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producer/musician-strut: you walk alone?

pjl2000xlpjl2000xl 1,795 Posts
edited October 2007 in Strut Central
When making beats or songs do you like to be by yourself on hermit loner status, or do you like working with people around or collaborating? Not talking about doing vocals just the production and composition. I personally like to be by myself and find I cant work at capacity with people looking over my shoulder. I prefer to get into my own little zone and just do my thing.

  Comments

  • BaptBapt 2,503 Posts
    I'm like you, I prefer create alone, that way I don't have to deal with someone else ego.

  • pjl2000xlpjl2000xl 1,795 Posts
    I'm like you, I prefer create alone, that way I don't have to deal with someone else ego.

    I also dont like people critiquing or judging my ideas when im just throwing shit at the wall. Like when im brainstorming. People start analyzing it in the first steps and its like telling me to do this or change that and i feel like saying "yo i havent even really started yet, fall back."

    I also get self conscious about what im doing when people are around and feel i cant completely concentrate and let go and fall into the zone. I kind of feel like i get into a trance and just flow with my gear when im alone.
  • erikbeatserikbeats 129 Posts
    i dont dig working with others when making a beat . there are however a few people who i have had great experiences with.
    one of them is an amazing keyboard player who can just zone out and jam and make stuff groove.
    the other is a dope record collector dj friend who doesnt try to make the beat from the armchair but instead sits in on sessions and is source of inspiration and advice.
    he always says the right thing at the right time if i am getting sidetracked or the beat is going in a direction that doesnt sound right.
    plus he brings in the hottest wax to the sessions and its dope to get tuned into some new stuff when working on beats.
  • don_gigantedon_gigante 259 Posts
    I prefer to get into my own little zone and just do my thing.

    summarizes things quite succintly for me....
  • BeatChemistBeatChemist 1,465 Posts
    Definitely alone. With no type of time limit.

    Haha. I'm a bit of a control freak.


    BUT! I really enjoy the energy that is shared when people collaborate. As long as you mesh well with the other person/people, it's a really beautiful thing. I can lose momentum myself, so sometimes it's nice to have another person around, even if they're just acting like your own hype man - "YEAAAAH!! FUUUCK! That baaasssss is siiiiiickk!" type thing. But not a Yes Man. A Hype Man. Important difference.
  • pacmanpacman 1,114 Posts
    I prefer to get into my own little zone and just do my thing.

    summarizes things quite succintly for me....

    Amen. I can't handle people around when I'm creating.
  • beatlustbeatlust 142 Posts
    i feel that in the 'sketch' stages of a beat that i need to be alone so that i wont be timid about trying something that could be hideous to potentialy get at something dope..but when it come to programming the bridges, chorus, intro whatever then ill listen to the emcees or whoever is in the rooms when we record for input.. but im usually on some loner ish.. I tried doing a mix 2x4 w/ a friend and we couldnt get anywhere because he wanted us to have all these great ideas before we started!? im like 'dude we gotta just play records and bounce ideas around' but he just wanted us to write down exactly what we would do (down to he pitch% of the records)before we even got in the room..wtf?
  • DawhudDawhud 213 Posts
    Most of the time I'm rollin' for dolo. If anybody is in the room, its my wife. I've made some dope records while kicking it with friends, but I usually feel creative when I'm by myself.
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    Does anyone here consider themselves musicians?

    I like to work alone, but I also like to work with other musicians. Jamming sometimes brings the best ideas. Ideas are born and die and are reborn with the jam. You can't do that when working by yourself.

    - spidey
  • doughboydoughboy 190 Posts
    Does anyone here consider themselves musicians?

    I like to work alone, but I also like to work with other musicians. Jamming sometimes brings the best ideas. Ideas are born and die and are reborn with the jam. You can't do that when working by yourself.

    - spidey

    Totally agree... I play horns and keys, with just a rhodes stage at my place... so I work up the ideas, oftening sing bass lines etc into a dictaphone and get the boys I play with to reinterpret in a that suits their thing... they do the saem, dropping beats and grooves on me to work into full songs. I also colab with vocalists etc - write the basis for a tune - chords / structure / chorus lyrics etc and then get them to add their bit in during a jam... they got to feel involved or they ain't gonna bring the fire when recording / playing
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    Cool, who do you play with dough man?

    - spidey
  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    i like the collabilation. thats what music is all about for me.

    ps i dont make beats and i never will.
  • doughboydoughboy 190 Posts
    Based in Auckland NZ, but currently playing with...

    Tornadoes & Tyra Hammond - www.myspace.com/tornadoestyra
    Fat Freddys Drop - www.fatfreddysdrop.com/
    Opensouls - http://www.opensouls.co.nz/

    plus arranging work for...

    Hollie Smith - www.holliesmith.co.nz/
    Sola Rosa - www.myspace.com/solarosamusic

    As well as holding down a job and now a 8 day old little boy called Salvador
  • kwalitykwality 620 Posts
    ^^^^
    No shit? Congrats on FFD man, I love those guys. My girl and I will be checking them out when they come to Melbourne - can't wait. Any tips on where I can pick up "Based On A True Story" on vinyl? My girlfriend needs it in her life!

    Myself I prefer to work with someone, but finding the right person is as difficult as finding a girlfriend, so it's mainly dolo.
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    Really feeling that Hui Hui joint man. I've never heard any of those bands before, but when I get home I'll be sure to check them out.

    I guess I should make a myspace for my band. I just hate myspace so much.

    - spidey
  • BaptBapt 2,503 Posts

    I guess I should make a myspace for my band. I just hate myspace so much.

    Doowit.

    [kidding]
    Do it so we'll see what a Musician is.
    [/kidding]

    PS/ I consider myself a Musician, a lonesome Musician. :-)
  • bobbydeebobbydee 849 Posts
    ^^^^
    No shit? Congrats on FFD man, I love those guys.



    The Cay's crays 7" gets heavy play by me.
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Hey LowEnd,

    I tend to bang out tracks on the dolo, but I've cooked up bangers in the presence of various MCs I've worked with over the years on occasion. I prefer to create alone, though, when I'm beatmaking because the ideas flow better, without distraction. I come up with programming rather serendipitously through tinkering with various bits and piece sampled up on my ASR. It's easier to compulsively fuck with a sample when no one is peering in waiting for you to make something happen. I'm a drummer, however, so I love to jam with fellow musicians too. Weirdly enough, these two forms of musicianship represent separate realms for me. Perhaps, I can meld them in the future.

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    loner beatz, yo

    this thread is ripe for an appearance by the one crink
  • doughboydoughboy 190 Posts
    ^^^^
    Any tips on where I can pick up "Based On A True Story" on vinyl?

    try northside... if not pm me and i'll bring one over and sort you at show in Nov
  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts
    i like to try and strike a balance.. i have projects that i do by myself / solo.. .then i do collabs with a few other people, bands where i just play the leader's songs and a band where we are pretty much free improv.
  • kwalitykwality 620 Posts
    ^^^^
    Any tips on where I can pick up "Based On A True Story" on vinyl?

    try northside... if not pm me and i'll bring one over and sort you at show in Nov

    I love NS, but forgive me - I think I'll be a fanboy and cop it at the show! I think my gal would get a kick out of that. I'll holla at you to remind you.
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts

    I guess I should make a myspace for my band. I just hate myspace so much.

    Doowit.

    [kidding]
    Do it so we'll see what a Musician is.
    [/kidding]

    PS/ I consider myself a Musician, a lonesome Musician. :-)

    Trying to figure out Div Overlay layouts as we speak.

    I didn't mean to offend anybody with the musician question/comment? I know it's taken me a very long time for me to consider myself a musician.

    - spidey
  • CosmophonicCosmophonic 1,172 Posts
    Both.

    I love to collaberate with a few select people. A shared creative process can produce amazing things, but a lot of times the guys I do stuff with smoke so much hash it just gets kinda aimless. But for ideas and fresh perspective it can??t be beat!

    However, going at it alone is cool too. I feel like I can totally immerse myself in the music and get lost in it. To me it??s a great way to unwind and get my head together if I??m dealing with a lot of other things at the time.


    - J
  • erewhonerewhon 1,123 Posts
    In a perfect world I would prefer to work alone, but I have a hard time taking my beats to the proverbial "next level" due to a combination of laziness, motivation and insufficient skill and equipment. That's not to say that I want Dr. Fix-It to come in and finish my beats for me, or that I lack for useful ideas and input after a certain point, but I do feel the need for a collaborator or collaborators to bounce ideas off, learn from, and get energy from through the finishing stage. I need that extra bit of motivation to finish what was started. I've had success with this kind of arrangement in bands before, but when the MPC became my primary instrument it got a lot harder. As instruments go, it's got to be one of the least conducive to collaboration. That said, I recently have been working with someone who is a great match for me. I will typically bring a batch of sounds and some 16-bar "sketches" of beats from my MPC to his studio, then we will choose a favorite and he will take the driver's seat, loading the skeleton beat into Pro Tools to sculpt the sound and play around with the composition. Inevitably the beat will move in an an unexpected direction, at which point we take turns in the drivers seat adding new elements (a new sample, synth, effect, etc.) that fit the new direction the beat is moving in.
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