What are your bad production habits?

[Genkar]

What bad habits do you guys have as far as production goes, and do you have any way of getting over it? I'm pretty sure most of us, if not all of us have bad habits, and I got a bit curious.

For example, I tend to always use the same patterns, scales, song progression, etc. and it makes a lot of my stuff sound really repetitive. Oh, and I boost my highs way too much.

[itroitnyah]

Oh, I get distracted way too often. I'm not sure how I would get over it. I've tried closing the internet leaving just skype and FL, but that doesn't seem to work since I lose the will to work or creativity when I do that.

Oh, I also have this tendency to go into wonder world when I'm watching tutorial videos, so when my thoughts get back on track I'll only have a faint idea about what the person is talking about. Bleh, that's my most annoying habit, since I really want to learn what I'm trying to learn by watching the videos, lol.

[Genkar]

Oh, I also have this tendency to go into wonder world when I'm watching tutorial videos, so when my thoughts get back on track I'll only have a faint idea about what the person is talking about. Bleh, that's my most annoying habit, since I really want to learn what I'm trying to learn by watching the videos, lol.

Oh lawd, I do that all the time. I'll end up screwing around in massive for like, half an hour. xD

[colortwelve]

I use a lot of the same patches and drum samples in my songs. I try to manipulate them as best I can to fit each individual track, but I'm sure a perusal of my last few tracks would reveal my laziness

[Motivfs]

I also fall into the category of repetitive melodies, which gets me into funks of not finishing songs. I also finish a song then go on a lazy hiatus which is something I really dislike doing but I can't help it.

[the4thImpulse]

Oh, I get distracted way too often. I'm not sure how I would get over it. I've tried closing the internet leaving just skype and FL, but that doesn't seem to work since I lose the will to work or creativity when I do that.

When I start working again I'm going to build a production computer for my studio, I will never connect it to the internet so I never have to worry about viruses/malware and all the other scary internet stuff that destroys computers. In turn I believe it will help me focus on producing music rather browsing internet forums all day.


What I consider a bad habit of mine is being way to picky over every little thing I do. Its not a bad thing per se but it gets in the way of my creativity, always being unsatisfied with every small change I make. By the time I like what I did I usually lose interest in the song for a couple days which leads me to taking weeks to finish songs. I'm not even that good of a producer so I really should learn to lower my own expectations of my own work.

Although when I do finish a song I usually really enjoy it, so like I said not much of a bad habit but I still don't like it.

[Nine Volt]

I try to make music.

[cplbradley]

not giving a shit causing me to make shitty music

[froggy]

Consistently leading myself into a cycle of "no you can't produce until you have X plugin/have mastered Y skill", meaning that I have nothing more than a few 8 bar loops to show after a year and a half of production. Like with most things I've developed a high level of technical knowledge and a certain level of skill, but not enough experience and perseverance to make anything truly great.

I feel like Twi in Lesson Zero, constantly searching for an ideal situation and digging myself into a rut of perfectionism in the process. Maybe that's why she's my favorite pony.

[ChocolateChicken]

In addition to putting compression on EVERYTHING, I apply too much compression. Like if I have a vocal track, I will obsessively/stupidly put 15:1 compression with a 0ms attack, which sometimes causes about 5dB of gain reduction in some places. :/ Peaks bother me.

[Ptepix]

Soundgoodizer

[vladnuke]

I have had less and less continuous time to make music, so what I'll do is make an intro, forget it for a few days, get back to it and add some more stuff, and keep doing that until I feel like stopping. This turned my latest track into a bit of disjointed mess.

I also gear fap pretty hard. The Guitar Center catalog/youtube/other interwebs online shops is basically porn right now (weird midi controllers *drool*). Most recently it's been Push, but I've been turning away from that particular fetish. (It's not that I need it, but it's that I really would like to have it)

I've stopped using Maximus. It took me a while, but I realized that it was just making my mixes sound like shit. I think only one song on my last album used it.

My idea to make hard basses is the "Justice" solution: lotsa distortion, but none of the more interesting FM powered basses.

Realted to that point, massive's Sine shaper for me has gone in style, out of style, and back in style. Same with the frequency modulator knob thing, and the classic amp. No modern talken tho.

I do almost all my mixing from my headphones, I can't hook up my monitors until my parents are gone. (they're pretty rad monitors too)

I feel like I should be reading my book of music theory and practicing guitar, but that ends up on the bottom of the priority list every time. ( Also I signed up for the Coursera course on sound design and have neglected it)

I also tried to sell my soul to the devil for Bitwig Studio, but even he can't get in on the beta.

[LFP]

I'm extremely picky, and it often hurts my motivation, ex: 'this transition is a bit lacking but I can't seem to fix it *works on it for a couple of hours before gives up on the song*. =\

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Repetitive melodies, using the same kick all the time, poor melody because lazy, overcomressing drums (getting better with that), repeating the same patterns too much and being a huge perfectionist because of all the things I do wrong that I just mentioned. Other than that, being easily distracted, doing stupid shit (like putting vocoders on farts) in the middle of doing important project stuff.

[Genkar]

Yeah, I still use soundgoodizer. I want to take the time to learn how to properly master, but I'm too lazy to just sit down and do it. I use the same drum samples for just about everything I do, sometimes I try to edit them a bit, but nevertheless, they are still the same. Another thing, a lot of the time, I'll get like halfway through something, and it isn't up to par with my expectations, so I just quit instead of fixing it.

[Gray Ham]

I use too many presets. I usually edit them a bit, but I need to look into making my own.

[GumsOfGabby]

I don't have any bad production habits because I'm just so damn handsome.

[itroitnyah]

I don't get what's so bad about using the sample drum samples in one song to another. It's not like the song will suddenly become boring because you used the same kick sample in this song and another song. Rock songs don't often use different drums, I think.

I just think that if you have a good kick sample, you're allowed to use it in as many songs as you want, but it's really more of a matter of when you will get tired of the sample, or if you'll find a better sample or something. I don't know, I just don't see anything wrong with it.

[Alycs]

I always insist on making all my instruments from scratch before I actually know what I'm going to make so I end up with a set of instruments that blend and then don't have a song to use them with.

[Genkar]

I don't have any bad production habits because I'm just so damn handsome.

[image]

*applause*

I don't get what's so bad about using the sample drum samples in one song to another. It's not like the song will suddenly become boring because you used the same kick sample in this song and another song. Rock songs don't often use different drums, I think.

I just think that if you have a good kick sample, you're allowed to use it in as many songs as you want, but it's really more of a matter of when you will get tired of the sample, or if you'll find a better sample or something. I don't know, I just don't see anything wrong with it.

My problem is I tend to use the same drum samples in places where they don't fit well.

[Magnitude Zero]

I don't get what's so bad about using the sample drum samples in one song to another. It's not like the song will suddenly become boring because you used the same kick sample in this song and another song. Rock songs don't often use different drums, I think.

I just think that if you have a good kick sample, you're allowed to use it in as many songs as you want, but it's really more of a matter of when you will get tired of the sample, or if you'll find a better sample or something. I don't know, I just don't see anything wrong with it.

My problem is I tend to use the same drum samples in places where they don't fit well.

Yeah that's really the main thing. It's not that using the same samples will make your song boring. Samples that work really well in one song can sound like absolute shit in another. If the same sample sounds fine in both, cool, but try not to make a habit out of it because THEN it starts to get boring. tombsnare

A bad habit of mine is going into a song wearing shitty headphones and getting too engrossed in it to get my Sennheisers, which I keep in a cabinet on the other side of the room to keep them safe from cats. I have a tendency to come back to it later with the good headphones and getting discouraged because the mixing sounds like ass.

[LoreRD]

Due to lack of knowledge of synth design....
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I rely way too much on presets
I plan on actually reading the manuals to the synths I have soon, though (*sigh*....why is school so stressful...)

[HMage]

I tend to spend too much time exploring sounds and melodies than actually making music.

So many wonderful melodies and patches went to oblivion because of that.

[Applejinx]

I keep on doing evolving stuff that sits in the same zone and uses automation (if I'm lucky!) to make a song structure. I know what having different parts is, yet I keep on doing the psychedelia version of psytrance or something- just 'same thing, gradually mutating into something else'.
I mean, I like that too, but I also like sudden radical changes, and it's so rare I do 'em.

[Mush]

Repetitive drum patterns... also using the same kick and snare for every song ever.
Also Harmless... I use too much Harmless.