I decided to read the 17 pages titled Problems of Finishing by DeSantis. This did hit home for me as I sometimes struggle with finishing when I work alone. As a group I do fine but alone I struggle to sometimes push myself to finish and actualise projects. Hopefully, this can give me some insight into how to fix these issues.
It’s tempting to think of a song as being something like unlimited physical space, and that the way to fill the space involves adding more stuff. But in reality, musical space has boundaries, like a canvas there is a limit to how much you can add before you’re simply covering something that’s already there.
I agree I tend to do the same with my own compositions. I might take it too far and consider it always able to add more but I tend to be on the opposite and require simple more basic ideas that each one takes dominance in what it’s good at. I’m going to consider this with my performance I will do it later, how can make sure that enough is enough? Do I need to use all the inputs and sounds/synths? Perhaps one synth at a time?
Modern DAWs suggest a workflow that combines loops into larger arrangements and many genres of electronic music are defined by repeating patterns. But perfectly repeated loops can become tedious after a while. Here is one technique for creating a sense of surprise within an otherwise loop-based context.
This I couldn’t be against more than anything in compositions. I dislike using the grid, it clicks everything into place. I want my sounds to have a human feeling, not everything strikes at the same time due to quantization, I want things to be different and have their own existence within the track. Not a predetermined idea of rhythm.
Although modern DAWs blur the line between editing MlDl and audio there is still a huge range of latent possibilities (and thus distraction) available just by having access to the source instruments. By rendering to audio and then removing the instruments that has made it so you’re forced to change your mode of interaction with your material. You cant change patches anymore, or adjust parameters. This forces at least the “programming synthesizers” part of the sound design process to come to an end. By closing certain doors behind you the only way you can move is forward writing, arranging, and mixing the song. This Is essentially an Arbitrary Constraint (page 42) self-imposed for the sole purpose of eliminating possibilities.
Bouncing down ideas is a great tip. I remember Gareth educating me on the resampling function on Ableton which makes it easy to do. I will also note that using sounds as audio files rather than VST also has advantages in terms of compositional uses. VST act as a trigger and read midi notes, audio is malleable and can be time stretched, pitched, chopped, and even resampled back as a new instrument.
But what most producers don’t realize is that each stage of the music-making process is itself a thing that requires practice. We get to be better sound designers by designing sounds. We get to be better drum programmers by programming drums. And we get to be better song finishers by finishing songs. Because of this, the more songs we start but don’t finish, the more opportunities we miss out on to practice finishing. And as a result, we might continually improve in various aspects of the early stages, but we’ll never improve at actually getting things done.
Another great point, I should do it myself. Finishing is another skill, such as recording, producing and engineering. The more you work on an fail the more you succeed.
I really enjoyed this PDF. It will definitely sit and brew in my thoughts.