How do em producers become brave?

[Dirty Halo]

1. "If you want to make 'modern' music, you have to use soft synths..."

2. "If you want to make 'good' music, you have to go analog..."

3. "What sample pack do I buy to sound like... ?"

4. "What synth do I buy to make (insert genre)... ?"

5. "Here's a song I just wrote, tell me if it's good."

And so on...




P.S. NOT @ Crufty, for sure.

[Yoozer]

Man, a fellow forum member who's been making some great contributions since 2007 with 3K+ posts - and too few serious answers.

crufty: what do you consider "brave"? Good art kicks your mental tires. It pushes you off balance and makes you think and reconsider. It's not comfortable at first. The advice to make mistakes is a good one because mistakes go outside of that zone (but not always in the way you want them to).

There's a reason they call it a musical landscape: a safe, petrified and worn layer on top, and only where that layer's too thin, you have a hot boiling underground that you'll generally see nothing of. Once in a while, hell breaks loose, and after the eruption, a new petrified layer is formed.

[ksandvik]

One simple and easy way to become brave is to stop trying to copycat DeadMau5, Daft Punk, Benny Benassi and so on. Instead do something unique and creative. If it's good others will copycat you.

I think this planet needs exactly one Deadmau5. Not five thousand and not zero.

[Dirty Halo]

Originally Posted by Yoozer

Man, a fellow forum member who's been making some great contributions since 2007 with 3K+ posts - and too few serious answers.

crufty: what do you consider "brave"? Good art kicks your mental tires. It pushes you off balance and makes you think and reconsider. It's not comfortable at first. The advice to make mistakes is a good one because mistakes go outside of that zone (but not always in the way you want them to).

There's a reason they call it a musical landscape: a safe, petrified and worn layer on top, and only where that layer's too thin, you have a hot boiling underground that you'll generally see nothing of. Once in a while, hell breaks loose, and after the eruption, a new petrified layer is formed.

Crufty is doing just fine; if you're asking the question and still searching, then you're after "it," I figure.

It's when we stop searching and just want the answers given to us, that I figure the inspired well is dry.

-andrews

[DarkPlasma]

Originally Posted by Dirty Halo

1. "If you want to make 'modern' music, you have to use soft synths..."

2. "If you want to make 'good' music, you have to go analog..."

3. "What sample pack do I buy to sound like... ?"

4. "What synth do I buy to make (insert genre)... ?"

5. "Here's a song I just wrote, tell me if it's good."

And so on...



P.S. NOT @ Crufty, for sure.

+ 00

So true...except I disagree with "Heres a song I wrote, tell me if its good..."

Nothing wrong with getting feedback...though one thing I noticed on this forum is that many people here are not necessarily into the same music as you, and usually you want feedback from people who understand your music.

[Dirty Halo]

Originally Posted by DarkPlasma

+ 00

So true...except I disagree with "Heres a song I wrote, tell me if its good..."

Nothing wrong with getting feedback...though one thing I noticed on this forum is that many people here are not necessarily into the same music as you, and usually you want feedback from people who understand your music.

Oh, I agree whole heartedly on feedback and construtive criticism, but if most were honest, that's not REALLY what they want.

And you're right, the best peeps for good feedback are your peers in your genre... you play a techno track to an ambient dude and what's he gonna say... too fast?

-a

[Tarkovsky]

Bravery is easy when you hold a lot of contempt. You don't give a shit. Ever noticed how lots of the 'braver' artists generally don't give a shit? Shed in particular.

[Beermaster]

Bravery in EM is doing something truly different and original, Something that takes you out of your comfort zone. I don't mean putting up a different synth patch or changing the hi hat sound or taking the BPM up a bit but really not approaching the music from the same angle and same cliches that you would usually doi. ( or at least starting out trying without the same cliches and patches/loops in mind )

This is going to be different for each individual, musically some have been around the world and have seen a few things, others have only been down a few narrow lanes. What's brave for one person is not for another.

[Brainchild]

This is a great thread topic and some great answers. It's interesting to see how each person seems to reveal what he means by "brave" through his answer...and there are a lot of different definitions of bravery in this thread.

It takes guts to even ask that question in a forum of people with varying degrees of expertise. I for one am constantly dissatisfied with my work and trying to find new ways to make it better. It may be "how do I get that sound" or "how do I develop that level of structure" or something more fundamental like "how do I liberate the core of my being?"

Ultimately, for me, as a coward, bravery consists of doing the work despite the almost-certain knowledge that I'm going to fall short, and keeping doing the work, spending days figuring out or achieving something that I feel should take a competent musician only a minute to do, and pushing outward to get to that next level where the music is legit.