What's the hardest thing in music production for you?

The hardest thing for me is presentation. I don't think much about who hears it while I'm makin it... cuz at that stage its for me. I know how it sounds in my head and I feel it. I worry that I didn't translate it well enough for other people. Or, even worse, I did and they they just don't feel it.

Right now... my friggin dead right cursor button.
Ordered replacements, should be here in like a week, I'm gonna replace them all. (with the omron equivalents of those high quality alps ones mentioned before in the forums.)


In general, finding the time. This is a bigger issue than I'd like to admit, it has less to do with me being busy as much as me procrastinating with stuff I have to do, doing stupid things like surfing stupid websites when I should be working; once I've actually gotten all my work done, all my remaining time had been wasted here and there, leaving no time for actual productive recreational stuff, like making music, or working on my various electronics and DIY projects, stuff like that.
It's like, I waste 10 minutes at a time frequently, which adds up to what could have been an hour of something useful.

szr wrote:Trying to keep negative thoughts/conscious thinking out of the process

man, this deserves a whole heap more appreciation.

my biggest hurdle is my own negative thoughts in conscious thinking.
when i "just do" i find i have no problem.

sciguy wrote:It's like, I waste 10 minutes at a time frequently, which adds up to what could have been an hour of something useful.

Don't view anything you do as wasted time. Yeah, you could have done something more productive, but you still consciously decided to do what you did for all those little 10 minute periods. Just relax and do what you want without worrying about it.

Hardest thing for me too, is having people understand when I say "For this beat, I'm gonna go WEEEEEEEERRR BOM BOM BAHAAAAHA BOM WEEEEEEERR BOM BOM BAHAAAAHA WEER WUH WEEEEEEERRRRr!"

Well I temporarily solved one of my problems.

Still waiting for the replacement tact switches, but just now I was running the MPC with no faceplate and using a screwdriver to short the leads of the switch...


Also, I tried the old electrical tape trick on my pads, and they're a lot more sensitive now.

Just wanted to chime in and say Im really digging this topic. I really love hearing what everybody has to say because I can relate to most of it. I believe in myself and I have confidence in the music that I make but sometimes I just really lose inspiration and think my music isn't good and ask myself why I do this. But then I realize that I do this because it just something that I love to do. You cant put too much pressure on yourself and force yourself to make music. Its something that has to come naturally. You can't second guess yourself, just make music for yourself first. I really love this topic because it can go so many different directions and it's really refreshing to hear many of you guys have the same thoughts and feelings that I have when it comes to making music.

Finding a good sample and making a bassline.

This is a great thread. Id have to say finishing up is my biggest obstacle. Probably has to do with setting my sequences usually to 2 bars and tend i get a great 2bar loop and kinda get lazy to do switch up and little variations. Think ill start always doing 4 or 8 bar loops force me to get it done haha.

mixing bass

DPM wrote:the hardest thing for me is..

...i just counted 64 unfinished/un-arranged beats on my hard drive LOL

This is the same for me too but having over 300 unfinished beats that are 1 - 2 minutes long.
I start out and make a hip hop beat at 87 BPM... save it,
increase to 127 BPM and add/replace samples to make it a 4x4 Deep House track... save it,
add/replace samples to make it a UK 2-Step Garage beat... save it,
add/replace samples and make it a Miami Bass or Down South or UK Grime (double beat) Hip Hop beat... save it,
increase the track to 180 BPM and add/replace samples to make a Jungle/DnB track... save it,
decrease the track by half to 75 BPM and add/replace samples to make a Dub Step track... save it,
add/replace samples and make it a Reggae Lovers Rock beat... save it,
Rinse, wash, repeat...

my arrangement needs work.......major work.My music is fundamentally good yet it`s basic.

yeh unfinished beats are the motivation killer, i have 246 beats on CF cards, maybe have 40 that are complete

Tuning is a **** lately, i tend not to care too much about what my tuning is when im sampling from the platter, as long as the sound is good to my ears......

Then when i go to layer it with straight sounds from synth i have to re-tune either my sample, or detune my synth.

anyone have a good way of picking the "Tonic" note i think its called, i have a good korg tuner.

peeping tom wrote:yeh unfinished beats are the motivation killer, i have 246 beats on CF cards, maybe have 40 that are complete

Tuning is a **** lately, i tend not to care too much about what my tuning is when im sampling from the platter, as long as the sound is good to my ears......

Then when i go to layer it with straight sounds from synth i have to re-tune either my sample, or detune my synth.

anyone have a good way of picking the "Tonic" note i think its called, i have a good korg tuner.

I know what you mean when your in the moment and you hear the sounds just fck it and sample right away. Maybe try sampling it with the normal tune and then change it in the mpc. This gives you a lot more to work with and makes sure its in tune in the first place. Also de-tuneing the synth is kind of illogical if you think of it. Makes no difference if thats all you add but then you find this new sound that works well and you decided to add it in the mix and have to detune again when you could of just tuned the sample in the first place to match with any future sources you decided to blend it with.

id usually only de-tune my synth if my sample was maybe half a cent out and liked how the sampled sounded (it would take me AGES to work out that it was half a cent out though )
I like to do most of my pitching on the turntable cos to me it sounds better than pitching up in the MPC (to a degree - things pitched up on the TT then further pitched with the mpc can sound **** awesome) i do still play with pitch inside the mpc but not like i would on a TT, i reckon it tends to distort or just sound shit IMO.


edit: once i find the tune of the sample (figure out its say, half a cent out) i can set the global parameters on my synth so the entire thing is half a cent out - might help explain why i de0tune my synth on occasion)