true true, I'm always standing up after a session and try to dance on it

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http://www.SUNAIVOD.com

I honestly find myself in the reverse situation. I've been producing for a couple years (not saying my music is good or releasable, but I do have a general grasp and have had some tracks played out by a few local friends with decent feedback). I'd really like to get into dj'ing. I have turntables and a mixer, but it all just seems so daunting to me. I'm just now getting to the point where I actually like some of the tunes that I make, and thinking about learning a whole new craft just seems unmanageable.

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new-ish wip


ting of a different sort

I DJ'd for years before I got into producing and found the same.
DJing gives you instant gratification. Production is completely different, it takes time, practice, commitment and the ability to keep on going even when you are struggling.

However, I have found as padillac suggested that I can kind of bridge the gap if production is getting stale by creating DJ type mixes / mashups that are much more studio based. This is partly forced cos I moved countries and had to leave my decks and records behind but it was a good limitation. You can make mix tapes cutting up bits of tunes, adding effects, adding your own loops blah blah blah in a way that maybe you never could on the decks, plus there'll never be any train wreck mixes! Actually everything Padillac says is right, just read that again.

And do suck it up, just get your head into it. There's fuck all money in releasing tunes anyway so just have fun and see what happens.

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Cheers for all the serious replies. When I posted this I expected loads of "shut up and stop moaning" responses.

@ Padillac - Thats some serious inspiration right there. I have always seen my projects as very individual and unlinked, but your idea of loop collecting is one that I am really going to push on with. Thanks so much for taking the time to write that response, it has really perked me up!!

@ Speziale - Some really good ideas there. I'm actually picking up Novation Twitch tommorrow to use with Itch/Ableton so in terms of being able to do mash ups on the fly and such it will be a lot easier to do so. Hopefully this will give me some food for thought for my production. (After all my bitching about DJ'ing yes I'm shelling out 400 notes on a new bit of kit, go figure!)

So for those like me who have done the whole dj'ing for years, then going to production... How do you view dj'ing now? Is it a poor mans production? When you speak to someone who says they dj do you become an instant cynic? Thats the way I find myself now, as I said, I think its my way of trying to make my own ego feel better, like I've been there and done that now I'm onto the thinking mans art of production. Hope that makes sense?!!

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All Echospace Mix 1


All Echospace Mix 2

Honestly? Best advice: get away from production forums, books, tutorials, issues of sample ethics and ego. Or at least learn to completely detach all that from your music making.

Think about environments like production forums, or the environments which are conducive to people having the time/energy to write out tutorials or books on recording: they're environments of people who, by nature, do everything wrong. Approach everything backwards. And they exist to self-reinforce. There are industries as big as the music industry built around this.

Production shouldn't be a major time-sink or quest. Many of the greatest D&B tunes were written in an afternoon, or over 2 or 3 days at home (back when people had to chop every beat by hand with a shuttle wheel and a tiny LCD display). Just think: what's the most logical/practical way to assemble the track I want to be able to play out? Think and work like a DJ. Don't think of the production as being some kind of achievement. (And don't touch EQ or work with inferior sounds.)

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http://img6.immage.de/03068e2956senn%97.gif

how do you think music is made?

hey op, let me throw an idea your way that might help you realise the situation your in....

have you ever considered that, after djing and producing for so long and not getting anywhere, that your actually not very good at it?

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dubstep forum dubstep download

The thought did cross my mind. Certainly in the production sense. Dj'ing I'm good, just never really got anywhere with it. But lets be honest, to be good at dj'ing is a subjective thing, most DJ's are good, but how many get anywhere with it? I've had a mix downloaded a few thousand times, I've dj'd at Ministry of Sound, am I good, are these things barometers of goodness? Who knows!!!

Production is far easier to judge if someone is good or not, with DJ'ing you can be good in about half an hour if we're honest, but still get nowhere with it.

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All Echospace Mix 1


All Echospace Mix 2

this does sound familiar...

However, i consider myself to be a more than capable producer both in the box and with bands, but i got to a point where i felt like giving up because i was forever competing against others.

i concluded it was because i was trying to be part of something, whilst at the same time trying to have the edge over others, within the same scene. So, how can there be a love for music with this competitive attitude? i enjoyed many releases on both vinyl and digital, but it was very unfulfilling.

i decided to make the music i've always loved and felt more a part of, which is roots reggae and dub...now i'm churning out so many tracks, that i love, it's ridiculous. (even taking the time to record the instruments, i know, shocker)...enjoying the process, being at one with what it is i am doing.

i get no admiration from 'the kids' anymore, our sound cloud page get's no comments...but the further away i am looking inwards at current movements in music, the more plastic and soulless they appear to me given where i am at, it makes me realise how much i was wasting my time listening to anything else but myself. Now i'm enjoying a different kind of success. My tunes still get picked up/played and i DJ but it's a different world.

i think the moral is, follow your heart. You may think you are doing this, but if you are unhappy, surely you can't be? And where music is concerned, i find it difficult to comprehend competitiveness, if this begins to become what is important, then you are not being true to yourself and the love is not there.

To qoute Dj Shadow "If you start thinking too hard about music it's not going to work".

Same thing goes for if you are not enjoying it.

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