Pedal/Gear Slump - What do you do?

[Paul_C]

To balance that my output has been ridiculous - I uploaded my 81st album (this year) to Bandcamp yesterday.

Wait. 81st album…this year?

I'm afraid so.

763 tracks of abstract sounds.

The trouble is I really enjoy making them, they don't really take that long and I have an awful lot of time on my hands.

Eventually I'm going to get bored and find something else to do, it just hasn't happened yet

[Blood_mountain]

To balance that my output has been ridiculous - I uploaded my 81st album (this year) to Bandcamp yesterday.

Wait. 81st album…this year?

I'm afraid so.

763 tracks of abstract sounds.

The trouble is I really enjoy making them, they don't really take that long and I have an awful lot of time on my hands.

Eventually I'm going to get bored and find something else to do, it just hasn't happened yet

I get too caught up in the minutiae of it all that I get frustrated and give up. Even this whole “pick up a free organ to play around with a different instrument”? Total bullshit because in reality I spend the entire weekend cleaning it up, fucking around with tubes, trying to learn how to tune the old beast, and at the end of the weekend I’ve done nothing and feel stupid for it. I need to get out of my own head when it comes to recording, accept that it’s going to be imperfect, be ok with the fact that four of my friends will listen to it, and be happy just to have accomplished something.

[Warpsmasher]

Arturia V Collection can keep you off the hard stuff for a little while, maybe.
A new computer build can be a pretty sweet alternate reality gearpunk experience too. Sexy options abound for every little piece...
For me, right now I'm rebuilding my pedal collection after Eurorack and new computer wiped most of it out (and kept me distracted from the forever more, more pedals).
Really enjoying the chinese cheap thrills dirt (which is really being bought for keeps because it is too god damn cheap to resell), and now replenishing the verb and delay sections with EQD sweetness and such.
Destroy erase improve, lol. Probably not the best advice, but that is how we are, mostly.

[cosmicevan]

To balance that my output has been ridiculous - I uploaded my 81st album (this year) to Bandcamp yesterday.

Wait. 81st album…this year?

I'm afraid so.

763 tracks of abstract sounds.

The trouble is I really enjoy making them, they don't really take that long and I have an awful lot of time on my hands.

Eventually I'm going to get bored and find something else to do, it just hasn't happened yet

I get too caught up in the minutiae of it all that I get frustrated and give up. Even this whole “pick up a free organ to play around with a different instrument”? Total bullshit because in reality I spend the entire weekend cleaning it up, fucking around with tubes, trying to learn how to tune the old beast, and at the end of the weekend I’ve done nothing and feel stupid for it. I need to get out of my own head when it comes to recording, accept that it’s going to be imperfect, be ok with the fact that four of my friends will listen to it, and be happy just to have accomplished something.

I get what you are saying and I relate to it a lot. I'm a confessed pedal addict. I love hunting for stuff and finding the right deal...so much so that at times things come in so quickly that I don't spend much time with it before onto the next. Every now and then I'll look up at what I've got and forget that I bought certain things. Then there's the vicious cycle of trying to learn stuff and incorporate it so that I'm actually making sounds as opposed to just futzing around.

I think you hit it on the head with just getting out of your own head. Pick one thing to go after. If you want to write and record...give yourself a challenge to write/record a song a week or something like that and actually do it. Don't do it for others and to publish, but rather just to challenge yourself and get the practice. The more you do, the better you get. Or, take the flipside of this and set a goal to really learn a pedal in a week and any time you sit down to play...focus on just that pedal. It's really just about moving things forward and pushing through the mud so you can get back on the road to your goals. Also, be honest with yourself about your goals...is your goal really to be a rock star or do you just want to have some original music available to share? Do you want to write or do you just want to play?

[Paul_C]

To balance that my output has been ridiculous - I uploaded my 81st album (this year) to Bandcamp yesterday.

Wait. 81st album…this year?

I'm afraid so.

763 tracks of abstract sounds.

The trouble is I really enjoy making them, they don't really take that long and I have an awful lot of time on my hands.

Eventually I'm going to get bored and find something else to do, it just hasn't happened yet

I get too caught up in the minutiae of it all that I get frustrated and give up. Even this whole “pick up a free organ to play around with a different instrument”? Total bullshit because in reality I spend the entire weekend cleaning it up, fucking around with tubes, trying to learn how to tune the old beast, and at the end of the weekend I’ve done nothing and feel stupid for it. I need to get out of my own head when it comes to recording, accept that it’s going to be imperfect, be ok with the fact that four of my friends will listen to it, and be happy just to have accomplished something.

The more you do, the better you get. ?

This is how I've gone from spending a whole evening recording and chopping up a track to make one piece which I then uploaded to YouTube (in 2018), to a 30 mins recording from which I can make three or four albums in two or three days and upload them to Bandcamp.

I have a method which I've refined over three and half years which produces results I'm happy to listen back to, and that's good enough for me.

I don't know if there's any real way of judging whether the quality has gone up or down as a consequence, but I've definitely become more prolific

[01010111]

That is extremely impressive. I’m the opposite. I don’t record anything anymore because the purpose for recording feels really vain. I know that feeling has more to do with my own hangups than reality. The only reason I record anything anymore is so I’ll stop playing the same riff/pseudo song over and over again.

[voerking]

the purpose for recording feels really vain.

i would like to know more about your reasoning for this! i do a fair amount of recording - mostly to amuse myself & collaborate with friends. I am definitely creeped out by a lot of aspects of the music industry, but recording (for me) is such a pure pursuit - it's making something cool out of nothing! i could see it being a bummer if it gets all tied up with "making a product", for sure.

[cosmicevan]

well, when you stop and think about it...it's kinda like a musical selfie. so pause for a second and think what you think about people and their selfies...then realize those people think that when you ask them to check out your new song.

[voerking]

it can be a selfie, but it can also be an elaborate painting, or sculpture, or anything really. also, recording is fun just for it's own sake - it doesn't have to be a tool for self promotion.

i started out making music by recording very rudimentary guitar & bass on two cassette decks with a little radio shack mixer for ping-ponging in between back in the 80's, and i've never stopped. so, for me, the act of recording is simply the act of making music.

[01010111]

Cosmicevan hit the nail on the head. It’s all about the purpose of the recording. If it’s purely for your own enjoyment, then why do you need to record anything? What do you get from having the recording? Listening to your own recordings always feels a little self fellatiatory. If it’s just for your own enjoyment, then why is it important to share with others?

The only reason I record anymore is to have recorded something. I wrote a song this year. It was the first actual “song” I’ve written in at least five years. It was also the worst musical output I’ve made in an even longer time. I’m going to try and learn something from how bad that song turned out. But what’s the point of making those “improvements” If it’s just for me? All that should matter is that I’m enjoying myself. The “quality” of my output is irrelevant, so, why not just have fun and not worry about recording.

I know that through the recording process you’re able to accomplish things that aren’t possible through real-time recording, and that recording in itself can be its own type of art form. So, recording for those reasons really can turn music into something that’s more similar to painting or sculpting.

Personally, because sound is so fleeting and ephemeral, and what I enjoy is mainly improvisation, recording feels like an exercise in vanity. So, I don’t record anything as a general rule. If I keep getting stuck on an idea I’ll record something just so I can move on. But other than that, I really don’t like the recording process.

[friendship]

well, when you stop and think about it...it's kinda like a musical selfie. so pause for a second and think what you think about people and their selfies...then realize those people think that when you ask them to check out your new song.

On the other hand, I like when my friends post selfies because I like to see my friends faces, because I love them.

[voerking]

If it’s purely for your own enjoyment, then why do you need to record anything? What do you get from having the recording? .

i personally can't play multiple instruments simultaneously, so the way i write for a group (even if the 'group' is just me overdubbing everything) is inseparable from recording. i build up parts and combine/arrange them while recording. I don't have the sort of musical brain that can 'hear' everything before it's assembled; so, without having a team of eager musicians ready to try out every idea i have...or the expertise to score everything out & know in advance what it will sound like - the only way for my music to exist is through the recording process. Even in bands i've been in, we record every practice to assess every step of the compositional process and edit/rearrange/etc material accordingly. Also, i've been a part of several long-distance collaborations (even pre-covid) and the only way we've been able to make it work is to send recordings (usually with some transcriptions, as well) back & forth.

[Paul_C]

Cosmicevan hit the nail on the head. It’s all about the purpose of the recording. If it’s purely for your own enjoyment, then why do you need to record anything? What do you get from having the recording? Listening to your own recordings always feels a little self fellatiatory. If it’s just for your own enjoyment, then why is it important to share with others?

The only reason I record anymore is to have recorded something. I wrote a song this year. It was the first actual “song” I’ve written in at least five years. It was also the worst musical output I’ve made in an even longer time. I’m going to try and learn something from how bad that song turned out. But what’s the point of making those “improvements” If it’s just for me? All that should matter is that I’m enjoying myself. The “quality” of my output is irrelevant, so, why not just have fun and not worry about recording.

I know that through the recording process you’re able to accomplish things that aren’t possible through real-time recording, and that recording in itself can be its own type of art form. So, recording for those reasons really can turn music into something that’s more similar to painting or sculpting.

Personally, because sound is so fleeting and ephemeral, and what I enjoy is mainly improvisation, recording feels like an exercise in vanity. So, I don’t record anything as a general rule. If I keep getting stuck on an idea I’ll record something just so I can move on. But other than that, I really don’t like the recording process.

well, when you stop and think about it...it's kinda like a musical selfie. so pause for a second and think what you think about people and their selfies...then realize those people think that when you ask them to check out your new song.

I only "announce" my new albums on Twitter these days so as not to endlessly spam forums, FB etc. as I'm not after a huge audience or trying to make money from what I do.

As my creativity includes what I do with what I record it does allow me to have a product to upload to Bandcamp, but while I will look every now and again to see if anyone is listening I don't need to see big numbers to continue. I have no desire to try and do any of it live, so if anyone is going to hear it then online is the only way.

I liken what I do as the audio equivalent of work by Rothko, Pollock et al. but I use them as examples because people might have heard of them, not because I see myself as at their level*.

Having said all of that, I could just as happily keep everything on my computer and not upload it anywhere, though it is nice to have someone say positive about something I've made and it helps justify the huge amount of money I've spent on gear

*I am though.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Almost everything I do is improvising, and I generally keep the recorder on just to have it for those times when something really exciting happens. Process is result.

On the other hand, one of my "instruments" is always my mixer, so maybe it's just easier/more natural to have the recorder plugged into the tape output.

Anything I release is usually going to be listened to a minuscule number of people, but I admit I love the absurdity of treating it like it's bound for the top of the charts. I listen to music as albums, so I like shaping my music as albums, and going through the rigmarole of releasing them as albums. I also like trying to shape them into something that is "coherent" (even if only to me) and having a trail of breadcrumbs stretching back a few years now to sort of show a path I've taken.

(And, as an aside, people seem to shy away from the egocentricity of saying they like listening to their own music, but I confess I find what I produce to be highly listenable — when I first fluked into the process that started me making music I was shocked and delighted that I could make sounds that were "the sort of thing I like" and I took that as a sign I was on the right track.)

[Paul_C]

Almost everything I do is improvising, and I generally keep the recorder on just to have it for those times when something really exciting happens. Process is result.

On the other hand, one of my "instruments" is always my mixer, so maybe it's just easier/more natural to have the recorder plugged into the tape output.

Anything I release is usually going to be listened to a minuscule number of people, but I admit I love the absurdity of treating it like it's bound for the top of the charts. I listen to music as albums, so I like shaping my music as albums, and going through the rigmarole of releasing them as albums. I also like trying to shape them into something that is "coherent" (even if only to me) and having a trail of breadcrumbs stretching back a few years now to sort of show a path I've taken.

(And, as an aside, people seem to shy away from the egocentricity of saying they like listening to their own music, but I confess I find what I produce to be highly listenable — when I first fluked into the process that started me making music I was shocked and delighted that I could make sounds that were "the sort of thing I like" and I took that as a sign I was on the right track.)

I listen to my stuff more than anything else, I think because the randomness of it sits nicely in the background while I browse the internet