#learnmonthly

day 12

the title of my track is “nostalgia.” 

our “final” version of our 1st track was due today! i'm seeing this "final" track as progress over perfection!

i wanted to create a track that carried a vibe of sad nostalgia, and from day 1, i wanted to create a "sound story" for an image of someone looking over the ocean, reminiscing about the good times they had with a partner they've lost.

day 9

we had an assignment due today to expand our loop.

another 5-ish hours spent on a 1:30 track. lots of experimenting and repeating 4-note or 4-measure sections on loop looking for the right sounding effect.

i think the biggest improvement was making the bass tones more bass-y and having some of the percussive elements stick out less (thanks to advice from others!). and also (somewhat) figuring out the beat repeater plug-in for a stutter effect, which i still haven’t gotten to sound the way i want yet.

in the middle of working on my track, i listened to my peer group’s uploads and was again feeling really crappy, wondering if this is how advanced everyone else is sounding from this course, then i am really behind and slow and basically feeling like i am failing.

but im trying to tell myself (although it’s really hard) that i need to stop comparing myself to other people and just focus on improving my own progress from yesterday.

when i compare my progress from yesterday, the small changes (despite the 5 hours spent) helped shape the track to be fuller than before. so i will take that as progress! but in terms of actually expanding my loop, i didn’t have any more melody ideas so i just repeated the loop and faded out. 

still need work on the stutter effect, volume of the snaps and consider an outro or another melodic section.

just watched my video lessons on fx, automation, and layering and andrew’s real-time production process. 

i am feeling:

1. overwhelmed at how much i don’t know in how to create effects, how much i have to start experimenting to find the sounds that i like for my track, how much i have to learn/experimenting in order to actually become somewhat good at beatmaking if i end up (hopefully) continuing this after my course ends.

2. inspired at all the possibilities in creating sounds for a track

i spent most of today just learning and noting what techniques and ideas i want to try adding for my track. tomorrow i will actually work on my track.

i have a “beatspiration” spreadsheet i’ve been tracking on/off to note tracks i especially like, and which parts in the track that i want to eventually emulate. i started this spreadsheet a few years ago and now that i’m finally learning to create beats, i can put this to use!

i have some vague ideas in where i want to go with my track but it’s a matter of finding the right notes/melodies and executing them, and then adding the effects. i am hoping that the more i exercise this new skill and keep experimenting with new sounds and getting out of my comfort zone, i can hopefully get better, and the more technical stuff will come more easily to me. but i feel like that’s a far ways off.