KVR Audio

handoman · Post by **handoman** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:23 pm

I mean, not all our tracks can be hits, right? Do you still finish tracks even if you know they arent very good? I find myself giving up on certain projects because they aren't working out the way I want them. Is it good practice to push through and still finish those tracks? Should I keep working on them and trying to fix them, or should I just know when to quit? What do you guys think?

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:54 pm

If I hate a track too much while I'm working on it, I start removing stuff starting from the worst part; if there's anything good I usually try to rescue it.

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:02 pm

Yes, i learn more from the tracks that suck than the ones that don't. One good trick is to bounce the idea and listen to it in a different room, while listening write down anything that jumps out at you that you can implement or change, i do a lot more analysis now than i used to but it works.

If something's really not working i strip it back to the groove as above and if it keeps my head nodding i either rebuild or i rework the track from scatch dragging tracks in from my project folder (Live 9).

Often it turns out to be the elements in the track that need to be changed and not the track itself.

ariston · Post by **ariston** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:05 pm

If it's bad, try to accentuate the badness. Find the parts that suck the most, and hone them til they don't just suck, but mega-suck.

I'm serious. Try it, you'll have a lot of fun, and the result will be interesting at the worst, and at best, you'll create a new genre.

TrekStar · Post by **TrekStar** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:39 pm

I do not finish tracks. I just collect vsti's and libraries.

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:52 pm

Honesty is a virtue. Now go finish one track it will make you feel better.

TrekStar wrote:I do not finish tracks. I just collect vsti's and libraries.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:53 pm

I don't even start it if it's not "it", it's not hard to make good idea/composition even better, but other way around relying only on production gimmicks, yeah, time is precious to waste it on that, YMMV.

Skorpius · Post by **Skorpius** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:01 pm

I suppose you mean complete songs or arrangements when you talk about tracks (i. e. projects as opposed to tracks within a DAW). Well, I don't have any songs that suck. Just lots of unfinished ideas and rough sketches. If I had a song that sucks, I wouldn't waste any time on it. I stick to the songs that are potential hits and focus on them - that is, I finish them as good as I can.

I used to work on lots of unfinished ideas and half-ready songs at the same time, telling myself this would get me further with my "overall work". But I've learned it's much more efficient to concentrate on a few songs I consider worth finishing and releasing.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:08 pm

Skorpius wrote:I suppose you mean complete songs or arrangements when you talk about tracks (i. e. projects as opposed to tracks within a DAW). Well, I don't have any songs that suck. Just lots of unfinished ideas and rough sketches. If I had a song that sucks, I wouldn't waste any time on it. I stick to the songs that are potential hits and focus on them - that is, I finish them as good as I can.

I used to work on lots of unfinished ideas and half-ready songs at the same time, telling myself this would get me further with my "overall work". But I've learned it's much more efficient to concentrate on a few songs I consider worth finishing and releasing.

+1

I start with piano most of the times and pretty much there's nothing to start if there isn't working melody, chord progression, riff, anything, than I do basic/rough sketch and test that on people I trust, after that it's full on production time.

Googly Smythe · Post by **Googly Smythe** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:26 pm

If I have a piece that is unsalvagable it gets deleted. All of it.
This after changing the drums, shifting parts around, adding, subtracting, leaving it for a few weeks, etc.

Sparky77 · Post by **Sparky77** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 1:18 am

handoman wrote:I mean, not all our tracks can be hits, right? Do you still finish tracks even if you know they arent very good? I find myself giving up on certain projects because they aren't working out the way I want them. Is it good practice to push through and still finish those tracks? Should I keep working on them and trying to fix them, or should I just know when to quit? What do you guys think?

For years I made myself complete tracks just for the learning experience.
I wanted to remove judgement from the process and just do my best to go from start to finish.
This was a great way to progress and gain knowledge.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 1:37 am

Good point, it really depends, if one is learning his way, just finish few tracks and learn by doing it, if not, don't waste your time on something you don't even like that much anymore.

Music making should be fun or at least labor should pay off in the end, if you forcing yourself to finish a track you don't like and probably many will find mediocre, what's the point really, other way around, finishing mediocre track you don't like but many will, well, that's for another thread, but it pays off in the end at least.

metamorphosis · Post by **metamorphosis** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 2:29 am

Remix it

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 2:41 am

know when to quit a project in my opinion unless you think you can turn it around which can happen.

harryupbabble · Post by **harryupbabble** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:33 am

I have yet to try this fully/solely and have not stayed on course with it myself due to "distractions" and due to not-enough-time and other seemingly excuses (but I intend to) and it might not work but I think you should put more pressure on your self and finish all your tracks and upload them all over the net (and if not finished, upload it anyway) for all to hear and critique (and for all to probably steal but that's probably okay because you can maybe sue them later if you can prove that your version is the oldest or earliest version, and who wants to steal something that sucks anyways).

Be a music-making machine. Be the uproar of that. Upload maybe one song or tune a day, no matter if they are as sucky as you say/think they are, like keeping a diary and having a self-imposed deadline. Not to be a math whiz or anything but that would be, uh, -+360 songs a year? Pretty soon you would surpass the Beatles' entire catalog output. Hahaha, you maniac, you. This might be a good way to keep busy and stay/be in shape. Like bands that "had to" perform every night... they just got better and better, right? Maybe that is true too when it comes to composing music and writing lyrics, and maybe even when it comes to everything. Seems to be true with speed scrabble. But there are "plateaus" and "ceilings". But there are also "recuperates" and "take-a-breathers" and "study-harders" and "wasn't-really-ceilings".

But know that some sites, if not most, like YouTube, may legally claim your songs and tunes as their property once you upload it to their site. Still, if you consider that your creations "suck" then what do you care? Anyways, if you get sick or die suddenly or something like that, then at least you did something on Earth (besides getting married and having kids, which seems to be A-okay if you are the right type for that) and the proof would/should be there at YouTube or some site like that. But maybe some uploaded songs and tunes are like some uploaded free VST plugins that used to be all over the net... they get harder and harder to find, in maybe even less than a decade? Sites die, etc. Still. You did ask and... methinks, and I repeat, not only should you finish your tracks but you should "Drop your droppings everywhere", I say.

Now, if I can only find the time and the discipline and fully put into practice my own advise. Easier thought of than fully done when another "hobby" or "hobbies" are/is just as much fun as music-making. I guess this reply is directed more to myself than to anyone else, and maybe I am just babbling to myself as per usual, but hey maybe it could be useful to others, faulty and naive and wishful and stewpeed as it may be. No may bes about it you say? Dood, you may additionally say, "damn it fool, all you did is urinated me off, you could have written a song in the time you spewed all that and this". Nope, I couldn't. Not at this time. Could just do this at this particular time of the night, or something like this. Something... like lyrics? Nope. To me, lyrics are ten thousand times harder to do than posting super-long babbleons or music-making or scrabble. Lyrics require fitting just right with the music and it's got to be done at a certain time. But right now, I gotta get up and go, my butt-cheeks hurt from oversitting (no h) and they are sweaty and... you know. Ewwww. So long.

Do you still finish tracks that...Suck?