New track, and musings about workflow

Share and discuss your LMMS music projects here, and see what people think!
https://soundcloud.com/robotsarepeoplet ... watch-nova

I made the initial melody for this like six months ago and finished it up in the last couple days. My little sister reminded me of this tape I'd recorded with her when she was three, and after we listened to it again a few months ago, pairing it with this melody seemed like an obvious choice. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but let me know what you guys think. Feedback is always welcome.

I feel like this happens kind of a lot, where I'll come up with a melody or song idea, and start to flesh it out, then just lose all motivation to work on it steadily for a while (only to finish it in a fit of inspiration several months later). I often find myself going through all my project files, listening to them and adding something here and there, an effect, a snippet of melody, maybe changing instruments around here and there... but mostly it feels like I'm just spinning my wheels without making any real progress. It's a monumental effort to finish something if I haven't really music'd for a while. Does this happen to anyone else? It's kind of frustrating... but I guess it works. I don't know.

Sorry for the rant. Venting to you guys makes me feel a little less alone. I know I'm not really that alone, but it's easy to feel like it sometimes.
This song is lovely. As far as I can tell, it seems very well produced also.
Some of your synth choices or electronic keyboards sounds are not in my most liked sound types, but man, you even made them sound good, I don't know what you have made to remove the frequencies that my ears don't like, but they sound really good and really fit the track style/context.

This song is like an audio landscape and makes my mind fly away trying to picture the scene you are describing while earing the people in it talking. It's very original

Regarding the process of creating music, you're not alone. I take some breaks from time to time, to get some focus between the tracks I'm making. Some times, I stop producing one song and jump to another or even start a new one from scratch, just because I'm not liking the progress of the project, or just how it sounds. However I always save the project to check it later, and some times that works.
I realized that every time I come back, even if I don't plan anything, I come up with new ideas, I'm more mature, I come up with new processes of working to reduce the time of more repetitive tasks and the quality also has some noticeable jumps, even if theoretically I haven't done anything directly in particular for that to happen. It's just a natural evolution as we learn on the go.

I also like to get feedback almost immediately as I create new stuff, (not just music), and I'm aware that is not very healthy but it is very rewarding knowing that someone we like or care, or even someone in our circle of friends and family took the time to listen to what we've made and enjoyed it. That is what makes me keep doing it.
Thanks Canilho. This means a lot coming from you. I've been really into the kind of buzzy, retro-sounding synths lately. Something about that eighties vibe has been really appealing to me. I don't think I removed any frequencies per say, but I did have to keep making myself turn the volume down on pretty much everything. The LB302 often gets away from me without realizing it.

Your process sounds eerily familiar. Glad it's not just me... I'll keep working at it. I know exactly what you mean about wanting immediate feedback. It's easy to get addicted to it, and it threw me into a pretty deep depression a couple years ago. I'm doing a lot better now, but I do appreciate your feedback. :)
This sounds nice and cute, and sounds like it's telling a story, of a happy time in the past. I like it :D


Foggy wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:42 pm
I feel like this happens kind of a lot, where I'll come up with a melody or song idea, and start to flesh it out, then just lose all motivation to work on it steadily for a while (only to finish it in a fit of inspiration several months later). I often find myself going through all my project files, listening to them and adding something here and there, an effect, a snippet of melody, maybe changing instruments around here and there... but mostly it feels like I'm just spinning my wheels without making any real progress. It's a monumental effort to finish something if I haven't really music'd for a while. Does this happen to anyone else? It's kind of frustrating... but I guess it works. I don't know.

Sorry for the rant. Venting to you guys makes me feel a little less alone. I know I'm not really that alone, but it's easy to feel like it sometimes.
I know the feeling. I myself go through that sometimes, and so does other people on this forum. Only a few days ago, I was motivated to finish one of my house tracks, that I was working on for a while now. A bit more to do, and it'll be up on soundcloud. :D

Foggy wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:42 pm
Sorry for the rant. Venting to you guys makes me feel a little less alone. I know I'm not really that alone, but it's easy to feel like it sometimes.
No worries Foggy dude.
I think with the recent turn of events, everyone is feeling kinda isolated nowadays. :D
Nice. I've used spoken word samples in tracks before with varying degrees of success but I never managed to nail it - you have. The synth melody is pretty sweet but it's the parts where the audio's paired with piano that really hit the spot for me. I actually found this unexpectedly moving.

Listening again now, because once wasn't enough.
FilthyWizard wrote:
Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:55 pm
Nice. I've used spoken word samples in tracks before with varying degrees of success but I never managed to nail it - you have. The synth melody is pretty sweet but it's the parts where the audio's paired with piano that really hit the spot for me. I actually found this unexpectedly moving.

Listening again now, because once wasn't enough.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I've been experimenting with found audio for maybe a year. Initially I was just trying to make my tracks less boring... a lot of my melodies tend to be kind of monotonous and I saw adding spoken word samples as a way of covering that up. I think I'm refining it a little though. Lately I've been collecting old, obscure cassette tapes from thrift stores and Craigslist and stuff. It's amazing the weird crap you can find on those things.
holy sh*t, this is beautiful omgggg <3 Is that the lb302 synth?
vortexsupernova wrote:
Wed Apr 01, 2020 10:50 am
holy sh*t, this is beautiful omgggg <3 Is that the lb302 synth?
Aw, thank you! And yes, the lead synth part in the middle is the LB302 (with a second one for the duet bit). I just love the way it sounds...