It's good to have you back. One of the biggest things I wish I knew years ago is that plugins are same-ish, and there's no reason to own so many. It's so tempting to collect a ton of music software, but like you said, much of it is vastly overrated. And even when it's not, often times this cool new plugin, whatever it may be, will offer little to your actual workflow.
I heard Flying Lotus say something along the lines of "sometimes we are to hardon/put to much pressure on ourselves, you just have to sit down and ease into it, but you do have to actually sit down" after hearing this, and struggling with crippling depression I set the goal of just sitting down once a day and opening a session, that's it, just open the DAW. Now I'm back making music again after drifting for years.
I made music. Cameron you’ve inspired this 60+ grandpa fascinated for the last half century with synths, to spend the last 6 months creating and live streaming well over 350 hours of original ambient music experiments, 3-5 uploads a week. Each of those started from a blank document. I tried to simplify to just the result, not my process. I came up with something I think is pretty cool. I think I made plenty of lousy stuff too - iterating in public. I also made some cool contacts with developers and even found bugs. Now I have to figure out what next. I tried speed running ambient on hard mode for half a year, and I’m reeling a little from that I think. Best of luck, me.
Awesome job! I think there's a balance of the "mania" we get when we find a new passion in our creative life and finding the pace that allows us to continue it for a long haul. For me, it's a challenge because I crave to be constantly learning something new - so when I have new things to try, I dive in. But as I feel things start becoming old hat in some way, I find myself tapering off. One way I try to pace it out is to use that interest in learning to dive as deep as possible into one of the synths/instruments I own to pull everything I can out of it- grow familiar with what it can offer, how to create with it, and so on. This helps me not get overwhelmed with finding new things to play with, which I think is both way too tempting and problematic in its own right (I think we tend to create the same things again and again if we are always just trying out new instruments. That is because I'm learning HOW to use a new instrument, I'm not trying to learn what new things can I do musically - leading to a mile wide pool that's only an inch deep.) I don't know what sort of things are causing you to reel, but I encourage you to explore something you found yourself struggling with when you were making all those tracks (for me, I really struggle conceptualizing interesting drums, so I work on exploring both how others use drums and what I like or don't like about them - it's helped me grow a lot) or learn to use a part of a synth that you've avoided/skipped over before (for my TD-3, I tend to just record one pattern into my DAW and use it there... I want to explore chaining patterns together, things like that). Music is all about exploration, in many ways. I hope you can find a great path to continue exploring moving forward!
Thanks Haus, Brice and Hiro for the friendly support. Brice thanks for your extensive reflection! When I say I’m reeling I suppose I need to supply more detail for context. I live-streamed 100% of this, so I could say DAW-less. I employed all the stuff to “mix and master” for LUFS and TP conforming to UA-cam’s specs, I utterly ignored visuals at the start until UA-cam actually informed me my videos didn’t have a high enough data rate, then I would shift attention to generative visuals. My metadata game re UA-cam discoverability etc is just in a dumpster. I did this in a complete vacuum with really no viewership to date. I suppose the reeling comes from looking back, realizing all that it took, seeing it went nowhere and wonder if where I take it next. That must go into music theory (as I’ve recently started to demonstrate to myself). I’m also realizing I’ve learned way more than I expected I would. That’s why I chose “reeling” as an all encompassing characterization of what feels like the end of a journey, but must become just a another leg.
@@gen-amb that's great to recognize - and it is amazing to look back and realize all that these sorts of things take to come together. I am reminded of UA-cam musicians Hainbach, who shared a wonderful video about "burying the high" in dealing with post-performance crash/depression. It was about being purposeful to make time and space to celebrate what you accomplished with people, as a sort of "sending off," before starting a new project. From what you are describing, it sounds like taking a bit of time to reflect on all you accomplished in those six months before looking too much at what your next steps could be a helpful capstone to this leg of your journey! :)
Here's my number one tip: if you're trying to work out a lead, melody, drumline, whatever... press record first, your first take will often be your best.
I agree. Also, working with someone else seemed to bring out creativity. My mom came to visit, and she plays guitar and sings. I came up with so many more ideas with her there. And we produced a song together in only 7 hours. It was probably my best work in the whole year.
I had a bit of a burnout earlier this summer, and getting back to "having fun with it" and "make the silliest stuff ever" was really very important to find my way back to my love of music. I made a song called "Goodbye" (where all the lyrics are just repeating that word over and over) and one called "I Love Her, She Loves Me" (where that phrase is just repeated over and over), and remembering how it's all supposed to be just fun and games, and if I enjoy it, then that's really what matters 😊
There are people that have had hits with this approach. Some tunes along this line you may enjoy: "Bugatti" by Tiga, "Flat Beat" by Mr. Oizo, "Jack" by Breach, "Chunky" by Format:B and "Okay" by Shiba San. Maroon 5s big hit "Moves Like Jagger" started as a joke, nobody thought it would go anywhere, turns out to be one of their best. More than one hit has a whistled hook. Dave Grohl advises the 'Lyrics as Bumper Sticker' approach.
@@MU6AFA It should be on most streaming services (Spotify, UA-cam Music, Apple Music, SoundCloud for "Goodbye!", Tidal, etc), with my artist name being "John Noir Smith" 😁
I agree... It's definitely important to have fun and experiment. Happy accidents sometimes create wonderful, unexpected stuff! Keep up the great work man!
I’ve had all these realizations over the last 5-7 years of making music. Fell into all the pitfalls with gear and having to overcome my fear of failure. Thank you for spreading this wisdom in a concise and honest fashion. Kudos to you!
Doing the recording, editing and sound design for an audio drama has a lot in common with composing music. I'm going to rewind and watch this one again.
This one of those channels where I truly think the videos should be getting Millions of views coz what he says is INCREDIBLE, and it doesn't only apply to music. I can even get motivated to study or exercise by listening to him and his voice is soothing AF.
As someone who mainly works in video, most of these tips absolutely apply there as well. Thanks for the great advice and reminder to keep putting in the hours!
Cameron, man... really adore your inspirational touch on all of our music geek souls ! Thanks a ton for all of these goodies & please keep coming back to keep us all alive... much Love... :)
Good advices. After covid started I wasn't really able to finish properly any song that I started, but since this February we started a genre challenge with my friends where we randomly select genre and try to nail it every week. This really helped me to learn all the tools I got during my 'freeze' time, and it really helped me to optimize my process. Before that I was afraid of my own ideas (like 'is this riff good?', etc). But in the end I started to commit my ideas faster because I had just one week and couple of hours a day for making a track for the challenge. So, after many months of the challenge I made like 20 good tracks, where 6 of them are already released and many a scheduled for the release, and also tons of demos where I can put in little work and finish the piece. Now comparing to what I did before and what I do know - I see major improvement in quality (because I learned a lot during my freeze time), songs get on repeat, I improved my skills in various parts of music production, and the most important thing - I spend less time on things I was stuck in. To sum everything up: now I am not afraid of making a bad track. I will just not release it, but its very important for me to finish the stuff.
You are one of the most analytical dudes, when it comes to the creative process. I agree with everything here, and have adopted some of these strategies, myself... especially here, on UA-cam. Keep up the good work, now that you have "officially" returned. We appreciate you!
every video i watched of you has elevated my thought about how to be a better artist, you are the true guru of the music on internet ....much admiration
Great advice! Working full-time etc blah blah blah I find my time for creating music is precious. I'm constantly kicking myself about watching too many youtube vids about plug-ins, samples, effectors etc.... Your's are still some of the most insightful so allow myself to indulge here!
#4 is really really an important one. just get stuff done, ditch the bad ones, and there will eventually be fewer and fewer bad ones. Just make ----ing music, indeed.
It’s interesting you equated music with sculpture. I’ve been equating music with painting. Specifically, it’s the notion of being able to create a unique rendering of a subject at a specific moment of your life. For several painters, there are recurring subjects within the oeuvre. Ultimately, it’s about making *a* painting and not *the* painting. If you keep going, you will make more and yes, there will even be indicators of improvement, like in technique or material quality. By the end of it, you have an oeuvre that you should be proud of in its entirety (and yes, you have your “favourite children”).
An interesting take. As a photographer as well as a music producer, I often find parallels between their processes and concepts. Most of the work in photography is in the edit, where you work out what "vibe" a photo has and try to accentuate that main theme. You decide what elements to exclude because they distract from where you want the audiences attention and what parts you want to make more prominent to draw the focus there. I often find myself having the same mindset when doing sound design or tweaking a mix. Very similar process but just using different tools in a different medium.
@@TheCosmicTeapot I dabble in photography too. And I learn something quite profound about the art: you are documenting the reality, you are documenting your view of the reality. For instance, I did the front cover of my album (as キラヨシ) Reincarnated Resurrection. Not only did I know the subject, but I also knew the colour of it. That building never produces that colour naturally. But that was what I “saw” and therefore wanted to imbue it with that colour. I guess in that sense, music is very similar where you are showing to someone else how you “hear” things. Sure there are principles to keep in mind, but, in the end, it is your own. And just to be clear, I agree with what you said and this was either to complement or to reinforce it =]
I also think of music production as like being a painter sometimes, but in regards to how pieces begin. Sometimes I have the idea of painting a green house in a purple forest or something, which is like considering the genre before beginning composition and other times I just start putting paint on the canvas and the piece evolves from that. Music production is just like painting in regards to these two approaches.
Nobody understands what a producer is. A producer: assists an artist with their recording project, bringing their vision to fruition and guiding their sound along the way. This is what I do with my buddy who plays guitar. I guide him, sing different ways I think it should go and help him create a sound and finalize what he heard. What you guys are talking about is being an artists… which is completely different. An artist is the painter/sculptor. A producer is the person that would tell the painter/sculptor what material they think would be best to make what the artist has in mind, or what paint style would be best fit For what the artist wants to portray. This bugs the shit outta me when I see people talking about how they are a producer and they sit in a room with no one else and make a beat or whatever. No dude, you’re an artist, not a producer… people need to quit bastardizing this concept
@@cassetteo Yeah, but the thing is if you are also the one who decides this stuff you think the producer does, you are the producer as well as the artist. It's possible to wear both hats.
Lots of wise ideas here. Especially the 10 minute rule. That is the rule that made me successfully complete my 1951 Studebaker coupe restoration in my 20s. The world is filled with incomplete vintage car projects. The 10 minute rule is the key. Although at the time I called it the 15 minute rule. On another topic, I wouldn't be upset if you decided to lose the potty mouth. Call me old fashioned. Past that, you have great insight.
Honestly, the gear one is what gets me. I am starting from nothing in terms of equipment/programs right now, and I'm caught in this loop of, "I need the stuff to make the music, but am I going to make the music if I have the stuff? Or will I just drop it like other past interests?" I truly want to do this - of all of my passions, music is one of the rare things that has stuck with me - but the price tag makes me so hesitant to jump in. I see my favorite artists with setups like yours, or even crazier, and I just feel like I will never be in a place where I could even start to think about investing that kind of money. The net result is that I never even try. I know I need to walk before I run, but it's hard to see where the path starts sometimes. (I'm not really looking for advice or sympathy here - just sounding off my internal thoughts, as I imagine others feel this way, too.)
Great video brother! I have unfinished tracks dating back a decade or so. What ends up happening a lot is, the idea I had at the time was good, but I wasn't in the right headspace to finish it, or figure out wher eit was going. Often they were only just a few measures of scratch padding. Then later on, sometimes years later, I'll go through and revisit the unfinished tracks, and one of them will spark something. Remembering the idea, but now combining that with whatever musical experience I've had since I originally wrote, I am now in the right headspace to do something with it, that I either wasn't able to do before, or would never have thought of. Never delete your tracks. No matter how short, stupid, or uninspiring they may be, they can be a source of inspiration to write something great in the future. Also, GAS is real! Don't get GAS!
i do music 3 hours a day, i'm addicted now. Every month I'm becoming more advanced and with so many edm genres I can probably keep learning stuff at this rate for about a decade
I literally spend 3 hours a day driving (I do not own a phone) between home and work...that's 24 days a year, almost a month. I need to figure out how to safely use that time to record music...🤪 I do burn my ideas on to that ancient format called CD, to figure out what changes I need to make later. I really want to start singing to those CD's while I have a digital voice recorder running as I head down the highway.
Some good suggestions here. I think a basic problem that a lot of musician/composer folks these days have is that they've launched into creation and recording of tracks before they've taken the time to actually study and develop the skills they need. In decades past, a musician would put a HUGE amount of effort into studying music, practicing by themselves, and playing with other people before they would EVER see the inside of a recording studio. If you haven't put in the effort of developing yourself as a musician (being able to improvise well is a great skill), maybe you're not ready to be releasing any tracks to streaming platforms (the world doesn't need endless tracks where people are mixing and matching purchased, prefabricated loops and beats). A lot of "writer's block" comes from people simply not having a clue what they're doing. It would be like sitting down to write a novel and you had no vocabulary; you didn't understand grammar; and you couldn't type. ;)
Top notch video full of sound advice: @ 7:30ish - for me, since I make busy and techy music, it’s way easier starting projects than finishing them. Endless edits, tons of variations on riffs, coupled with “having” to make sure my work isn’t minimal, has been the bane of my musical efforts since I began the hobby decades ago.
The most important part of being a creator is to stay creative which is the thing that sets apart one from the other. As a beginner music producer myself, I could definitely make use of what you have said in this video. Really educational and thought provoking.
I've been performing and writing songs for about 15 years, started making music electronically 12 years ago. Enjoy your unrestrained creativity while you have it. Before I really got into electronic music and hip hop, I was in various bands in high school, and I found that I always synergized with other musicians who weren't classically trained or theory nerds like me. I knew how to make all of the ideas flow together cohesively, but their creativity on the frets was unmatched because they weren't thinking about being in key, or sticking to a particular scale or mode. I could reign them in if something sounded off but for the most part a lot of the magic came from not having a lot of standards or rules to adhere to. I encourage learning music theory and the way that music affects our emotions, I've spent a lot of intimate time with my own work to know, but be weary that as you improve over time you'll develop habits or find shortcuts that may have a negative effect on your creativity. It's best to know the rules of the game so you can break the rules as effectively as possible 👍 I wish you the best of luck and never forget to impress yourself before you worry about impressing others, your art is worth it if it means something to you!
A thing I love about your way of delivering advice is that u are not boring to listen to, a lot youtubers are so boring and it´s just long strict sessions that makes my brain burn out, so when I finally have to make music my energy is close to 0, u on the other hand sound interresting and your morals and ways of thinking really resonates with my adhd brain, it might also be that you´re pretty straight forward and yeah I guess I like your style of comedy lmao
Such great advice. I have been working on one song for several months and just havent been inspired and been busy with work. I recently said fuck it and rewrote the whole vocal part, now it's a song I'm interested in again.
@6:01 I’m going to say this is more like “what came first, egg or the chicken” so it’s debatable. #4: this is really important because you are describing the path of life and completing a lesson. And once we complete the lesson, (you know a completed process from end to end) only then shall we know and understand after completing the process what happened on the journey. Because otherwise if you don’t complete then how would you understand the lesson? I agree with you there are no terrible sessions and even if you think a track is off target from whatever genre you were attempting to create in, it’s still an experiment and it’s going to open up your analytical thinking and help you to your destination. Workflow, workflow, workflow. And I believe that once the individual establishes their own workflow which could be similar to what you saw in a random video or heard from someone else however you are going to personify it and it’s going to be your own unique process. And once a person has this process which allows you to complete from end to end fluidly, you need to blueprint that, write it down and understand why it works. ❤️
Really enjoy your videos. Great advice. I'm glad that you sharing this wisdom with the general public. I also like how most of this advice can be applied to any medium of artistic creation. Better to write a bad poem than no poem at all!
Hey not sure if anyone will find this helpful but here goes. The good news is that I am productive in the DAW, the time I do put in is quality and moves my projects forward slowly but steadily. Eventually, after many takes of everything and a lot of MIDI editing, I mix and master. The bad news: they are all covers at this point. I do think this approach is helpful and the bridge to originals for me is the reference tune. I pick out a reference tune and say - I want to write a song that is like this other song. So I take that basic structure and start improvising- if I have the same chords, I'll use different voicing or added notes. Maybe change a chord. Of course, the melody is different. The bassline I change. My lyrics.....now I have something original, even though it is clearly the "child" of my reference tune. So maybe if worse comes to worst, a cover is better than no music. Instead of flailing around in the DAW for an hour or two, heaving a big sigh and closing it, better to grab some free MIDI and the microphone and start slinging notes. Another idea is the classic remix. Something else I find productive is the "genre switch". Do Taylor Switft's "Shake it Off", but in drop D with power chords and black metal vocals. Do "House of the Rising Sun", but Reggae style. Do "Linus and Lucy" or Schoolhouse Rock, but a Tech House Remix. You get the idea. I haven't even touched the classical stuff yet.
I love this. I got into learning/making music about 3 years ago. It started with getting addicted to UA-cam lol. I got really into woodworking and Davie504, which lead me to building my own electric bass, which lead to playing bass, then music theory, sight reading, to now mixing/producing/mastering and a little keyboard. I wake up at 3am everyday and practice/learn/create and I gave up video games, drinking, and friends for music lol. I play smash ultimate sometimes for inspiration lol.
such a great video, listening to artists like Nino Rota and Piero Umiliani is what got me out of the idea that every song needs to be perfect ,some of their music is slightly off key at times and not everything is beautifully recorded either ,yet they find their way onto my playlists time and time again, just cause i cant help but love everything they made in the way and style they made it
"you now have the privilege to fail for free" - me. Back when you needed a record deal and it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of $ to make music which could only release very sporadically , one bad track could tank your whole career. But that fear doesn't make sense today. There's 60,000+ tracks uploaded a day (Spotify alone) and bad tracks just join the sea of bad tracks, no one shares them and your rep isn't even dented. you BETTER take advantage of this fact as failing for free is a privilege you don't often get.
That's also a downside. With that many tracks being released the odds of actually having your song 'found' by someone are slim. And if they skip your song the algorithm will bury you under other songs that aren't doing as bad. Potentially that can slam your entire artist profile on the platform. So even though it's free to fail in making music... I feel like publishing still requires some care.
@@SyntheticFuture well that bit hadn't changed, you still need to be good! you can't just make music and hope! Just because the tools have made it faster to create distribute worldwide doesn't mean it's any easier to succeed, Having said that, of those 60k tracks, 85% of profiles on Spotify have less than 50 followers, so that sea of noise is still a pretty low bar. I mean I'm a nobody but I'm making it work. It's my entire living, and I've never advertised or paid for numbers either my Spotify audience is 100% organic, they have all found me of their own volition. Of course that took many years. It also helps to understand what a brand is, that is also something that hasn't changed. Music doesn't spread because it's good music. Music spreads because there's a story attached, and I don't mean from the lyrics.
I understand what y'all mean by dat but dats not completely true family I made about 4 to 5 hundred songs from 2019 to 2022 and I ka use 80 percent of them with me I have sessions every time I get the urge to create and it usually takes 2 ta 4 hours to make a beat and the majority of them are really good I'm just selective so I put all my songs in brackets from least to greatest I was just going threw different playlist I made before I watched this video and I counted 260 songs on the dot that I'm in love with that I made. So Yea I agree the more you work on music just like anything else the better you will get at it
@@daunknown5663 yeah I think you took it the wrong way. that's what the quote means. It's really a joke, it just means get on with it because by definition not all your tracks can be bangers. So no point hanging around trying to make a perfect one, might as well do lots and see. I've also got hundreds out there (over 600) I'm proud of most of em, but in honesty it's not for me to decide. The only certainty is you can never know who will like what
@@Bthelick oh I ain't know you was jokin lol 😆 ay you right tho I like mostly every song I made and dat God gave me but it's some I'm absolutely in love with and it's some that's good and I like them and it's some I would never listen to again but dey all still my baby's lol naw I only count the tracks that I enjoy so yea right now I got about 260 beautiful songs dat I wanna write to in the future ay check my page out if you wanna hear something different much love family
Cameron building on your observations centred on backing up, simplifying, or your “ten minute rule.” From the experience of MY weird Wright Bros approach the last 6 months I would also suggest - and this may be too extreme - ditching your DAW and switching to a VST host like Gig Performer or Cantabile, VIP, etc. This had the added effect of forcing me - like a painter choosing a palette - to focus on more creative choices using fewer elements. Also this way CPU performance constraints become a bottleneck you have to choose around. And you may find the stock KONTAKT effects are just fine so you don’t need to use that separate reverb.
Cameron maybe I’m a totally out of touch lunatic (likely) but your observation that it’s easier to finish tracks than to start a new one, is both absolutely true and something I absolutely intentionally worked against for 6 months. Thinking of the weight lifting idea, I deliberately started from blank each time because I wanted to force myself to practice an entire end to end process. This meant a certain amount of tedium as I became expert at redoing things from scratch each time that I could of course have templated. But it had an unexpected result too. Because of the tedium I started to become “smarter” about how I set these things up, so as to give myself more flexibility, speed etc. I think the result was that I developed methods I hadn’t planned on, but I also learned about HOW TO OPTIMIZE something, whether for speed, quality, or ease of use. Remembering that we only ever get to pull in two of those directions at a time. It was sort of like training I guess, and I’m pretty sure that had a good value for my aging brain (of which everyone has) as well.
So glad to see you making videos as I really thought you were going to make a several month long break. So thank you as this is one of my favorite channels to watch for inspiration
6:30 adding on to that, I've learned over the last fifteen years that "perfect" ideas tend to turn out much more flawed than you imagine, and it's much easier to turn a "bad" idea into a good one just by asking yourself "okay, but what's a part of this that I do like" and building it out from that element. There's a certain danger in what we like to call "inspiration" because, quite often, inspiration only wants to show you the big picture, but your job as a creative is to assemble all the little details that will make it up, one at a time. Don't lose sight of the trees for the forest! :D Though you might want to try going to write in the forest. Great place to look for ideas, and put them in perspective too.
Producing a track and then working, little by litte, to perfect it is how records have been made for decades by the best recording engineers. The process of "comping" is the rule, not the exception.
On my days off work, I've managed to (more or less) stick to some kind of regimen, where I plan to spend a certain minimum amount of time doing music-y stuff, but I've found one particular method to work more than just forcing myself to do it - a reward system, of sorts. I have spookily similar distractions to you Cameron, in the games / UA-cam / Netflix things, and it's dead easy to fall into that when you've got spare time, but what I now do is act as though I'm actually at work, where I can't just spin the chair around and go do one of the aforementioned distract-y things. Instead, I consider those distractions as a reward... IF I behave myself and get my act together to actually get productive, even if experimental. So, when I know I've got a nice salmon dinner and bottle of wine, followed by some crappy Nflix shit, followed by a Cyberpunk session to look forward to IF I BEHAVE MYSELF, I can fully immerse myself in the music, and so far it's worked great. I don't always produce anything worthwhile, but at least I'm trying.
Breaks...Take Breaks, they help because you know you can take one when you're stuck. and you know you must take them when your un-stuck. I found it's one of the essential things for health and to consolidate my music sessions as I go. I found the best time to start is when you don't want one.
Ahhh! I love that black crows doc. Chris said something about how every song ever written is part of a giant wheel that keeps spinning and all songwriters are just keeping the wheel spinning. I think if that often when I get the ‘writers block’. So much good info in this vid Cameron🤘keep up the good work
Legit taking notes right now 😆 These ideas have floated thru my head for years with mediocre implementation, but your way of explaining everything gives me much better perspective on music production. Great content!!
apart the topic, your voice over can be fit very well on all major worldwide documentaries, its very clear rich and very well tuned to any listener's ear
The thing that helped me the most is keeping a music log. Its keeps my ideas organized & also helps me stay consistent. Example from my last session (03 is the third yr of this log that I started in 2020/02/15. 126th session of the current yr & 356th sessions since I started logging. Put in 600 hours this year! Session=03.126.356 2022/09/03=Saturday Start:630am=8hr Project= RS7K-"2014-05-12-Ruff Start" Studio-B=(Gear/role) SRH1540/headphones VLZ4 Pro12/mixer#1 VLZ Pro12/mixer#2 Force/seq+synth+drums TR8S/drums RS7k/synth Proteus2500/synth MC707/synth Goals= 1-Test out the Force work-flow. 2-Test all devices together. 3-Edit Force macro maps. 4-Record a sketch w each synth. 5-Create a Force/RS7k setup project. Objectives= 1>Setup Force CC# macro maps. 2>Set Force audio levels. 3>Compose/Record RS7k sketch. Progress= 1
Ok, so a deep well of technical knowledge and information, a comedic force and now a philosopher, dispensing perils of wisdom. I don't know what's next but PLEASE keep it coming!!!
I really love these videos I was watching/listening to while drawing; I do make music, but I work as a designer, and these things apply perfectly to other artistic processes and is really nice to hear something I've been telling myself for a long time ago, mainly because college left me with a massive burnout and finding that strength to grab a pencil and sketch something out was just incredibly tiring, eventually I stop caring, about what people would think, I stopped caring about social media; I just started to think about what made me happy about drawing when I was little, and I was so simple, the answer was just right there. 🥰 Hearing this from a person I admire a lot (you) is just like a big sip of fresh air, reassuring me that my conclusions are on the right path in some way or another. I'm catching up with ur videos because I took a long hiatus from social media. 🤭 Thank you for this 💖
I agree on everything you said. Now if I can just get my family to stop depending on me for every little thing during the best hours of my day, I might have the energy to actually accomplish something.
You literally said quite a few things i've said to myself the last few weeks. New to this creation stuff AGAIN aside. i wanted to ask others if htey felt like The Music tends to present itself more than me just creating it. As for something I wish I knew sooner in music reation(?) There's more than one way to skin a cat. cant be buying every $200 synth or $59 plugin vst that a youtuber presents. manytimes. the featureset is actually within the bundle i already own or is available via opensource or otherwise. Steven Pressfield is one of my favorite "Get Shit Done" authors... Constantly battling Resistance ;-) Love the channel. Glad you're back
Best channel for actually helpful guidance ... this is wisdom right there. And not just a that usual jibberish about "use this plugin, to make your songs great instantly" type of things
I'm back! What's a lesson you wish you knew sooner? 🤔
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It's good to have you back. One of the biggest things I wish I knew years ago is that plugins are same-ish, and there's no reason to own so many. It's so tempting to collect a ton of music software, but like you said, much of it is vastly overrated. And even when it's not, often times this cool new plugin, whatever it may be, will offer little to your actual workflow.
all of them :p
I heard Flying Lotus say something along the lines of "sometimes we are to hardon/put to much pressure on ourselves, you just have to sit down and ease into it, but you do have to actually sit down" after hearing this, and struggling with crippling depression I set the goal of just sitting down once a day and opening a session, that's it, just open the DAW. Now I'm back making music again after drifting for years.
I made music. Cameron you’ve inspired this 60+ grandpa fascinated for the last half century with synths, to spend the last 6 months creating and live streaming well over 350 hours of original ambient music experiments, 3-5 uploads a week. Each of those started from a blank document. I tried to simplify to just the result, not my process. I came up with something I think is pretty cool. I think I made plenty of lousy stuff too - iterating in public. I also made some cool contacts with developers and even found bugs. Now I have to figure out what next. I tried speed running ambient on hard mode for half a year, and I’m reeling a little from that I think. Best of luck, me.
That is very cool 👏👏
Awesome job! I think there's a balance of the "mania" we get when we find a new passion in our creative life and finding the pace that allows us to continue it for a long haul.
For me, it's a challenge because I crave to be constantly learning something new - so when I have new things to try, I dive in. But as I feel things start becoming old hat in some way, I find myself tapering off. One way I try to pace it out is to use that interest in learning to dive as deep as possible into one of the synths/instruments I own to pull everything I can out of it- grow familiar with what it can offer, how to create with it, and so on. This helps me not get overwhelmed with finding new things to play with, which I think is both way too tempting and problematic in its own right (I think we tend to create the same things again and again if we are always just trying out new instruments. That is because I'm learning HOW to use a new instrument, I'm not trying to learn what new things can I do musically - leading to a mile wide pool that's only an inch deep.)
I don't know what sort of things are causing you to reel, but I encourage you to explore something you found yourself struggling with when you were making all those tracks (for me, I really struggle conceptualizing interesting drums, so I work on exploring both how others use drums and what I like or don't like about them - it's helped me grow a lot) or learn to use a part of a synth that you've avoided/skipped over before (for my TD-3, I tend to just record one pattern into my DAW and use it there... I want to explore chaining patterns together, things like that).
Music is all about exploration, in many ways. I hope you can find a great path to continue exploring moving forward!
just subbed. Keep it up. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks Haus, Brice and Hiro for the friendly support. Brice thanks for your extensive reflection! When I say I’m reeling I suppose I need to supply more detail for context. I live-streamed 100% of this, so I could say DAW-less. I employed all the stuff to “mix and master” for LUFS and TP conforming to UA-cam’s specs, I utterly ignored visuals at the start until UA-cam actually informed me my videos didn’t have a high enough data rate, then I would shift attention to generative visuals. My metadata game re UA-cam discoverability etc is just in a dumpster. I did this in a complete vacuum with really no viewership to date. I suppose the reeling comes from looking back, realizing all that it took, seeing it went nowhere and wonder if where I take it next. That must go into music theory (as I’ve recently started to demonstrate to myself). I’m also realizing I’ve learned way more than I expected I would. That’s why I chose “reeling” as an all encompassing characterization of what feels like the end of a journey, but must become just a another leg.
@@gen-amb that's great to recognize - and it is amazing to look back and realize all that these sorts of things take to come together. I am reminded of UA-cam musicians Hainbach, who shared a wonderful video about "burying the high" in dealing with post-performance crash/depression. It was about being purposeful to make time and space to celebrate what you accomplished with people, as a sort of "sending off," before starting a new project. From what you are describing, it sounds like taking a bit of time to reflect on all you accomplished in those six months before looking too much at what your next steps could be a helpful capstone to this leg of your journey! :)
Can I just add that this is filmed absolutely brilliantly and the quality is superb
his stuff is so high quality, its awesome
He is an auteur
Here's my number one tip: if you're trying to work out a lead, melody, drumline, whatever... press record first, your first take will often be your best.
I agree. Also, working with someone else seemed to bring out creativity.
My mom came to visit, and she plays guitar and sings. I came up with so many more ideas with her there. And we produced a song together in only 7 hours. It was probably my best work in the whole year.
You have single handedly cut out every excuse I keep making for "Why i'm not making music yet". Thank you for that SO MUCH!
Some excellent advice here. As much as we might think we already "know" this, it's good to get reminded now and then. 🍻
I had a bit of a burnout earlier this summer, and getting back to "having fun with it" and "make the silliest stuff ever" was really very important to find my way back to my love of music.
I made a song called "Goodbye" (where all the lyrics are just repeating that word over and over) and one called "I Love Her, She Loves Me" (where that phrase is just repeated over and over), and remembering how it's all supposed to be just fun and games, and if I enjoy it, then that's really what matters 😊
There are people that have had hits with this approach. Some tunes along this line you may enjoy: "Bugatti" by Tiga, "Flat Beat" by Mr. Oizo, "Jack" by Breach, "Chunky" by Format:B and "Okay" by Shiba San. Maroon 5s big hit "Moves Like Jagger" started as a joke, nobody thought it would go anywhere, turns out to be one of their best. More than one hit has a whistled hook. Dave Grohl advises the 'Lyrics as Bumper Sticker' approach.
@@Chunda8 also poland by lil yachty
Where can I listen to your song?
@@MU6AFA It should be on most streaming services (Spotify, UA-cam Music, Apple Music, SoundCloud for "Goodbye!", Tidal, etc), with my artist name being "John Noir Smith" 😁
That's why I release every week. You learn far more from the practice of finishing, than second guessing supposed perfection.
Developing a system is a great topic. I would really love to see you going deeper on this.
this was my favorite one too, systems and workflows give you more "RAM" to create stuff.
Agreed
I would too!
I agree... It's definitely important to have fun and experiment. Happy accidents sometimes create wonderful, unexpected stuff! Keep up the great work man!
I’ve had all these realizations over the last 5-7 years of making music. Fell into all the pitfalls with gear and having to overcome my fear of failure. Thank you for spreading this wisdom in a concise and honest fashion. Kudos to you!
Doing the recording, editing and sound design for an audio drama has a lot in common with composing music. I'm going to rewind and watch this one again.
This one of those channels where I truly think the videos should be getting Millions of views coz what he says is INCREDIBLE, and it doesn't only apply to music. I can even get motivated to study or exercise by listening to him and his voice is soothing AF.
As someone who mainly works in video, most of these tips absolutely apply there as well. Thanks for the great advice and reminder to keep putting in the hours!
Cameron, man... really adore your inspirational touch on all of our music geek souls ! Thanks a ton for all of these goodies & please keep coming back to keep us all alive... much Love... :)
I spotted the War or Art on your desk. A book every creative should read and then act upon the lessons learned.
Love these “big picture thinking” videos of yours Venus. Full of helpful info.
Good advices.
After covid started I wasn't really able to finish properly any song that I started, but since this February we started a genre challenge with my friends where we randomly select genre and try to nail it every week. This really helped me to learn all the tools I got during my 'freeze' time, and it really helped me to optimize my process.
Before that I was afraid of my own ideas (like 'is this riff good?', etc). But in the end I started to commit my ideas faster because I had just one week and couple of hours a day for making a track for the challenge. So, after many months of the challenge I made like 20 good tracks, where 6 of them are already released and many a scheduled for the release, and also tons of demos where I can put in little work and finish the piece.
Now comparing to what I did before and what I do know - I see major improvement in quality (because I learned a lot during my freeze time), songs get on repeat, I improved my skills in various parts of music production, and the most important thing - I spend less time on things I was stuck in.
To sum everything up: now I am not afraid of making a bad track. I will just not release it, but its very important for me to finish the stuff.
"The Last thing you need is a new gear" I'm gonna repeat this 10x a day after I get up every morning
Stellar advice.
Sage advice. It definitely is a bit of a numbers game - the paradox is that sometimes quantity begets quality.
You are one of the most analytical dudes, when it comes to the creative
process. I agree with everything here, and have adopted some of these strategies, myself... especially here, on UA-cam. Keep up the good work, now that you have "officially" returned. We appreciate you!
every video i watched of you has elevated my thought about how to be a better artist, you are the true guru of the music on internet ....much admiration
Great advice! Working full-time etc blah blah blah I find my time for creating music is precious. I'm constantly kicking myself about watching too many youtube vids about plug-ins, samples, effectors etc.... Your's are still some of the most insightful so allow myself to indulge here!
#4 is really really an important one. just get stuff done, ditch the bad ones, and there will eventually be fewer and fewer bad ones. Just make ----ing music, indeed.
It’s interesting you equated music with sculpture. I’ve been equating music with painting. Specifically, it’s the notion of being able to create a unique rendering of a subject at a specific moment of your life. For several painters, there are recurring subjects within the oeuvre. Ultimately, it’s about making *a* painting and not *the* painting. If you keep going, you will make more and yes, there will even be indicators of improvement, like in technique or material quality. By the end of it, you have an oeuvre that you should be proud of in its entirety (and yes, you have your “favourite children”).
An interesting take. As a photographer as well as a music producer, I often find parallels between their processes and concepts. Most of the work in photography is in the edit, where you work out what "vibe" a photo has and try to accentuate that main theme. You decide what elements to exclude because they distract from where you want the audiences attention and what parts you want to make more prominent to draw the focus there. I often find myself having the same mindset when doing sound design or tweaking a mix. Very similar process but just using different tools in a different medium.
@@TheCosmicTeapot I dabble in photography too. And I learn something quite profound about the art: you are documenting the reality, you are documenting your view of the reality. For instance, I did the front cover of my album (as キラヨシ) Reincarnated Resurrection. Not only did I know the subject, but I also knew the colour of it. That building never produces that colour naturally. But that was what I “saw” and therefore wanted to imbue it with that colour.
I guess in that sense, music is very similar where you are showing to someone else how you “hear” things. Sure there are principles to keep in mind, but, in the end, it is your own.
And just to be clear, I agree with what you said and this was either to complement or to reinforce it =]
I also think of music production as like being a painter sometimes, but in regards to how pieces begin. Sometimes I have the idea of painting a green house in a purple forest or something, which is like considering the genre before beginning composition and other times I just start putting paint on the canvas and the piece evolves from that. Music production is just like painting in regards to these two approaches.
Nobody understands what a producer is. A producer: assists an artist with their recording project, bringing their vision to fruition and guiding their sound along the way.
This is what I do with my buddy who plays guitar. I guide him, sing different ways I think it should go and help him create a sound and finalize what he heard. What you guys are talking about is being an artists… which is completely different. An artist is the painter/sculptor. A producer is the person that would tell the painter/sculptor what material they think would be best to make what the artist has in mind, or what paint style would be best fit For what the artist wants to portray. This bugs the shit outta me when I see people talking about how they are a producer and they sit in a room with no one else and make a beat or whatever. No dude, you’re an artist, not a producer… people need to quit bastardizing this concept
@@cassetteo Yeah, but the thing is if you are also the one who decides this stuff you think the producer does, you are the producer as well as the artist. It's possible to wear both hats.
Thanks again for your point of view. Almost helpful. Now a days I'm listnening more to you like a mentor then as a teacher. Nice!
Lots of wise ideas here. Especially the 10 minute rule. That is the rule that made me successfully complete my 1951 Studebaker coupe restoration in my 20s. The world is filled with incomplete vintage car projects. The 10 minute rule is the key. Although at the time I called it the 15 minute rule.
On another topic, I wouldn't be upset if you decided to lose the potty mouth. Call me old fashioned. Past that, you have great insight.
Honestly, the gear one is what gets me. I am starting from nothing in terms of equipment/programs right now, and I'm caught in this loop of, "I need the stuff to make the music, but am I going to make the music if I have the stuff? Or will I just drop it like other past interests?" I truly want to do this - of all of my passions, music is one of the rare things that has stuck with me - but the price tag makes me so hesitant to jump in. I see my favorite artists with setups like yours, or even crazier, and I just feel like I will never be in a place where I could even start to think about investing that kind of money. The net result is that I never even try. I know I need to walk before I run, but it's hard to see where the path starts sometimes. (I'm not really looking for advice or sympathy here - just sounding off my internal thoughts, as I imagine others feel this way, too.)
Couldn’t agree more, no such thing as failure, it’s all experience. I live by it. Great video as always. Cheers Dave
Great video brother! I have unfinished tracks dating back a decade or so. What ends up happening a lot is, the idea I had at the time was good, but I wasn't in the right headspace to finish it, or figure out wher eit was going. Often they were only just a few measures of scratch padding. Then later on, sometimes years later, I'll go through and revisit the unfinished tracks, and one of them will spark something. Remembering the idea, but now combining that with whatever musical experience I've had since I originally wrote, I am now in the right headspace to do something with it, that I either wasn't able to do before, or would never have thought of. Never delete your tracks. No matter how short, stupid, or uninspiring they may be, they can be a source of inspiration to write something great in the future. Also, GAS is real! Don't get GAS!
Ya. 100% subbing. Ive watched a few of your videos and I am beyond impressed. Best advice, motivation, inspiration.
I highly anticipate your coming vid on creating a unique and personalized workflow.
i do music 3 hours a day, i'm addicted now. Every month I'm becoming more advanced and with so many edm genres I can probably keep learning stuff at this rate for about a decade
I literally spend 3 hours a day driving (I do not own a phone) between home and work...that's 24 days a year, almost a month. I need to figure out how to safely use that time to record music...🤪
I do burn my ideas on to that ancient format called CD, to figure out what changes I need to make later. I really want to start singing to those CD's while I have a digital voice recorder running as I head down the highway.
Some good suggestions here. I think a basic problem that a lot of musician/composer folks these days have is that they've launched into creation and recording of tracks before they've taken the time to actually study and develop the skills they need. In decades past, a musician would put a HUGE amount of effort into studying music, practicing by themselves, and playing with other people before they would EVER see the inside of a recording studio. If you haven't put in the effort of developing yourself as a musician (being able to improvise well is a great skill), maybe you're not ready to be releasing any tracks to streaming platforms (the world doesn't need endless tracks where people are mixing and matching purchased, prefabricated loops and beats). A lot of "writer's block" comes from people simply not having a clue what they're doing. It would be like sitting down to write a novel and you had no vocabulary; you didn't understand grammar; and you couldn't type. ;)
Top notch video full of sound advice: @ 7:30ish - for me, since I make busy and techy music, it’s way easier starting projects than finishing them. Endless edits, tons of variations on riffs, coupled with “having” to make sure my work isn’t minimal, has been the bane of my musical efforts since I began the hobby decades ago.
We can tell you put great effort into these videos, thanks for the insight!
9:48 I spat my coffee in tears of laughter but you're bang on! 🤣
Nothing left to add. It´s exactly that way!
The most important part of being a creator is to stay creative which is the thing that sets apart one from the other. As a beginner music producer myself, I could definitely make use of what you have said in this video. Really educational and thought provoking.
I've been performing and writing songs for about 15 years, started making music electronically 12 years ago. Enjoy your unrestrained creativity while you have it. Before I really got into electronic music and hip hop, I was in various bands in high school, and I found that I always synergized with other musicians who weren't classically trained or theory nerds like me. I knew how to make all of the ideas flow together cohesively, but their creativity on the frets was unmatched because they weren't thinking about being in key, or sticking to a particular scale or mode. I could reign them in if something sounded off but for the most part a lot of the magic came from not having a lot of standards or rules to adhere to. I encourage learning music theory and the way that music affects our emotions, I've spent a lot of intimate time with my own work to know, but be weary that as you improve over time you'll develop habits or find shortcuts that may have a negative effect on your creativity. It's best to know the rules of the game so you can break the rules as effectively as possible 👍 I wish you the best of luck and never forget to impress yourself before you worry about impressing others, your art is worth it if it means something to you!
A thing I love about your way of delivering advice is that u are not boring to listen to, a lot youtubers are so boring and it´s just long strict sessions that makes my brain burn out, so when I finally have to make music my energy is close to 0, u on the other hand sound interresting and your morals and ways of thinking really resonates with my adhd brain, it might also be that you´re pretty straight forward and yeah I guess I like your style of comedy lmao
#4 - absolutely!
Such great advice. I have been working on one song for several months and just havent been inspired and been busy with work. I recently said fuck it and rewrote the whole vocal part, now it's a song I'm interested in again.
Hell ya
This video could not have come to me at a better time, fantastic vid
Excellent and well considered advice. Thank you.
@6:01 I’m going to say this is more like “what came first, egg or the chicken” so it’s debatable.
#4: this is really important because you are describing the path of life and completing a lesson. And once we complete the lesson, (you know a completed process from end to end) only then shall we know and understand after completing the process what happened on the journey. Because otherwise if you don’t complete then how would you understand the lesson?
I agree with you there are no terrible sessions and even if you think a track is off target from whatever genre you were attempting to create in, it’s still an experiment and it’s going to open up your analytical thinking and help you to your destination.
Workflow, workflow, workflow. And I believe that once the individual establishes their own workflow which could be similar to what you saw in a random video or heard from someone else however you are going to personify it and it’s going to be your own unique process. And once a person has this process which allows you to complete from end to end fluidly, you need to blueprint that, write it down and understand why it works.
❤️
Thanks Cameron. I love your videos. So inspiring. Tomorrow I sit down and work on writing something instead of watching youtube tutorials.
Really enjoy your videos. Great advice. I'm glad that you sharing this wisdom with the general public. I also like how most of this advice can be applied to any medium of artistic creation. Better to write a bad poem than no poem at all!
All sounds like good advice, my man!
Hey not sure if anyone will find this helpful but here goes. The good news is that I am productive in the DAW, the time I do put in is quality and moves my projects forward slowly but steadily. Eventually, after many takes of everything and a lot of MIDI editing, I mix and master. The bad news: they are all covers at this point. I do think this approach is helpful and the bridge to originals for me is the reference tune. I pick out a reference tune and say - I want to write a song that is like this other song. So I take that basic structure and start improvising- if I have the same chords, I'll use different voicing or added notes. Maybe change a chord. Of course, the melody is different. The bassline I change. My lyrics.....now I have something original, even though it is clearly the "child" of my reference tune. So maybe if worse comes to worst, a cover is better than no music. Instead of flailing around in the DAW for an hour or two, heaving a big sigh and closing it, better to grab some free MIDI and the microphone and start slinging notes. Another idea is the classic remix. Something else I find productive is the "genre switch". Do Taylor Switft's "Shake it Off", but in drop D with power chords and black metal vocals. Do "House of the Rising Sun", but Reggae style. Do "Linus and Lucy" or Schoolhouse Rock, but a Tech House Remix. You get the idea. I haven't even touched the classical stuff yet.
I love this. I got into learning/making music about 3 years ago. It started with getting addicted to UA-cam lol. I got really into woodworking and Davie504, which lead me to building my own electric bass, which lead to playing bass, then music theory, sight reading, to now mixing/producing/mastering and a little keyboard. I wake up at 3am everyday and practice/learn/create and I gave up video games, drinking, and friends for music lol. I play smash ultimate sometimes for inspiration lol.
Thanks!
such a great video, listening to artists like Nino Rota and Piero Umiliani is what got me out of the idea that every song needs to be perfect ,some of their music is slightly off key at times and not everything is beautifully recorded either ,yet they find their way onto my playlists time and time again, just cause i cant help but love everything they made in the way and style they made it
"you now have the privilege to fail for free" - me.
Back when you needed a record deal and it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of $ to make music which could only release very sporadically , one bad track could tank your whole career. But that fear doesn't make sense today. There's 60,000+ tracks uploaded a day (Spotify alone) and bad tracks just join the sea of bad tracks, no one shares them and your rep isn't even dented.
you BETTER take advantage of this fact as failing for free is a privilege you don't often get.
That's also a downside. With that many tracks being released the odds of actually having your song 'found' by someone are slim. And if they skip your song the algorithm will bury you under other songs that aren't doing as bad. Potentially that can slam your entire artist profile on the platform. So even though it's free to fail in making music... I feel like publishing still requires some care.
@@SyntheticFuture well that bit hadn't changed, you still need to be good! you can't just make music and hope!
Just because the tools have made it faster to create distribute worldwide doesn't mean it's any easier to succeed,
Having said that, of those 60k tracks, 85% of profiles on Spotify have less than 50 followers, so that sea of noise is still a pretty low bar.
I mean I'm a nobody but I'm making it work. It's my entire living, and I've never advertised or paid for numbers either my Spotify audience is 100% organic, they have all found me of their own volition. Of course that took many years.
It also helps to understand what a brand is, that is also something that hasn't changed. Music doesn't spread because it's good music. Music spreads because there's a story attached, and I don't mean from the lyrics.
Hope you enjoyed your break. Glad you are back doing what you do best: inspiring the rest of us
I saw that Black Crowes doc. I think about that "big song" idea all the time.
I see you with the War of Art. That’s a must read!!
"Mathematically speaking 50% of your tracks will be below average" - Seth Godin
Actually mathematically speaking 50% will be below the median. 😛
80% of my projects are garbage 😄
I understand what y'all mean by dat but dats not completely true family I made about 4 to 5 hundred songs from 2019 to 2022 and I ka use 80 percent of them with me I have sessions every time I get the urge to create and it usually takes 2 ta 4 hours to make a beat and the majority of them are really good I'm just selective so I put all my songs in brackets from least to greatest I was just going threw different playlist I made before I watched this video and I counted 260 songs on the dot that I'm in love with that I made. So Yea I agree the more you work on music just like anything else the better you will get at it
@@daunknown5663 yeah I think you took it the wrong way. that's what the quote means. It's really a joke, it just means get on with it because by definition not all your tracks can be bangers. So no point hanging around trying to make a perfect one, might as well do lots and see.
I've also got hundreds out there (over 600) I'm proud of most of em, but in honesty it's not for me to decide. The only certainty is you can never know who will like what
@@Bthelick oh I ain't know you was jokin lol 😆 ay you right tho I like mostly every song I made and dat God gave me but it's some I'm absolutely in love with and it's some that's good and I like them and it's some I would never listen to again but dey all still my baby's lol naw I only count the tracks that I enjoy so yea right now I got about 260 beautiful songs dat I wanna write to in the future ay check my page out if you wanna hear something different much love family
Most accurate points I’ve ever heard. Everything you said resonated with me so much.
Welcome back!
Cameron building on your observations centred on backing up, simplifying, or your “ten minute rule.” From the experience of MY weird Wright Bros approach the last 6 months I would also suggest - and this may be too extreme - ditching your DAW and switching to a VST host like Gig Performer or Cantabile, VIP, etc. This had the added effect of forcing me - like a painter choosing a palette - to focus on more creative choices using fewer elements. Also this way CPU performance constraints become a bottleneck you have to choose around. And you may find the stock KONTAKT effects are just fine so you don’t need to use that separate reverb.
Cameron maybe I’m a totally out of touch lunatic (likely) but your observation that it’s easier to finish tracks than to start a new one, is both absolutely true and something I absolutely intentionally worked against for 6 months. Thinking of the weight lifting idea, I deliberately started from blank each time because I wanted to force myself to practice an entire end to end process. This meant a certain amount of tedium as I became expert at redoing things from scratch each time that I could of course have templated. But it had an unexpected result too. Because of the tedium I started to become “smarter” about how I set these things up, so as to give myself more flexibility, speed etc. I think the result was that I developed methods I hadn’t planned on, but I also learned about HOW TO OPTIMIZE something, whether for speed, quality, or ease of use. Remembering that we only ever get to pull in two of those directions at a time. It was sort of like training I guess, and I’m pretty sure that had a good value for my aging brain (of which everyone has) as well.
So glad to see you making videos as I really thought you were going to make a several month long break. So thank you as this is one of my favorite channels to watch for inspiration
6:30 adding on to that, I've learned over the last fifteen years that "perfect" ideas tend to turn out much more flawed than you imagine, and it's much easier to turn a "bad" idea into a good one just by asking yourself "okay, but what's a part of this that I do like" and building it out from that element. There's a certain danger in what we like to call "inspiration" because, quite often, inspiration only wants to show you the big picture, but your job as a creative is to assemble all the little details that will make it up, one at a time.
Don't lose sight of the trees for the forest! :D Though you might want to try going to write in the forest. Great place to look for ideas, and put them in perspective too.
Full of great advice. Thank you!
So True. Thanks to remind us 😀
You have a true talent to inspire
Producing a track and then working, little by litte, to perfect it is how records have been made for decades by the best recording engineers. The process of "comping" is the rule, not the exception.
I also learned recently about "most of the time lack of time means lack of clear direction of what you want to create"
On my days off work, I've managed to (more or less) stick to some kind of regimen, where I plan to spend a certain minimum amount of time doing music-y stuff, but I've found one particular method to work more than just forcing myself to do it - a reward system, of sorts. I have spookily similar distractions to you Cameron, in the games / UA-cam / Netflix things, and it's dead easy to fall into that when you've got spare time, but what I now do is act as though I'm actually at work, where I can't just spin the chair around and go do one of the aforementioned distract-y things. Instead, I consider those distractions as a reward... IF I behave myself and get my act together to actually get productive, even if experimental. So, when I know I've got a nice salmon dinner and bottle of wine, followed by some crappy Nflix shit, followed by a Cyberpunk session to look forward to IF I BEHAVE MYSELF, I can fully immerse myself in the music, and so far it's worked great. I don't always produce anything worthwhile, but at least I'm trying.
Nailed it Mr. Venus!!!! Well said!
Thank you so much❤
absolute words of wisdom there. Thanks
Very instructive Cameron, thanx for that one.
i like to use whatever comes to mind first in composition, even if its kind of derpy. Its honest.
Breaks...Take Breaks, they help because you know you can take one when you're stuck. and you know you must take them when your un-stuck. I found it's one of the essential things for health and to consolidate my music sessions as I go. I found the best time to start is when you don't want one.
Ahhh! I love that black crows doc. Chris said something about how every song ever written is part of a giant wheel that keeps spinning and all songwriters are just keeping the wheel spinning. I think if that often when I get the ‘writers block’. So much good info in this vid Cameron🤘keep up the good work
the "war of art" love the reference
Legit taking notes right now 😆 These ideas have floated thru my head for years with mediocre implementation, but your way of explaining everything gives me much better perspective on music production. Great content!!
apart the topic, your voice over can be fit very well on all major worldwide documentaries, its very clear rich and very well tuned to any listener's ear
thank you
Nice one, Cam. Thanks.
The thing that helped me the most is keeping a music log. Its keeps my ideas organized & also helps me stay consistent.
Example from my last session (03 is the third yr of this log that I started in 2020/02/15. 126th session of the current yr & 356th sessions since I started logging.
Put in 600 hours this year!
Session=03.126.356
2022/09/03=Saturday
Start:630am=8hr
Project=
RS7K-"2014-05-12-Ruff Start"
Studio-B=(Gear/role)
SRH1540/headphones
VLZ4 Pro12/mixer#1
VLZ Pro12/mixer#2
Force/seq+synth+drums
TR8S/drums
RS7k/synth
Proteus2500/synth
MC707/synth
Goals=
1-Test out the Force work-flow.
2-Test all devices together.
3-Edit Force macro maps.
4-Record a sketch w each synth.
5-Create a Force/RS7k setup project.
Objectives=
1>Setup Force CC# macro maps.
2>Set Force audio levels.
3>Compose/Record RS7k sketch.
Progress=
1
Ok, so a deep well of technical knowledge and information, a comedic force and now a philosopher, dispensing perils of wisdom. I don't know what's next but PLEASE keep it coming!!!
The temptation to sample you at 9:40 to 9:50 in a Simon Posford style is magnetic.
Right now I've set myself a "50 Tracks in 50 Days" and it's changing my entire life!
I really love these videos I was watching/listening to while drawing; I do make music, but I work as a designer, and these things apply perfectly to other artistic processes and is really nice to hear something I've been telling myself for a long time ago, mainly because college left me with a massive burnout and finding that strength to grab a pencil and sketch something out was just incredibly tiring, eventually I stop caring, about what people would think, I stopped caring about social media; I just started to think about what made me happy about drawing when I was little, and I was so simple, the answer was just right there. 🥰
Hearing this from a person I admire a lot (you) is just like a big sip of fresh air, reassuring me that my conclusions are on the right path in some way or another.
I'm catching up with ur videos because I took a long hiatus from social media. 🤭
Thank you for this 💖
I agree on everything you said. Now if I can just get my family to stop depending on me for every little thing during the best hours of my day, I might have the energy to actually accomplish something.
I really needed this. Thank you. 👍🏾👍🏾
This is actually great advice. Cheers!
needed to hear this. thank you
Very inspiring. Thank you.
As the "ever more common" home producer, that last tip hit home for sure
break down that huge goal into small steps. always helps me :) thx for your video
These videos are really helpful. Thank u!
You literally said quite a few things i've said to myself the last few weeks. New to this creation stuff AGAIN aside. i wanted to ask others if htey felt like The Music tends to present itself more than me just creating it. As for something I wish I knew sooner in music reation(?)
There's more than one way to skin a cat. cant be buying every $200 synth or $59 plugin vst that a youtuber presents. manytimes. the featureset is actually within the bundle i already own or is available via opensource or otherwise. Steven Pressfield is one of my favorite "Get Shit Done" authors... Constantly battling Resistance ;-) Love the channel. Glad you're back
Probably the best advice I've heard after 5 years
Best channel for actually helpful guidance ... this is wisdom right there. And not just a that usual jibberish about "use this plugin, to make your songs great instantly" type of things