What do you think the biggest problem is in learning or participating in music today?

[mandolarian]

What I have planned is very expensive. Booked a flight to the ISS. In space, no one can here you scream at your VST. Plus to make really great space music, it's gotta be created in zero G.

Sure, I'm not the first, but what a poser. Gets the multi-million flight to space and wastes it on a cover tune!

Here's another one:


What a prima dona, wouldn't take the band on the road, er, sky with him. No wonder they broke up.

[KBSoundSmith]

too many things competing for the same amount of time and space. too many internet sites to surf; too many computer games, on too many devices; too many tv channels, for too many hours.

too much.......NOISE !!

need...to....dis.....co.....nect.......

Haha, I hear you (or am trying to... ).

Last weekend, I posted a piece of music I made with the 2cAudio Kaleidoscope demo. While I was working on it, my sister and her husband came to visit with their kids--my niece is almost 3, and my nephew is about 6 months. They were so noisy! I was composing the piece while they were visiting, and I just remember being so frustrated with how hard it was to concentrate. On the one hand, I was happy that I managed to stay productive and get a piece composed--on the other, I was irritated that I must have appeared so anti-social. The kids will only be that age once, so I have to remember to keep a perspective on things,

What have you tried to do to keep things balanced, to block out or minimize the noise?

Why fight it? If it were me, would have recorded the kids, then fed it into KS with some 'extreme' settings and then made the kids sit down and listen to it - tell them: "this is how you're going to sound when you grow up."

That would be enough to keep them quiet for years.

What I have planned is very expensive. Booked a flight to the ISS. In space, no one can here you scream at your VST. Plus to make really great space music, it's gotta be created in zero G. Until then, I can browse KVR guilt and productivity free.

Haha, yeah that's what I should have done

What I have planned is very expensive. Booked a flight to the ISS. In space, no one can here you scream at your VST. Plus to make really great space music, it's gotta be created in zero G. Until then, I can browse KVR guilt and productivity free.

Guilt and productivity free, that's definitely a strategy I should adopt

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Here's another one:

thanks !! i really enjoyed that

[KBSoundSmith]

too many things competing for the same amount of time and space. too many internet sites to surf; too many computer games, on too many devices; too many tv channels, for too many hours.

too much.......NOISE !!

need...to....dis.....co.....nect.......

Haha, I hear you (or am trying to... ).

Last weekend, I posted a piece of music I made with the 2cAudio Kaleidoscope demo. While I was working on it, my sister and her husband came to visit with their kids--my niece is almost 3, and my nephew is about 6 months. They were so noisy! I was composing the piece while they were visiting, and I just remember being so frustrated with how hard it was to concentrate. On the one hand, I was happy that I managed to stay productive and get a piece composed--on the other, I was irritated that I must have appeared so anti-social. The kids will only be that age once, so I have to remember to keep a perspective on things,

What have you tried to do to keep things balanced, to block out or minimize the noise?

actually, i meant noise in a not-so-literal way, although that is part of it also. mean noise as in a constant barrage of distraction, energy, content, media, responsibility

in fact, the noise you describe is the best kind of noise it's the possibility of real interaction with little crazy human beings, that have so much to teach us. this distraction i speak of just tries to drag us away from that experience of life (which is where i think the music exists).

i still find it rather disturbing to be sitting with a group of people who are all staring into their phones, even emailing videos to the person next to them. even more surreal is watching footage of people watching live gigs - none of them are watching it through their eyes, deferring to standing with their arms outstretched, and watching it through the back of their phone screen.....that's noise. that's distraction

in your situation, i'd have dropped everything and try to enjoy it rather than fight it. then, when they'd gone home, it would be possible to really appreciate the calm after the storm, and actually make some music........AFTER checking in on kvr, gmail, facebook....blah....blah...blah

Oh, I understood what you meant, but I definitely gave way too literal an example

I am 100% with you on the cell phone thing. It's really surreal, and IMO, destroying people's social skills. I actually broke it off with a girl not too long ago because she was married to her phone, it was impossible to have a relationship with her--it was ok though, boring conversations anyway

[VariKusBrainZ]

Those who want to will, I learned to play guitar by ear and digital audio by experimenting.
You dont need a teacher or books but theyre helpful if you want get to an advanced level

[KBSoundSmith]

What I have planned is very expensive. Booked a flight to the ISS. In space, no one can here you scream at your VST. Plus to make really great space music, it's gotta be created in zero G. Until then, I can browse KVR guilt and productivity free.

Be careful not to confuse the destination! There are also flights to the IS but you might strand somewhere in the desert between some veiled aliens instead of the space...

True, enough, but at least I'll be composing with Alchemy 2 while the aliens are experimenting on me. So, there's that.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

it was ok though, boring conversations anyway

[mandolarian]

it was ok though, boring conversations anyway

But, the sexting was hot!

[jancivil]

I guess you mean personally?
ca. 30 yrs ago my big problem was I worked as a bike messenger, which meant I didn't have a lot to worry about so thinking about music most of the day was not going to get me in trouble directly. But I was physically spent a lot of the time and if I had to prepare for a show on a worknight it was rough.
At that time, having a goal such as preparing to present something somewhere had a lot to do with my ability to get people in a room so I could make them do stuff.
I lived with musicians so there was a fair amount of jamming and we would do directed improvisation. But more ambitious undertakings meant somebody's wallet was going to come into play and it wasn't mine.

Once I got myself fired kind of axmodently on purpose and I got someone that loved me basically to come up with the rental on the Green Room in the War Memorial Opera House and give me some cash, and I did nothing but put a show together for that room for... around a month it seems like. But ultimately I was going to end up paying my rent with my own money so I got another job schlepping.

Ulimately I dropped out of everything and I don't have a job today. I don't really want to do something else than create music so I ended up with a life and the means to do it. I had a long, 'hot' period but I've slowed way down as the way I am and all is not so ergonomically viable these days. I just took a couple months off from 'writing' and collated my output. I don't like excuses for it, you are driven to it or you're not. I don't have an evaluation of myself in front of the process, I've had ideas all the time and it's not easy for me to have a straight job, it's almost like I don't have a lot of choice but to give in to my impulse to create music.

So today, I don't have 'I need a bunch of people to hear this' as any impetus. I don't enjoy pushing it on people very much, I'm kind of feckless as to that. I started working on something, need to do something or I feel like shit, and even as the first bits weren't anything I found after a couple nights something compelling to keep me going for another stretch.

Anyway that's a perspective from more the autumnal season of life (at best).

[KBSoundSmith]

Those who want to will, I learned to play guitar by ear and digital audio by experimenting.
You dont need a teacher or books but theyre helpful if you want get to an advanced level

Have you ever had a teacher or used theory books, out of curiosity? I'm interested what your experiences are both with the formal and informal ways of learning, what you might think was good or bad about either.

[Sendy]

Your personal story is quite interesting. you mentioned your mind opened and you became more humble. How did that happen? What encouraged you to develop in that way, and how has it affected the way you make music now?

It's probably a lot more interesting summed up in a few paragraphs than it is in realtime

I think I just got older. Travelled a bit. Got into a relationship, got out of a relationship... Had a couple of years of down-time music-wise. Felt pretty much finished musically. Then one day everything just popped back into focus, only with 200% more sharpness. I realized little thought habits I had were holding me back. Like feeling the little ideas I got weren't worth writing down and that I'd be embarassed by them. Being uptight and worrying about crap. Thinking in limited ways, even when I was being creative. Not paying attention to my dreams and daydreams. Not drawing, writing, etc. Pandering to my ego.

I think I simplified my thought process and threw a lot of crap out, and those two years of downtime gave me a lot of time to chew over a lot of music theory, base ideas about production, processing, arrangement, etc.

[Sendy]

Those who want to will, I learned to play guitar by ear and digital audio by experimenting.
You dont need a teacher or books but theyre helpful if you want get to an advanced level

Have you ever had a teacher or used theory books, out of curiosity? I'm interested what your experiences are both with the formal and informal ways of learning, what you might think was good or bad about either.

Not to harp on about myself but I learned synthesis, mixing, sound design, etc by myself. Didn't even bother with tutorials, with the exception of excellent ones like the Sound On Sound Synth Secrets series (which I still like to read through with my current synth du jour every few years). I think a lot of the teaching and tutorializing is really just passing on mediocrity. Telling people what to think and do rather than how to think and do, etc...

Music theory, I think that's harder to learn by yourself. In the beginning I had a tutor, up to Grade 2 theory and Grade 4 practice. I learned the rest from books, but I'm not a theory expert, I know just enough to do what I need to do, and learn more as I need to by a combination of feeling my way and well written books. Generally the Internet is a breeding ground for misinfo and half-truths

[KBSoundSmith]

Your personal story is quite interesting. you mentioned your mind opened and you became more humble. How did that happen? What encouraged you to develop in that way, and how has it affected the way you make music now?

It's probably a lot more interesting summed up in a few paragraphs than it is in realtime

I think I just got older. Travelled a bit. Got into a relationship, got out of a relationship... Had a couple of years of down-time music-wise. Felt pretty much finished musically. Then one day everything just popped back into focus, only with 200% more sharpness. I realized little thought habits I had were holding me back. Like feeling the little ideas I got weren't worth writing down and that I'd be embarassed by them. Being uptight and worrying about crap. Thinking in limited ways, even when I was being creative. Not paying attention to my dreams and daydreams. Not drawing, writing, etc. Pandering to my ego.

I think I simplified my thought process and threw a lot of crap out, and those two years of downtime gave me a lot of time to chew over a lot of music theory, base ideas about production, processing, arrangement, etc.

I can relate to that quite a bit actually. For me, coming out of university, there was a huge expectation that I'd go get a doctorate and become a professor, complete with the musical tastes and all the other non-sense that entails. I struggled to reprogram healthier mindsets and relationships with my music and more generally as well (still struggle with that sometimes)--I had to take some time off to do it.

Not to harp on about myself but I learned synthesis, mixing, sound design, etc by myself. Didn't even bother with tutorials, with the exception of excellent ones like the Sound On Sound Synth Secrets series (which I still like to read through with my current synth du jour every few years). I think a lot of the teaching and tutorializing is really just passing on mediocrity. Telling people what to think and do rather than how to think and do, etc...

Music theory, I think that's harder to learn by yourself. In the beginning I had a tutor, up to Grade 2 theory and Grade 4 practice. I learned the rest from books, but I'm not a theory expert, I know just enough to do what I need to do, and learn more as I need to by a combination of feeling my way and well written books. Generally the Internet is a breeding ground for misinfo and half-truths

Haha, I hear you on that. Even though I was a TA for the music tech program, what I learned by my own efforts was infinitely more valuable and solid than what I was getting in the classroom or from other people.

Music theory is something I definitely have a very strong affinity for and studied extensively in formal situations, so I guess I'm not very typical when it comes to that. That said, I did teach myself a lot of the advanced topics long before I ever saw them in a classroom, so I can't say that I don't relate to self-instruction on the topic (somewhat ).

[KBSoundSmith]

it was ok though, boring conversations anyway

But, the sexting was hot!

[Tricky-Loops]

Is it allowed in the United States that girls marry their mobile phone?

But if it were, all men had to marry their computers...