact I was crazy.

[Jace-BeOS]

Well, for me, the cause might be depression. Sure I have some kind of mental illness (PTSD), but of course I'm not crazy well, sometimes maybe!

I'm sorry to hear that. I have PTSD myself. Employers, mostly. It's a very serious condition to live with. I hope you're finding yours decreasing over time. I'm not keen on the term "mental illness" since I have yet to meet someone who wasn't driven to disorder by abuse and/or trauma. Calling it a mental illness is part of legitimizing people's difficulties, which should be good, but seems to be more about normalizing the use of drugs to "fix" people, when society doesn't want to work on the causes to stop these things happening in the first place.

I hope you can find your motivation again and recover from the PTSD.

Anyway, 30 years ago I recorded a tape that had 13 'musical' pieces in 2 days. 20 years ago I did something similar and it took about one week. The last 10 years, I did maybe 4 to 5 pieces only!

I was super prolific with photography (and a type of collage) when I was in my impulsive state on an SSRI drug and under seemingly constant assault. I don't recommend it as a method for being an artist. Plus, most of what I made was so deeply personal that it has no commercial value... and lots of it was just bad.

Also, maybe it might be for you how it was for me as I progressed with music over the years: my expectations are much greater today; I create less music because I am more picky about what I create and how it sounds.

The funny thing is I have everything I missed when I was 20 years old but I miss the only strong thing which is 'motive'.

If you mean music equipment, then me too!! While my impulse control was near dead, I wrecked my credit buying music gear (I figured I was going to end up dead anyway). I didn't make much music at all then. I made more music, years before, with FastTracker/Mod Plug Tracker and shitty samples than I did with pro equipment. Well, actually I think I've finally balanced that out by today, but two or three songs every year or so isn't acceptable progress to me.

However, I definitely credit my Macs, Mac OS, and Logic for the bulk of my "almost complete" music. I was WAY more productive with this platform and DAW than I was with Sonar. As the thread is titled: that's what did it for me.

You did well! I visited your SoundCloud page

Thank you for that. It's nice to have someone consider my work

and you have many finished work (also most of the others that have SoundCloud or YouTube channel).

I don't consider them finished, just at demo level. I don't think they're likely to get further though. I really wish I had some music partners. People who were professional engineers, mixers, mastering experts... I tire of being a jack of all trades and a master of none.

It just the day to become rich and famous will never come!

Very true. I would be VERY pleased with mere income to support living a healthy life in a quiet place. I don't need to be rich or famous.

But the primary and realistic goal is to make music and feel you have created something (it doesn't matter what tools you have used, although keep using the same tools is the norm, but not a condition).

Yes! I agree that should be the goal. I just have lots of conditioning telling me otherwise, and a lack of motivation as a result. It's hard to intellectually defeat decades of conditioning that started in childhood.

[Jace-BeOS]

They told me I was depressed (manic depression, now it's 'bipolar' which sounds so much less exciting, doesn't it?) but in fact I was crazy.

As I've been saying to many people: crazy is where people get driven...

[EnGee]

Yes, it is normal that the events of this world affects us. Wars and a difficult childhood maybe the most common reasons for Depression (in general), later it is the broken wings, I mean dreams!

I hope both of you would think positively and continue. I realised that avoiding being in a quarrel or agrressive environment, helps me to stay positive (besides my Fluoxetine of course! ) I'm sure in Australia the same system as in NZ, so people can get the related medicine for very low price (supported by government). I hope it is the same in the US.

OK! Back to the hosts! I don't think this would change for me, but Reason and Cubase are the main now for me! It is not a problem which one I use because it is easy to ReWire Reason to Cubase if I need something in Cubase.

I was supposed to make some short demos for new products, but I don't have the inspiration to do more. Anyway, I'm looking for making some new projects in Reason using the new synths Europa and Grain (besides Thor, The Legend and other traditional VST synths like Massive , FM8 ..etc). The workflow is fast and fantastic and I think it will help me to capture the ideas fast.

Maybe we are becoming more picky with time, but maybe it is just because we are getting better!

[fmr]

First of all, my sympathy to all of you that face some sort of mental/psychic problems. I have passed through some serious states in the past years too, but fortunately, I somehow found the strength to get rid of medical accompaniment and drugs.

That said, I am convinced that a major part of the population faces some sort of psychic disorder, to more or less extent. Depression is something that menaces us more and more, for example. Anyway, in the end, artistic creation may be also a sort of treatment, and art is many times the result of periods of life where people are facing stronger challenges. It's up to us to transform those fights in opportunities. That's what I've been trying to do in the past few years, after getting over the darkest period.

[Hink]

another with PTSD, depression, dysthymic disorder, blood and puncture phobia (extreme and part of my disability) and cocaine dependency in full remission (25 years clean from coke this aug). All diagnosed by the veteran's admin and that's how it's written in my disability. I have spent untold hours in groups, therapy and classes especially on the depression and anxiety with outstanding success. I guess though losing my wife and how it happened at the same time as getting our (now my) first house kinda bears witness to that. In fact one doctor who ran some of the last classes I took in 2015 and 2016 when he starts classes and has doubters calls me, puts me on speaker and has me tell my story to other vets..for that I take great pride

[EnGee]

We all should be proud that we chose the positive side of life and could win ourselves.

Music making can help us remedy our wounds and luckily we have all the tools now