Where are you based?

ICN

I'd like to know if theres anyone local-ish to me using this site thats also making Music on a Computer.

I'm making Tech / House - so I've got a particular interest in that really.

Been livng in Roscommon over a year now - Back in college FT, so not as much free time anymore.. it would be cool to find out whether I'm the only C*** down here doing this or not :pac:


If anyone else would like to add where they are here - then feel free if you want to see who's around ya!

Cheers,

J

Clanket

Ballycullen in Dublin.

Finding it very hard to find the time to learn to use Logic at the moment. Just had a kid and the lack of sleep is killing me.

Just bought a Logic book off Amazon to keep me even busier.

ICN

Alofthedunnes wrote: »

Ballycullen in Dublin.

Finding it very hard to find the time to learn to use Logic at the moment. Just had a kid and the lack of sleep is killing me.

Just bought a Logic book off Amazon to keep me even busier.

Yeah Man - I'm kinda the same.

My little fella is 19months now.. Hes an absolute Ape around the house.

Great kid - really good sport, no crying etc.. but tends to leave the place burglarised if you're not careful. He's too young & wild still to be any different.

Besides - I'm in college most of the week & I want to spend as much time with him as I can. Its no big deal after all.

Thinking / Hoping - that another year will make a big difference & free up some more time.. but I hear what your saying Man - Been there - Still sorta there & just a little more left to go...

Wise idea to spend your free time - or your new "type" of free time reading up & studying what you can.. if thats all you can do for a while. It'll stand to ya!

Clanket

ICN wrote: »

Yeah Man - I'm kinda the same.

My little fella is 19months now.. Hes an absolute Ape around the house.

Great kid - really good sport, no crying etc.. but tends to leave the place burglarised if you're not careful. He's too young & wild still to be any different.

Besides - I'm in college most of the week & I want to spend as much time with him as I can. Its no big deal after all.

Thinking / Hoping - that another year will make a big difference & free up some more time.. but I hear what your saying Man - Been there - Still sorta there & just a little more left to go...

Wise idea to spend your free time - or your new "type" of free time reading up & studying what you can.. if thats all you can do for a while. It'll stand to ya!

Cheers man. All you can do is keep chipping away. Trying to learn the piano aswell which is tough. If only I'd been bothered learning all this while I was 18 haha.

Our fella's only 6 weeks. I was thinking another year and I'll have loads of time. By the sounds of it I'm dreamin

ICN

Alofthedunnes wrote: »

Cheers man. All you can do is keep chipping away. Trying to learn the piano aswell which is tough. If only I'd been bothered learning all this while I was 18 haha.

Our fella's only 6 weeks. I was thinking another year and I'll have loads of time. By the sounds of it I'm dreamin

Yeah - Probably. You've got a while to go until he gets Feral, but one day you'll start doing something & after 5mins the place resembles Ground Zero - thats when!

When they start motoring about crawling / walking - thats when the flittering starts..

Its made me more focused with what I want to achieve with the limited time I do have now. As I said - Its not forever like. He just keeps getting better & better. Its brilliant fun.

Same again - The plan with me also is to learn Piano - or get a bunch of lessons anyway. Then do a evening course & get some "grinds".

All hinging on my driving test. Missed it by 1 mark last week. Bad habits. C***s :mad:

But I'm thinking it would be cool if there was someone around locally that was dong the same thing..

What sort of stuff are you doing Man?

Clanket

Am into good progressive house and a bit of trance.

I started this time last year and have a few bits and pieces of grooves that I have to stretch out. Still not finished my first track yet.

There's so much to learn. Can be off-putting when you start thinking about how much you dont know. Have grooves and beats in my head but it will be a while yet before I can easily put them down. All about the learning curve.

I know what you mean about hooking up with like minded people. Can be invaluable for learning. Didn't someone do a meet last year which everyone said was helpful. If another one comes up I'll hopefully make it.

What about you? You got a full track yet?

ICN

Alofthedunnes wrote: »

Am into good progressive house and a bit of trance.

I started this time last year and have a few bits and pieces of grooves that I have to stretch out. Still not finished my first track yet.

There's so much to learn. Can be off-putting when you start thinking about how much you dont know. Have grooves and beats in my head but it will be a while yet before I can easily put them down. All about the learning curve.

I know what you mean about hooking up with like minded people. Can be invaluable for learning. Didn't someone do a meet last year which everyone said was helpful. If another one comes up I'll hopefully make it.

What about you? You got a full track yet?

Agree - Best info is face to face I think. Feedback is an essential element of learning.

Yeah.. I've done a few.. but not totally happy with them. Its stretching them out that is the issue. I'm getting better though.

A LOT MORE unfinished though. I'm just trying to find something that sounds unique at the same time I guess.. as well as becoming more intuitive.

Its just practicing really. Same as you'd pick up the Guitar & jam.. thats the way I look at it. A lot probably arent worth finishing. I'm satisified at the moment to developing my ear into what elements sound complimentary & understanding why. Thats what I wish I had of done when I was 18! :pac:

Android 666

Hi to both of you, I'm in Offaly so I'm a bit away from the two of ye but I'm in the same situation in regards to having children - one 21 months and the other 5. I also work an hours drive from home so time is scarce. At the moment I'm plugging away by myself as there is no one around me into dance music. Lived in dublin for years taking in all the clubs before moving down near home about 7 years ago - less just say any dance music being played in the area is going to be little boy racer dance. I kind of run the gamut of styles in terms of what I like listening to and trying to make. Got a copy of Reason 4 back in November and have being playing away ever since. I know people are a bit sniffy about Reason but once you scratch beyond the surface its amazing what you can do. I suppose different horses for different courses.

I'm just curious as to why you haven't finished any tracks yet? I'd find it maddening to create a loop and just leave it unfinished, I'd have to make it into a complete track - good, bad or indifferent. I kind of made a bargain with myself that anything I started on I was going to finish. Don't get me wrong a lot of it is bilge but at least I have something done and I can move on from it. Also I find when I try to fashion it into a complete track I'm learning a lot more in terms of structure and form and trying to create momentum and in term I'm listening back to stuff other people have done and hearing how the approached it. Just being curious…

ICN

Android 666 wrote: »

Hi to both of you, I'm in Offaly so I'm a bit away from the two of ye but I'm in the same situation in regards to having children - one 21 months and the other 5. I also work an hours drive from home so time is scarce. At the moment I'm plugging away by myself as there is no one around me into dance music. Lived in dublin for years taking in all the clubs before moving down near home about 7 years ago - less just say any dance music being played in the area is going to be little boy racer dance. I kind of run the gamut of styles in terms of what I like listening to and trying to make. Got a copy of Reason 4 back in November and have being playing away ever since. I know people are a bit sniffy about Reason but once you scratch beyond the surface its amazing what you can do. I suppose different horses for different courses.

I'm just curious as to why you haven't finished any tracks yet? I'd find it maddening to create a loop and just leave it unfinished, I'd have to make it into a complete track - good, bad or indifferent. I kind of made a bargain with myself that anything I started on I was going to finish. Don't get me wrong a lot of it is bilge but at least I have something done and I can move on from it. Also I find when I try to fashion it into a complete track I'm learning a lot more in terms of structure and form and trying to create momentum and in term I'm listening back to stuff other people have done and hearing how the approached it. Just being curious…

How are things Man?

I suppose its about what drives you. I'm not a very competitive person usually.. but this is possibly one area that I have got certain goals that I want to achieve. I'm a realist & know what I need to do to get to the standard that I want to get to.

A dose of reflection is a great ****ing catalyst. I usually get about 1/2 way these days, then move on. Oh Dear! :pac:

Anyway - Time is really a huge factor for me personally. My Wife works in Dublin 3days a week (from Roscommon) & I'm back in College etc.. so you have to be prioritising whats important. Staying up to the wee small hours isnt practical anymore when the Ape is up at 7am. (6.30 now with the bright mornings! )

Clanket

Android 666 wrote: »

Hi to both of you, I'm in Offaly so I'm a bit away from the two of ye but I'm in the same situation in regards to having children - one 21 months and the other 5. I also work an hours drive from home so time is scarce. At the moment I'm plugging away by myself as there is no one around me into dance music. Lived in dublin for years taking in all the clubs before moving down near home about 7 years ago - less just say any dance music being played in the area is going to be little boy racer dance. I kind of run the gamut of styles in terms of what I like listening to and trying to make. Got a copy of Reason 4 back in November and have being playing away ever since. I know people are a bit sniffy about Reason but once you scratch beyond the surface its amazing what you can do. I suppose different horses for different courses.

I'm just curious as to why you haven't finished any tracks yet? I'd find it maddening to create a loop and just leave it unfinished, I'd have to make it into a complete track - good, bad or indifferent. I kind of made a bargain with myself that anything I started on I was going to finish. Don't get me wrong a lot of it is bilge but at least I have something done and I can move on from it. Also I find when I try to fashion it into a complete track I'm learning a lot more in terms of structure and form and trying to create momentum and in term I'm listening back to stuff other people have done and hearing how the approached it. Just being curious…

Howdy. Only started about a year ago. I've been looking at a lot of youtube tutorials lately and not had enough time to go right through with a track. However, I did resolve last week to focus on one track at a time and stop messing about with different ones on different days. I also need to structure my time better when in Logic. I tend to fiddle around a lot instead of just moving on when I get something nice. It's also very hard to finish something when only going in bursts of an hour or two.

I started out using Reason which I messed about with for about 4 months but have abandoned (for the moment) in favour of Logic. Loved Reason and will definately get back to it (at some stage!!!) Have some nice riffs and sounds in there.

My aim is to be able to quickly put something down when I have an idea. Unfortunately I'm nowhere near this as there's so much to learn about Logic and time as stated is at a premium these days.

Android 666

I totally understand where the two of you are coming from. Time is very much at a premium with the two kids so I'm not having a go with anyone - I really hope no one is taking it that way. I totally get trying to reach a goal with a song - I suppose I look at it sometimes as what I didn't achieve in a song makes me look at what I'm doing and helps me to achieve it in the future. And to be honest, for me, its as much about the process of creating the song as it is about completing the song - the little bits of problem solving that you encounter along the way and with each song I suppose I set certain targets of what I want to achieve in terms of what I'll be able to do by the end of working on the song. That's something I feel I probably wouldn't be as eager to do if I didn't finish the songs. Trust me when I say that most of them are shít but I think they are getting less shít as I go along.

Clanket

Android 666 wrote: »

the little bits of problem solving that you encounter along the way

That's exactly it. The more problems you come accross, and solve, the better you get. Roll on 5 o'clock. Enjoy the weekend

ICN

Haha!

This thread should be sponsored by Durex

jtsuited

Just to lend some advice here....and all imo.

Prepare to fail. And I mean that in a good way Here's what I mean.
After you've made a great 8 bar loop and you try to make it into a 6 minute arrangement, you will fail. Then you finally get a good arrangement (or something that works) and your mix will be all over the place.

When you eventually get the hang of mixing your good arrangement (and believe me that's a long process of awful mixes), your track will sound crap when a/b'd with similar tracks. So you keep on re-examining where you're going wrong and you'll scrap the whole thing and start again based on what you've learned.

And guess what....yup you'll fail. Sometimes worse than before. But you dust yourself off and start again and by being critical you're fine tuning your skills. But you listen to your favourite music compared to your own and when you're actually honest with yourself you'll think 'christ, i'm a million miles away from where those guys are'.

So you keep going. And it's frustrating as fcuk. You listen to great tracks and you think 'jesus it's so simple, where the hell am I going wrong?' and eventually one day you make an ok-ish track. But the mix is terrible. Then a few long hard days later you finally get a good mix, but after getting the good mix, you notice that your arrangement is awful, so you've got to go back and change all that.

And you think to yourself 'jeepers I just thought this track needed finishing. It's now 200 hours later and I'm no closer than I was when I started'.

Ok so you get my point. At EVERY step along the way to making a track, you will fail many times. And when you don't fail at one point you'll spectacularly fail at the next.

What am I getting at here?? Making good music takes time. A LOT of time. Nobody just decides to do a track and makes something they're happy with (if they have any talent anywho....some other people are just deluded). The sheer amount of hours that go into making even the simplest average track is well outside most healthy people's attention spans.
Hence the reason 99% of producers are reclusive nerds at heart. What I find hilarious is a lot of dj's saying 'i think i might give production a go' as if it was like a walk in the park. 6 months later and they've either given up, or are spending every minute they have trying to do it.

And the worst thing about the whole thing is that the more talented you are, the harder it will be, as you will have higher standards for yourself. So while there might be some talentless hacks knocking out sh1t tune after sh1t tune 6 months down the line, you'll just be eternally dissatisfied with your output. And that's a good thing. Because you'll just keep getting better. The guys making the sh1t music and thinking it's great aren't trying harder or learning.

They just think that the reason they're getting no attention is because of 'politics' or an unfair world. So they start focusing on promoting themselves to an insane extent. And nobody cares about their music. So they have to promote harder and harder. All the while ignoring the fact that they actually don't have any talent. So where am I going with this????

The fact that you find things difficult and feel frustrated with your output is the first sign that you actually have talent. The fact that you feel you're failing at various steps, shows it too. If you have a vision for your art and you can't get there, that's a GOOD thing. It means that you have a real vision.

Now the hard part is that to get to where you're happy (and remember the more talent you have the harder it is to get there) you've just got to get the air miles so to speak. You have to be prepared to fail many many many times, over and over again.

The guys who are brilliant at what they do (be it music, sculpture, writing, even feckin golf, ,etc) are the guys who love what they do. They do it because it's all they want to do. They don't care about banging their heads off the wall over and over again, because they don't want to be doing anything else. If they were told they'll never get to where they want to go, they'll keep doing it anyway.

Anywho I'm rambling but the basic message here is that don't worry if you get frustrated on a daily basis with making tracks. That's the way it works. Just enjoy it, set goals, miss them completely, fail spectacularly, and still love it.

Clanket

Great post man. Almost had a tear in my eye.

Love it

Anima

Yeah good post, definitely a lot of truth in there. I think a lot of the trouble with music is that its subjective. There is no one permutation of a track that is just the most perfect version of that track and that makes it so frustrating because there is no end point. Just a point when you say "OK it's finished".

I think the solution is to just go with it as far as you can until you can do no more, take a break and then listen again and see if you feel the same. You can literally spend an infinite amount of time tweaking and maybe just ruining the track. I think this is where setting limits for yourself comes in. Whether its a time limit or instrument limit or whatever. Its important to have an end in sight.

Neurojazz

jtsuited wrote: »

You have to be prepared to fail many many many times, over and over again.

Hehe, and remember when you slam face first into a steep learning curve that you slide up it a little

I did a brief calculation that i'd spent at least 58,000 hours on music - possibly more. I still fail epically in every respect, but know it all comes around eventually, and even though i'm highly critical i tend to keep things happening naturally also - most my music is very simple.

I would say this about collaborations in dance music - put a hat on.

One person writes and the other 'pretends' to be a producer and doesn't write - then this way you have two states of mind working, i've had great results in getting friends music finished this way (one of the first major stumbling blocks) - schizophrenia helps here as you can do this yourself

ICN

Yeah, I was Boo-Hooing too :pac:


@jt - You're right, just got keep hammering away.. The Sum has a lot of parts.

Dedication is what you need if you want to be a record breaker.

ICN

Neurojazz wrote: »

One person writes and the other 'pretends' to be a producer and doesn't write - then this way you have to states of mind working, i've had great results in getting friends music finished this way (one of the first major stumbling blocks) - schizophrenia helps here as you can do this yourself

Very good! :pac:

Rockshamrover

jtsuited wrote: »

Just to lend some advice here....and all imo.

Prepare to fail. And I mean that in a good way Here's what I mean.
After you've made a great 8 bar loop and you try to make it into a 6 minute arrangement, you will fail. Then you finally get a good arrangement (or something that works) and your mix will be all over the place.

When you eventually get the hang of mixing your good arrangement (and believe me that's a long process of awful mixes), your track will sound crap when a/b'd with similar tracks. So you keep on re-examining where you're going wrong and you'll scrap the whole thing and start again based on what you've learned.

And guess what....yup you'll fail. Sometimes worse than before. But you dust yourself off and start again and by being critical you're fine tuning your skills. But you listen to your favourite music compared to your own and when you're actually honest with yourself you'll think 'christ, i'm a million miles away from where those guys are'.

So you keep going. And it's frustrating as fcuk. You listen to great tracks and you think 'jesus it's so simple, where the hell am I going wrong?' and eventually one day you make an ok-ish track. But the mix is terrible. Then a few long hard days later you finally get a good mix, but after getting the good mix, you notice that your arrangement is awful, so you've got to go back and change all that.

And you think to yourself 'jeepers I just thought this track needed finishing. It's now 200 hours later and I'm no closer than I was when I started'.

Ok so you get my point. At EVERY step along the way to making a track, you will fail many times. And when you don't fail at one point you'll spectacularly fail at the next.

What am I getting at here?? Making good music takes time. A LOT of time. Nobody just decides to do a track and makes something they're happy with (if they have any talent anywho....some other people are just deluded). The sheer amount of hours that go into making even the simplest average track is well outside most healthy people's attention spans.
Hence the reason 99% of producers are reclusive nerds at heart. What I find hilarious is a lot of dj's saying 'i think i might give production a go' as if it was like a walk in the park. 6 months later and they've either given up, or are spending every minute they have trying to do it.

And the worst thing about the whole thing is that the more talented you are, the harder it will be, as you will have higher standards for yourself. So while there might be some talentless hacks knocking out sh1t tune after sh1t tune 6 months down the line, you'll just be eternally dissatisfied with your output. And that's a good thing. Because you'll just keep getting better. The guys making the sh1t music and thinking it's great aren't trying harder or learning.

They just think that the reason they're getting no attention is because of 'politics' or an unfair world. So they start focusing on promoting themselves to an insane extent. And nobody cares about their music. So they have to promote harder and harder. All the while ignoring the fact that they actually don't have any talent. So where am I going with this????

The fact that you find things difficult and feel frustrated with your output is the first sign that you actually have talent. The fact that you feel you're failing at various steps, shows it too. If you have a vision for your art and you can't get there, that's a GOOD thing. It means that you have a real vision.

Now the hard part is that to get to where you're happy (and remember the more talent you have the harder it is to get there) you've just got to get the air miles so to speak. You have to be prepared to fail many many many times, over and over again.

The guys who are brilliant at what they do (be it music, sculpture, writing, even feckin golf, ,etc) are the guys who love what they do. They do it because it's all they want to do. They don't care about banging their heads off the wall over and over again, because they don't want to be doing anything else. If they were told they'll never get to where they want to go, they'll keep doing it anyway.

Anywho I'm rambling but the basic message here is that don't worry if you get frustrated on a daily basis with making tracks. That's the way it works. Just enjoy it, set goals, miss them completely, fail spectacularly, and still love it.

Or as Homer Simpson once said, "never try,never fail".

Great post JT, very inspiring.

Rock.

jtsuited

now lads there is a slightly more positive ending to my post that I didn't write so here it is.....

One day it all fits. Everything you do you love. You go on autopilot and get carried away and 2 months later, artists you worship are signing you to their label (some of you may know what I'm talking about here), dj's you love are singing your praises to everyone, and people you really respect are loving your stuff even more than you do.

You stop worrying, and stop caring whether people will like it. You get into a zone and do things your own way and you're constantly thinking 'have i completely lost the plot here because to me that sounds just fcukin great'. And ironically, everyone's going nuts for the stuff. You just do what you want and it all works.

And you can't even show people on music production forums that you hang around on any of your new stuff because good labels are investing money in big vinyl releases, and you have to keep everything under wraps.

And you think to yourself....ain't life great.

Android 666

Great advice as always jt. I've started to realise over the last couple weeks in my desire to try and get constructive feedback I've probably put too many tracks up here and tested people patience and I do apologise if that's the case. Working in a bit of a bubble I suppose I was eager to get some understanding of what I was doing. Through the great advice I have gotten here though has really made me think about what I'm doing so I really have to thank everyone for that. I'm coming from a design background where my work is open for criticism on a daily basis and critiquing is crucial part of developing a design. I suppose I was trying to apply that process here but I think there's only so many duff tracks you can put up before stop listening. Apologies for that. I think its just being bombarded by tracks from people on Soundcloud made me realise that I was essentially doing the same thing here and I know that can be annoying.

I'm going to keep plugging away at it because I've gotten the bug big on it now and maybe in a couple of months when I think I've a few tracks I think are decent enough to stand by the rest of the quality stuff posted up here I'll put them up. But I really must say the advice I'm getting from this board is invaluable from the different threads that I've read through and I really hope everybody keeps contributing fast and furious because sometimes it can be a tad quiet here which is a shame. After tinkering around a fair bit in Reason I can probably give a bit of advice in that if that helps.

I'm not doing this to get a record deal or any of that business - I think I've gone past that stage in my life. I had decks after I left college in the nineties but I was terrible on them - really bad. The thing I loved about them though was the opportunity to go and find records that nobody else might be listening to and spending hours in the record shops looking for that killer track. The only ambition I have is that eventually will make something that I think is a killer track and maybe a few other people think the same way.

The only advice I give to somebody though is to finish those tracks because you'll never find out how great that loop really is until you fit it into a complete track.

Anyways thanks everyone for all the great advice so far and I'll keep plugging away and checking in here on a daily basis.

electrogrimey

Great thread here! Haven't quite started producing yet, as I haven't had the time. But, I've spent the year picking up bits of equipment, so I've enough of a set-up now (MIDI keyboard, Ableton, soundcard, etc) to start when I get the time in a month when I finish college for the year. Really looking forward to it, although I've no idea how to do anything as of yet!

To answer the OP, I'm based in Dublin :pac:

ICN

electrogrimey wrote: »

Great thread here! Haven't quite started producing yet, as I haven't had the time. But, I've spent the year picking up bits of equipment, so I've enough of a set-up now (MIDI keyboard, Ableton, soundcard, etc) to start when I get the time in a month when I finish college for the year. Really looking forward to it, although I've no idea how to do anything as of yet!

To answer the OP, I'm based in Dublin :pac:

Cool!

Waiting until you finish - Thats very restrained of you Man!

What sort of stuff are you into? Hoping to make?

electrogrimey

ICN wrote: »

Cool!

Waiting until you finish - Thats very restrained of you Man!

What sort of stuff are you into? Hoping to make?

Hopefully tech-house/house kinda stuff, using samples from my ridiculously big music collection, and also using real instruments, although I haven't fully thought about it yet.

ICN

Well best of luck with it man - You'll be posting full tracks before you know it!

Quiggers

I'm based halfway between limerick and ennis, i do a pinch of collaborating with a pal from
the opposite side of the shannon in county limerick. we meet up in his office in limerick whenever time allows, but i've worked with peeps from around the globe using drop boxes and ftp's, not as immediate as both being in the same room but better than nowt.

you just have to be careful when bouncing down to include effects that the other person might not have. in an ideal world you'd agree on a programme, have the same version and vst's and even soundcard. but this is rarer than 21yr old virgin in limerick so be prepare to spend time solving vst no found or outputs missing messages, or my favourite, sample not found.

But it is a worth while venture, and you'll really start to hate eircom's upload speeds