Is it common for newbies to feel like they're not in control?

[Unaspected]

I'm very new to the hobby of making/recording music. Every 2-3 days, I'll record 8-16 bars as I try to learn the software (LPX, K12, Scaler 2). While the "songs" turn out OK, I feel like I'm not in control. I don't feel like I'm driving a car, rather I have a hand on the rudder of a light boat in choppy waters.

Is this something that is common for people as they learn the software? Is this a feeling that, to some degree, never really goes away? Or, maybe, if I wasn't such an impatient ass who would just take the time to dig into each MIDI note and value, then I wouldn't be experiencing that?

I'm writing not only to get some feedback on that question, but also to partially introduce myself and thank the community for being incredibly helpful to lurkers and archive readers like myself. I'm really excited about this new hobby; when I thought I'd record some guitar, I had no idea what kind of rabbit hole I was jumping into.

Then welcome to the forum.

It is common and there is plenty to learn. Whilst the rabbit hole can go as deep as you like, you can reach a place where you feel competent and confident in what you are doing; where you understand why everything is working as it is and can roughly predict the results of processes before you apply them.

My advice would be to learn the basic principals of what you are using - not just what they can do but at least an overview of how they are doing it. Then you can transfer such knowledge.

Firstly, I would read up on the Shannon Nyquist sampling theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E ... ng_theorem

[LanceEsgard]

"I don't feel like I'm driving a car, rather I have a hand on the rudder of a light boat in choppy waters."

Although I'm new to this forum I started composing 12 years ago. I think a distinction can be made between 'self-awareness' and 'control/self-control'. Whenever you write music you are using one set of tools (a variable mix of instruments, effects, loops and platforms) over others. You learn over time to use them and as you get experience you gain transferable knowledge. If you get your around one analog synth, then it helps you to learn your way around others, but you still have to learn the specifics from each new one.

mbrendzel's statement suggests that mbrendzel is surprised by the result of the process of recording and composition. That it doesn't turn out exactly how it was originally conceived. Where, at the end of the process, you don't feel you decided all of the details that got you to the destination.

'Control' can be thought of as, in its ideal form, knowing exactly what it sounds like then getting that result. Music theory can help towards this, but it would also mean memorising a lot of details of what you use. Just as specific paints alter the colour, texture and mixing possibilities available to a painter, what tools a composer/musician uses will shape the availability of sounds and which ones are easier and which are more time-consuming to achieve.

There are some painters who stuck to very specific shades of paint. Like, they may only ever use a very specific shade of blue so they had exact knowledge of how it worked. This has a benefit of shaping their personal style. There are also composers who will go to same tools again and again and again. But it means limiting what you use.

Like a painter choosing brushes and paints, over time you learn what tools to use to get a result. What works for you for getting a certain kind of sound, if not the exact details. That's 'self-awareness'. You know what you are doing with your tools and purposefully choose and use them, but allow creative impulses, experimentation and a lack of complete knowledge of your tools to be left open to surprises and new developments. Improvisation involves such subconscious creativity.

Different artists have different preferences. You can get greater control over what your sound is, but you will lose some control whenever you add to your toolset.

[squidot]

As a newbie to both producing and this forum I have similar feelings at times. There's a lot of information and learning that goes into becoming a proficient producer and can feel like an intimidating mountain you have to climb with no idea on where to start scaling. I'm going into it with the understanding that it's going to take me a while to get where I want to be and that I need to focus on smaller attainable goals that I can consistently accomplish. I've signed up to one of the learning sites with a mentor and that has been very helpful for me so far. I'm dealing with bite sized bits of info that I can digest. You just keep learning these little bits and put them to use when you need them. Learn a little bit and incorporate it!

So as a few others have said, I think having daily / weekly / monthly / short term / and mid term goals are very helpful (necessary even) to succeeding. My daily goals are to spend an hour in my DAW and watch one tutorial video. My weekly goals are to spend a couple of hours practicing either guitar or learning synthesis, which I can combine with my daily goals. My monthly goal is to write 1 song or do 1 remix and finish to the best of my ability it regardless if I like it or not. My mid term goal is to increase the amount of songs I can write in the effort to have quality bloom from quantity, and write a song I do like. You can't learn about the whole process if you don't ever finish the process. If you only ever write loops, it becomes very difficult to break out of that mindset. I'm not saying you have to release a bunch of terrible tracks you hate, but it helps our growth to finish as many songs as possible.

Also, I don't worry too much about the software or instruments "taking control." That can actually be a cool part of the process for me where happy accidents can occur a give some inspiration in way that wasn't planned. I typically only find those moments in choppy waters when I don't fully understand what I'm doing, which can be really fun and exciting.

Best of luck to you! Just know that I'm pretty much in the same boat and have been wanting to start producing for decades at this point and I'm finally taking the plunge and can't wait to see the results.

[excuse me please]

Know the feeling, because it's my basic zen approach. To me it seems like building a pyramid. An impossible task for a single person. Everything looks overwhelming in the beginning, little wonder.

However, I see others trying to construct a pyramid, but like I said, that makes no sense. Since I am mixing for more than 6 years as a hobby by now, I feel confident. Because I've seen many vids about the pyramid, but the narrators relate to pyramids which only exist in their mind. While they pretend to have found something "real."

But the only real sounds are just happening lol if you think about it.

It's a fallacy. That's why there are so many plugins which are all based on the same principles. Principles are basical. Music is basically about frequencies and their amplitude. If one is able to translate these principles consequently when it comes to audio production, then at some point one gets - more or less - an understanding how these principles - depending on the laws of nature - work together.

It's up to the listener how to use their tools. Because in the end the listener determines how something sounds, because they have chosen their set of tools and how - and when - to apply them. They can blame nobody else for what happened.

In other words: only approve to what you want to hear, not what is "expected." That way you will be the sole captain of your ship. All the rest is just a distraction of what the listener/producer tries to accomplish.

[zerocrossing]

Totally normal, even more so if you’re in a band playing with other people. It’s best to let go and think of it as influencing the conclusion of a track than actually directly controlling the production. My first time in a recording studio was unbelievably amazing... and frustrating. I had no knowledge, but I knew what I wanted it to sound like. The engineer was a nice guy but he wasn’t really listening to me. He was going for a very 80s quantized ultra pasteurized drenched in Eventide sound and I wanted a 1965 British pop/rock kind of sound. I actually enrolled in a school for audio engineering soon after that experience because I never wanted to be in a situation where I didn’t have the words or knowledge to get what I wanted.

[Tj Shredder]

Sometimes in a creative process its crucial to loose control! You don‘t need it always, as the minimum of control you might need, you learned already, welcome the times you seem to loose control. Let all these happy accidents drive you forward...
Yes, a DAW can drive you crazy if you have an idea you don‘t know how to put into production, I usually just ask google, or if that doesn‘t help I make a walk in nature, often that will reveal the solution...

[Double Tap]

Novelists talk about how they start to write one story, then a character takes over and it turns out differently. Losing control is part of creativity.

The time you need to take control is when you're editing - selecting the bits that work and being ruthless about the bits that don't, even if they are good in themselves.

That's why it's important to try to finish things when you hear something you've done and think "actually, that sounds pretty good", because you can't really learn that side of composition without actually doing it.

[Armagibbon]

Control is what you get after you practice what you know. Any time you lose control is when you aint doing what you know... so dont look at it like some happy bullsh!t accident if you do it right 1 time. Take a break and pull it a part... figure out why it worked so you can do it again faster and on purpose.

So yea man its common for newbies to feel like that. Theres alot they dont know yet

[transmisser]

Definitely normal to feel that way. I think it helps to make a realistic list of things you want to do confidently in your DAW / plugin, and hyper focus on that list. It lays a good foundation for approaching more complex topics down the road, but lets you relax a little bit since you're focusing on a small set of problems. It just takes time, but you'll get there if you put a little time in every day with the 'boring' stuff.

[kmonkey]

Quite honestly by the title of this topic i was under impression that this is sex question.

[fese]

Quite honestly by the title of this topic i was under impression that this is sex question.

I can imagine your disappointment while reading through this thread... “c’mon, this is boring! When does it get saucy??”

[kmonkey]

Quite honestly by the title of this topic i was under impression that this is sex question.

I can imagine your disappointment while reading through this thread... “c’mon, this is boring! When does it get saucy??”

Exactly

[excuse me please]

What is "control" anyway? Usually, it comes down to some form of concoction. Most people are completely ignoring what they hear if they have some instrument to play with. They don't even care.

The instrument functions as some kind of expansion of their hopeless being, if that's the case. It's not that these wizards control their instruments; their instrument controls them.

It's a vacuum which has swallowed many heroes. Literally: no fun.

[leeleema]

What is "control" anyway? Usually, it comes down to some form of concoction. Most people are completely ignoring what they hear if they have some instrument to play with. They don't even care.

The instrument functions as some kind of expansion of their hopeless being, if that's the case. It's not that these wizards control their instruments; their instrument controls them.

It's a vacuum which has swallowed many heroes. Literally: no fun.

I'll have what he's having

[excuse me please]

What is "control" anyway? Usually, it comes down to some form of concoction. Most people are completely ignoring what they hear if they have some instrument to play with. They don't even care.

The instrument functions as some kind of expansion of their hopeless being, if that's the case. It's not that these wizards control their instruments; their instrument controls them.

It's a vacuum which has swallowed many heroes. Literally: no fun.

I'll have what he's having

It's just banter, really. That said, I use this energy pills, lately. Herbal energy. Vitamin B complex with guarana, cola and Siberian ginseng. I take a fifth of a pill.

Well, I think the op has "the feeling." That is why they are so full of themselves. But their production skills do not impress me.

PS oh dear, the latter was incorrect. Mistakingly, I thought this was the mozex thread

Sorry op.