Constance's Journal of Music Production

[Constance]

This where I would like to log anything pertaining my adventure into music production. There is a tough learning curve that comes with using Abeleton Live, my current DAW, I currently take no classes in audio and all that I learn is from the internet, I have no friends who interested in electronic music or DAWs so this is a job for a lone ranger. Most what I post will probably be of trashy electronic music but I have a interest in Rap as well, so please bear with me. Any advice is welcomed and wanted so long as it is constructive criticism and/or help. Do keep in mind I am a greenhorn to DAWs and production, without further due I would like to welcome you to my own little hell.

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Okay so i have joined this new music forum called Music Discussion, and if you don't know what that is then you probably don't know where you are right now lol. Anyway, I slept for little less than 5 hours last night and I was awoken by my father to sweep the yard, I nearly cried when he knock on my door this morning. The following is something I will share because the possibility of any of you actually knowing me or ever meeting me is very minute, but I am currently jobless and educational-less. I was working on an AA Psychology degree to transfer a few months ago but my mind just could not take it, I preformed fine but my heart was not in it and saddening set in, so I said fuck it. Many of you may know this but it is a lot harder to find a job with no skills and my father has begun to worry about me, I highly doubt my music will be good enough to live off of before I find a steady job so until then I will work on my DAW. So insecurities aside I would like to present a new project I started yesterday, it comprises of 14 tracks of which are aimed toward an ambience sound, I would like to state that I own the Intro version of Ableton Live so I am working with a 16 track limit, I intend to address this problem by exporting every time I reach the limit and using the audio as a single track to continue building; It is a clever idea but I do see the strain of doing so. 

I started with a synth from YT, it was a presentation of the new keyboard and I liked the sound so I looped it. The configuration is different and fades are used to make it more seamless, I doubled the track and panned them giving it some room. After I added percussion instruments and simply added different compressions, pans, and reverb, If i had to truthfully name the project it would be called "Reverb and Shit." Next I put a sample from a free pack in there and panned that shit too! Very interesting so far That pretty much sums this audio up, I call it "Somewhere Out There."
https://soundcloud.com/gagedies/somewhere-out-there-1
Any concerns, questions, and helpful comments are welcome.

[Constance]

So the work upon my track "Somewhere Out There," is a bit tough like always, I have a vision of something smooth almost like a jazzy feel with drums but I have no clue how to build a jazzy track. The only things I have attempted are house, dubstep, dnb, and trap tracks, unfortunately DnB and my house tracks are the only ones that come close to what I want so I will be taking a different approach. Instead of jazzy I will got for a soft dnb, with a lot of reverb to lighten the hits and of course a lot of compression. My little experience limits my progress. I am struggling with putting my drums in without screwing the sound of the track that already exist, although I am left with an obvious thought of screw it, just change the whole thing after the rise and drop located nearly center of the track. But how will I go about that and use the sounds that exist? Should I take notes from dubstep and chop the shit out of my ambience and make a rhythm with them or sample my own ambience to make different sounds from them? Either way I am in a world of hurt.
It has come to my attention while surfing the internet of forums that music forums are quite dead now-a-days, I was late to the party, the hay days look to be around and before 2010. This forum like the rest of them, with no offense to the admin because they are really the only people here, has a very small to no community. On top of this I do understand that I am the only one who likes EDM, which I would say is concerning since EDM has been seen as the devil himself in the music industry because "no talent" is needed, this is a blatant lie. With that in mind the people here may be different because of the love for music in general, most people who criticize specific genres do not understand that all music connects in one way or another but enough of the downer-talker--I want to move on to objectives.
While watching a video about "blowing up" in the rap game I came across a number, 40,000. The number of views required to get posted on WorldStarHipHop is 40,000, this was back in 2010 so I have no idea if they raised the numbers because of the ever soaring amounts of people making music but I think I found a long term goal. Now this is for the hip-hop side of music, I attempt to rap and lets just say my rap game is weaker then Young Thug's, so I want to hold 40,000 views on Youtube as a marker for the electronic side as well.
Today, I will continue on the track "Somewhere out there," and start making a YT channel for the music as well as art for the channel, by the way if anyone is good at cover art or banners I would appreciate the charity. Other tracks I would like to work on today as well is one of my older projects called "DFG," it needs a major update with compression and EQ.

[Constance]

Today has been nothing more then lounging around and waiting for what will not come to me. Getting a job is the most important thing to me right now and I have been in an awful cycle of reasoning to why I have not gotten one yet, I am not very picky but I do wish to avoid a fast-food joint, but hard labor is not a problem. Anyway I have done some compression and reuploaded my track Somewhere Out There, I added a drum set and called it a quit for now--I can't seem to find anything else to fit in the track with out getting a weird feeling about it. Recently I have uploaded another track of mine called A Day to be Just Okay or ADAYTOBEJUSTOKAY; I think the title is self explanatory but more my own pleasure I will explain, the title is a reflection of how I felt when starting the track and how I feel even to this day when working on my craft, I want one day or the day of its creation to be just okay and that be enough. By no means do I think this a unique feeling to I but that makes it all the more reason to want an okay track, something I can sleep on and know that I tried and that was okay, that I created something and the creation was something I was okay with. Normally people would frown on work that is not the very best you can do but I have to say that is very demanding but I do understand, either way I have uploaded the track and got a total of 3 likes! I know that is not much taking into account how many people use soundcloud but I am currently very happy even three people gave it the time, for now I live for the little things.

[Constance]

Today I have not worked on any music production, abeleton live was not open what so ever. Maybe this is writers block but it is more likely that I am just too lazy to start another project, it may also come down to not wanting to start another project because I do not want to start terrorizing my mind for the perfect sounds, instruments, mood, and/or format. The feeling is quite haunting and although I live for the feeling of fitting a song together I am also tortured by it--of course I am being a little dramatic. Instead today I was inspired by Smart Rapper Gang to continue with my presentation on the internet. A better album art was made as well as profile picture for my soundcloud, YT, and instagram. It has come to my attention that although I will be using soundcloud the most I should claim owner ship of my artist name in media and try to have some sort of presence, for I only live once and it is better to start now.