Hmmm... Dried up?

[Analog-X64]

I sat down for about 2 hours tonight trying to work on a remix, nothing was coming out.

Gave up.

Going to bed.

[poke16384]

Sometimes your creativity is like a water pipe, (but the tap to turn it on and off is in your neighbour's house).

You know that water DOES come out of it but you can't always control when it happens.

Save the partial licks / riffs / songs & files for another day.

If music is a passion for you then drying up is like being poorly sick. It is frustrating when it happens and you just have to find the right
medicine to make you better again.

My Cures for Drying Up!
----------------------------
Mild Dryness - Work on a different part of the project. ...or even another project altogether.
Severe Dryness - Walk away from it for a while, do something else, Play a few games, watch a few movies, listen to some different kinds of music.

Radical Solution.... Collaborate.... Start a new joint project with someone else. It's surprising how quickly your ideas come back when your bouncing
off someone else's creativity too.

[Commie_User]

I agree with that.

Things just come to you. Even Lennon and McCartney used to say they couldn't get anything sometimes.

It may help to do as I do and record every little scrap of tune which pops into your brain. Try listening to records (esp. classical) and have ideas for new arrangements. Listen to an LP again at 78, or backwards (on the PC), particularly niche or ethnic music. Buy unusual musical instruments on the cheap and get to know them either properly or by your own intuition.

Broken electric axe played with bow.jpg (17.96 KiB) Viewed 9006 times

Inspiration can come (not just a steal), leastways for me. Listen to the rhythm of speech for hooks. Record random jabs at the keyboard. Doodle patterns in your DAW's piano roll or examine the block patterns with MIDI files loaded in. Play with numbers in assembler.

Tinker with Instant Music: http://www.dustybin.org.uk/IM.htm

Music Mouse even: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.br ... Mousey.htm

Or look for the MIDI Mirror software which can reverse or invert the octaves, giving you even more to think about: http://midi-mirror-music.soft32.com/


Stuff like that can help alongside the main brainstorms and you could be surprised how often that works. I often found composition so easy when rigging the brain for good inspiration habits. In fact, my tunes seem almost overloaded with melody and are so short as to make room for many more.




Nice bits in that drawings video:




Are we helping?

[Analog-X64]

Sometimes your creativity is like a water pipe, (but the tap to turn it on and off is in your neighbour's house).

You know that water DOES come out of it but you can't always control when it happens.

Save the partial licks / riffs / songs & files for another day.

Great Advice

Sometimes for me the challenge is the path that the creativity needs to flow through.

Brain -> Hands -> Keyboard/Computer -> Sequencer -> Speakers

And you are so dead on about not having any control when this flow of inspiration occurs.

And speaking of being sick, I'm actually off work today because I have a cold.

[Analog-X64]

So I sat down again and took a second shot at it...

I took all 3 Sid channel's and output them to a wave file include the 4th Sample Channel, brought them into my DAW.

And tried a few ideas and again nothing close what i want to do.

So for now I'm shelving the idea and continuing with my 3D rendering projects.

[AndyUK]

The 'drying up' feeling is common for me. I often feel that unlike you REAL musicians, I just play with music ( Music IS, and always will be a passion, but I'm not great at it, and that'll never stop me but I know my limits. ). I used to write more music on the Amiga, I'm finding I spend more time trying to find a sound instead of finding that tune hidden in there. With the Amiga you had a few dozen ripped samples, your favorite set, and that was how you started. you loaded the fixed set of drums, the crusaders/Silent chords ( Maj, Min, sus7.. heh ) and for me I'm starting to drown in a wave of complexity.. Maybe take a step back Analog? relax, try a Tracker instead.. load a ripped mod, and play with that soundset.. or as you say here, change tack..

I often have months and months where I don't touch anything creative spend my weeks just playing games or throwaway test projects. Maybe try that.. Set no goals, just practice, analyze and replicate. .. Recreate one of the tunes on Kwed, like I do with 3d stuff, copy copy copy.. learn how to relax with a technique.. then move on.. you're learning AND sidetracking..

Dont give up, move on... if you move on to another field then so be it.. the DAW will still be there when that idea does come.. What you working on anways..?? 3d project?

[Analog-X64]

Thanks for the kind words Andy.

I'm not giving up on making music, I've been meaning to do a remix for a long time and now that I've consciously sat down to do it, it feels forced and nothing creative is coming out, so it feels like ideas have dried up.

The 3D Project is something I've been working on since about 2010, its taking a long time mainly because I'm learning as I move forward with the project, as an example for the past 3 weeks I've been struggling to make convincing looking cables that flow nicely rather than look like a pipe bent with sharp bent corners. Now I'm going to attempt this in Hexagon 2.5 which I think is still a free download.

I was off work sick today with a cold, slept most of the day, but when I was awake I tried to work on the remix.

I will try again tomorrow and Sunday and see if I can get it kick started.

Also I do agree with you in regards of too many options and limitings oneself.

[AndyUK]

Good luck with it pal.. Remember, as the brits say.. "Keep calm and carry on"!!

As for the cables have you tried Spline curves?

[Analog-X64]

Good luck with it pal.. Remember, as the brits say.. "Keep calm and carry on"!!

As for the cables have you tried Spline curves?

Looking at some tutorials for Carrara it was suggested that I should create a vertex object vs a primitive as the vertex object has more polygons and I could assign bones to it, like you would a human model and than bend at the joints to give it the look I want. Problem is even with 20 bones the cable still doesn't look smooth, although I like the fact I can bend and shape it anyway I want.

I'll try the spline method and see what happens.

[Chris Abbott]

When I'm dried up, there's only one solution.

Pepsi Max, baby!

[AndyUK]

Good luck with it pal.. Remember, as the brits say.. "Keep calm and carry on"!!

As for the cables have you tried Spline curves?

Looking at some tutorials for Carrara it was suggested that I should create a vertex object vs a primitive as the vertex object has more polygons and I could assign bones to it, like you would a human model and than bend at the joints to give it the look I want. Problem is even with 20 bones the cable still doesn't look smooth, although I like the fact I can bend and shape it anyway I want.

I'll try the spline method and see what happens.

Have you tried increasing the poly count at the places where you bend the cable? If you don't have the capability to bend the cable properly then it wont . Dont forget a bend is basically the rotation of points on an object. The more points, the smoother the bend will be. try multiplying the faces on the bend of your cable. Splines add points as needed to keep the item smooth. Just be careful you don't overpopulate the INSIDE of the bend with too many points. I'll install hexagon later and have a play.. Maybe we can sort it out eh?

[AndyUK]

When I'm dried up, there's only one solution.

Pepsi Max, baby!

And damn you.. Dr Pepper all the way

[Razmo]

One thing I've learned is, that if I cannot come up with anything, it's mostly because I'm striving to be creative, when I don't really want to... you know... making music because you have some strange felling you HAVE to... it never works that way. Earlier I thought it was because I did not have what it takes... now I know it's bacause I just did not have the spirit at the moment.

If I really feel for playing, something always pop up... never had a problem with that... the biggest problem for me is finishing stuff, as I loose interrest in projects faster than I get things started almost... very often actualy because I get distracted from other idears completely alien to the project at hand... always want to "move on" when I've saturated my lust for performing on my current project.

But also, I have the AD/HD diagnose, so it's pretty "normal"

Summa Sumarum; If you don't feel like making music, then don't... wait... do something else for a week or two that has nothing to do with being creative, and then sit down with it again, and wonder how "new" all your back then sounds suddenly feel "new" and "fresh" again.

[Razmo]

Another thing... I've learned that remixing is in fact harder for me, than making my own music, and this can complicate the feeling of being "locked up" in creativity.

I believe it's because when you remix, you usualy have an idear in your head of what you want, but cannot get it out through the fingers and into the sounds... when you constantly compare to this "mental image" it'll never sound like it anyways, and it'll take away the creativity.

I personaly get most stuff done, and are most happy with it, when a lot of random stuff is used in the remixing process... sort of like not remixing with a predefined idear, but rather see what comes out of experimenting. Making my own stuff this way works even better, because you have no comparisons to make, as it's unique... almost like painting... if you want to draw something real, it have to look like somthing, or people will bother... but if you paint abstract or monsters for example, noone can say that it does not look like something, cause it's unique. I believe it's the same with music... the more you try to make it sound like somthing you and others know, it put's a whole new level of demands on your skills, more than your creativity.