KVR Audio

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:12 am

Well, you are really good at being mean to people in posts, I'd stick with that.

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:32 am

Arglebargle wrote:while experimenting in various styles has been a lot of fun over the years, it has never given me a sense of identity.....

I say don't worry about finding an identity - it's not something you really find, anyway. Just make the music that makes you happy and strive to get the results that YOU want. Your identity will be revealed through the process of creation, not by trying to find something that you think doesn't yet exist.

I think I'm very similar to you in many ways, where I make a wide range of musical styles and I'm not a master of any one style or genre (nor would I ever want to be!). I really don't know if I could define my own "sound" or "identity". The people I collaborate with and people who listen to my music tell me that I have a distinctive sound or style, but it's not because I've decided that I want to have a particular sound - I just make music that I like, which represents my influences, my experiences, my abilities, my favorite types of sounds, my mood, etc. My identity is the culmination of that effort.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:51 am

I remember one Xmas, I was at my sister's house and I was noodling around on the guitar. She asked me to please stop, because it sounded too much like me. She really hated me, I believe.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 1:51 am

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.
Virgil Thomson

FarleyCZ · Post by **FarleyCZ** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 1:52 am

Arglebargle wrote:I just feel an overwhelming sense of "meh".

You've just described my life in a sentense. I might quote this, it's brilliant.

...and yeah. I feel the same way. Everything around tells me: "Give it up. You're too dumb to write cool music that thousands of people like." I actually do have stuff to say by music, I have even some ideas how so, but then I find the same message in some other absolutely brilliant track from somebody else, or I attempt to make the track, resulting in something I hate the minute I upload it.

If I haven't shoveled so much money into this, I probably label myself not good enough and just leave it. But on the other side, this thing consumed my life so deeply, I would have no other purpose or reason to live ... so instead of letting this thought trhead to get into some ugly places, I just survive in false hope for yet another year....

Yeah, so there are people who feel the same.

goldenanalog · Post by **goldenanalog** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 1:57 am

Arglebargle wrote:Just want to share my feelings. I haven't written any original music for 3 years. While I've kept myself occupied other ways, I feel adrift when it comes to being an artist. There has never been a genre I felt like I wanted to occupy, and while experimenting in various styles has been a lot of fun over the years, it has never given me a sense of identity. It's not that I CAN'T write music these days, I just feel, "why bother"? I never cultivated a "fanbase" and am frankly too lazy to do it, so I don't have any other people to write music for. And writing for myself, I just feel like all my ideas have been tried before by me or others.

The thing is, if I hadn't spent SO much money on this hobby I would just say, ok, experiment has run its course, haven't spent much dough, time to pack things up. But I do like to create music, it gives me a feeling unlike anything else. I just look back in the last decade+ and feel like it hasn't amounted to anything important... I barely know myself as an artist now any more than I did 12 years ago. I just feel an overwhelming sense of "meh".

Is anyone else where I am? Have you been there?

Great post, Arglebargle!

1.) It could be simple depression. We 'artists' seem to suffer from this too frequently - too much time in our own heads, and all that.

2.) Almost any artist can find and build a fan base, if he/she makes the effort to get out and share.

3.) Persistence is key - discipline heavily factors into the equation - this was the great thing about being in a situation a short time ago where I was forced to deliver musically week after week regardless of what was going on personally - I learned to deliver musically week after week regardless of what was going on personally.

4.) We are often IMHO psychologically influenced by the world around us, whether we like it or not - I come from the era of big-hair/heavy metal; Lady Gaga and I have little in common. Sometimes: it's just about what's fashionable at the time having little to do with *my* expression of art - I am constantly bombarded by music nowadays that is completely foreign to me as an artist - so internally I ask: How am I relevant?

I would argue that music is somewhat of a feedback loop (at least in my case) - it's a whole hell of a lot easier to write/record/perform music if other people are out there who seem to to appreciate it - that seems to feed a cycle.

When all is said and done, however: every artists journey is different - what works for me to keep it all going may have absolutely nothing to do with your journey, Arglebargle.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:30 am

Hink wrote:I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.
Virgil Thomson

Oh please, I regret it. YEARS of switching hosts and owning every vst known to man hasn't done A THING for me

goldenanalog · Post by **goldenanalog** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:38 am

hibidy wrote:
Hink wrote:I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.
Virgil Thomson
Oh please, I regret it. YEARS of switching hosts and owning every vst known to man hasn't done A THING for me

I agree with Hink

- I have this visual of a sculptor with 1001 chisels scattered all over his studio - none of them looking exactly like the other - and the sculptor having to decide which one to start carving the block of stone with...

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:50 am

They just gave up and went back to posting on kvr.

goldenanalog · Post by **goldenanalog** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:01 am

hibidy wrote:They just gave up and went back to posting on kvr.

Possible outcome, that. Or: they just grabbed one, and started working with it. Maybe the shape of the first chisel didn't exactly work, so: they grabbed another one - through trial and error, they discovered after a while which ones worked for the different tasks involved in making a given sculpture - and perhaps through the experience reduced the number of chisels (drastically, in this case) until they just had the chisels that they needed.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:07 am

Create something very limited. Chiptunes, or a simple piano composition, or write an organ fugue, a microtonal keyboard piece, something that just uses 3 or 4 plugins and 3 or 4 effects, use only hardware and use the computer as a tape deck only. Basically you want to strip back those millions of options and get back to pushing at limitations, because that's where creativity is born. When you eventually return to the complexity of the DAW, the vacation in simplicity will have provided a new perspective.

That's the plan anyway

Aleatoriac · Post by **Aleatoriac** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:24 am

Maybe this will help too, but just a notebook with pencil (or pen) that you carry with you all the time. I know it's ancient when an iphone exists... But something about writing ideas down really lodges them in my brain, perhaps that's common among Humans? Maybe not, it may be an old age thing from last century.

Lyric ideas, shapes that represent song structure or rhythm, if you know notation, sometimes I'll actually just write it out as such. Story ideas. Sketches...

Sometimes I dabble in 3D art (or even 2D art) when the musical well is lying to me and telling me it's empty.

"Meh" just means too much of the same kind of stimulation. Got to find a way to mix it up. That's why I have a billion soundmakers, and only use a tiny fraction of them at any one time. Who knows. It could all be insanity too.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:43 am

Writing with a pen(cil) and paper is supposed to be very stimulating for the brain. I like it and recommend it. Sometimes I just write down combinations of words or short poems to get a certain mood going. Also, doodling, drawing, sketching out beats and ideas on graph paper, music notation if that floats your boat.

If you collect enough mad rantings and scribbles on paper, you can show it to people and pretend you're a mad scientist or whatever

Our electronic world can sort of take us inside ourselves, to the point where we feel like abstract entities scanning the infosphere for novelty and instant gratification.

JerGoertz · Post by **JerGoertz** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:06 am

Sendy wrote:Create something very limited. Chiptunes, or a simple piano composition, or write an organ fugue, a microtonal keyboard piece, something that just uses 3 or 4 plugins and 3 or 4 effects, use only hardware and use the computer as a tape deck only. Basically you want to strip back those millions of options and get back to pushing at limitations, because that's where creativity is born. When you eventually return to the complexity of the DAW, the vacation in simplicity will have provided a new perspective.

That's the plan anyway

Yes!

1) Strip down your setup (temporarily, at least).

2) Go with ideas first, then editing/producing.

3) Work quickly.

Using this methodology I created one of my best songs eva, in about 4 hours total time.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:34 am

I dunno, first arglebargle is someone I have known for years online, I wsh the best for him. He's lost as an artist, I know the feeling, my post was actually a meme on FB so I looked up the quote instead of posting a lame meme here but it's spot on imho. I was going to post it in the thread about things that get in the way of music but decided to post it here. (see that thread for a long explanation

)

I firmly believe in cycles in life, I think that being in tune with your cycles is a tough goal but a worthy one. I see the dude as being in a valley, he could be in that valley for a year, 10 years, 50 years...who knows. That quote I posted says it all and all I can add is dont purge...when you purge you always end up regretting it. Go enjoy life my friend, but remember music is your friend too...dont be afraid of losing it, it's not going away.

My next big valley I'm buying me a small sailboat and heading for bora bora and back (dont laugh, solo circumnavigation of the world has always been a huge dream for me)

Lost as an artist