What do you struggle with the most when making music?

[ForgottenClank]

Hi guys!

I'm looking for new ideas for Rack Extensions and wanted to ask you what takes you the most amount of time when producing/mixing/mastering to get right. Be as specific/unspecific and realistic/unrealistic as you want. For example, you could say "original chord progressions", "making vocals stick out", "getting a good stereo image" etc.

I'm looking forward to hearing your struggles,
Adam

[guitfnky]

realistic human grooves in my drum parts. Regroove mixer is okay, but is limited. most of the humanizing stuff in Reason is just randomized, which isn't good at creating a 'pocket' feel.

what I wouldn't give for a sequencer-style Player (with probabilities, etc.) that did a believable job of humanizing a programmed groove. if they ever implement VST MIDI in Reason, I'll be all set with Jamstix, but until then...

[friday]

Weed

[reddust]

Dealing with the software as sometimes it is hard to find the way to make the sound I'm looking for, but I also have to say that I am relatively new to synth software and some effects as well, so I guess time and experience will help with that.

But for now one of the most frustrating parts for me when making music is having a clear idea in my mind of what I want to do and not being able to find that sound quickly and finally loose my inspiration by taking too long dealing with controls and settings.

[TritoneAddiction]

Self discipline. Haven't seen a RE for that one yet.

Joking aside. I like niche REs that focus on one particular thing. For example Disperser, Carve, Beatmap, Evolution, Crapre2. Really niche or quirky stuff are the best imo. I'll buy anything that either "just works" or is fun to use. Personally I'm not a fan of the endless options kind of devices (unless of course there's a random patch generator ).
I can't really tell you what specific type of RE I want from a developer. The examples I gave before were all REs I didn't think I needed until I tried them out. That's what I want, something new I haven't thought of yet.

[Rackman]

Too many options. And the options themselves have too many options, so before you know it, you've either forgotten, or are now a million miles away from your original idea.

[Loque]

Sound design:
Get THAT cool sound out of my head or i even couldn't imagine.

Production:
Find THAT cool melody, rhythm or sequence that i like. Combinate it with other stuff i like. Create some kind of story and create an arrangment that kicks, but before that i need to get beyond the 8 bar loop and still like what i have after i already heard it 10000 times.

Mixing:
Leave room for other sounds. I want all sounds in the song, even if they occupy too often the same frequency.
Create a room from left to right, bottom to top, and front to back.
Make sounds clean and sit.

Mastering:
If everything worked, not much to do. Get it loud, clean, dynamic.

This is the process. I struggle in every stage. What could help me? Reach the next stage or level, just go, do not hesitate, the way is the experience, reach the goal, aim for progress and perfection.

[Deep Schulzz]

For me devices that make it easier to detect and solve frequency issues between tracks/Instruments are welcome. Carve is a good (but very basic) example in this regard.

[Seckin]

I want a rack extension that dictates you options. Let's call it "The Great Dictator".

The Great Dictator has only two buttons . The first one is called the "Genre" button. You click on it and select a genre. The second button is called "Dictate". When you click on it, the Great Dictator creates 7 channels with instruments it cleverly selected to fit the genre of music you selected. Drums, percussions, bass, keys, lead and two empty audio tracks. 7 in total. Also loaded with only the most required effects (if any) on each track.

You cannot change instruments. You cannot change presets. You cannot add new tracks. You have 3 hours. In case you attempt to close the project file, or exit Reason, or end up without a finished song with a minimum length of 3 minutes in 3 hours, The Great Dictator annihilates your Reason license and burns your motherboard and also kills your girlfriend's cat.

I know quite a few people, who have been diagnosed with a fatal case of the disease called the Writer's Block, who would pay good sums for such a product.

[guitfnky]

yet there’s no such thing as writer’s block.

[Jackjackdaw]

An auto sampler like sample robot in Re form would be great.

[PhillipOrdonez]

Time. There not enough of it.

[MannequinRaces]

I struggle with turning 12 - 16 bar loops into songs. I have no problem with sound design or getting inspired by sounds or the actual mixing of the song. It’s crafting a whole song that takes the most time for me.

[WOO]

Auditioning sounds. I have nearly 100 gigs of refills and dozens of vst's. It would be great to have some sort of universal player that would allow me to preview an instrument vst or re's without having to load the instrument. And something that could be done from within the browser window using the arrow keys.

[Loque]

Its not the answer to the OP, but might be interesting :
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7517125

[Popey]

For me devices that make it easier to detect and solve frequency issues between tracks/Instruments are welcome. Carve is a good (but very basic) example in this regard.

I recently bought a vst called trackspacer that does what you describe above. I use reason rack plugin in another daw most of the time so you would have to find out if the sidechain element works ok in standalone reason but it's a neat plugin for quickly doing this.

Edit: just looked at carve re and it appears to be very similar to trackspacer.

[Oquasec]

I need to start watching the 52 series again tbh...
They covered so much

[Popey]

I struggle with turning 12 - 16 bar loops into songs. I have no problem with sound design or getting inspired by sounds or the actual mixing of the song. It’s crafting a whole song that takes the most time for me.

I struggled with this a lot and to an extent still do but one thing that has made this a little easier for me is working to the power of three. I work in edm so not sure if this will translate to other genres but for every 8-16 bar loop I make sure there are a minimum of 3 changes to the song. This may mean taking a sound out, introducing a new sound, changing a sound (eg filtering which is noticeable over time) or adding, removing or changing percussive elements. I put each 8 bar loop next to each other and the idea is that each loop should fluidly move into the other (you can add any tiny fx etc to assist each transition but I don't count these in the 3). I personally find this do this usually helps give me ideas for where to put any drops, breakdowns and sparks a lot of creativity.

[Re8et]

Harmony, that one thing robots and Ai can't do for you.

[Loque]

For me devices that make it easier to detect and solve frequency issues between tracks/Instruments are welcome. Carve is a good (but very basic) example in this regard.

I recently bought a vst called trackspacer that does what you describe above. I use reason rack plugin in another daw most of the time so you would have to find out if the sidechain element works ok in standalone reason but it's a neat plugin for quickly doing this.

Edit: just looked at carve re and it appears to be very similar to trackspacer.

I always wanted a Carve 2, but now i have FabFilter Q3 that covers all i need, just the real dynamic thing from other sources and note-follow..
So, i would agree a real Carve 2 with more options and control would be nice and a EQ which follows harmonic peaks.

[EdwardKiy]

"original chord progressions"

This made my day. Nice one mate