My songs before the forum destroyed my creativity

[onqel]

Warning: you might find this boring

"This forum destroyed my creativity".. this is what I'm thinking when I listen to my old songs which is recorded before I discovered this forum..
My creativity has changed place with wannabe-perfectionism, and I'm unable to write a decent song anymore because i HAVE to start mixing in between the sessions.. bahh

My old songs are clipping and my playing techniques are not that good, but I could write a simple song and I played with my heart and not my mind.. and I can't do that anymore

My world as i knew it changed when i found this forum, and you guys rock! my new songs sounds more professional now thanks to you, but I don't recognize myself in them anymore

I just quit smoking a month ago, and now i want to quit being an asshole to myself and start writing songs again... anyone familiar to this problem? (-quit smoking).

R.I.P writing songs that reflects my personality:
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Starelite.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Precious%20orchestra.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Not%20my%20brain.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20There%20is%20someone%20inside%20the%20piano.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Dancing%20with%20my%20shadow.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Why%20are%20you%20afraid.mp3
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/mp3/The%20Serina%20Experiment%20-%20Like%20a%20fly.mp3

-John (former "songwriter", now an average mixer)

 

[onqel]

oh man, two of the three funniest guys i know of, (this one's just missing Will Ferrell).. I haven't seen this one before
you made my day!

 

[Fox Mulder]

My skills definitely improved. But yes, I too can never write from my heart. My heart went all audiophile rather than being musical. Ongel, nice tunes that you got there. Listening to starelite right now- Kickass!

 

[Matthias King]

You just have to do your best to seperate the "artist" you and the "engineer" you. It can be hard, but you have to do it when you're trying to fill both roles. Just focus all your energy and attention toward writing/composing until it's time to record a final product.

It sounds simplistic, but it's just something that you have to focus on doing, and train yourself to do. It's not an exact science, but you can get to a place where you're able to seperate your roles.

Btw, your Precious Orchestra is a nice piece. My only complaint, and I always complain when I hear it, is the fade-out at the end. It's a huge pet peeve of mine, but take that for whatever it's worth.

Good luck.

 

[Plankis]

Yeah my creativity has only gone downhill since I started recording. I get so caught up in tweaking everything, just can't help it. It's more fun tweaking, then repeating riffs a hundredmillion times getting it 100% accurate...
You can start tabbing stuff out in Guitar pro or powertabs instead. That'll keep you away from that DAW, which means you can focus entirely on the composition.

 

[Erlend_]

Why did you quit smoking?
All the cool kids are doing it!

 

[onqel]

Why did you quit smoking?
All the cool kids are doing it!

haha

I had my tonsilles removed over a month ago.. and I did'nt really quit.. I just have'nt started smoking again yet you guys should try it, hehe, I can smell the perfume on the girls again, and thats disturbing

 

[xMannequiNx]

the first song you have on there is fucking amazing. The others are cool too, just the first one really stands out.

I'm not a guitarist, I'm a drummer, but I've found that the best thing that has always helped with my creativity is to completely stop playing for a few days or until I miss playing so much that I have to get on my set and bang away again lol. It must be a pretty similar situation with any instrument...

 

[Put]

I have the same problem.
But as someeone said earlier.
you have to seperate the artist and engineer in you.

Wich I find hard to do since above an artist and engineer Im a perfectionist.
So you end up mixing and doing that stuff while just jamming some riffs.

Maybe put down your instrument for a while... that seems to work for me.
When I pick up the guitar again I usally play "fresh" things.
At least not the same pattern you've been playing the past 4 weeks

 

[Aaron Smith]

I have never struggled with balancing the artist and engineer in the way that you guys are talking, and that's mostly due to the fact that my songwriting template Pro Tools session is basically mixed to begin with. Drum samples all processed, aux and reverb sends set up, inserts where needed, and an amp sim tone that stays the same every time. I never really sat down and consciously spent time working on mixing the session, it was more little tweaks over time until it was finally just good to go whenever I wanted to write a song. It has been key to me being able to write the quality of songs that I have, and has absolutely boosted my creativity.

 

[GarethSE]

this is why i make wholly improvised music now to be honest
ever since i started getting better at the production side of things, that became my focus
i found that the only way i could write music from the heart was to play shit on the spot, and whatever comes out, gets used, whether its good or bad, warts n all.
but im an exception i suppose, im more interested in making hour long avant-garde epics than tight metal tracks haha. i can afford a bit of slop here and there, so my advice is all but useless :s

 

[Instant_Noodles]

You can start tabbing stuff out in Guitar pro or powertabs instead. That'll keep you away from that DAW, which means you can focus entirely on the composition.

+1. that's exactly what I do! \m/