KVR Audio

CypherOne · Post by **CypherOne** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:49 pm

***This isn't a 'love me, love me, I need my ego massaged' type thread***

I seem to be completely stuck lately. I seem to be suffering the worst creative block (i.e. longest period) I've ever had. Couple that with less and less time available to make music and I am really thinking of quitting.

I don't seem to be learning anything, don't know what I'm trying to achieve and where there used to be enjoyment, there's now just frustration.

Like I say this isn't intended to be a 'tell me I'm great' thread, cos I'm not. I just don't know why I bother really.

Just wanted to get that off my chest. Chances are I'll come up with something half decent soon and look like a right tit

Don't get me wrong I'm not feeling suicidal about it just stuck in a rut.

There, that's better.

mystahr · Post by **mystahr** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:50 pm

Now make a song of this feeling

proletkult · Post by **proletkult** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:54 pm

CypherOne wrote:***This isn't a 'love me, love me, I need my ego massaged' type thread***

I seem to be completely stuck lately. I seem to be suffering the worst creative block (i.e. longest period) I've ever had. Couple that with less and less time available to make music and I am really thinking of quitting.

I don't seem to be learning anything, don't know what I'm trying to achieve and where there used to be enjoyment, there's now just frustration.

Like I say this isn't intended to be a 'tell me I'm great' thread, cos I'm not. I just don't know why I bother really.

Just wanted to get that off my chest. Chances are I'll come up with something half decent soon and look like a right tit

Don't get me wrong I'm not feeling suicidal about it just stuck in a rut.

There, that's better.

Are you saying that you're sitting at your piano/guitar/pc and nothings happening, or that every moment of you waking life is artistically barren?

Spe3D · Post by **Spe3D** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:54 pm

Why don’t you just mess about with beats and have fun doing it Cypher – don’t try to make it a masterpiece – like whack out a bass line – do some beats, mess em up – have fun with effects, reverse stuff – chop stuff up – stretch it, manipulate it into sounds that you have not used before – integrate them into old tracks – re-mix your old stuff with new ideas from messing about sessions.

Go for a walk – read a book – look at the sky – give feedback on others tracks and get a feel for what they are doing and how they might have created something.

Above all – don’t give up

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

Glooper · Post by **Glooper** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:58 pm

cypher.. join the monthly comps.. it don't take much effort each month and it forces you to learn new techniques (well when it's not a free for all)...

besides you can't quit.. I'm still waiting for a CypherOne CD that I can buy..

Ben

bastien · Post by **bastien** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:59 pm

Take a break. Or record something *REALLY* stupid - swearing, jokey, annoying, preferably with some friends and some beers.

It'll make you feel better, believe me!

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:02 pm

#1:You can't quit, it's like breathing, once you've done it you can't stop.
Believe me, I had one dry spell when I set my acoustic down and didn't pick it up for 7 years.
Then I entered my synthesizer years which were quite productive but this last one has been five with just a few spurts here and there but nothing like it was, but now I feel a resurgence coming back again.

Don't worry, once you've tasted making music you can never give it up.

perhaps you've gone as far as you can in your present style, absorb the situations around you and you will have a wealth of material to draw from.

Also, all the advice given here so far is excellent.

projectdan · Post by **projectdan** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:07 pm

Just mess about doing presets, and dont think you have to do any music, just let it happen when it happens. This sort of thing is common, I have experienced it myself and seen it many times on forums. Dont quit, just let yourself take an indefinet break.

butter · Post by **butter** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:24 pm

A break helps enormously I've found. I had my workstation crash on me and didn't have it back up and running for about a month and half. It killed me but I found the break had been very, very beneficial. I actually managed to find time to date for a while too. Then when she broke up with me I had enough emotional crap to clean up through music that everything just kind of clicked again.

trappist · Post by **trappist** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:29 pm

Things are very dry here as well.....musically. I'm not planning on quitting though, but when I fire up the hardware (or VSTi's), I don't seem to have much excitement anymore.

Funkybot · Post by **Funkybot** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:32 pm

When I get like that, I'll just try things I normally don't do (like hip hop tracks, or ambient little noodlings), or try and find a way to rework things I'm stuck with from a completely different approach (like throwaway everything I've written for guitar and drums, and change them entirely to try and get something wierd or at least interesting on some level). If you're not expecting to be a professional, living off your music, musician who cares if you're not doing anything amazing, just keep using music as an outlet. If anything, find someone you know who's a musician and offer to produce them, and record their demo. Just try and change the way you work, think about music, etc., so that you're at least doing something, even if the end result isn't the most amazing thing. I'm with you on the time thing though. I've basically resorted to only having Saturdays to really work on anything, and find myself writing less and less.

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:37 pm

explore music, I love your stuff.

experiment with chord and mood changes more (ignore the anti musical snobbery bollox)

dont give up, improve.

CypherOne wrote:I seem to be completely stuck lately. I seem to be suffering the worst creative block (i.e. longest period) I've ever had.

Hovmod · Post by **Hovmod** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:37 pm

Quit. Delete all your old songs. Then wait. It'll pass. I do it once a year or so.

Gargoyle · Post by **Gargoyle** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:38 pm

Wise words from everyone there, Cypher, so I'm not going to simply repeat them. What you feel is most important, anyway, and it sounds like you know the problem and the solution.

You also probably know you're not going to quit, but it you are at all like me, you just need to express what you did to get it out of your system.

Having done so, you'll probably be fine. Just muck about with what you've got, enjoy the process, set little challenges for yourself and worry less about the results and more about the fact that it's to be enjoyed.

Anyway, whatever you do, keep coming back to KVR, as we'd miss you and your brand of humour

Sicklecell666 · Post by **Sicklecell666** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:38 pm

take a break.

later.

Thinking of Quitting