More Quality, Less Quantity?

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  • #24770 Reply
    Tbone
    Participant

    Does anyone else feel like maybe they’ve been making too many tracks and can’t focus properly anymore? Recently I have started to feel that I just have too many tracks in production, like 30-40 at a time and that overall the quality has slightly decreased (none of them are released yet).

    I even deleted about 15 which were in production recently because I felt they were just too similar in feel or too dull compared to others.

    On a related note: do any of you ever panic that you’ve made something too similar to one of your own previously released pieces? I’ve reached the point now where sometimes I go through every single one of my old pieces and listen to them to be sure the current about-to-be-released one is not too similar! This world is crazy!

    I think I’m going to reduce down to just a couple of tracks at most which I make really good and forget everything else.

    #24774 Reply
    Paolo
    Guest

    Does anyone else feel like maybe they’ve been making too many tracks and can’t focus properly anymore?…I just have too many tracks in production, like 30-40 at a time…

    Hey Tbone
    – that’s a lot more than I’ve considered doing at one time – that’s great you’re able to hit those kind of numbers.

    I’ve found my comfort zone with two or three at a time. Keeps my interest and creativity humming along.

    #24775 Reply
    guscave
    Guest

    Hey Tbone, I was in the same situation a few months ago. I was just writing and producing whatever came out of my head that day, and I had no real focus. Luckily I started getting emails from a couple of libraries asking for specific kinds of music.

    This helped me in two ways. 1) It helped me step back and focus more on the quality of the songs I was writing, because these libraries weren’t going to accept just “anything” I sent them.

    2) I was able to go through my hard-drive of unfinished songs and if I felt the quality wasn’t there I would either trash them or finish them up and send them to RF libraries.

    #24776 Reply
    Tbone
    Participant

    Glad to know others have similar struggles.

    I should have said: I don’t actually work on 30-40 at a time. It’s more that I start something, then sometimes file it away without finishing it for a while. So I end up with this giant bank of unfinished tracks.

    I just had a look and I’ve deleted 20 during the last few weeks!

    #24778 Reply
    marccanyon
    Participant

    I write and record as much music as possible. I don’t know what my “best” track is! I can’t truly judge what other people are going to like.

    #24779 Reply
    Art Munson
    Keymaster

    I don’t know what my “best” track is! I can’t truly judge what other people are going to like.

    So true, I’m constantly amazed at what tracks of ours sell and get placed.

    #24810 Reply
    ErickMcNerney
    Participant

    I have the same problem. Although I’m not sure if it’s 30-40. Maybe more like 10-20 tracks at one time. I have about 1,200+ music tracks produced now (over the last 3 years). Some are pretty good, some are just okay. But I’ve been amazed at what has sold and what hasn’t. Sometimes it might be that it’s just poorly tagged or just not getting views, or maybe you end up finding a niche. Now I just need to have the discipline to upload those tracks to other sites. I only go through audiojungle, pond5 and musicloops at the present. So, I feel like I need to take a break from writing and just spend time uploading my catalogue to other sites or else in another year I’ll end up with 1,800 tracks and not able to catch up. I feel swamped. Need to just take a break from writing. Especially since I lost my younger Brother a little over a month ago. Feel like a breather has been good. Ironically April was my best month, with about $1,000 in earnings just from those 3 sites.
    So I personally am going to start to focus on getting more exposure for the tracks I already have, and uploading to more sites. Maybe that will work for you too? Maybe when you get back to composing you’ll come back with fresh ears.

    #24871 Reply
    Danny
    Guest

    this baffles me how anyone can write so many quality tracks at that pace. i guess quality is a relative thing. it takes me at the very least 1 week to write a track and even at that i feel i’m sacrificing quality of quantity. granted i’m still a beginner and not a pro so maybe you just get quicker with experience.

    #24872 Reply
    MichaelL
    Participant

    “i guess quality is a relative thing.”

    It’s certainly “in the ear of the beholder,” to paraphrase.

    But…

    1) Some people have incredible compositional skills and use templates, so they can write very quickly and don’t have to reinvent the wheel to produce and mix every track. TV and film composers write several minutes per day, under tight deadlines.

    and then again…

    2) Some people don’t know what they don’t know.

    #24873 Reply
    Paolo
    Guest

    and when someone says “x number tracks a week” it could mean their time allocated for composing is week is a 60 hour week or maybe it’s a 16 hour week.

    #24874 Reply
    GM
    Participant

    Erick … wow. Over 1200 tracks in 3 years … (i’m guessing 1200 different tracks … or does it include alts and edits?)
    Anyway … wow! Just wow.
    More power to you … I truly, truly admire you.
    I think it’s incredible.
    The first thing that comes to mind is Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”. But I’m not saying this in a bad way, at all. I’m truly admired by the “process” ingenuity of the production system you must have put together. I’m guessing you must use some sort of “template system”, in which everything is already set in your daw (maybe 1 template per genre? or maybe more?), you just change a few chords, maybe a few sounds, record very little material (if anything at all), a few touches here and there, et voilà, you have a new track. I would LOVE to see how you do it 🙂
    Honestly, in 3 years I would have a hard time coming up with 1200 different “titles” (!!), never mind 1200 different full tracks! 🙂
    I’m SO behind folks …
    … now, back to the assembly line …

    #24877 Reply
    Jerry
    Guest

    @GM I do about 400 tracks a year. No templates used AT ALL. Everything recorded, no loop libraries used either. And I work with the big libraries.

    #24878 Reply
    GM
    Participant

    Jerry
    that’s amazing. Do you sleep? 🙂
    What can I say … good for you! Quite an achievement!
    My approach is completely different.
    But .. to each his own, I guess.

    #24879 Reply
    Erick McNerney
    Guest

    Thanks guys! Lol. I do sleep, but not much. It’s a combination of my musical mind never sleeping, and being able to improvise almost constantly. I just keep recording and producing. And though this process has seen me have some misses on the quality, those misses are becoming fewer and fewer, i believe. To each his own. Some may think my music is crap.

    #24881 Reply
    MichaelL
    Participant

    And I work with the big libraries.

    Big, like Megatrax, Killer, KPM, and DeWolfe and you’re making 300 to 400K a year in upfont fees alone?

    …or big like Jingle Punks?

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