[KonKarne]

What do you have a particularly hard time with when you're making music?

For me it's anything above 160 BPM and major key signatures.

List your difficulties and maybe give some advice to others on improving in these areas. It could be anything from certain keys, tempos, mastering, drums, bass, melody, etc.

[Syncopate Life]

Giving every sound it's perfect share of frequencies and making the mix clean.. also country music.

[redeyeglasses]

I've written very few melodies that are memorable, when I try to think of vocal parts they sounds like bottom of the barrel novelty country songs (when I can think of anything at all), I use too many ambient drones as intros, and I use "progressive structures" a lot because I'm not very good at fully developing ideas.

[KonKarne]

Melody is something that escapes me as well. I've kinda resolved to worry less about "good" melodies and just write simple ones that make sense.

[JD1112]

The structure of a song. A lot of the time I'll lay out one part of a song that I really like and after that I'll get stumped about what I want the rest to sound like. I'm also bad for uploading something without waiting and then i'll come back later and find mistakes or change some stuff then have to re upload it again lol.

[KonKarne]

Something that helps me move onto the next section of the song is going back to the basics of song structure and the relationships chords have within the context of a song.

For example I'll look at what I've written and try to see how it would fit in a standard structure, AABA for instance. If I feel it would be a good A section I go from there, and if I feel it's a good B section I'll take it from that point.

As far as writing the next section goes if I'm stumped I'll look at the last few measures of the section I've completed. I look at what chord I ended on, and try to determine what a good complement to that chord would be. For example if I end on the I a good start for the next section might be the V, or perhaps the vi for a different sound. The melody can also take me to the next section by seeing what the last note leads to. I tend to like approaching the starts of melodies from either a whole step above or a half step below.

Sorry if that got a little College Music Theory-ie on you.

[statisticquill]

I can harmonize and modulate and write melodies allll day in front of a piano, but put me in front of a computer and it just dies. Even if I have a nice keyboard, it just won't happen.

Same thing goes with sound design. I have infinitely better results when I'm not sitting in front of a computer. I'm coming up with great sounds on my microkorg right now, way better than when I play around with the synths in logic or something.

So basically, computers are my kryptonite : /

Anyways, back to the microkorg...

@KonKarne I know what you mean lol, modulating can be a bitch, at least getting it right. Fortunately a lot of the time its not necessary in dance music.

[Slump]

For me it's most certainly sound creation. I know what all the knobs do and how to automate them (and if I don't I know how to read the manual; which, surprisingly, not many people can do). I know the "physics" of sound and how harmonics and overtones work and how to use that to my advantage.
When I say sound creation is my current weak point, which I hope to overcome within the year, I think that my trouble is making a sound "performancable" (for lack of a better term); as in being able to morph the sound in a musical and pleasing way while playing live; I would say that a "performancable" sound would be analogous to the types of articulations that can be played on an acoustic instrument, yet still not necessarily the same thing.

I guess my starting point is making interesting macro knobs to use.

[Hit Girl]

13/8 time signature.

[Kausemus]

Going back to a project that you haven't touched in a while. Trying to mix it into better when you've already gotten used to the sounds of the original track. "Is this better or worse now? Shit I can't tell.. Maybe the crude version was better.. or maybe not.."

edit: Oh and as a drummer I can give a little advice for those 160bmp+ tempos. Just play em slower till it's easy, then go 5bmp higher and play till it's easy. Up the bpm slowly and you will see the difference. Also playing with a metronome skill-ups timing.

[KonKarne]

Thanks for the advice. The problem I have with both higher tempos and major key signatures is that they never sound right. I can usually play in them, but it just sounds cheesy to me for some reason. Maybe it just has to do with my personal preference.

[harpeer]

My musical kryptonite?

alcahol

getting old

alchahol + getting old

[Mindsweeper]

For me it's anything below 150 bpm, olo

Also, I fucking suck at lyrics, which didn't used to bother me, but as time goes on I want to write a vocal track more and more but I can't for the life of me think of any lyrics (even dumb ones)

[Slump]

Originally Posted by Hit Girl

13/8 time signature.

Just use a dotted quantize and beat divide 13/8 into 3 even dotted quarter note increments and one increment of a dotted quarter note with an extra dotted 8th note.
You should look up the difference between simple and complex meters because you can beat divide the two types of meters in almost identical ways. I consider 13/8 a "drunk feeling" variation of 12/8; and in my mind 12/8 is just a longer feeling variation of 4/4. Of course you can also beat divide complex meters in unusual and uneven ways which is interesting too!

pic related:

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[Toy]

Chords

[KonKarne]

Originally Posted by Mindsweeper

For me it's anything below 150 bpm, olo

Also, I fucking suck at lyrics, which didn't used to bother me, but as time goes on I want to write a vocal track more and more but I can't for the life of me think of any lyrics (even dumb ones)

The biggest thing I've learned when it comes to lyrics is to write them every day. Even if you think they suck. Practice is the only way to get better.

That and looking at the lyrics of your favorite writers and trying to analyze why you like them.

[Fear]

My musical kryptonite....

Hmm. I have a lot, actually.
1. Melodies. I am a drummer. I can kill it on rhythm, there's a reason why I'm making breakcore type stuff. I do NOT know what I'm doing in regard to melody. I get lucky very occasionally.

2. Structure. I have ADD, and I'll either stuff one section with an idea or two that totally don't fit, or the song will take a completely different direction. I like the feeling of cohesive music, so this is something I strive to improve whenever I write a track. Which brings me to 3...

3. Writing. Period. Perfectionism (the bad kind, the kind that keeps you from twiddling knobs, closer in kin to my username) is an issue of mine. I want to be Aphex Twin tomorrow, basically. So when you look through my "track" file or whatever, you'll see a bunch of very bare ideas with a lot of potential but no length, meat, eqing, etc.

Fuck that third one, man.

[KonKarne]

All I can say, Fear, is to practice, practice, practice. That and try to improve on your discipline. Song writing and production require a lot of discipline even though not all of us display a lot of it all the time.

In regards to your structure issues I would try to write some simple songs that follow classic structure just to get the feel for it. Maybe a song that's just one or two tracks with a simple melody or chord structure in a classic AABA structure.

[Fear]

So... basically, you're saying that I RACK DISIPRIN?!!?

Nah, I know. Starting off writing whole breakcore songs with little experience is challenging, there's a lot of detail involved and it's for sure a much harder task than trying to produce house.


Disclaimer: I love house, I'm not trying to say it's dumbed down or anything, it simply takes more time to program more effects on more drums and keep your music changing and shit. More to do=more time.

[KonKarne]

Ohhhhh, I couldn't even imagine making breakcore! Too much for me lol.