Hi gang and welcome to the third weekly improvement megathread!

I’m gonna copy the ideas for discussion from the previous threads but these are just my suggestions, feel free to discuss whatever you wish.

  • Do you want to share something you’ve done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
  • What would you like to do next week?
  • What aspect of life would you like to improve?
  • Do you have any streaks? For example, “sober for one day.” Feel free to post your streak every day in this thread.
  • If you don’t have a continuous streak, did you manage to abstain from something for a day or more?
  • Did you come across some useful information or resource that might help others?

I’m wishing everybody a great week! unity

  • super_mario_69 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    10 months ago

    This week I think I’ll practice some piano/synth/music theory stuff rather than drums. I’ve gotten pretty got damn rusty.

    Goal: Make 1 song using a bunch different synth layers that I actually play and record with mine own two hands (i.e. not clicking around in the DAW piano roll).

    • Make as simple a beat as possible (808, 909?), 4 bar loop is fine, some variations every now and then, some kind of fill every 16th. Really don’t spend too much time on this.
    • Live record a bunch of synths-that-are-not-the-lead (there might be a word for this) on top of it. I’m thinking a pad, a 303 arp thing, and bass tracks.
    • Live record a lead synth/melody straight from the Hydrasynth to the track. Can of course do re-takes if it’s completely fucked, but try not to fuck with it too much.
    • Quick arrangement, quick and dirty mastering, export, done. It does not have to be good, as long as I just make something.

    The point is to get more comfortable with imperfections. I tend to rely too much on the DAW to clean up my MIDI tracks, which has kind of made my creativity stagnate. It’s objectively much more fun to just overdub something dope on the fly rather than being a fucking nerd about it and demanding everything to make perfect musical sense at all times. I just want to make something good enough and keep it like that, and then finish up the track before I start analyzing the fun out of it.

    I have also come to the unorthodox conclusion that I need to start smoking more weed. I kind of stopped smoking once most of my friends and I got a real, adult jobs, but now I kind of miss it. I can’t exactly remember, but I think I stopped because I was afraid it would fuck with my performance at work or something? Like I valued the job more than getting stoned. I don’t think it was ever mutually exclusive, but whatever, it was probably not a bad idea to lay off the zaza for a while anyway. Now that I have some manner of job security and seniority I think it’s about time to start lighting up every now and then. Looking forward to it.