The hugging/venting thread

Sports, politics, movies, videogames, questionable hobbies, photos from your family vacation, etc. Talk about stuff that isn't ponies or music. But do try to stay on topic and respectful of alternate opinions.

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby TheSunAndTheRainfall » 25 Mar 2012 21:34

Pickslide1992 wrote:I tried professional help, and it didn't help. The guy pretty much just abandoned hope when he saw me and said I'm destined to either go to jail or a mental hospital. I'm actually quite depressed ATM, where I don't think even ponies will help me. I'd listen to some brony musicians but then feel jealous that I'll never be as good as them.


No. That guy gave up on you, but you shouldn't. I don't. I won't. I know I can't do much to help you, I wish I could, but I firmly believe that there's a way for you to be more at peace with yourself. I truly believe that there's someone out there who knows how to make it better. I know it gets tiring after a while, I can only imagine how it must drag you down, but please, don't give up on yourself. There's a way. It won't be easy to find it, but there's a way to get by. Stay strong, man. You will pull through. Many hugs going your way.
User avatar
TheSunAndTheRainfall
 
Posts: 298
Joined: 04 Jul 2011 13:42
Location: Mexico

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby DJSheogowrath » 26 Mar 2012 00:06

I'm getting pissed at my parents too, more specifically my mom.
I'm not doing fantastic in some of my classes, so my mom helped me get me back on track, and I appreciate her for doing that. But now she's doting on my grades constantly, and keeps asking if I've done my homework, even when I am done and I've told her that. I get that she wants to see me do well, and she's asking me because she doesn't want me to slip, but all that nagging is really stressing me out. Also, she barely lets me relax-she keeps trying to get me to study or review, despite the fact that I am not a studying person, I don't learn effectively that way and I have told her numerous times that I am not a studying person. She just tells me I have to study and that it helped her when she was in school, despite the fact that this is a different fucking situation then hers. And if I try to discuss it with her, she won't listen and she thinks I'm arguing with her, when I'm just trying to tell her that maybe she should ease off a bit.
Ugh, well intentioned but hurting. It sucks.
My Youtube
My Soundcloud
Skype: smallkittensonfire
DAW: Ableton Live 8
Genres: Pretty much anything, really.
User avatar
DJSheogowrath
 
Posts: 85
Joined: 11 Mar 2012 13:46

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Navron » 26 Mar 2012 07:20

Each person has a different method of studying, but I'll tell you, I was in a situation very similar during my high school years, and eventually the lack of studying made my homework harder to complete, and my test scores slowly dropped to just barely passing.

Once I got into the military, the stuff I had to learn was WAY above the scope of what high school taught me.

For example, high school taught me trigonometry and pre-calc. Hard to get good at, but relatively simple.

The Navy gave us 3 weeks to learn how to calculate underwater sound ray propagation, acoustic oceanography, and how to listen for and classify submarines based on nothing other than audio and a screen that looks like the matrix, showing what sound frequencies are present underwater, what frequencies a submarine might be at, and using that to determine what submarine it is, and how fast it's going.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_acoustics

There's a portion of what we had to learn, and we were given 2 weeks to do so. Now take in mind, this is 2 weeks from knowing absolutely nothing about it, to being a master at acoustic ocean-o. With that said, do you think you could learn what that article is talking about in 2 weeks with no homework? Because we didn't have any homework. We had 5-6hrs a day to study, and then we were tested. Those that passed ( > 80% ) moved on to the classified submarine recognition portion. Those that got below 80% and failed, were given one chance to retest. Those that failed again were kicked out of the rate and went to the Navy as an undesignated seaman.

Long story short, you may not find studying does much for you now, as I had the same exact feelings when I went through high school, but once you move on to college, or more complicated schooling, there's absolutely no way to get through without having a study habit, and it would greatly help you out to learn what that is now, rather than later.

Myself, I study the best when I find something I need to know, and write it down. Simply scanning over it doesn't help. Something in the process of hand writing it down is what helps me to remember.

So I went from having a 2.5 GPA in high school, passing with Bs, Cs, and Ds, to being top of my class in A-School with a 97% overall.
DAW: Cubase 6.5, Ableton Live 8
Preferred Genre: Industrial/Trance
Hardware: Schecter Diamond Series Bass, Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, BP355 Effects Pedal, Keystudio 49K Keyboard, Akai APC40, Korg nanoKEY2 25k Keyboard
User avatar
Navron
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 955
Joined: 14 Nov 2011 21:28
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Cubase 6.5

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby MiuMiuChuu » 27 Mar 2012 03:26

@colortwelve: Here's a hug for you. You're not a bad person. Sometimes parents are harder to forgive, because well, they're parents. You expect them at something better. I've heard a lot of stories on how my close friends unable to forgive/make amends with their fathers for various reasons. It takes time and lots of effort. I would agree with AndTheRainfall and his suggestions. You may can't entirely help him, but you can't abandon him entirely either. Try to work it out slowly. Hope things turn well for you.

@Pickslide: Hugs for you. From your story, I think it would be hard for your parents to understand where is your position. You can either go to community gathering or seek for free consultation (schools usually have em). Or perhaps read self-motivational book. The thing about professional help is they try to change your mindset and give you lifestyle changing suggestions to drive you away from your problems (anxiety, depression, etc.-- unless it's a very severe one which includes hallucinations or schizophrenic episodes then they will prescribe you which is not entirely good, but that's another story). Try to read self motivational books first and confide to someone you can really trust or create something that can channel your emotion (journal, artworks). Even you think your art is not good enough, think of it as a present from you to yourself. Knowing that you manage to finish that artwork is already a positive effort for you :)

@DJsheogo: TELL ME ABOUT IT.
The key to this is actually understanding. If your mom refuses to understand you, try to understand your mom. For my case, my mom is generally a cold and strict person. She's grounded to reality as opposes to the artistic and dreamy me. And the way she talk is very high pitched and naggy, which sometimes can be misinterpreted (this also approved by my dad and my brother). What my mom is dealing with is a very artistic daughter, which is not present in the environment she grew up with. She applies method like normal kids to educate me which doesn't work at all. Trust me, the misunderstanding ran until my last year in high school. But finally we manage to understand each other's way of thinking.
If what she nags is reasonable enough, it's okay to listen. But also try reason with her. Tell her what are your interests, what do you lack in terms of study, which the subjects you excel and which subjects you're weak in. Also tell her in which way you are comfortable studying. You might also wanna go to consultations specializing in education with your mom. They will do some kind of talent analysis on you and they'll give you suggestion on how to study as well as giving advice for your mom to handle your strength and weakness. Also, prove her that you can score at least good enough at school. Again, what parents see on us is never enough for them because they always expect us to be better. And it doesn't just happen to you (trust me, I'm Asian. You know how our parents roll.) Good luck for you and hugs!
User avatar
MiuMiuChuu
 
Posts: 124
Joined: 21 Oct 2011 04:21
Location: Over the Rainbow
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: Weird kind

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Pickslide1992 » 27 Mar 2012 06:29

That's kind of why I got into music, MiuMiuChuu, as a means for expressing myself, since that quack said I never showed my emotions enough. That's why I do pony music, because I feel inspired whenever I watch the show. Take the last episode, for instance, that hard rock montage for Fluttershy got me to get off my lazy arse and play my guitar for hours. Shame I didn't record it. ^_^

Anyway, I'm trying to progress through this and scare away my inner demons. Music is breathing for the soul, no matter what genre you're good at or what instrument you play/computer program you use. I've also come to realize it's not a competition. Sure, some guys around here may get hundreds of thousands of hits on their music, but even if I never reach that level, if one guy comes up to me and tells me "Keep up the good work!" it's enough for me to keep on trucking.

Kind of why I'm doing Balloon Party too, as a means to get my name out there, as are other lesser known brony musicians as well as extremely well known ones all with one goal: to make the hardest, heaviest music out there, but I digress. With things like that to work on, I'm pretty happy
Hey guys, new YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/PowerChordEPS

Gear:
2003 Gibson SG
Line 6 PodXT
FL Studio

Styles: Rock, metal, pop, new wave
User avatar
Pickslide1992
 
Posts: 566
Joined: 20 Aug 2011 13:54
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Random111223 » 27 Mar 2012 08:30

my audio is broken and i've been trying to fix it for days with no results whatsoever.. i'm so fucking depressed right now

fuck. my. life.

edit: manly tears were shed while writing this. that's how important audio is in my life. kinda funny.
User avatar
Random111223
 
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 07:38

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby colortwelve » 27 Mar 2012 16:36

Oddly enough, I finally spoke to my dad last night for the first time since november. At first, it was just as ludicrous as I had expected - his logic (if one could call it that) in attempting to talk through the, ah, situation was beyond twisted. And I did finally get to rip it apart while he listened. But rather than apologize, he just begged me to add him back on goddamned Facebook and then proceeded to talk to me about nothing as he used to.

It wasn't all that bad, but for some reason I felt off today. For some reason the intense boredom that always comes with my first class felt not just uncomfortable on a stimulation level, it actually felt bad. Like now there's something wrong. And even now, I'm shorter of temper by just enough for me to notice. I'm sure that if the printer weren't already broken, it would have been by now in my halfhearted attempt to fix it for my sister.

I really have no idea what's going on in my head right now. On one hand, the inevitable day that I did talk to him again is now no longer a black cloud in the distance, but a memory. On the other, he demonstrated in this single conversation that he felt like nothing at all had changed. And that worries me, because I know that if no change comes of this, it means one of us is utterly mad.

Image
Youtube -- Soundcloud -- Tumblr -- Bandcamp (new album out!)

I can't feel my brain.
User avatar
colortwelve
 
Posts: 1187
Joined: 18 Feb 2012 12:55
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby DJSheogowrath » 27 Mar 2012 16:38

MiuMiuChuu wrote:@DJsheogo: TELL ME ABOUT IT.
The key to this is actually understanding. If your mom refuses to understand you, try to understand your mom. For my case, my mom is generally a cold and strict person. She's grounded to reality as opposes to the artistic and dreamy me. And the way she talk is very high pitched and naggy, which sometimes can be misinterpreted (this also approved by my dad and my brother). What my mom is dealing with is a very artistic daughter, which is not present in the environment she grew up with. She applies method like normal kids to educate me which doesn't work at all. Trust me, the misunderstanding ran until my last year in high school. But finally we manage to understand each other's way of thinking.
If what she nags is reasonable enough, it's okay to listen. But also try reason with her. Tell her what are your interests, what do you lack in terms of study, which the subjects you excel and which subjects you're weak in. Also tell her in which way you are comfortable studying. You might also wanna go to consultations specializing in education with your mom. They will do some kind of talent analysis on you and they'll give you suggestion on how to study as well as giving advice for your mom to handle your strength and weakness. Also, prove her that you can score at least good enough at school. Again, what parents see on us is never enough for them because they always expect us to be better. And it doesn't just happen to you (trust me, I'm Asian. You know how our parents roll.) Good luck for you and hugs!

That's the thing. My mom knows I love to make music and that I'm really passionate about it, and I get that she wants me to pursue that, but while maintaining good grades. It's just that while I appreciate her helping me get back on track, now I feel as though she's being too hands on, and it's frustrating me to no end. I can tell her that my homework is done, and 30 minutes later she'll come in and ask me if my homework is done. She bugs me constantly to study. And I forgot to mention that while I'm not a studying person, I've consistently gotten A's and B's in tests in all of my classes, so I don't really feel that I need to study. But that's where she doesn't get it. She relates her experience to mine and how studying helped her, despite the fact that I'm not having trouble with tests (it's homework that's the problem. I'm really, really lazy.) So, yeah, I guess I just need to learn to reason with her.
And just for some examples on the test thing, I scored nearly perfect on my 8th grade math CST's, that's how I got into algebra 1 for 9th grade despite having a D in algebra readiness (you're only supposed to be able to go to the next highest math class if you have an A, a B, or a high C). Also, my Biology teacher has told us numerous times that the people that score the highest on tests usually studied the best, even though I've gotten either the highest or 2nd highest score on a test in that class 4 times and haven't studied worth a damn.
My Youtube
My Soundcloud
Skype: smallkittensonfire
DAW: Ableton Live 8
Genres: Pretty much anything, really.
User avatar
DJSheogowrath
 
Posts: 85
Joined: 11 Mar 2012 13:46

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby LunchBagMusic » 28 Mar 2012 00:56

I realised that I'm not hugging anyone in this thread.

Let's fix that.

12: Have you said he needs to apologise? He may be pulling a Frankenstein; Becoming so absorbed in his own depression that he forgets there is a world outside his own feelings.

Also, because you're still in school (as am I), I would chalk a lot of you're jet-engine-powered-blender-of-feelings up to God-fucking-Damned Hormones. Everything is hormones and everything hurts.

Sheogwrath: Some people are naturally good a remembering stuff and all that. But your mum may be right...later. When you hit your final year of school in VIC, Australia, they make it hard. Real Hard.

So hard that scoring anything above 65% is considered a top-notch effort. I used to be really good at all of this school stuff, then I took an arrow then I hit final year. I should not be on this site at all. I should not be on the Internet at all.

You can avoid the study now, but make sure you know how to do it when you hit your final year.
User avatar
LunchBagMusic
 
Posts: 229
Joined: 13 Nov 2011 23:17
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby ChromaMonster » 28 Mar 2012 03:55

@DJSheogo

I know exactly how you feel man, being Asian like MiuMiu as well. I think they're more than aware of my artistic pursuits already, considering how much time I throw away sitting in front of my com. It just takes me five minutes of starting Mass Effect 3 for both her and my father to start panicking and nagging at me to stop playing and start studying, and this goes on for the rest of the time I'm using the computer. Seriously, its taking all of my control to not fliptable and ask them to get the hell out. I can't even get some quiet time after a long tiring day of studying. Although I don't like elaborating on how I'm doing in school, lets just say its well enough to make all their worries very (VERY) unreasonable.

I've never found myself as much of a study person either, all my work and revision gets done at the (very) last minute. I've been running this for just about my entire life, and nothing has really gone horribly wrong. Yet my parents still found the need to repeat the same recycled nagging from ten years ago and somehow expecting it to work.

Sometimes the best way is to just shut them out and let them rant, and present your side when they're done. Don't ignore them entirely, sometimes they actually make sense. Try to negotiate a contract along the lines of "If I get (x) amounts of A, leave me alone." Sometimes this works, if your parents are the sort who honours this sort of half-assed contract. Unfortunately, mine are not.

Anyway, hugs to you, and good luck!
http://soundcloud.com/chromamosnter/shadow-of-a-flower-chromas

First song, desperately seeking critique.
User avatar
ChromaMonster
 
Posts: 35
Joined: 07 Mar 2012 08:05

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby thatguyzeke » 30 Mar 2012 01:13

My girlfriend of 2 years is moving away to finish her education. She keeps talking about how difficult it will be, which I know, but her negativity makes me feel she will leave under the impression it is just a matter of time till the strain gets to us.
There's more to the story, but worrying abounds.....
User avatar
thatguyzeke
 
Posts: 55
Joined: 24 Mar 2012 16:06

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Legion » 07 Apr 2012 20:20

Ugh. I don't like venting posts, but... here it goes anyways. I need to get this off my chest. First world problem mode... ACTIVATE!

I've always listened to a lot of music, and it's always been a big part of my life. But when I discovered pony music (and, subsequently, electronic music), the amount of music I listened to skyrocketed and I wound up becoming a producer after getting inspired by all the incredible musicians, two big ones being Jackle and Aviators, and have developed... well, I don't know what kind of a style. Somewhere between trance and easy listening, I guess.

Now, why do I bring these two guys up? Well, here's where my problem comes in. I've never been the jealous type at all, and fame was never my reason for anything. I mean, I've always looked at musicians I admire as motivation to improve, and let me tell you: I idolize the shit out of both of them and their music. Along with Tombstone, they're the reasons I'm a producer in the first place. But I've been having this problem lately: whenever I listen to their music, or anything even remotely similar to my own, I get angry, a lot of the time to the point where I have to change songs in order to calm down. Listening to anything good and similar to my own stuff just makes me jealous as hell. And the thing is, I know there's no reason for it. I know that if I work hard and keep trying, I'll definitely get as good as them.

But that voice gets drained out by another: that voice always saying, "Don't lie, you want to be as good as them now. Not later, now. You don't want to work for that talent. And if you did, who knows? By the time you get good, either everybody will have moved on from ponies, or the brony music scene will be so bloated you'll never get noticed".

Frankly, I'm not sure which scares the living fuck out of me more: the fact that there's a part of me thinking that crap, or the fact that it's really getting to my head. At this point, I really don't listen to much softer, more melodic music. I really only listen to harder-type music like dubstep and hip hop. Otherwise, I have to force myself to keep on going.

TL;DR - I know lots of musicians have those artists that just make them want to quit music. But I feel like I'm taking that a step further, and it's hard to stay in the game when you can't ignore the voice telling you to quit, for reasons you've never related to before. I hope I'm not coming across as a drama freak, but this has been bothering me a lot lately.

I just realized I've been talking about voices. I swear I'm not insane. I think. Hope.
User avatar
Legion
 
Posts: 469
Joined: 10 Mar 2012 22:46
Location: Detroit

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby colortwelve » 07 Apr 2012 20:51

legion2190 wrote:TL;DR - I know lots of musicians have those artists that just make them want to quit music. But I feel like I'm taking that a step further, and it's hard to stay in the game when you can't ignore the voice telling you to quit, for reasons you've never related to before. I hope I'm not coming across as a drama freak, but this has been bothering me a lot lately.

In case you haven't noticed, this thread is as close to drama central as we have, so don't feel out of place or anything.

Secondly, I know the sound of that voice. It scarcely utters an intelligible word, but without fail makes me jealous to the point of rage and resentment. It turns a nameless despair that I will never be as good as the people I listen to, from deadmau5 down to Codeum, Modest Mouse down to a friend of mine, Hadouken! down to myself, into anger that these people even have to exist. And it drains me. It renders me unable to sit in front of my sequencer, it chokes my inspiration.

But sometimes I manage to articulate a louder voice of my own and tell myself that they all started out just like me, and they all went through what I feel now, maybe some of them still do. And I strangle out that inarticulate voice and listen away - analytically. Every musician on earth is merely human, so any mere human can reproduce even the greatest of music. So whether I'm listening to Skrillex or Omnipony, I remain careful to listen not to be entertained, but to be taught.

TL;DR - Shut that bitch up and keep listening; if nothing else you may learn something from what you listen to.
Youtube -- Soundcloud -- Tumblr -- Bandcamp (new album out!)

I can't feel my brain.
User avatar
colortwelve
 
Posts: 1187
Joined: 18 Feb 2012 12:55
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby BronyTuber » 08 Apr 2012 02:24

legion2190 wrote:
TL;DR - I know lots of musicians have those artists that just make them want to quit music. But I feel like I'm taking that a step further, and it's hard to stay in the game when you can't ignore the voice telling you to quit, for reasons you've never related to before. I hope I'm not coming across as a drama freak, but this has been bothering me a lot lately.



I know the exact feeling as I have the same problem with exactly the same producers you listed. Difference with me is though I never really change the song, but it still always leaves me with anger or disappointment in myself once the songs over.

But like colortwelve said, I try my hardest to shut that voice up. It doesn't always work and I'll end up wasting an entire free night that could have been used producing, but I'm still hanging in there and trying my best to hopefully be the inspiration to someone else as they are to me.
http://soundcloud.com/bronytuber

Skype: spoonbender12

"I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all the mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint." -Antonio Salieri (Amadeus)
User avatar
BronyTuber
 
Posts: 102
Joined: 12 Mar 2012 10:45
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Andanté » 08 Apr 2012 10:14

Oooh. I didn't know there was one of these. I was looking for tutorial threads around here.

Anyways, well, uhm...

A major problem that's been haunting me since I started making music (and I'm sure everyone gets this problem, albeit in not such an extreme way) is confidence and direction. A lack of it.

I've never really had much as far as self-esteem or confidence goes - Not in the sense of being shy, or anything, but at the end of the day I feel helpless, and there seems to be so many things that I just can't do. Since I was young, I've always been good at only a handful of things - I'm really intelligent, and I'm a bit better than my peers at (some) sports, and, of course, playing musical instruments. I don't really have talent though, and even though a lot of people say I'm talented at certain things, the harsh reality is that I need to work hard to be good at something. Anything. I've never had a moment that I remember where I learnt something, or did something, and it just clicked, and I thought ''Hey, that's what I need to do, and it'll be perfect''. I've always needed to work hard and learn everything about something before I even attempt to give it a go and try to succeed, whether it's a subject or topic at school, or a hobby or sport, or just some random skill.

It's bad enough when it's an uphill stuggle learning anything new, and before I started producing music, I didn't have any hobbies - All I did was go to school, talk to friends and play on the PC. Eventually, though, I stopped pushing myself entirely - There were some things that I simply could not do, for some reason or another. I'd get As and A*s in most subjects, but in some I'd fail outright, for reasons that I, my teacher, or anyone else can't really explain. Skills that my friends would pick up in a few minutes would still be impossible for me to learn after weeks of practise. My life became either a case of staying inside my comfort zone and drifting along, without ever really pushing myself and being happy with what I was good at, or hitting a brick wall whenever I tried the smallest thing. By the time I discovered DAWs such as FL Studio, I gave up caring, really, and realized that my whole life would need to be spent inside my comfort zone. Combined with the horrible depression that I've had since living memory (that's only gotten worse when I discovered that there were people my age, and even younger than myself, pushing themselves and becoming really good at something, whether it was music, acting, or academia) my life felt meaningless, and I felt pretty much worthless. There's not much point in anything when the only thing you have in your life is 'having fun', which for me, just meant playing computer games.

When I discovered FL Studio, and the amateur music communities that use it, I was overjoyed. I've always loved music - I'd listen to it when I was gaming, doing homework, watching TV, anything. I listened to music for 5-6 hours a day, and I still do. So it was a huge change in my life when I began to make music, and, with the help of a few tutorials, discovered that I really enjoyed what I made for once.

Obviously, that couldn't last. Within about a couple of months I've already hit the same brick wall that comes with every hobby. Do I keep making music like I'm doing already, or do I become serious? Do I really want to dedicate my time to something that might just not work? I was still estatic from the fact that I could actually make music with the VST, so I began to push myself, hard. In the space of a month I've already spent about 100 hours on FL Studio, and eight weeks in, I already had 5 or 6 tracks made. But then, looking back over my songs, I've realized that even though I've advanced a lot since my first track on FL, my tracks are still lacking. After making electro house basslines and drum beats, and learning how to EQ and compress, and after learning about sidechaining and gating, delay and reverb, I still realized that I haven't learnt a lot of basic knowledge. I still relied heavily on tutorials to develop, and when I stopped learning from them and became too advanced for 'training wheels', I was stuck.

Everyone I asked said that you just have to keep making music, experiment, and you'll make progress, and it's been an uphill struggle to make any songs. Until very recently, I've had to use Nexus entirely for my songs, and after running out of ideas using those Nexus samples, I ran out of song ideas too. I use Massive now, and even though I can make some good-quality patches, I still have to rely on tutorials on how to make them, or on tweaking existing patches. I can't make a patch from scratch, and even though I've spent hours learning about all the parts of the synthesizer, nothing clicked. I'd follow a tutorial to the letter, and the sounds I'd create would sound either as bad as those I used when I started out in FL, or they'd sound totally different.

Because of this, most of my songs have basically been spontaneous, and I've have periods of days, or weeks (usually after listening to someone else's song) where I'd read up on guides for hours on end on mixing and mastering techniques, hoping to find somewhere something that I could use that would tell me how to emulate a sound I heard. As much as I want to, I can't go and say ''I want to make a song about Pinkie Pie'' or ''I want to remix this'' or ''I want to make this genre''. I've tried making trance music since I first got FL Studio, and the trance song (actually, the only song in general) that I'm proud about is one that I created using Nexus samples and lots of mixing.

Even though I'm slowly learning new things about FL, I'm still stuck on the same things I was when I started - Most of my songs just sound like simple melodies tacked onto a drum track, and my buildups sound unconvincing. Some of my songs are rife with glitches to do with phase cancellation, clipping and all sorts of other phenomena and I've had to spend dozens of hours just trying to rectify (or in most cases hide) them.

I'd ask you guys how you made that leap from being dependent on others to being self-dependent, but I doubt I'd hear anything new. I've looked everywhere and I still can't find a solution to my problems. I still make tracks that make me wince when I hear them, and I've only been able to make a song once that turned out like how I imagined it to be. I've always been really passionate about making trance music, or house music like Swedish House Mafia, but when I can't even make a simple supersaw after knowing advanced synthesis theory and four or five months of practise, I'm pretty much fucked.

I'm not content with simply being able to put a beat down and seeing where a song goes. I want to be able to make songs that I'd like to listen to and that I'm actually proud of, but I'm afraid that I've run out of luck. For the past couple of weeks, I've spent more time vectoring cover art than I have made music, and I haven't made any progress in music-making since Febuary. I'd look up a tutorial for what I'd want to do, or ask a friend, or go by my own knowledge, set down a decent drum line and then spend hours fiddling with the bassline and eventually discarding the entire lot. I've made loads of simple techno and house floors, but I haven't had any inspiration or anything to make a proper song. I just churn out good-sounding synths and make simple beats with them and pass them off as music. I don't even know if I'm going to be good at making music - What I know how to synthesize, I can do it well, and I know how to mix and master, and I know the effects and algorithms inside out. I know song structure and layering and I can pick out techniques in other songs and replicate them to suit my style. But I can't make a song. I'm beginning to think that even though a lot of aspects of music production come naturally to me, some elementary techniques or skills that I don't know about are impossible for me to master, and because of that, I'll never be able to make a passable song, not to mention a good-quality song.
Andanté
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 04 Mar 2012 14:45

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby colortwelve » 08 Apr 2012 11:31

Andanté wrote:That giant wall of text

Okay. I sort of know that feel. When I started making music, it was because I wanted to like what I made and be able to listen to it myself. I am no longer under the illusion that this is possible. Every time I listen to something of mine, whether it's been worked on for an hour or a week, I hear something wrong with it. But that's a good thing. Being able to hear what's wrong with your own tracks only means that you can tell that they have room for improvement, and while very few people can close that gap entirely, it's what makes people actually appreciate your music when you're done with it. So there's another thing - be done with tracks. Don't bother about who's going to hear it, don't even worry about if it's something you would ever listen to, and do not drop it halfway through. Every bit of progress a musician makes is valuable, so whether you think something is beautiful enough to bring a man to tears or worse earrape than the Jaws Cat, do not ever discard something you work on.

I know how hard it is not leaving your comfort zone for most of your life and then deciding to do something that demands it. I've been a stranger to real hard work for most of my experience. But the reason I can work on a track for 4 or 5 hours straight is that I don't consider it work. I don't produce thinking about who will hear it, I do it for its own sake - bringing more music into the world is always a good thing, no matter how few ever hear it. Not to mention that when real inspiration strikes, nothing is more fun than realizing it into an actual melody in an actual track.

So maybe you're just uninspired, if it's really so hard to lay down an acceptable track base. But at any rate, you need to stop thinking that you'll ever like your own music - and you should probably not worry about genre; experimenting with multiple genres is not only what pretty much everyone here does, but it helps you to learn composition techniques that may not necessarily be native to one genre, but could be blended in to great effect.

TL;DR - Stop making music for yourself and start making music for music's sake.
Youtube -- Soundcloud -- Tumblr -- Bandcamp (new album out!)

I can't feel my brain.
User avatar
colortwelve
 
Posts: 1187
Joined: 18 Feb 2012 12:55
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Legion » 08 Apr 2012 16:39

Andanté wrote:I'm not content with simply being able to put a beat down and seeing where a song goes. I want to be able to make songs that I'd like to listen to and that I'm actually proud of, but I'm afraid that I've run out of luck. For the past couple of weeks, I've spent more time vectoring cover art than I have made music, and I haven't made any progress in music-making since Febuary. I'd look up a tutorial for what I'd want to do, or ask a friend, or go by my own knowledge, set down a decent drum line and then spend hours fiddling with the bassline and eventually discarding the entire lot. I've made loads of simple techno and house floors, but I haven't had any inspiration or anything to make a proper song. I just churn out good-sounding synths and make simple beats with them and pass them off as music. I don't even know if I'm going to be good at making music - What I know how to synthesize, I can do it well, and I know how to mix and master, and I know the effects and algorithms inside out. I know song structure and layering and I can pick out techniques in other songs and replicate them to suit my style. But I can't make a song. I'm beginning to think that even though a lot of aspects of music production come naturally to me, some elementary techniques or skills that I don't know about are impossible for me to master, and because of that, I'll never be able to make a passable song, not to mention a good-quality song.


Yeah, you're probably right. You've probably heard most of what I'm about to say. But I'll say it anyways.

I'm going to repeat colortwelve here: just make full songs, even if you have to force yourself. It sounds like you have the majority of skills needed to make music down, but you're lacking the skill of actually putting together the song, and there's no better way to learn than by experience. Just force a couple songs out, and hopefully you'll find your inspiration. Worst comes to worst, you never put those tracks out and salvage the good parts down the road.

But the single most important thing I can tell you, which you most likely hate me for saying (at least, I would), is never say never. The MINUTE you start saying you can't and never will, your wish will be granted. Don't say that. You CAN do it, it's all just a matter of overcoming that slump and finding that direction and inspiration. Your situation sucks, yeah. But it'll get better. Just give it time.

Also, thanks to c12 and bronytuber. Means a lot to me that you guys read and replied to my post. :D I guess I'll just have to hang in there and try hard to turn that anger into motivation to improve.
User avatar
Legion
 
Posts: 469
Joined: 10 Mar 2012 22:46
Location: Detroit

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby AlicornBob » 11 Apr 2012 07:23

legion2190 wrote:I've always listened to a lot of music, and it's always been a big part of my life. But when I discovered pony music (and, subsequently, electronic music), the amount of music I listened to skyrocketed and I wound up becoming a producer after getting inspired by all the incredible musicians, two big ones being Jackle and Aviators, and have developed... well, I don't know what kind of a style. Somewhere between trance and easy listening, I guess.


I can relate to this (although I'm not trying to put down the rest of your post. I promise.)

After discovering pony music, I discovered a type of music I like a lot.

Dubstep.
Excision has become a favorite of mine.

But back to pony. I love the shit out of The Living Tombstone.
So, yes. Basically the same thing happened: I became inspired to produce my own music. Now I face a huge problem, and this is where the venting starts.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I got basic sounds down. Presets, Piano Roll, whatever else... But that's the easy stuff. Children can do that. My problem is that I don't know anything else and it pisses me off horrendously.

My first pony song (if you can call it a song. I don't think that word is properly applied) was something I created using GarageBand on the Macs here at school. (yes, I'm at school right now)

Well, after that, I noticed how fun that was, so I looked around for software.

I had no money (and still don't) so I went with LMMS.

Now I'm stuck because all I know how to do with it is use sampling. I took some samples of the cleanest sounds I could root out from a few of Excision's songs and did what I could. I'm still working on what I started with that, and the (two comments of) feedback on Soundcloud seem good, but...

I just wish I knew how to make these sounds with synths. It would make my life a hell of a lot easier.
AlicornBob
 
Posts: 36
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 07:22

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Navron » 11 Apr 2012 18:47

Well, Excision and The Living Tombstone are both renowned for making some very brutal synths. I've been trying to make some heavy, brutal synths, but truthfully, I think it's one of the hardest types of synths to create.

Anybody can throw an LFO on a bass synth and call it dubstep, but if what you're going for is something like Skrillex, Excision, The Living Tombstone, etc, then you're branching off into some hardcore synth programming, where musical talent is judged not just by theory and composition, but also by how good of a producer you can be at making those sounds.
DAW: Cubase 6.5, Ableton Live 8
Preferred Genre: Industrial/Trance
Hardware: Schecter Diamond Series Bass, Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, BP355 Effects Pedal, Keystudio 49K Keyboard, Akai APC40, Korg nanoKEY2 25k Keyboard
User avatar
Navron
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 955
Joined: 14 Nov 2011 21:28
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Cubase 6.5

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby AlicornBob » 12 Apr 2012 09:01

NavyBrony wrote:Well, Excision and The Living Tombstone are both renowned for making some very brutal synths. I've been trying to make some heavy, brutal synths, but truthfully, I think it's one of the hardest types of synths to create.

Anybody can throw an LFO on a bass synth and call it dubstep, but if what you're going for is something like Skrillex, Excision, The Living Tombstone, etc, then you're branching off into some hardcore synth programming, where musical talent is judged not just by theory and composition, but also by how good of a producer you can be at making those sounds.


Yeah, this is what I'm getting at.
I don't have the knowledge of where to even begin to learn how to make music. I guess my comment was sort of a cry for help...

It's not like I can just experiment around until I learn. I don't have time for that. I've got my entire life wrapped up in my schooling right now. With the little free time I have, the only way I have to learn this sort of stuff is through guidance (and there certainly isn't anyone within 50 miles from here who knows a thing about synths or even simple sequencing. I know for a fact I'm the first to even think about this stuff in my town.).
AlicornBob
 
Posts: 36
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 07:22

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Navron » 12 Apr 2012 20:02

Break up your time into different slots for music composition. Have certain nights dedicated to practice, and the others dedicated to song writing.

Earlier on I got stuck trying to program synths while composing, which makes you sick of your song (fast), and doesn't give you as much time as needed to actually learn the synths and other plugins.

Thus, have certain nights where you aren't going to write a song. Start with 1 synth and read tutorials on it, play with it, and get to know it. It's fine to have a song idea in your head.

What I like to do now is spend these practice nights programming all my synths and tracks, then working on a song using them the next day.
DAW: Cubase 6.5, Ableton Live 8
Preferred Genre: Industrial/Trance
Hardware: Schecter Diamond Series Bass, Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, BP355 Effects Pedal, Keystudio 49K Keyboard, Akai APC40, Korg nanoKEY2 25k Keyboard
User avatar
Navron
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 955
Joined: 14 Nov 2011 21:28
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Cubase 6.5

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Fimbulin » 13 Apr 2012 06:40

Ugh. I've been working on a song for the last week, and I was going to finish it tonight. I spent the last 3 hours trying to figure out why my mic was producing a buzzing sound while I was trying to record. I just figured out that it's my sister's guitar that's producing the buzz, and that while it sounds fine to myself, the mic has a handy way of capturing that buzz sound and making it stand out quite clearly. Oh well, at least I know to never use her guitar for recording, although I do prefer it's tone. To my ears, the buzz is almost nonexistent. Another setback to what should've been a simple project. At this rate, I'll be done with this song at least two weeks from now!
Tonight was my last project night for a few days because real life stuff is coming up hard and fast, and that leaves me frustrated with this unfinished song.

I want to go kick something.
Analytical music theorist!
http://www.youtube.com/fimbulinmusic
http://www.soundcloud.com/fimbulin


FL Studio, Kontakt 5, orchestral mostly. I buy my gear.
I haunt skype so ask me questions there or viewtopic.php?f=32&t=8502
User avatar
Fimbulin
 
Posts: 476
Joined: 14 Feb 2012 18:28

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Freewave » 14 Apr 2012 12:04

Ooh let me help!!

*grabs a puching bag for Finbulin*

Yeah I'm having music problems too. Just got back from vacation 2 weeks ago and still haven't quite jumped back into music AND I'm using a new and more powerful pc BUT a lot of new vts and having some odd issues here and there with them. Very frustrating as I feel scattered emotionally and a bit of a novice when using these new synths and getting my software on this pc up to snuff. Part of the biggest thing i guess is i keep getting stuck putting the tracks i'm working on and not have anything sounding quite amazing yet to keep feeling inspired. Sigh.

I'll keep plugging away though.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Magnitude Zero » 14 Apr 2012 12:11

Had to abandon a long-term project that was nearly finished due to technical difficulties. I couldn't finish a song I'd been working on for like a month because I can't afford a decent computer that can actually handle my larger projects without crashing every three minutes. Feels bad, man.
Formerly known as Blind

DAW: FL Studio 10
Style: Chill/Downtempo

Soundcloud | Youtube | Tumblr
User avatar
Magnitude Zero
 
Posts: 550
Joined: 12 Mar 2012 13:11
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 10
Cutie Mark: Horse butt not large enough

Re: The hugging/venting thread

Postby Freewave » 14 Apr 2012 16:34

Blind wrote:Had to abandon a long-term project that was nearly finished due to technical difficulties. I couldn't finish a song I'd been working on for like a month because I can't afford a decent computer that can actually handle my larger projects without crashing every three minutes. Feels bad, man.


One thing you CAN do if you want (throwing this out here as i had a problem with my slower computer) is when you get to part where you can't handle anymore processing is turn your midi's into individual completed wav's once you have the notes/ instruments coming out of them you want. Your pc can handle 15 wavs vs 15 midi's with different vsts and synths and effects attached so you'll likely stop the glitching. I had to do a lot of projects started in FL and finished in Reaper this way and while I can't recommend it enthusiastically its still possibly better than giving it up as you might be able to stitch up a good finished track.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

PreviousNext

Return to Off-Topic Discussion



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests