Making music on a computer sucked for me until I understood this

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Do you feel like you are making no progress in your music making journey? then you might want to check out this other video I made that could help you get unstuck: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fp_LnHhvnadjfZI

[@whackoization]

After 25 years of producing I'm now struggling with this because it feels like I have so much knowledge that it gives me endless possibilities and it kills my creativity.

[@mikg2618]

you have just occupied the analyzer mind identity with your life energy and stopped your being in the creative playful identity mind

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

So true, with too many choices there is sometimes paralysis analysis happening

[@michaelsolano8733]

I absolutely feel this sentiment.

[@krimsonfunk]

I hear you It’s the little kid at the cereal Isle ..20 versions of the same one cereal to choose from or the endless choice of movie channels to pick from syndrome. Don’t fall into this endless yes creativity killer trap. Forget about all the bells and whistles at the beginning , lay your track two to four instruments “tops” including drums make sure it’s clean and “tight” before you even attempt adding any type of plugging or embellishment. Chances are that once you are happy with the consistency of the steak 🥩 you will find the it might just need a little peeper and that’s it , if you cooked it correctly. A good musical idea should sound great with the piano or guitar on its own.

[@mrfish4572]

@@RandomNoiseMusic Ive also found that creating a maximim of 15 patches or presets of your sound and limit yourself to only use them gives you a unique sound. Force yourself to create tracks not using anything else.

[@DarkSoulx7]

Never delete anythng. Especially if you're new to producing. The more you learn the better you get. I went back two years and listened to some tracks I made that sucked, but they had good bones so I polished them and made them better.

[@Quatroizer]

100% agree, disk space is dirt cheap these days but those kernels of inspiration are priceless, no matter how rough they are. I recently rediscovered some project files dating back to my high school days that were just abysmal; stuff I was far too inexperienced to take any further and had probably meant to delete. But listening to them again was like looking 15 years into the past, and they ended up being the framework for an entire album that would otherwise never have existed.

[@deepzone31]

THIS. Those aren't failures. They are stepping stones.

[@thedevilsadvocate5210]

How big a drive do you have to have these days

[@B..B.]

Have some tips for someone who wants to start?

[@Quatroizer]

@@thedevilsadvocate5210 Depends on the kind of music you're making, but if you work mostly with MIDI as I do, you can get away with far less storage than you might expect; at least for the project files themselves. Definitely invest in a nice fast SSD for the operating system, DAW and active projects to live on though, even if that means it has to be smaller to stay within budget. Nothing kills creative flow quite like waiting around for plugins to load or stems to import.

[@dmks2146]

Problem with DAWs is that you are musician/performer, producer, sound designer and mixing engineer at the same time. It helps to kind of separate these things and not try to do them all at once.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Interesting thought, you make a very good point!

[@SalmanSuhail]

This is the most insightful workflow thought I have heard anyone express so succinctly. Thank you.

[@salmonsandwich3183]

It helps to actually play an instrument or be a really talented composer. The whole point of making a recording is to capture a performance. Dude finds his music boring because he's using loops, copying, pasting and dragging. If you treat making music like you're a college student on Adderall obsessively rearranging files on their computer, of course your music is going to be boring. Ignore those grid lines, turn on the metronome and use your ears, stop using four on the floor kicks, and recognize what a I IV V 12 bar blues and I V vi IV chord progression is and learn to avoid these and learn modes for better melodies and listen to J Dilla and Michael Jackson to learn rhythm, and the Beach Boys to learn harmony. Sound design, mixing and arranging go hand in hand (Wendy Carlos has a great CD called "Secrets of Synthesis" that tells you most of what you need to know about mixing, sound design, arrangements and even tuning temperaments). A producer nowadays is basically just a person who knows their way around a DAW and computers. And most importantly, never assume that they'll be a time where you don't have to learn something new. Even when you've reached Agartha, there's still rabbit holes to be discovered.

[@maurice970]

My english isnt the greatest but i wanna share a tip that really helped me. I caught myself creating uninspiring melodies and drums based on how i would react after i added a note or a sample. i wasnt feeling/improvising i was reacting. what changed for me is litterally recording my melodies by singing them and beatboxing the drums. after that you replace that with midi and samples. the entire process becomes way more organic.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Great tip! and nothing is wrong with your English btw! It's perfect ♥️

[@tomashgrey2211]

Your English is perfect.

[@atom1kcreeper605]

Same -ish pfp lol

[@MultiMam12345]

Duplicate your 8 bar loop x 20 . Now Mute all parts. Hit play and unmute clips on the fly. Pausing not allowed. limitation and constraints are key. I actually bounce to audio asap to commit and move forward. You will get totally different and usually better results.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

That is some good advice right here!

[@doctorauxiliary]

loving this idea!!

[@Renprophet]

Bounce to audio and move on!

[@ASSman864]

Yep i cook on bandlab and do this with treble midi patterns i make, convert it to audio then turn unmute and remute it as i please. My problem in this area is making a nice run but then when i try to actually create that by removing the clips where i muted it i usually find myself first landing on whole new options before i can track down the exact spots i was hearing it

[@Weirwoodchronicler]

Exactly what I was thinking... it was either the repetition or the mix was changed

[@JH-pe3ro]

There's a formula I use now to do all sorts of things with computers - not just music, but art, writing, programming, everything: I have to keep a journal nearby and some pens. I have a whole supply of those things, different formats, sizes, colors. As soon as I feel stuck or have trouble continuing, I rely on the process of transcribing, simplifying, and commenting on my work by hand, turning those notes into a little art project by using the different colors to mark things up. It doesn't *have* to be the paper medium, it could be, in the case of music, having an instrument nearby and trying to perform it. But it has to get me away from just choosing options from a menu, and towards making the work move through my hands. If I'm still stuck, the big guns that I bring out next are more philosophical - figuring out what the Venn diagram I want to end up with is, and then making work that fits into that diagram. Sometimes stepping back and looking at the high concept and saying "am I doing something contradictory" is all that's needed to break through a creative block: a lot of projects fail because there are some fundamental contradictions, and we avoid acknowledging those contradictions by adding technical scope to the project. When I do the Venn diagram the aim is to eliminate that and get to a nice overlapping space where all the elements work well with each other.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

I love this!! Such a wonderful way not just to fight creative block, but to grow as an artist. thanks for sharing! 🙏

[@Giovanni-yz1vo]

That has very probably been extremely helpful to many people, thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@raznatovicanastasija]

Can you make a video on this? Thanks.

[@Cliff-Young607]

Thank you, brother!

[@pavlekocbek]

yeah, I don't even write it a letter, I communicate with my dx7 by a bird.

[@eyesintheskies]

I’ve always felt the danger of the daw is your more likely to compose with your eyes than your ears.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

True

[@eyesintheskies]

@@RandomNoiseMusic im also saying that because im much more adept with hardware than daws! Reckon the trick is to record a jam, select a bit with some soul. Then use that as a building block in your daw. Can see the benefits been able to see your composition.

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

You should use both, when playing music in a band eye contact is key.

[@eyesintheskies]

@@b00ts4ndc4ts true. Im not dismissing daws just used to recording to tape so battling with the transition! Plenty of great albums were recorded before computers.

[@_goosdetrukendoos_]

Hahh good onee 😅

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

Funny isn't it, when people first started talking about making music on a computer they would say the possibility is endless and now people are saying limit yourself.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

I know, the irony, right? 😄

[@uncoiledfish2561]

Limitations keep you sane.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

True that!

[@Amazology]

"the only limit is YOUR imagination" - please go away marketers

[@DumboSanchez]

The difference I think is that now you're in control of the limitations

[@Bthelick]

It's ears over eyes, that's what it comes down to. Illimitations are one solution but it is not the underlying reason IMO. There's a known medical phenomena called the mcgurk effect which proves our eyes actually change what we hear! Computer screens have too much feedback and that visual info both changes our brains encoding of sound, and also leads into engineering rabbit holes that stop is creating music. Its the same reason you see people ask questions like "what LUFS is your track". They are no longer making music, they are making numbers, and therefore the emotion is lost too. If you make decisions with your ears you will produce emotionally. Hardware gear doesn't show us waveforms, DBFS levels, FFT analysis or timelines. it's certainly harder on a screen but as long as you learn that this is going on in your brain, it is entirely possible no problem.

[@LillySchwartz]

This is why I practically never work in the arrangement view. I lay out everything in session view, map the most relevant parameters on the midi controller and play it in live with automation. I might tweak from there, shorten certain bits or or replace single clips, but the bones and automation stay for the most part. It just feels more organic that way and like I'm actually playing music. Keyboard and mouse just feels so ... removed? Another thing that really helps for me is to work on a laptop on the sofa when I'm working on the arrangement. When I'm at a desk it feels like I'm at the office, even if it's a fancy desk with outboard equipment.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

So true about the desk feeling like being in the office lol

[@DiegoFuego87]

Can’t agree more. I WFH and have to consciously limit working in the room with my music gear or I never want to write anything in the evening.

[@Subjective_JoshNelson]

Thanks for this tip LillyS...As an Ableton noob, I don't know how to use Session view to compose, yet. Currently, I'm seeing if using Looper as my composition tool, works.

[@Vingul]

What does the automation do when playing live? Does it place whatever note/sound you're playing at the nearest... uh, "good timing"? Pardon the lack of terminology. When I've tried using a midi controller the latency Fs it up and one can of course not play as accurately as a machine could anyway.

[@DanielD.mp3]

Great video. Honestly I think a lot of it is that with the DAW it’s easier for us to make unfair judgements about the arrangement with our eyes. To us, seeing all the blocks in a formation might make us think something is “boring” or “lifeless” when our eyes are unfairly telling us “Hey, there’s the 16 bar intro, then an 8 bar break…” etc. It’s almost like giving us the ability to see the future. We think DAW is boring but maybe only because we are seeing when the changes are going to happen. With hardware or the electribe in your case, you often don’t see when exactly those changes are going to happen. So you do it by feel. But I’m willing to bet that if you multi-tracked out that performance and saw the blocks on a timeline again, you might be more harsh on the track then what’s really fair. What has helped me in the past was this: when listening back to a track, *DO NOT* follow along with your eyes. Minimize the DAW, look somewhere else, do anything. But the second you start following the playhead with your eyes you kind of take the magic and mystery out of your own creations that way.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

You got a point! Music is more about listening and feeling it than seeing it as blocks of information

[@modular2590]

absolutely and wholeheartedly believe this theory of yours is true!

[@lukesmith1685]

BRO!! That's so completely true! Audiowise I'm meltin on a stack of flap Jacks but visually I feel like I'm playing with the two year old version of lego's

[@ASSman864]

Great comment and totally true, some of my most basic beats that i almost can get sick of within the daw over a few hours actually end up becoming my favorite later when i remove myself from the visuals and all memory of the work creating it and simply listen then ill realise i like the audio more than i did the visuals of the beat compared to some beats im crazy about and can listen to in the daw for hours, those seem to be the ones that arent always as timeless. A good test for me is have a beat buddy u can send ur progress to along the way, just the act of sending it to them and listening there in the inbox will let me hear lile TEN mistakes i couldnt hear while watching the videos that mislead me to seeing "well everything looks alright" Def send your stuff to a trusted friend they aint even got to listen but it will help you hear it from a new perspective

[@notaboutit3565]

Thanks for the tip, gonna give this a shot

[@tribbybueno]

one of the best things i ever did for my electronic music was setting myself up to do as much work by playing it as possible. I no longer program my drums, i play all of them. I play my own keys, my own leads, i chop vocals using a sampler that i play the lines on, etc. it has made a night and day difference in the liveliness of my tracks without a doubt. my keyboard was $900, 88 keys, drum pads, etc, but it was so worth it

[@jayfblank]

"Creativity comes from limitation" - brilliant.

[@els1f]

Turning vst synths directly into audio as fast as possible helps me a lot! Whether that's bouncing the midi data or playing it directly into a bus that's recording, it helps me move along and keep focus

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

This is so true! I've experience that myself too many times, once I commit to wave, I have less reason to try to "perfect" the sound and just move on with ideas

[@themadsamplist]

Exactly my method

[@peterhorvath9662]

The best way to stifle creativity? Too many choices. So true.

[@Bernz66]

Exactly!!!! I created more music on my Tascam Porta One and 688 MKII than I do using Cubase Pro 13…… That is why I now use dice/s to make my decisions now…… creating more music now…

[@natdenchfield8061]

The world is full of infinite possibilities .. but you are able to shut them out and just start. There are NO limitations in reality - it is entirely a matter of your own thinking. Personally, I find it very easy to keep things simple and to not be thinking of every possibility at once.. it is entirely under your control. But, whatever works for the individual - if one has to pretend there are limitations to feel free, that's fine too.

[@martingifford5415]

I spent months on some tracks, but the track people liked the most was created in one hour using a simple external synth. There are lots of stories about hits being written within an hour.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

So ironic isn't it

[@tommyapocalypse6096]

Refusing to overthink everything helps and has helped me. And knowing myself as I do, that ain’t easy… but it is doable.

[@RalphMickey]

omg thank you... that is exactly what I do with the mouse and keyboard - make a ton of lifeless and forgotten tracks and just fills up the hard drive. I dots were there - just never connected them. Thank you for this video.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for watching and glad it was useful! ♥️

[@irawardofficial]

Absolutely !! Hardware is always better. Just for the aspect of "seeing", visuals, things which creates vibe :).

[@paddingtonsnare987]

Never quit though! If it gets stale, save exit open another and start fresh. Come back to old idea later with new perspective/mood

[@chriskingston1981]

My experience too! On my spiritual path I learn that under the form there is content. You put in something (love) that is not visible, but everybody feels it (unity).if you make music from thinking/in the head it is not created from the heart and people feel that. Back in the days you just had one synth, one sampler and a drumcomputer and could make hits. ❤️❤️❤️

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

♥️

[@willboler830]

This video just showed up in my feed. I just started getting back into making music and have been dedicating myself to learning everything I can about the DAW. I had bought a MPD years ago but never used it, but finally decided to pull it out a couple days ago. Messing around with sounds with the MPD have completely changed everything for me, and all my music has more of a bounce to it. I was planning to search online to see what anyone thought about this difference, and this video shows up in my feed without searching.

[@scififunk]

The best way to write is away from a computer and letting what is in your heart be recorded. Now it’s your soul talking, it’s a million miles away from any technical preset. I get ideas at night and record on my iPad filming my slippers whilst singing or beat boxing or a sung bass line. After that inspiration, other riffs will come. All natural from within. Then it stops. NOW you are in a position to approach the computer, although sleeping first and waking up with energy is recommended. GL everyone, may all your beats be sweet.

[@brekbeatattack7038]

This is a point that’s made often in the community. I feel another perspective is to not always look for something that „needs to“. Because imo this is really the virus in music production. We always need something else, plugin, hardware, better monitors and better ideas, and of course a better workflow. I think what we really „need“ is to learn to stay mentally on track. With all that gear floating around, we get so used to some sort of instant gratification and an easy way to distract ourselves from the challenge at hand. We all know and love, to a point of chasing after, these moments when inspiration strikes. But inspiration is not dependent on outward factors but on inner creative spirit. Of course, a sense of exploration is much more inspiring than a sense of pressing sameness. But I remember when I started out with Bitwig just exploring and being endlessly inspired. Nowadays it‘s not like that anymore. Has Bitwig changed or is it me? Of course only my mind. Bitwig has only gotten more inspiring. So why do I not explore anymore? Because I think that I am limited. We always look for some sort of solution on the outside for the „problem“ that our mindset is in a greedy state of wanting better conditions (often this translates to more control) and too lazy to find a creative solution! We want to own the process! We want to own creativity, we want the formula. But by satisfying this desire for better conditions in whatever way - workflow, speaker, VSTs, knowledge - we move away from the spirit of creativity. We condition ourselves to be ever more dependent on having this and knowing that. For the mind it feels like „yay I got the synth/headphones/xyz so I got the music“. But the spirit looks more and more at the screen like you do in the beginning of the video. While I do appreciate creativity being shared, I feel like the music production community is often much more tapping into a collective desiring of that sweet state of flow, but instead of working on ourselves, we shift and shift and shift the blame, completely overthinking it and trying to find „the solution“. I don‘t believe there is any other solution than learning to detach from immediate results and from the strong identification with the entire process, and learning to in a meditative way give space to creativity and let it flow without demand or expectation. Art is not only a kiss by the muse, it is a constant confrontation with oneself. To learn to stick with it and not be discouraged because something at first sounds bad is what I think is a central point many of us (I don‘t take myself out) need to learn. Sorry for long post 🍌

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

You wrote that beautifully and your way of thinking touched a nerve in me. I really agree with what you are suggesting here, and I feel it on myself. We are living in a world that bas become accustomed to the idea of distractions. And we spend most of the time seeking solutions outside ourselves while the answers are probably inside, just like you were saying. I believe that this goes beyond art and music making, and also related in a philosophical and spiritual way to are chase of happiness. Thank you for sharing that profound thinking and for the good reminder to look inside 🙏

[@ghosthavenmusic]

Bjork said once "if your computer music has no soul, it's your fault"

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

I am a big fan of Björk! ♥️

[@mi_walczak]

This is the video i absolutely needed now. Levaving DAW for a few days to only focus on my hardware gear for new inspirations

[@Arkytera]

You are absolutely right. It takes centuries to process the instant bursts of energy or emotion we experience into machine language with a mouse. *But inspiration and emotion can come and go very quickly. While we are trying to enter logical data into the computer, we may even forget what we are working on.* If you don't understand this, record a crazy cutoff session with the real knob first, then draw the same excitement and ups and downs with the mouse. It's nice to see lineer rises, perfect curves, beautiful geometry and symmetry in the automation line, but in reality it robotizes the dynamics of the music. Real recordings, which put hundreds of nodes on the automation line and create ugly shapes, make the real music. Thanks dude. _(I'm Turkish bro sorry my bad english)_

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for watching! and exactly, working on the computer can make the process much less human if we try to makes thing "prefect"

[@Arkytera]

@@RandomNoiseMusic Totally agree 👌

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

Nothing wrong with your English mate, and I understand exactly what you mean.

[@Arkytera]

@@b00ts4ndc4ts Thank you very much my friend, you are very kind.

[@mgrechukh]

+100 about automation. I always prefer to hit REC and then turn cutoff/resonance knobs by mouse. Thing is that impossible to take both knobs same time, which gives me opportunity to actually feel how it goes and how it grooves and when exactly to change etc. etc. Gut feeling not visual abstraction. Much better than putting straight ascending line in automation track. Same way it's quite hard for me to put notes on piano roll comparing to very simplest midi keyboard where i can trust fingers

[@thekarmafarmer608]

You bring a good point, I think. This problem exists in many areas of productivity where we need to separate the creative side of our brain from the more objective and logical side. In instrument playing, say a guitar, it`s very hard to be creative until you`ve learned the instrument and understand music to the point where you don`t have to think. It`s the same with electronic instrumentation.

[@AndyMangele]

Since I'm a bit older I feel free to throw in my two cents. In the early 80s I started recording with analog gear (what else😂) i.e. a Tascam 4 track tape recorder. Even though it served the purpose (for a while) I always thought/hoped that there must be a better medium for recording stuff. A few years later the digital revolution kicked in and I embraced it full heartedly. I got my first digital 8 track recorder and then switched to Cubase. For me it was manna from heaven and I haven't looked back since. But having that said: the best equipment is what you're most comfortable with!

[@lindenrowe876]

what I do, that helps me is to commit ideas to audio fairly early on, so I don't waste time changing and tweaking sounds. I go with my initial gut feeling on what sounds good. I listen to my progress away from the computer which gives me a different headspace and allows me to hear it more objectively. Then I make a to-do list of what to work on next, which really helps me to focus on the task of getting the track done, and not be distracted by things that aren't as important.

[@craigdovebloke]

Having been in bands I find that the playing live mentality helps - drums, bass, guitars, keys/ second guitar, vocal - you only have what you have so you have to use texture, ebb and flow, groove and performance to make a song work for an audience.

[@RYTMIKEISARI]

Take any track by any band or producer and repeat sections of it hours and hours again and it is quaranteed that at some point you start to notice mistakes, and besides that, your ears get so tired of repeating digital audio that your brain literally sends pain signals and stress hormones around your body to stop you doing that. Your ears getting tired is the main issue when working with music on computers, since evolution has not yet cached on how to properly handle digital audio. Best practises I've learned is to take breaks every 30min, and make tracks with very low volume. Also detaching yourself from your own productions help tremendously.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

So true, also many times when I take a break from a piece I am working on I come back to it much more fresh and with more creative energy

[@muldrake]

That's why it is important to have a certain speed and make quick decisions while producing. The longer you just listen to your loop and keep changing unimportant things the more tired and annoyed you will become, which will eventually lead you to change the important parts/ main ideas of your track, because you got bored by it.

[@LordConstrobuz]

this is really all it is. i cant listen to my absolute favorite songs more than ~5 times in a row before i get tired of it, so at most that might be like 25 minutes. now imagine being an amateur producer (especially those that make some kind of repetitive 4-to-the-floor/EDM genre of music) working on the same poorly mixed, mediocre song for 4 hours. with my music ive found 1-1.5 hours is the sweet spot of working on something. if im not done by then, its best to take a long break, work on something entirely new, or just stop for the day. otherwise i feel just like the guy in the video, it feels like the track has lost its energy, but its really not the track, its just me/my ears being fatigued from listening to the same thing for way too long.

[@Nuclearbones]

I cant believe you accurately described my music hell for the past 12 or so years. Thank you

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

😅

[@Subsonicrage1]

One downside of getting to know more and more about production/mixing overall is the fact that it will slowly kill your creativity.. you will end up not producing exactly how you envisioned in your head ... another thing that I´ve noticed my dudes is the fact that having a lot of different plugins DOES NOT help aswell because by the time you pick 1 of the 50 compressors or 1 of the 25 limiters you have, you already forgot what you were doing, it really is a massive distraction... So in conclusion, keep it up boys, if it sounds good, RELEASE IT

[@T0mmyPL]

The thing that is also important, while editing music in a daw, you listen to your edits over and over again (to see if it fits). After you listen something 50 times, it naturally gets boring and dull. That's why when you work on your music, it's also good to work on a couple of tracks at the same time and alternate between them, so it doesn't get too boring.

[@jxmusic357]

I have searched for 1000s of videos but I heard it from You damn

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

🙏

[@floydross9000]

Great tips! Another idea: If the notes sound better in your mind than they do in the DAW (because the DAW sounds robotic), take your lead lines and give them to actual musicians to record. This almost always improves the piece.

[@Robotmaster76]

Totally agree with you. I've walked the same path. It's about having fun while creating!

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

💯

[@333_Tarot]

Tools bring the accomplishments of today, your own creativity connects to the eternal sources.

[@peter-davidvanderstraat5991]

Such a brilliant piece of knowledge. Thank you so much for explaining this. And you are right - creativity comes as a product of the limitations you have in your studio

[@astrocat2008]

😄 First thing i did when i bought Logic Pro four years ago and started to make music more seriously : DELETE ALL THE LOOPS! I've never used any loops of any kind… I make pop and electro-pop music, and i just program and play everything… This keeps my brain from feeling too secure or over-confident. I keeps me "on the edge"…

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

That's a good tip and strategy!

[@dacidthorn]

The popularity of ‘music’ loops always confused me, esp vocal chops. I’m fine with drum loops all day but making the music melodies, harmonies ,vox etc myself is kinda the point of making music.

[@Dave-el6rh]

just finding out that I am not alone after seeing your video helped with my block...been doing it since 1985...thank you.Really.Thank you...

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Glad it was helpful, and thanks for watcing! You are definetly not alone in that!

[@igrantyoucontent8266]

It's crazy how true this is! I remember playing this game on PC called CokeMusic like 20 years ago, where you could create a virtual character and make music using only their one shots in their mixer, and you could only make 1 minute instrumentals that you could perform to other people in the game. It sounds weird but I feel like I was better at making music when I was kid playing that game than I am now with a DAW lol It frustrates me because I know I have good ideas, but every time I open up a DAW, I'm back to going blank and stuck. Great video, I'm gonna try using my Maschine MK3 more instead of FL Studio and see how it goes. Thank you!

[@projekt9759]

Absolutely agree. Limitations creates inovation/inspiration on another level. Too many possibilities/choices limits the creativity in some strange way.

[@Samueljohnhorne1984]

I think the 8 track challenge is a great idea! That is my personal “go to” for starting a track these days. 4 percussion + 4 midi tracks. It makes starting a new idea feel a lot less pressure, and a lot more simple and fun. Great video mate 😊

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Exactly, it takes out the pressure from the process and focus it on what matter most. Thank you!

[@willdatsun]

excellent advice. one thing i want to try is routing maybe 6 outs from my PC into an analogue mixer then doing a live 'dub' to create the song from the basic tracks which will all be playing at the same time in a loop

[@ballOOnheadSound]

It really depends on the DAW you use. I found mine over 20 years ago and it just kept me goin on with my ideas. Most important thing is to record the stuff by hand and not by clicking the notes. This preserves the idea the best :). Effects in my style are what you are talking about :)

[@HolyColaHolyCola]

Option paralysis is very real.

[@akigh-fh3hg]

thanks for sharing your experience with us...please more of that topic

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for watching, glad it was useful! 🙏

[@johnfollis2357]

I use Reaper as my DAW of choice. I do everything via computer keyboard. But I also have a Yamaha PSRE463 keyboard hooked up to my computer. I use the sounds and midi capabilities of my keyboard to start with. Then I branch out into third party VSTs and sound effects. I feel at home with the sounds and midi capabilities of my PSRE463 keyboard. And it does limit me in someway. And then if I don't like the sounds of my keyboard for a certain part, then I move into VSTs to help with that. I think the problem is, with all the cool stuff out there, sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. And that in turn, causes us to choke on our ideas. And I am certainly guilty of this myself. So just starting slow and simple before branching out if need be, is a better way to go about making your compositions.

[@ueberlicht_]

Reason is the only DAW that has that harware feeling for me. It has the healthy speed.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

So true, agree to that!

[@mrfish4572]

I used to use Reason and abandoned it in favour of Live which, with Live Looping and Push is unbelievable for creating fluid beautiful music. Session view for live looping is killer for creating electronic music. I agree with @RandomNoise though, limitations are the source of creativity. I try to stick to the rule of only having three sounds playing at any point in the track and that also makes for a lot of creative limitations that add clarity to my tracks.

[@Lito_419]

Using the cardinal plugin in ableton is the move. Reason is also a great but imo it’s better as a plug-in. Reasons sequencer is a bit of a headache

[@adammcgill9844]

Reason is my favorite DAW by far. It’s the easiest in my opinion for working on the fly. It’s also incredibly stable.

[@att1413]

All I've ever used. Downloaded a cracked reason 5 in ~2007 and never looked back. (I did eventually pay for it [2 years ago 😂])

[@RelievedMusic]

What has helped me a lot is to not look at the DAW when playing back the whole song. I minimize the DAW and look at my cover picture for the song. This way I concentrate more on what I hear, rather than what I see.

[@JeanetteMeriles-gl1wz]

Yes!

[@hiQer]

Great video and point. I am actually doing this since last month and now I see this video! I bought a synthesizer and a midi controller that can make beats, control that synth and has a synth within. It also can MUTE the channels like you said. This helps me still be connected to the daw when I want to but also build a track without any wires or connection. I love it, as it gave me back the pleasure of playing with sound again and thus the creativity!

[@captainblood9616]

You nailed it with the working in limitations, that was how all the old school greats did it. It is surprising how effective it is, being spoiled with too much abundance and choices can be oddly crippling I find.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

How ironic and paradoxically, isn't it? the more we have, the less we make out of it

[@AlessandroPacifico]

Exactly my realization I had a few days ago. Instead of creating a track per drum element (kick,snare etc...) put them all into a Drum Rack like you would do on an MPC.

[@Nethanieal]

I think a lot about this when away from the studio , every once in a while I get an idea. Sounds good on the groove box, make up some tracks to go with it. Export to daw and then it loses the vibe and energy . Unlike when your jamming out and feeling the music. I have been thinking about this lately ,now after watching this video it resonates well. Thanks for the chat bud, good luck with this channel. One of the best videos for music producers right here .

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for watching and the kind words!

[@mudi2000a]

Thank you, very interesting! Now I finally understand why I like Bitwig so much. Because it makes the workflow that you described so easy, e.g. using a MIDI controller to control various aspects and you have like „global macros“ where you can control parameters of multiple tracks with a single knob.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Interesting, maybe I should check out Bigwig one day, never used it before. thanks for watching!

[@neveser]

I did a "less is more" thing on my last project. Kept it to about 3 VST instruments and 2 effects suites. Album turned out much better. I've kept that mindset going forward... not saying I won't look at new things though! :)

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

How can we not look at new things, right?! haha and congrats on getting that album!

[@iambuschi]

At first I thought this is about "dollars".. until I realized it is more about "daw-less".. On a more serious note, I fully agree.. too many options paralyze me straight away.. on multiple levels, but putting artificial limits are a very good strategy to get out of this situation. Really nice inspirational video. Was here for the first time, will be back soon ;)

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

😂♥️

[@samprock]

True. One way I solve it, is I still play DAW, but only one hardware synth. With only one “sound” to make different part of the song. Otherwise, yes, it’s too easy to make full track by copy/paste, and it stays one looooong idea forever. Same goes if I play DAW and single sw plug-in but treat it as a hw synthesizer. One easy trick to turn off a screen, play blind one another computer (I keep work computer screen on, music computer is different, an only accessible thru push or controller). Or just put another window on top of the DAW 😊

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

These are some good tricks! never thought about playing while the screen is turned off lol

[@rebeccaschade3987]

Then again, when you're "in the groove" with a dawless setup, you can sometimes become blind to the moment. It feels great there and then, but if you record the whole thing, and listen to it the next day, or next week, the results can be affected by the "you had to be there" phenomenon. It doesn't sound like it "felt" like it did there and then. However, I totally agree that recording stuff is usually better than sequencing it with the mouse. I think the whole idea that "working in the DAW" means not using hardware controllers is a huge misconception. Most people who use DAWs have some sort of controller and many also use hardware synths as well. A DAW isn't a replacement for musical instruments, it's simply a place to make all your gear work together.

[@echohammer]

Im not sure how to do it other DAWs, but in Reaper you can sync the entire track tempo to a live performance and all the MIDI instruments (drums in my case) will follow with those same tempo fluctuations. Even the best riffs/synths can sound dead without them.

[@danielvogel9453]

Thanks, I always need new ideas to combat this. I've actually been planning my melodies from whistling more recently which gives me the forced control of needing breath.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for watching! I am jealous in your ability to whistle, I can barely make a sound when trying to haha

[@RaptureMusicOfficial]

I never deleted a single Cubase project. When I Begin, I pull it through and it sounds great. I also often begin with the intro and have a clear idea of my music.

[@arkanoid77]

That muting is actually the fundation of the dub music workflow, dating 60 years ago now!

[@_TheGoddessinTraining_]

this is beautiful. thank you for your insights!

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

♥️

[@FelixLanzalaco]

I think the issue is people don't understand composition and what goes into making the great music of the past. It used to be access to studios was so limited this filtered out only those with the most dedicated all encompassing professional approach to playing and composition. By the time a bunch of them get studio time they are bristling with a build up of creative ideas and it all explodes. Now you can fiddle on a beatbox and think what's left after the entropy in translation will be enough. No you need a lot of creative ideas before you sit down and throw it in the daw.

[@Herfinnur]

I think your thoughts on this are very compatible with advice from 🥰Hainbach that has helped me immensely: before you enter your creative space, decide what hat you will be wearing: Artist of some kind (improviser; songwriter; composer; arranger; DJ; samplist; sound designer; instrumentalist; lyricist; vocalist, etc.) where you’re allowing yourself to explore and play and discover without any pressure or ego, or more left-brained hats like: producer; engineer; cleaner; technician; archivist; studio designer, etc. Whatever hat it is, you stop yourself every time you find yourself accidentally putting on a different hat. For that you must leave the room, take off the previous hat (in a manner of speaking. I don’t actually have a bunch of labelled hats hanging praise) and put on that other hat before you enter the room again. It’s made me so productive and so happy and inspired, and now I actually enjoy listening to the music I make!

[@terencedouglas1402]

I totally agree with what you are saying in this video. In fact I've been thinking the very same thing this past couple of weeks. I remember when I was all hardware and it seemed like the beats just hit harder and no matter how many times I listened to the track that energy was always there. So I will try your suggestions and see if I can find a happy medium between me an my DAW.

[@illyland.]

Guys the best advice I can give u is don’t do full beats/tracks. For 2 days maybe do only drum loop ideas the other day only melodic. Then one day you can mix those ideas. The output with this method is immense and the good part is you can send those ideas to other producers for a nice collabo. Win win

[@DonClassico]

Yooo I've been stuck with this for years and sort of going through it right now. I just couldn't understand why I can't make music the same way I used to when I was working on my mpc or slow as windows 95 or 7 with all its limitation. Now listening to your explanation makes more sense to me

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Glad this was useful and yeah man, the struggle is real!

[@mondoghulam3050]

+1 I learned the hard way to keep my demo track at the top of the project and refer to it constantly. in going from the demo to a more polished song, I was killing the feel and energy right at the start. Getting caught up in what I thought was the correct timing and losing all the feel. I’m now learning about Cubase’s features that allow you to directly use that material in a DAW-friendly way, like adjusting the tempo to track to follow my own timing and extracting midi from audio. The other thing that sinks a project for me is editing or tweaking, while still building the song, trying to dial in sounds and making mixing decisions before the full song structure or arrangement is there. The DAW allows you to do all of that at the same time and I’ve heard others who work this way. For me, it’s a sure-fire way to get lost in the woods.

[@jenslempke7501]

I agree completly. And I work this way, with only a few synths (only real ones and actual emulations of existing synths, not inspired by, but from the same manufactures. And I blend in hardware sound modules to be able to bring those sounds anywhere.

[@cyberinstinction]

I'm still a bit inexperienced in producing but I've always had a love for DAWLESS. Currently I only work with my groovebox. The live performance brings more life to the music and more joy in making music.

[@llorenzoTV]

I usually play piano inbetween to get back to the musical side of producing.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

We need that balance in between the modes, don't we?

[@DannyPoet]

it probly helps if u play an instrument.. rather than everythin being digital.

[@NSHTrollingPebs]

@@DannyPoet i use musical typing then tweak it by going to the piano roll a lot (i just started on the free, stock SoundTrap)

[@TrevorOuellette]

I’ve been making music on computers for 32 years. Started with mod trackers and then midi to VSTs. It’s been great.

[@D84D]

I'll use the daw to put everything together but I have to change up the devices that I use to make myself continually feel the freshness & spontaneity the device provides. I've kept a solid keyboard from the 90's a sampling drum machine a turntable/dj setup all going into a usb mixet to daw. I can go in any direction in and out of each device and ultimately collect and arrange into my daw. It's great having a touch of old hands on gear and the daw/pc power. It keeps me from getting stagnant. ***Great informative video btw. Thanks.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thank you and thanks for watching! And that hybrid way of working is exactly what I've learned to appreciate most and works best for me as well

[@ZwelMunWint]

That’s why I ended up making sound design stuffs than making music. If I ended up making several sound in one session and like it enough and think it might fell under the same art direction, I’ll just started with some of the cool sounds to make a music. I dont have hardwares or instruments in my hands now so that’s the only way that amuses me to making music. Other trick is I change DAWs. I know it’s handy to learn new DAW but each DAW has its different workflow that forces you to see the music making in another perceptive. Now I’m using bitwig and the nature of bitwig forces me to do more sound design and that makes me inspiring to start a song from cool sounds I made.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

These are good tips! thanks for sharing and thanks for watching!

[@ricknemrecords]

Well said my friend....we have too many options...Thx

[@1wibble230]

"Whatever works for you is the best" is the one thing I can agree on in this video :)

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

I'll take it 🤝

[@EduardoCostaLisboa]

It makes sense to me. I mean, totally! Thank you very much for sharing such thoughts!

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thank you for watching! ♥️

[@steuph1976]

Treating my virtual setup like it was a physical one has always helped me. One great advice I got in a music shop when I started getting some gear and software was to just buy Logic Express, which didn’t have most of the fancy plugins from Studio (remember when Logic was a small or huge box ?) and get two Arturia synths instead, and I got the ARP and Jupiter. Well since then I got Logic Pro and the whole V Collection but I always try to start with the idea that I’m in a physical studio with a finite number of available tracks and I only have a bunch of these synths lying around. Reason is great for that too.

[@FakeCompatition]

I just got an launchcontrol xl to add it to my launchpad, yesterday i had a jam session with both of them and really experienced what you are saying. And now YT gives me this video 😅. I think it will really work for me

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

haha the wonders of YT algorithm 😄 glad this was useful!

[@hypgnosis3159]

Interesting, and great points, i think this is true on many levels, find something to keep it exciting for you, the creator, otherwise, No one will like it, if you, yourself don't .... Food for thought

[@TracingFlares]

The moment i sold my Korg Triton many years ago.. all directness was gone and i had to get a good keyboard back. You are absolutely right and this is the reason most streamline Tracks juast are not musical for my taste😊😊

[@kellysereda4961]

I'm just getting back into producing after a 20 year hiatus. I was often facing the scenario you describe and thinking back, my most memorable tracks were ones where I had left the most to performance. Getting back into it now, I'll be looking at ways to highlight that aspect. Cheers.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

🍻

[@daisheyaku]

Good ideas. Another thing you can try is take elements of a DAW track and bring them into a sampler to remix/rework. This has worked well form me when a DAW idea gets stale but there's still good elements. I recently constructed a DAWless set up and it's really fun. I start the ideas outside of the DAW and then import them to finish the track.

[@57RickH]

This is a great topic! I'm a guitarist who uses Garageband and I often get caught in the loop monotony when I get lazy and just use virtual instruments. I've been trying to figure out a way to make my productions less "perfect" and give them more of the human feel and I think when I do more with the guitar, that helps break out of the robotic nature of using somebody else's loops. So, I'm still trying to find that happy medium and your video will help me stay focused more on that. If everyone is doing the same thing, nothing really stands out.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Thanks for checking it! 🙏 It sounds like you are getting closer to your ideal workflow, so keep doing your thing!

[@rootofgreatness.]

This is some good advice. I only have one drum machine, headphones and that's my studio. I start with a loop (kick, bass or hi-hat) and just about 16 steps in all of them. I have to make it work there (experimenting patterns I like or ideas) and it works. I extend my steps so I can add some variation and sometimes I leave them like that. It drives a message I have for that track. You have put it so well, make a loop and try to expand it. Thank you.

[@jaimeross7507]

I made music in my daw.....You know ...alot of Random noise.....then I realized....damn....I have a Harmonica....a microgranny....and I never looked Back....now Hardware Years later....I Feel more Satisfied with Music....and It All started with DAW. Maybe someday I might visit just for nostalgia. 😊.❤.

[@silentalliance3269]

You’re exactly right I made some of my best of the only using around 10 tracks and that includes The audio and soft synths … I manage to make them sound bigger and clearer than a track with 38 different loops and synths. even CPU Limitations are ok because it means you’re not trying to add on extra parts since and melody lines when something that wasn’t right in the first place.

[@hautboxxradio]

100% to this video! I have been trying for many years to write a track in arrangement view. But when I go into sessions view, and jam with the music, it feels way more real to me. I really struggle in arrangement view. I was a Dj for many years, and creating something as it's playing feels like it gives the track way more energy. thanks for this video, it's just what I needed.

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Session view does feel more like playing! Thanks for watching 🙏

[@alanredversangel]

The thing that helps me is not having time. It focuses the mind. And having mixdowns and listening to them to the point that i really want to make changes to the arrangement.

[@mihovil5806]

YOU EXPLAIN VERY WELL. THIS IS ALSO HAPPENING TO ME. THANKS

[@Jimmyknapp2]

Time to manually rewire our brains. Between the video and comments, there is real game changing advice here. Thanks!

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

♥️ Thanks for checking it out!

[@Lon1an]

Since I have never been "dawless", I sometimes arrange my music afterwards. The spirit of creating melodies is often at its peak at the beginning of the song, but if I make a song for two days, I'm constantly in the song even when I step away from the computer and think about what to do next in my head and then come back for to fix and adjust.

[@McHuebi]

My workflow is to get a idea on my synths and record a sequence or melody into my daw. From there on I start to expent my idea, rerecord and rerecord a 1000 times, make midi files, record that, arrange my track and work on details. So you have the intuitive workflow from your limited gear and the endless options from your daw. Works perfect for me

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

That sounds like a great workflow you made into a successful formula to repeat like a classic song writing 👍

[@Bezz_Jeens]

I feel this so much. I’ve switched to be more in the DAW due to having to get rid of a lot of hardware, and I’ve been struggling so hard to make anything I like. Frankly, while you can do a lot to help with making the DAW feel more creative and spontaneous, I’ve been struggling to make it happen. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate you sharing!

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

First I hope you have good MIDI keyboard with plenty of controls, because that is quite essential when moving to work completely in the box. Second is that try to treat your DAW like it's not really a powerful software. Think of it more of as a tape recorder and set it up and use it as if it was much more limited. Hope this helps!

[@TheJuanAndOnly001]

This adds a whole new perspective in music production. I will definitely consider a more kinesthetic approach. Thanks for your "Random Noise". :)

[@RandomNoiseMusic]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for checking it out 😊