devs that also make music

[kuniklo]

I've noticed that since I started trying to make music software I've lost a lot of my energy for actually making music. After wresting with DSP code and C++ for many hours I don't seem to want to spend much more time staring at a computer screen or any other music software.

Are there any devs out there that have managed to keep a foot in each camp? That is, are there many of us that make software that could really also call themselves musicians?

[aciddose]

I find programming a lot more entertaining than music these days. It requires the same creativity with a whole different set of skills. It seems to very much come from the same source, such that if you burn up all your creative energy programming you'll have none left over for music.

(I can focus on completely different sets of programming problems... perhaps if I took up the flute or guitar I might be more interested in music in the same way, although these require developing completely different skills. Likewise for different genres or so on.)

The same issues seem to - for me at least - apply to both. Focusing on one task for too long completely destroys any creativity that might have been present. Being forced to wade through the muck of whatever you don't want to do to get to where you need to be, you might often find yourself out of energy by the time you get there. Focusing on other things, allowing your idle mind to drift and leaving all the deadlines and nagging out of it seems to produce much better results.

Not that focus hurts... I find taking notes, keeping track of my progress and creating long term goals that I strive to accomplish helps to motivate me to continue. It is just important that you are able to distinguish between focus you want vs. focus you force.

Like any art, unfortunately you can't easily just up and decide to enjoy something. You either do or you don't. I find you sort of have to flow with the tides and when the tides are right, jump on it.

[zlatan]

Steve Duda does an amazing job in both fields.

[metamorphosis]

Currently building a C++ library for 2D games. Hasn't affected my ability to do music. However, if I were working on DSPs it would be different

[ToneCarver]

I find programming a lot more entertaining than music these days. It requires the same creativity with a whole different set of skills. It seems to very much come from the same source, such that if you burn up all your creative energy programming you'll have none left over for music.
...
The same issues seem to - for me at least - apply to both. Focusing on one task for too long completely destroys any creativity that might have been present. Being forced to wade through the muck of whatever you don't want to do to get to where you need to be, you might often find yourself out of energy by the time you get there. Focusing on other things, allowing your idle mind to drift and leaving all the deadlines and nagging out of it seems to produce much better results.
...
Like any art, unfortunately you can't easily just up and decide to enjoy something. You either do or you don't. I find you sort of have to flow with the tides and when the tides are right, jump on it.

Well put. That pretty much sums up my experience too. I tend to cycle between focusing on programming and focusing on music making, as the muse/mood/flow leads. Rarely can I focus on both at the same time. Sometimes interesting sounds occur while testing a plugin under development. Those sounds can get saved and eventually find their way into a music project, but that's more of a happy accident .. a by-product of the development process that cross-pollenates the music making process.

[mystran]

I've noticed that since I started trying to make music software I've lost a lot of my energy for actually making music. After wresting with DSP code and C++ for many hours I don't seem to want to spend much more time staring at a computer screen or any other music software.

Are there any devs out there that have managed to keep a foot in each camp? That is, are there many of us that make software that could really also call themselves musicians?

I mostly make music as a form of dog-food-testing these days and while I might not always "make music" in the sense of actually trying to build compositions, I like to play something (possibly just jam on the keyboard) or sequencer synths or something at least once or twice a week (on top of pure testing, which usually also involves trying to build some context around whatever I'm testing to try to get a feel for how it works in real use). Once in a while something more complicated comes out of the process (and http://www.soundcloud.com/mystran has some tracks).

On the other hand, I think over the years my "average composition" has been getting more formulaic, something that I don't really like. Listening to some old tracks (from back when I had no clue how to mix anything) it seems I had a bit more creativity in terms of compositions. I'd like to get that back, should probably try to make some complex synth again so I'd have an excuse to test all kinds of weird sounds and such.

Curiously though, about a year ago I wanted to make some background music for a little game project of mine (a bullet hell shmup thing), and it was surprisingly easy when I actually had a goal and context to go for. The tracks are not available online (mostly because they are written primarily to loop), but in terms of quality/creativity I kinda like them more than most of my recent composition as the project forced me to be a lot more aggressive in terms of movement and variety to get the right pace. I also found that I had to mix those a little differently too, so they would sit nicely together with sound effects and such.

[kuniklo]

I think my experience is more or less the same as aciddose's. I do find programming enjoyable and I consider it a creative activity but it does seem like composing music and coding both draw on the same pool of mental energy to a large extent. They both involve figuring out how a complex collection of elements can be put together in a functional and aesthetically pleasing way and the part of the brain that does this kind of problem solving only runs a finite number of hours per day.

I used to have a studio full of hardware. It was a hassle in a lot of ways compared to working entirely in software but it was great to be able to just close my eyes and do everything by touch. It was a nice break after a day of struggling with computers. As flexible and practical as software is it doesn't have the same sense of liberation.

Steve Duda is a good example of somebody that excels at both, I agree. It seems telling that it's so hard to come up with more examples though.

[kuniklo]

Curiously though, about a year ago I wanted to make some background music for a little game project of mine (a bullet hell shmup thing), and it was surprisingly easy when I actually had a goal and context to go for. The tracks are not available online (mostly because they are written primarily to loop), but in terms of quality/creativity I kinda like them more than most of my recent composition as the project forced me to be a lot more aggressive in terms of movement and variety to get the right pace. I also found that I had to mix those a little differently too, so they would sit nicely together with sound effects and such.

Maybe having a well defined goal and style like this is beneficial? I find that after a day of coding my energy for spontaneous idea generation is mostly used up. But perhaps with a specific target in mind that's not as necessary?

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

making music is the best

[kuniklo]

making music is the best

I have to admit that as much as I enjoy making music software if I have to choose I'd prefer to make music. It's been very refreshing after over a decade of writing junk like web apps to get back to low level, fast & clean C++. But my music output has tapered off to nothing since I started.

[Mayae]

I agree with the most people here - I also believe you draw from the same creative energy source. However, i study semantic sound design so I "have" to make a lot of compositions related to the university (not that i don't enjoy it!).

I can't remember when I actually composed something of free will though - or continued some of my old music projects, even though I used to be an active musician!

[antto]

i started learning C++ in order to be able to make my own synths/effects that i can then use in my own music
but developing stuff results in that i barely finish 1 track per year..

i don't think i'll lose interest in making music, i always find some interesting sound while testing this or that, the number of unfinished musical ideas continues to increase

but coding itself is also interesting to me.. there's certainly an art to it too

[PurpleSunray]

For me it is vice versa.

I still remember the time as I was about to discovery my favorite genre (psy) and apart from being fascinated by the music itself, I was really interested on how such tunes are created from a technical perspective.
Wanted to make that too, but from scratch, using my own plugins.
So started programming.. and after some time noticed that
a) If I implement the plugins on my own, I do not have time anymore to actually make music with it
b) I was building plugins with a specific effect in mind. Most of the time I heard this effect/synth somewhere else, so another plugin that does the same must already exist obviously.. so basically I "waste" my time on doing stuff someone else already did.
c) I wasn't really happy with the quality of my own plugins.. they were sounding ok.. but not even near to the audio quality of a professional device (i.e. virus, nord, ect.)

So I stopped programming plugins almost completely, in favor of having time to actually make music.
I still do a lot of C++ programming .. it's my job =) But at home I haven't started any IDE since years.. has been replaced by the DAW completely

[PurpleSunray]

Are there any devs out there that have managed to keep a foot in each camp? That is, are there many of us that make software that could really also call themselves musicians?

Don't know if I can call myself a musician.. but I'm working on it hard xD
For me making music is kind of the counterpart to development.
I do C++ programming 5 days a week, where it is all about deadlines, sticking to quality standards, solving unsolvable problems ect.
If I come home at end of the working day and start by DAW, I enter a completely other world. No deadlines, no standards, no tear my hairs out..it's only about creativity. When I make music, I can do what I want, when I want it. No rules, no requirements, no approval/qualification... as said, it's like leaving the be-carefull-and-double-think-each-codeline/high-quality-standard world, entering the do-whatever-you-want world (and I really enjoy that )

[Mayae]

Are there any devs out there that have managed to keep a foot in each camp? That is, are there many of us that make software that could really also call themselves musicians?

Don't know if I can call myself a musician.. but I'm working on it hard xD
For me making music is kind of the counterpart to development.
I do C++ programming 5 days a week, where it is all about deadlines, sticking to quality standards, solving unsolvable problems ect.
If I come home at end of the working day and start by DAW, I enter a completely other world. No deadlines, no standards, no tear my hairs out..it's only about creativity. When I make music, I can do what I want, when I want it. No rules, no requirements, no approval/qualification... as said, it's like leaving the be-carefull-and-double-think-each-codeline/high-quality-standard world, entering the do-whatever-you-want world (and I really enjoy that )

It's funny you mention it like that, because i have the completely reverse experience. I guess it comes down to what you do professionally and privately/spare-time projects.