Sometimes I am sitting in front of my synths and samplers and asking myself what actually my goal is with these things, I create pattern after pattern, sometimes fitting to each other, sometimes not and tweak them until they start to sound appealing to me.
I never have the goal in mind to arrange a full track, though, since I like it more to create just some grooves than tweaking and finetuning everything, until it is 3-7 minutes fun to listen.
So I am from time to time asking myself, what I am actually gonna do with all those patterns lying there on my Elektron devices.
And donât get me wrong, I am having tons of fun to put the stuff together, but it feels a bit aimless sometimes.
Maybe I am also just biased from my other favorite hobby, which is videogames, where you always work towards sonething, like finishing the game or win the match and receiving rewards all the time.
Have you asked yourself this question, too?
If yes, how did you deal with it? Did you quit with synthesizers? Are you having the memories of your Elektron patterns full with stuff that no one will ever listen to? Or do you just continue?
Ive been making music since the 90s. Im currently making another album. For me its not a hobby, its a necessity. Doesnt matter if people like it or not. Im using elektron gear because I like it.
Thereâs always a lot of technical aspects like optimizing your setup ergonomics, sound design, sample collecting/recording, achieving different signal routing, arrangement principles from different genres, and practicing your modes and chords/improvising. They all involve creativity so theyre not totally cut and dry like some video games (though i know this is a debatable point), but they all have some sort of âobjectiveâ that can help guide your process and lead you to different song and jam possibilities. You can easily gamify the process if thatâs what motivates you. Frankly it motivates me and I let the music reveal itself to me out of those processes. The open ended question of âwhat music should I createâ is too overwhelming for me personally.
Iâm doing it to play more live gigs, and some of it makes it into releases. Every bit of tinkering is a potential new idea for the next time Iâm on stage⌠which is frequent.
I use my elektron gear to have fun while using it. To be honest, I have that âcrisisâ from time to time myself⌠âAll this expensive gear for just doodling around with it over and over againâ, but I am having fun with it, and as long as I can afford having them sitting there, it is totally fine, if there is no final result comping out of it. I am very thankful to have a wife, who supports me, pretending to be interested, when I tell her something âamazingâ I found out, learned or programmed (working on my own sequencer)
I rarely listen back to what I created after more than a week passed. It something isnât a âsongâ as long as I have fun with it, its sitting there on the +Drive, being very important 0 and 1s. And if I do, itâs like scrolling to your photo album on your phone. Memories
You are writing yourself, that you are having fun. I think thats totally awesome and is more than a lot of people archive in their free time!
Having fun playing music with it (and being able to share some live playing and recordings) is enough for me. I think it is important to take pleasure playing music and not to need to âarriveâ at some kind of predefined outcome. (And it is way cheaper than having a sailboat, paragliding, etc.)
Edit: also seeing that I become better at it over time (for example by comparing to previous recordings) is quite fulfilling for me.
While most of us would be bankrupt if they need to earn the spent money by using the gear we bought, it is possible to get back a little bit, if you want to. That is quite hard for a normal hobbyist with something like a sailboat or something else.
When people argue about the hobby being so expensive, they always compare it to those hobbies that just cost ânothingâ. If you compare it to stuff like football-fans etc, who spend thousands of bucks in their life for station-tickets, tv-licenses, fan articles, traveling to games, drinking way too much alcohol way too often, at least we a. have something in our hand that exists longer than a moment and b. are at least able to earn a little bit, if we sell music we made.
You apply this to your music, you work towards recording a finished track, the reward is creating a body of work, be that for yourself only or to release.
I experiment, tweak, try new things, return to older ones, replace something with something and at some point, it all starts to make sense. Thatâs when I focus to create a release. Once thatâs done, I tend to take a break and then start over again.
So I got this loop that stretches over a few months, that tends to begin with nothing and in the end, become something. Without that purpose, I donât think Iâd keep doing what Iâm doing.
Yeah, this. Reminds me of the thread by @Wolf-Rami from a couple of weeks back. Lots of great insights there to read through. I think itâs totally fine if you just use the stuff to zoom out, have fun and enjoy your time. Great to have that in life! As long as you donât run into financial troubles or neglect relationahips in your life, nothing to worry about.
If you feel like you have to work towards something, go with @darenagerâs advice. Thereâs a danger in killing the fun this way and maybe you find out itâs not worth it, since you are fine with just noodling/exploring synthesis and gear. But you wonât find out in which camp you are if you never try finishing a track.
The process of creating music by itself can be therapeutic. Think of playing guitar or something, itâs accepted that a guitarist can play the guitar for pleasure without being in a band or recording anything. Itâs the same way with electronic instruments.
If you decide to in the future, you can always perform live at open mic nights and/or record your music. You donât even need an audio interface to record, just a computer.
The complexity of the Elektron sequencer implies that any individual pattern can be performed live as a full track. If you want a more repeatable performance you can copy and paste the pattern and save the changes that you do live.
Most have probably asked themselves this question. Music is the only hobby I can think of where thereâs any expectation on the hobbyist to make it pay for itself. I have co-workers who have road bikes that cost a Moog One to assemble. I have literally never heard anyone ask if they are entering racing competitions. But if you mention you have some nice music gear, people instantly want to know if youâre playing shows.
I make music because it is an enjoyable process, art/puzzle/programming/performance all in one. I share with friends, family, and collaborators if theyâre interested. But I do it for me, because it makes me happy.
I always have a goal in mind to make a full song. It starts with a pattern where I slowly build up layer after layer until I enjoy it enough to want think about song structure. If I donât like the pattern enough, I move on to another idea.
I then copy/paste the pattern and create a b-section. That usually is enough to start to build out the full song. At a later point, I tend to add a bridge or break and start to think about the details more, how a sound might evolve across several patterns. Things like that.
Song mode makes finishing a track so easy. I just finished a new track today in a couple of hours. This is what I love about the Syntakt!
Perhaps the graceful way to take that would be as a compliment? Like maybe theyâre interested in what you might do? I know I wouldnât ask about the big bike race because I donât care about bike races.
Had the same problem: so much expensive gear acquired and semi elaborated patterns on the machines. Solution: I published my jams on YouTube (where I also can track my personal development and can listen back to my old stuff).
I am happy if i manage to do 1-2 live shows a year. Otherwise i just play for myself and itâs really not more than that: âplayingâ. What i am doing is far away from art and nobody needs electronic music producer No. 20498602.
I want to make music and also create finished tracks and albums. Elektron gear helps me achieve my goals with useful limitations
I donât jam around a lot, I want to get ideas out of my head and present them to the world. A few people like it and the more tracks I make, the more I like my own works. Itâs really awesome to see your own development over time. Which is something youâll rarely notice if you donât record your music and donât try to bring it into a finished state.
I donât care too much for technical perfection and mistakes are allowed. I wonât record something a second time because of some minor issue, the same goes for my mastering or mixing. I make tiny steps with each new track and this has been working perfectly for me for two years now.
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