bryface
Offline
vancouver, canada

i've mostly been writing snippets and that's all i've had time for, really. 


i still have this feeling that i shouldn't be doing this because i actually do have a lot of other stuff on my plate this year.  work has really ratcheted up lately and is suffering a little bit because of the time that could be used on work but is spent on WB noodling instead.


on the other hand, it's somewhat liberating to write music with literally NO expectation of having to produce a fully-formed piece by any means.  in a way, WB this year has very much become for me a sonic scratchpad -- just in the adopting of the discipline of getting any musical idea down, no matter how larval;  and i do feel better for having created the piece, as opposed to not having had created it at all.


i gotta say though, KORG Gadget has been a Godsend.  it's become my go-to tool for the "oh crap i only have an hour to do this" moments where i want to come up with something decent in the least number of steps.  in WB2014 i had no such tool to fall back on, and my year ended up being a lot more stressful as a result.

Last edited by bryface (March 22, 2016 12:02 pm)

rdomain
Offline
Coastal Australia

A bit more pressed for time it seems than last time although the creativity isn't an issue.  There's been more than a few Sunday sessions getting wb written and recorded ready for Monday!  Love it when I complete one mid week like this week for instance  smile  Struggling to listen to the vast amount of music hear but I appreciate the regular listeners.  I'll always make time for them.

george bowles
Offline
St Louis

week 12 was the first week i really started to have trouble keeping up with all the tracks

OP-1 Kenobi
Offline

please don't hurt yourselves (or others lol)

D:

Dkstr
Offline
Helsinki, Finland

I have ditched all quality control and having a blast!

cTrix
Offline
AU
bryface wrote:

i gotta say though, KORG Gadget has been a Godsend.  it's become my go-to tool for the "oh crap i only have an hour to do this" moments where i want to come up with something decent in the least number of steps.  in WB2014 i had no such tool to fall back on, and my year ended up being a lot more stressful as a result.

I think I need this tool!!

I'm on my balcony mixing shivering in the cold because housemate's already been up twice blasting me for making noise (it's 5am) and...  yeah... it's 5am and I have to work pretty soon.  Shit went pear shaped earlier on and I lost what I'd been workin' on from 8pm - 12am.   I've already slept though 2 meetings last week... did a full on no-show for a conference call and lost around $5k of work.  So I can easily say Weekly Beats is fucking up my life because I'm shit at prioritising / starting before the weekend.  But neh - I said I'd put music first this year.  So I fuckin am.  Boom.  If anyone else pushes though the same situation, I applaud you.  It's the only way we're gonner get though this without feeling disappointed.

Last edited by cTrix (April 10, 2016 11:57 pm)

orangedrink
Offline
Wisconsin, USA
Dkstr wrote:

I have ditched all quality control and having a blast!

I think this is how I want to live my life!

fc
Offline
Melbourne, Australia
cTrix wrote:
bryface wrote:

i gotta say though, KORG Gadget has been a Godsend.  it's become my go-to tool for the "oh crap i only have an hour to do this" moments where i want to come up with something decent in the least number of steps.  in WB2014 i had no such tool to fall back on, and my year ended up being a lot more stressful as a result.

I think I need this tool!!

I'm on my balcony mixing shivering in the cold because housemate's already been up twice blasting me for making noise (it's 5am) and...  yeah... it's 5am and I have to work pretty soon.  Shit crashed earlier on and I lost what I'd been workin' on from 8pm - 12am.   I've already slept though 2 meetings last week... did a full on no-show for a conference call and lost around $5k of work.  So I can easily say Weekly Beats is fucking up my life because I'm shit at prioritising.  But neh - I said I'd put music first this year.  So I fuckin am.  Boom.  If anyone else in the same situation, I applaud you.  It's the only way we're gonner get though this without feeling disappointed.

Man, it sounds like you just need to be able to work on the go. In a train? Do 15 mins. Taxi? Bust out your WB. Accumulate all that time incrementally rather than in one sitting the night before deadline.

cTrix
Offline
AU
vinpous wrote:

Man, it sounds like you just need to be able to work on the go. In a train? Do 15 mins. Taxi? Bust out your WB. Accumulate all that time incrementally rather than in one sitting the night before deadline.

When you loose your track Moday at 12am it makes no different when you work :-P   I'd actually been working on a track I started in Japan October last year.  Got into a pickle as I was making final changes and accidentally copied the original 15 second sketch over the top of what I was working on.  Replace file?  Yes... I MEANT NO.... SHIT SHIT SHIT..!! (etc.)  You know the drill when you are tired...

Aday
Offline
Melbourne, Australia
cTrix wrote:
vinpous wrote:

Man, it sounds like you just need to be able to work on the go. In a train? Do 15 mins. Taxi? Bust out your WB. Accumulate all that time incrementally rather than in one sitting the night before deadline.

When you loose your track Moday at 12am it makes no different when you work :-P   I'd actually been working on a track I started in Japan October last year.  Got into a pickle as I was making final changes and accidentally copied the original 15 second sketch over the top of what I was working on.  Replace file?  Yes... I MEANT NO.... SHIT SHIT SHIT..!! (etc.)  You know the drill when you are tired...

Yo cTrix, I wonder if you have shadow copies enabled .. your track may still be recoverable.
Otherwise fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff sad

george bowles
Offline
St Louis
Dkstr wrote:

I have ditched all quality control and having a blast!

this is the way to go

Ipaghost
Offline
MKE


Dkstr wrote:

I have ditched all quality control and having a blast!

That's one of the reasons I really dig doing the 2 hour ICOM challenges, there isn't enough time to fret about the quality. Using random samples tends to promote interesting sound qualities that probably wouldn't appear in a 2 hour synth track.
I found that after a while I developed a timeline where I knew I had to have certain things ready to get a song done in time, and I formalized a lot of things such as techniques, reusable processing chains, and even color coding to help streamline the whole process.
In a way it's kind of liberating because if you write something bad, you can't be to hard on yourself since it's only a 2 hour challenge after all. And if you do write something good, well, that's even more impressive due to the constraints! Conversely I find the week long challenges very stressful due to the amount of time to complete it; my expectations are higher when in reality I rarely spend more than a day on a track. On the rare occasions I start early in the week, I tend to write a bunch of garbage that I end up throwing out anyway.

Aday
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Weeklybeats and all these web challenges are incredibly insightful.

Speedcomps (A 30 minute challenge where samples are released and then you get 30 minutes timelimit (within your own time) has also been a good one... you never know where you end up sometimes...

http://milkcrate.com.au/ by Little-scale's worth checking out too, Write music within the rules...

... EDIT!** I mean, Weeklybeats 'is a a lot' for one week sure.. .. when you find new ways to do it, as proven in these 30 minutes/24hour challenges.

Last edited by Aday (April 14, 2016 6:23 pm)

alonemusic
Offline
Bristol, UK

This week i'm struggling.. life/work/planning... ugh.. such a bummer.. Must keep working...

Judgement Act
Offline
Adelaide, Australia

Beat my 2012 record so I'm happy in that respect, but yea it's been a bit rough. I've completely neglected to upload to Youtube as I usually do the past few weeks.

Sometimes I don't enjoy opening up my DAW to finish a WB track, but once I find that groove, whether it be that time or the next time, I'm always having fun. It's a bit of a mixed bag.

0F
Offline
Melbourne

Got my studio set up over the weekend, but lost all motivation due to just being so exhausted from moving house.. so I just played some random guitar crap into Music Memos and let the app do the work.. haha