What do you do when you're out of ideas? 🤔 🌌 Microcosm ► bit.ly/3wvfC3Z ▼Other Gear In This Video▼ Volitions: venustheory.com/product/782533 Bitwig: bit.ly/2S3cqvP Edison Lamps: amzn.to/31prLMm Desk: amzn.to/3Dl4J64 Chair: amzn.to/3001Xpk Computer Monitor Stand: amzn.to/3In7O9u Speaker Stands: amzn.to/3InkBZt MIDI Keyboard: bit.ly/3G7OkDU Audio Interface: bit.ly/31mZExn
As I said to your pedal man, I do this exact thing from your video already but with Audio Damage Enso. It's often in sales and becomes really cheap then, but it's good value at full price anyway considering what you get out of using it.
As for me the Moog Subharmonicon is sometimes a source of ideas. Just starting an arbitrary sequence and listening to the sound from a second room to find details that are hidden when you are listening to sound direct in front of your speakers. I think it´s working (sometimes).
If I’m out of ideas it means that I’m out of inspiration. You mentioned abstract art, and that playfulness that comes when you look at something abstract is the key to get me inspired. So sometimes I think “oh, what happen if I..” and then I’m deep into that lovely creativity again. It can be such simple things as sampling the noice you get when touching the guitar cable or learning a new random chord.
My favourite method of ending writers' block is randomization. I spin a wheel with different instruments on it and whichever it is will be the lead or bass etc. I also just place random chords around and try my best to tweak them as little as possible but still make it work
Restrictions are powerful! I use online 'random' generators quite a bit myself when I'm stuck to give myself at least a loose set of parameters to work with. Super helpful to light a fire under your ass.
I really think writers block is really just anxiety a lot of the time. I was struggling yesterday, took a 20 minute nap, came back and killed it. Sometimes more effective to take a break.
My trouble is I get ear fatigue reeeeally fast. Bounce it out, get a little fresh air, listen to it again away from the box in a different environment, then I love myself again. Sometimes i think what im working on is the worst thing ever until i give myself time to get out of the production mindset and into the music lover mindset. I always advocate for taking breaks!
@@casualdiscussionenjoyer3303 I've really really tried hard to just write first and mix later, if that's what you're doing. It's helped so much. I might do a couple quick eq tweaks as I go but too much and you get too thrown all over the place
@@BrofUJu i meant compostion, tracking, sound design, mixing, all of it. Regardless of what im doing i gotta give myself time to get reacquainted with the sounds that have been grating my ears for hours otherwise i get so sick of it i dont wind up finishing it. I have to really force myself to finish things and coming back with a clear head and fresh ears is paramount to helping it all come together in the end. I need to step away from the computer, but if I close the program and start a nee project that other one will probably never get done xD
Writers block is just overthinking all the time. Taking a break almost always works and if you have to put something out right now, try methods to kickstart inspiration, for example with the Microcosmos or starting out with a sample
I love the idea of responding to something in sound as if it were a blot test. I like working with other artist very much and it often brings out my best work to be surprised with something a collaborator presents. I'd never thought of using a randomly sourced sound artifact in that way. I am not under any pressure to write so writers block usually means I go away and do something that I AM under pressure for but this is such a fun idea I'm definitely going to give it a shot. Thank you, Cameron.
Once I had a microcosm for long enough, I started finding other more subtle uses for it. One that’s been pretty inspiring is less predictable reverb textures. Route a return track through Microcosm, and crank the mix and reverb on the pedal, then use that signal as subtly as you might use a normal reverb, and experiment with algorithms. Basically, instead of the more predictable reverb (a tail coming immediately off your signal predictably), you get this verb that is still based somehow in the original signal, but in ways that aren’t immediately discernible. It’s very nice.
As a musician with a degree in psychology and philosophy, I think this was amazing and intriguing. Blending all of my interests into one video! Thanks!
I don't know of any other channel that has helped me more with my music production. I have learned so much and I continue to do so daily! There are a lot of channels on YT that will provide music tutorials but you go a step farther by sharing your creative process which makes your videos more accessalbe and easier to understand. It's one thing to show and tell, but it's another to explain in easy-to-understand detail about the actual process and do it with humor. Thanks, buckaroo!
I rarely suffer from writer's block, but a lot of my compositions started to feel same-y to me. My partner then had a quite effective idea: she prepared two sets of papers, one with scene descriptions, one with atmospheric descriptions, so I can draw one of each. Combined they make a slightly randomized writing prompt which gets me out of my comfort zone. It also helps that she (unlike me) is not that much of a scifi/fantasy fan, so I have to compose something that fits a roadtrip instead of an epic battle or something. EDIT: Great track/video, by the way!
This technique is actually very well known to me - I have actually made two complete albums using mainly this technique. Very interesting to see how others go about it and what they get from this way of starting a piece of music. Thanks for sharing!
More than happy to see content like this. Inspiring. Happy to see plugin vids too but you have a knack for getting stuff over in an interesting way in most vids, whatever you're tackling. Don't have a looper but I can see ways of adapting this idea/method for DAW use for sure. So, thanks once again.
About a decade ago I noticed that when I have the radio playing at such a low volume that I can't accurately make out the music that's playing, my mind will basically try to fill in the gaps with stuff that isn't really there -- it's like I'm somehow keeping myself just one step away from hallucinating. I then learned that my brain will try to do the same thing if I listen to binaural beats or white noise long enough, and I'll actually start to "hear" unbelievably detailed and complete pieces of music that aren't really there. I like the part where you referred to your own "internal radio" because I've long been a fan of Jane Roberts' books where she's allegedly channeling an entity named Seth who talks a lot about these "inner senses" behind and beyond our physical senses... That sounds like a good stand-in explanation for what's happening here... Because it happens in dreams sometimes as well -- I'll hear a complete and finished song that sounds EXACTLY like a certain artist that I know, but the song itself doesn't actually exist -- that band never wrote it, and yet what I heard sounds even more legit and hi-def than anything that they did write. The earlier methods that I mentioned don't require me to be asleep (which is great, because it's pretty hard to get to my DAW if I'm unconscious), but being deeply relaxed and as close to sleep as possible definitely helps.
Cool. When you had the initial piece of smushed electronic sound and were thinking "What else could work here?" I went right to "that needs some cello under it"...and sure enough you went right to the strings. I liked the pure electronic beats you added which really brought it alive. Made it have a life of its own. Which I guess is why they call it "the creative process."
most unexpected thing i experienced for very long time - channel primary oriented to musicmaking/sound design/music gear explains in 5 minutes in totally understandable way very basic fondation on neuroscience of human brain .... huge 👍
Typical session with microcosm: „man, unbelivebale i spent so much on a box that doesnt even do what i want. On. 3 hours later. Off. Phew. Somtimes i wish i could just use it as a plain reverb. And next time íll check that phrase looper out. Promise. That hold funktion just rocks.“
Yeah, catchy. My technique is to know when it’s time to look away from the problem and go do something else. Leave it long enough and you can come back and hear your piece for the “first time”. Again.
Sometimes when the ideas are not free-flowing, I make up rules. LIke 6 chords of which 2 are not diatonic then add two 9th and one 7th. Then I might say use three modes in the melody. As I begin to develop the piece I usually am able to abandon my rules as I move from left-brain thinking to right-brain thinking. But then I am pretty odd.
I use similar techniques, but more to break orthodoxy, such as maj/min scale avoidance to force the other modes, avoiding 4/4, or conceptual "rules," such as all songs in an album are made from raw datamoshing, or all songs are randomly/generatively created... so not so odd perhaps.
So, one thing that I got out of this is that you also really need to know your tools and what preset starting points you might use to "egg yourself on" to spark ideas, and then build on those ideas until you come up with something you like -- by which time, you may even completely lose the original source completely. I like to use recordings of ambient soundscapes -- I can very often find something to latch onto that will direct at least mood and rhythm.
I kind of turn away from what I am 'wanting' to create.. and i create something silly.. Other thing is to start something from somewhere that where you normally make music. I work a lot from my piano, but sometimes i use another instrument or other things to start up an idea :) Great video!
In both a writing and painting context, I've heard a similar piece of advice for facing a blank white page/canvas - put something on it, _anything_ , because then you've got something to work from, even if it was something to get rid of. If you're typing just throw nonsense text into the file, stream of consciousness. Painting? Big ol' brush stroke of a random color across the canvas. Have something to work with or against. And I think your abstract randomness approach is coming from the same headspace - it's much easier to create when reacting to something than when you're reacting to nothing.
"I never, ever, overthink." Said me, never. I hit a brick wall in so many projects from that one thing the most. Seems to come in waves. I can be creative and flourish for a few weeks then I just go into derp mode. I think, possibly, it's that I'm trying to one-up myself and I want to do something better/different than the last project and there we go, overthinking rolls up like a boss. Just like this comment. Typical. Love the content btw. Very informative and yet rather zen.
Well I understand that, but having a deadline and a studio at least 15 min away can get you rolling pretty good. After you overcame self criticism and the thinking of “well is there maybe a better way” you start to do like “yeah that will suffice“ and after doing that couple of times you get into a success chain that allows you to get relaxed and creative.
Am a hobbyist in electrical engineering and had an idea to fix the writers block. Imagine 64 knobs (8x8) connected to DAW with MIDI and mapped to various random things while also not knowing what is mapped to what. And also every time you click the reset button the knobs get scrambled.
Ive watched like 20 videos on this and you are the only person who actually showed what the phrase looper does. Literally considering not paying rent this month and buying one of these 😅
I really enjoyed how you set about the music making and as a visual artist myself I totally understand the application of this sense of pattern recognition into either product or process. Thank you.
I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between the musician and their instrument. For as long as I've been a musician and a composer I've been frustrated that the ideas I get in my head fall apart when I pick up an instrument. I always end up with something I like, but it wasn't that thing that I heard in my head. I believed I was failing as a musician and composer. I'm starting to change that view. I've long believed that humans as tool users pull off that trick by extending their awareness into their tools. For example, when eating with a fork, a skilled user of forks does not think of the precise positioning of the fork, the conscious application of force to skewer a bite, and so on. Instead the fork is an integrated component of the arm. It is not too hard to argue that humans do all the things they do by incorporating their tools into their identity and self. So why would that be different with music? My guitar is an extension of myself, and so is my DAW. I'm skilled at using both so I don't think much about the mechanics of using them. Trying to be creative without these tools is effectively disconnecting a portion of myself from the creative process. The demonstrated approach in the video to defeating creative block may be less of a technique and is really a natural process of human and tool doing what makes humans great. We don't control our tools or master them, we integrate and collaborate with them. No wonder we get blocked without them right? Just playing with the tool is a necessary process to activate our relationship with them and begin the feedback loop that powers our creativity.
Deep. 20 year guitarist. I can vouch for that. The bond is very real. And the more skill and practice the less you think about it consciously. And that’s where a lot of your authenticity and soul start to shine through when you’re playing, often times I hear things in playback that I didn’t realize I was doing, because it’s so natural. And yeah it’s second nature much like the fork. Fascinating observation.
Great idea for sparking creativity. For myself I find that setting myself limits or challenges (like only 4 tracks in your DAW, or make a 1 minute prog-rock track) are a great way to get out of writer's block. The very worst enemy of creativity is a blank canvas where you can just do literally anything you want. Set yourself some restriction and look for ways you can break it!
Hey Cameron, I'm starting to get into Ambient/Minimal DnB, and I love the way you do drums! Beyond common sense techniques (like filtered delays and reverb), I'd love a video on your approach to drums! 🙏💙
I find Ambient DnB to be one of the most difficult genres to get right, so I eventually just ditched the drums, until I reintroduced them to make ambient dub .. only to ditch them again. Sorry, drums, it's not you. It's me!
Awesome. I was listening to this while doing a morning Rorschach-ish abstract painting warm-up drill which I developed to gently open the creative faucet. It seemed to be the perfect match. I really like your channel. As both an artist and s musician, I find that there are a lot of topics and issues that spill over from one to the other. Great stuff. :)
Great video. Hope it helps many. I think I'm lucky because this has always been my default way of making new songs. Not exactly what you did, but the way you go about figuring out how to add new things and bring it closer to completion. Definitely very very helpful.
End result is dope! Want to listen to more of that. Also like the approach and going to see how I can re-create that with something like the HX Stomp shuffle looper I already own instead of another excuse for GAS
I have always enjoyed the intellectual aspects of your videos (the brainier, the better!). When the drums on the back half of that phat beat dropped, though, I had probably the strongest visceral reaction to anything you've done on this channel. That was definitely inspiring, and hope you finished that track!
On writers block issue... I am very diverse in my creative expression mediums. If I feel loss of momentum or direction , I'll stop and walk away going to do something else. Now this could be an hour or a year (extreme case), but I always find that breaking the circle of frustration by lack of progress helps me to see or feel a path I was overlooking by trying to force a solution. Well.. that usually helps me..
If you have a Mac and Mainstage, there's a built in looper that I use for a lot of the same inspiration described here. You can leverage the same plugins that are installed in Logic Pro X. Set the Mainstage tempo setting down low for some long loops and record several loops with different lengths playing over each other...very powerful tool.
Interesting technique! I confess I’ve had a Microcosm for six months and never tried the looper yet. There’s just so much else to play with! One useful tip: I’ve found that MIDI sync is pretty important. A lot of the effects work much better when the input audio is synced to them. This may be an obvious no-brained when using it with synths, but with guitar I’ve found I needed to set up a drum machine or sequencer to lay down at least a click track to keep my playing in time, otherwise the Microcosm's glitching and sampling didn’t line up with my notes.
I have a few ways of dealing. Random generators can be nice, my go to is Melodysauce. Phrasebox can be good to turn a basic chord progression into something. Note repeat in Studio One can help turn a few notes into a new pattern.
Holy shit! I wasn't expecting that. I love the direction you took that track. If you ever decide to finish that, please share. Thanks for another awesome video.
I'm sorry I love everything you do, you give me so much inspiration, but I can't watch videos of the microcosm anymore (FYI I totally still watched the video). But it's so good and I want it so badly but I am way too poor for it. I even keep checking the price in the chance it's gone down like some plugin alliance VST deal. Not to say that it is not worth the price. This is more to say that if I ever have the money I'm definitely getting one! Such an amazing machine and love what you do with it in this video. For writers block I like to resample everything and put it through a load of FX :) Much love
excellent vid... i could relate ... music doesnt seem to flow so well when Im trying too hard... I mean its one thing to learn to play something in order to play it live, that takes effort... but that creative process you illestrated here is what I find reveals special details about how things layer together and can happen rather quickly and in ways that really are inspired... cheers.
When I was a music student, we were often encouraged to experiment with concepts such as oblique strategy cards and the like (the university degree I was studying had a connection to Gavin Bryars, and a more tenuous connection to Eno, which pushed this agenda), and to revel in happy accidents. It made for some interesting electro acoustic compositions and academic topics to focus on, but wasn't so beneficial later when I was writing library music - there, however, deadlines created such tension that it paradoxically yielded positive results. It wasn't fun, though, and quickly made me jaded. I was very productive, but once I changed professions, this productivity in music fell off a cliff. Haven't finished a tune in years. I still love noodling about, but without pressure to deliver, I just never do, and the hardest part is working through the creative block. I find this block starts to shift when you're in about 30% - that moment, after many false starts and meanderings, when you realise you have something fun and interesting but haven't yet listened to it 3000 times to get thoroughly bored (that comes later). I've always existed in the bottom-up camp - perhaps due to lack of skill or imagination, but it can also lead to left field ideas, but just takes more effort and time to create anything worth keeping.
I resonate a lot with what you said as when I was younger I tried to make a business out of a recording studio but it ultimately just sucked the joy out of music and put pressure on me when I was trying to balance that with being in a band. If you love noodling there’s nothing wrong with that keep noodling. Most of my writers block comes from getting attached to one thing I’m working on and not being able to let go and decide it might not actually be so good after all. What’s worked for me is using the techniques above plus everything else I feel like doing and do a little everyday but try to stay in compatible keys and tempos. Then after a while you hit a spark and want to make a whole song and you get stuck half way through you have tons of shit already made that can keep it going.
The microcosm is probably one of my fav pedals I have! It's so much fun to send ideas I made in the DAW to it and mess with them completely haha This + Earthquaker Devices Spatial Delivery & Avalanche Run really shaped my music for the better, mostly thanks to their specific sound, and limitations that guitar pedals force on you that a DAW doesn't.
This was a fantastic video, especially the wubbage spectrum. (Okay, that wasn't the best part, but it was chucklicious.) You're a thoughtful human being with whom I find a lot in common. If I ever get through Tennessee again I'm definitely bringing you a fine bourbon. Same offer applies if you pass through middle/northern Virginia.
That's just what you need, isn't it? A trigger, a catalyst. I do this quite often, start out with an embryonic "thing" that bears little or no resemblance to the end result. One issue I find though, is i have a tendency to evolve one track so much that it really should end up being two or more tracks, as you eluded to near the end of the video.
It's a great box for inspiration , I made a video recently playing Rhodes keyboard sound through it, It sounded like chirping birds. So the idea for slow-mo bird visuals came to mind and I think it turned out well
You always make me remember VST's that I have and don't use that are excellent creation tools. You have once again made me come to the conclusion that I have a lot of s%^t (stuff) I don't use. You have again taken away the excuse for not creating something, out of something because I always have something. Just have to make something out of it, if that makes sense. Thanks for the upload.
Happily hit both the like and subscribe buttons ! New to your channel , but felt right at home...which is kinda weird... so you are doing something my brain likes. :)
I'd like to imagine that this is a direct response to me, from two weeks ago. But I recognize that the world doesn't revolve around me, and it'd be extremely conceited to think that I prompted a video like this. 😂 Either way, I appreciate your work here, Cameron. Thanks for always providing us with homework, buckaroonie. Keep at it. ...I now have yet another reason to get a Microcosm. Ugh. My wallet screams.
Interesting ideas, as always... although, the challenge is now to translate the thinking to something non-ambient :) As a development/suggestion: Perhaps have a listen to Synergy's "Games" album from 1979. For ME, Larry Fast took similar ideas (with "Delta Four" in particular on the album)... starting off with a similar 'single chord' that phased in and out, adding a crazy ostinato... and then making its way to a Wendy Carlos/Tron -type thing towards the end of the track. Very much appreicate your videos... as they often implant 'a splinter in my brain' and get me out of many a rut :)
No - the brain does not use a hierarchical filing structure. It uses some "unknown" sort of associative memory. It may be structured in some way - but it probably differs from person to person. There have been experiments done on animals and humans which do show how some memories are located in space on the brain cortex.
To be fair, I could make one in ten seconds - some of the algorithms really need to be wrestled with to make something musical. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I produce at the bar. Theres the right amount of distraction so I dont get bogged down. Plus redbull to get spun out. Plus whiskey neat to make me nonjudgemental.
Nice video, that's an approach I haven't tried yet 😍 (I should also explore more of my brain's "potential waifu" folder). I do try other things, like I just started off with a Dub / Reggae rhythm just to see what I could do with it as it's MILES out of my comfort zone and the actual result was fun and I like it 🙂
Curious to know if you’re familiar with the Oblique Strategies. They were a favourite cure for writer’s block for Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, among others.
The blobby thing you make doesn't even have to stay in the final product. I absolutely love writing a melody to a shitty 4 chord pop progression and then ripping out the chords and putting in some chords that actually do it for me.
What do you do when you're out of ideas? 🤔
🌌 Microcosm ► bit.ly/3wvfC3Z
▼Other Gear In This Video▼
Volitions: venustheory.com/product/782533
Bitwig: bit.ly/2S3cqvP
Edison Lamps: amzn.to/31prLMm
Desk: amzn.to/3Dl4J64
Chair: amzn.to/3001Xpk
Computer Monitor Stand: amzn.to/3In7O9u
Speaker Stands: amzn.to/3InkBZt
MIDI Keyboard: bit.ly/3G7OkDU
Audio Interface: bit.ly/31mZExn
I watch RUclips videos. 😁
As I said to your pedal man, I do this exact thing from your video already but with Audio Damage Enso. It's often in sales and becomes really cheap then, but it's good value at full price anyway considering what you get out of using it.
Listen to your reference tracks. A fountainhead of knowledge is waiting there for you..
As for me the Moog Subharmonicon is sometimes a source of ideas. Just starting an arbitrary sequence and listening to the sound from a second room to find details that are hidden when you are listening to sound direct in front of your speakers. I think it´s working (sometimes).
If I’m out of ideas it means that I’m out of inspiration. You mentioned abstract art, and that playfulness that comes when you look at something abstract is the key to get me inspired.
So sometimes I think “oh, what happen if I..” and then I’m deep into that lovely creativity again.
It can be such simple things as sampling the noice you get when touching the guitar cable or learning a new random chord.
My favourite method of ending writers' block is randomization. I spin a wheel with different instruments on it and whichever it is will be the lead or bass etc.
I also just place random chords around and try my best to tweak them as little as possible but still make it work
Restrictions are powerful! I use online 'random' generators quite a bit myself when I'm stuck to give myself at least a loose set of parameters to work with. Super helpful to light a fire under your ass.
Nat 20!!!!!
@@VenusTheory Ha! Pretty much just said the same (above). Should have come here first!
I really think writers block is really just anxiety a lot of the time. I was struggling yesterday, took a 20 minute nap, came back and killed it. Sometimes more effective to take a break.
Absolutely agree. Currently working on a video about that actually!
My trouble is I get ear fatigue reeeeally fast. Bounce it out, get a little fresh air, listen to it again away from the box in a different environment, then I love myself again. Sometimes i think what im working on is the worst thing ever until i give myself time to get out of the production mindset and into the music lover mindset. I always advocate for taking breaks!
@@casualdiscussionenjoyer3303 I've really really tried hard to just write first and mix later, if that's what you're doing. It's helped so much. I might do a couple quick eq tweaks as I go but too much and you get too thrown all over the place
@@BrofUJu i meant compostion, tracking, sound design, mixing, all of it. Regardless of what im doing i gotta give myself time to get reacquainted with the sounds that have been grating my ears for hours otherwise i get so sick of it i dont wind up finishing it. I have to really force myself to finish things and coming back with a clear head and fresh ears is paramount to helping it all come together in the end. I need to step away from the computer, but if I close the program and start a nee project that other one will probably never get done xD
Writers block is just overthinking all the time. Taking a break almost always works and if you have to put something out right now, try methods to kickstart inspiration, for example with the Microcosmos or starting out with a sample
I love the idea of responding to something in sound as if it were a blot test.
I like working with other artist very much and it often brings out my best work to be surprised with something a collaborator presents. I'd never thought of using a randomly sourced sound artifact in that way. I am not under any pressure to write so writers block usually means I go away and do something that I AM under pressure for but this is such a fun idea I'm definitely going to give it a shot. Thank you, Cameron.
Once I had a microcosm for long enough, I started finding other more subtle uses for it. One that’s been pretty inspiring is less predictable reverb textures. Route a return track through Microcosm, and crank the mix and reverb on the pedal, then use that signal as subtly as you might use a normal reverb, and experiment with algorithms.
Basically, instead of the more predictable reverb (a tail coming immediately off your signal predictably), you get this verb that is still based somehow in the original signal, but in ways that aren’t immediately discernible. It’s very nice.
As a musician with a degree in psychology and philosophy, I think this was amazing and intriguing. Blending all of my interests into one video! Thanks!
I don't know of any other channel that has helped me more with my music production. I have learned so much and I continue to do so daily! There are a lot of channels on YT that will provide music tutorials but you go a step farther by sharing your creative process which makes your videos more accessalbe and easier to understand. It's one thing to show and tell, but it's another to explain in easy-to-understand detail about the actual process and do it with humor. Thanks, buckaroo!
I rarely suffer from writer's block, but a lot of my compositions started to feel same-y to me. My partner then had a quite effective idea: she prepared two sets of papers, one with scene descriptions, one with atmospheric descriptions, so I can draw one of each. Combined they make a slightly randomized writing prompt which gets me out of my comfort zone. It also helps that she (unlike me) is not that much of a scifi/fantasy fan, so I have to compose something that fits a roadtrip instead of an epic battle or something.
EDIT: Great track/video, by the way!
This technique is actually very well known to me - I have actually made two complete albums using mainly this technique. Very interesting to see how others go about it and what they get from this way of starting a piece of music. Thanks for sharing!
That track is SICK! I love it. I never imagined you would end up with that track from the original loop. Super-cool!
More than happy to see content like this. Inspiring. Happy to see plugin vids too but you have a knack for getting stuff over in an interesting way in most vids, whatever you're tackling. Don't have a looper but I can see ways of adapting this idea/method for DAW use for sure. So, thanks once again.
About a decade ago I noticed that when I have the radio playing at such a low volume that I can't accurately make out the music that's playing, my mind will basically try to fill in the gaps with stuff that isn't really there -- it's like I'm somehow keeping myself just one step away from hallucinating. I then learned that my brain will try to do the same thing if I listen to binaural beats or white noise long enough, and I'll actually start to "hear" unbelievably detailed and complete pieces of music that aren't really there. I like the part where you referred to your own "internal radio" because I've long been a fan of Jane Roberts' books where she's allegedly channeling an entity named Seth who talks a lot about these "inner senses" behind and beyond our physical senses... That sounds like a good stand-in explanation for what's happening here... Because it happens in dreams sometimes as well -- I'll hear a complete and finished song that sounds EXACTLY like a certain artist that I know, but the song itself doesn't actually exist -- that band never wrote it, and yet what I heard sounds even more legit and hi-def than anything that they did write. The earlier methods that I mentioned don't require me to be asleep (which is great, because it's pretty hard to get to my DAW if I'm unconscious), but being deeply relaxed and as close to sleep as possible definitely helps.
it’s crazy how good the ‘demos’ you make just for videos are
Cool. When you had the initial piece of smushed electronic sound and were thinking "What else could work here?" I went right to "that needs some cello under it"...and sure enough you went right to the strings. I liked the pure electronic beats you added which really brought it alive. Made it have a life of its own. Which I guess is why they call it "the creative process."
This channel is such fire. Besides a crazy Dan Worrall plugin tutorial this is the best audio content on RUclips
most unexpected thing i experienced for very long time - channel primary oriented to musicmaking/sound design/music gear explains in 5 minutes in totally understandable way very basic fondation on neuroscience of human brain .... huge 👍
Typical session with microcosm: „man, unbelivebale i spent so much on a box that doesnt even do what i want. On. 3 hours later. Off. Phew. Somtimes i wish i could just use it as a plain reverb. And next time íll check that phrase looper out. Promise. That hold funktion just rocks.“
Yeah, catchy. My technique is to know when it’s time to look away from the problem and go do something else. Leave it long enough and you can come back and hear your piece for the “first time”. Again.
Sometimes when the ideas are not free-flowing, I make up rules. LIke 6 chords of which 2 are not diatonic then add two 9th and one 7th. Then I might say use three modes in the melody. As I begin to develop the piece I usually am able to abandon my rules as I move from left-brain thinking to right-brain thinking. But then I am pretty odd.
I use similar techniques, but more to break orthodoxy, such as maj/min scale avoidance to force the other modes, avoiding 4/4, or conceptual "rules," such as all songs in an album are made from raw datamoshing, or all songs are randomly/generatively created... so not so odd perhaps.
This is pretty much my default way of writing anything; I described it to a friend as "listening to where the song wants to go"
So, one thing that I got out of this is that you also really need to know your tools and what preset starting points you might use to "egg yourself on" to spark ideas, and then build on those ideas until you come up with something you like -- by which time, you may even completely lose the original source completely. I like to use recordings of ambient soundscapes -- I can very often find something to latch onto that will direct at least mood and rhythm.
I kind of turn away from what I am 'wanting' to create.. and i create something silly..
Other thing is to start something from somewhere that where you normally make music. I work a lot from my piano, but sometimes i use another instrument or other things to start up an idea :)
Great video!
In both a writing and painting context, I've heard a similar piece of advice for facing a blank white page/canvas - put something on it, _anything_ , because then you've got something to work from, even if it was something to get rid of. If you're typing just throw nonsense text into the file, stream of consciousness. Painting? Big ol' brush stroke of a random color across the canvas. Have something to work with or against. And I think your abstract randomness approach is coming from the same headspace - it's much easier to create when reacting to something than when you're reacting to nothing.
"I never, ever, overthink." Said me, never. I hit a brick wall in so many projects from that one thing the most. Seems to come in waves. I can be creative and flourish for a few weeks then I just go into derp mode. I think, possibly, it's that I'm trying to one-up myself and I want to do something better/different than the last project and there we go, overthinking rolls up like a boss. Just like this comment. Typical. Love the content btw. Very informative and yet rather zen.
My Least Favorite Cure For Writer's Block Is A Deadline.
The ol 'needed it yesterday' approach haha. Deadlines work though!
Well I understand that, but having a deadline and a studio at least 15 min away can get you rolling pretty good. After you overcame self criticism and the thinking of “well is there maybe a better way” you start to do like “yeah that will suffice“ and after doing that couple of times you get into a success chain that allows you to get relaxed and creative.
Writing on demand is well worth practicing for.
A close second is “Buy this $500 piece of gear.”
Am a hobbyist in electrical engineering and had an idea to fix the writers block. Imagine 64 knobs (8x8) connected to DAW with MIDI and mapped to various random things while also not knowing what is mapped to what. And also every time you click the reset button the knobs get scrambled.
100% insane! 😁 And potentially very inspiring 👍
Random elements in the creative process is super powerful 👍
Hmmm...
do you know synplant?
@@oTchago
Yes. I went to school with him. Nice guy, although a bit of a perv.
Ive watched like 20 videos on this and you are the only person who actually showed what the phrase looper does. Literally considering not paying rent this month and buying one of these 😅
I really enjoyed how you set about the music making and as a visual artist myself I totally understand the application of this sense of pattern recognition into either product or process. Thank you.
I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between the musician and their instrument. For as long as I've been a musician and a composer I've been frustrated that the ideas I get in my head fall apart when I pick up an instrument. I always end up with something I like, but it wasn't that thing that I heard in my head. I believed I was failing as a musician and composer.
I'm starting to change that view. I've long believed that humans as tool users pull off that trick by extending their awareness into their tools. For example, when eating with a fork, a skilled user of forks does not think of the precise positioning of the fork, the conscious application of force to skewer a bite, and so on. Instead the fork is an integrated component of the arm. It is not too hard to argue that humans do all the things they do by incorporating their tools into their identity and self.
So why would that be different with music? My guitar is an extension of myself, and so is my DAW. I'm skilled at using both so I don't think much about the mechanics of using them. Trying to be creative without these tools is effectively disconnecting a portion of myself from the creative process.
The demonstrated approach in the video to defeating creative block may be less of a technique and is really a natural process of human and tool doing what makes humans great. We don't control our tools or master them, we integrate and collaborate with them. No wonder we get blocked without them right? Just playing with the tool is a necessary process to activate our relationship with them and begin the feedback loop that powers our creativity.
Deep. 20 year guitarist. I can vouch for that. The bond is very real. And the more skill and practice the less you think about it consciously. And that’s where a lot of your authenticity and soul start to shine through when you’re playing, often times I hear things in playback that I didn’t realize I was doing, because it’s so natural.
And yeah it’s second nature much like the fork. Fascinating observation.
The final result is INCREDIBLE, sick !
Great idea for sparking creativity. For myself I find that setting myself limits or challenges (like only 4 tracks in your DAW, or make a 1 minute prog-rock track) are a great way to get out of writer's block. The very worst enemy of creativity is a blank canvas where you can just do literally anything you want. Set yourself some restriction and look for ways you can break it!
This my friend is a bad ass video and so are you. Thank you for having this channel much love and good vibes to you brother.
Phrase Looper for L1fe! Thanks for the shoutout homie. 👊
Always ♥
Hey Cameron, I'm starting to get into Ambient/Minimal DnB, and I love the way you do drums! Beyond common sense techniques (like filtered delays and reverb), I'd love a video on your approach to drums! 🙏💙
agreed
I find Ambient DnB to be one of the most difficult genres to get right, so I eventually just ditched the drums, until I reintroduced them to make ambient dub .. only to ditch them again.
Sorry, drums, it's not you. It's me!
Amazing content. Greatly presented, interesting theories and mechanisms behind our behaviour + musical context. Thank you.
Awesome. I was listening to this while doing a morning Rorschach-ish abstract painting warm-up drill which I developed to gently open the creative faucet. It seemed to be the perfect match.
I really like your channel. As both an artist and s musician, I find that there are a lot of topics and issues that spill over from one to the other.
Great stuff. :)
Great video. Hope it helps many. I think I'm lucky because this has always been my default way of making new songs. Not exactly what you did, but the way you go about figuring out how to add new things and bring it closer to completion. Definitely very very helpful.
Yay!! You’re awesome! Thank you
for the work. Low key idolize you man. 🌻
End result is dope! Want to listen to more of that.
Also like the approach and going to see how I can re-create that with something like the HX Stomp shuffle looper I already own instead of another excuse for GAS
the editing is so on point! great work
I have always enjoyed the intellectual aspects of your videos (the brainier, the better!). When the drums on the back half of that phat beat dropped, though, I had probably the strongest visceral reaction to anything you've done on this channel. That was definitely inspiring, and hope you finished that track!
On writers block issue... I am very diverse in my creative expression mediums. If I feel loss of momentum or direction , I'll stop and walk away going to do something else. Now this could be an hour or a year (extreme case), but I always find that breaking the circle of frustration by lack of progress helps me to see or feel a path I was overlooking by trying to force a solution. Well.. that usually helps me..
If you have a Mac and Mainstage, there's a built in looper that I use for a lot of the same inspiration described here. You can leverage the same plugins that are installed in Logic Pro X. Set the Mainstage tempo setting down low for some long loops and record several loops with different lengths playing over each other...very powerful tool.
Interesting technique! I confess I’ve had a Microcosm for six months and never tried the looper yet. There’s just so much else to play with!
One useful tip: I’ve found that MIDI sync is pretty important. A lot of the effects work much better when the input audio is synced to them. This may be an obvious no-brained when using it with synths, but with guitar I’ve found I needed to set up a drum machine or sequencer to lay down at least a click track to keep my playing in time, otherwise the Microcosm's glitching and sampling didn’t line up with my notes.
@@shitmandood Buying a new pedal is the solution to most life problems, I’ve found. (Except for money problems.)
Another great video. :D Thanks for addressing the side of music production that's often understated.
I have a few ways of dealing. Random generators can be nice, my go to is Melodysauce. Phrasebox can be good to turn a basic chord progression into something. Note repeat in Studio One can help turn a few notes into a new pattern.
Working as a writer for 20+ years I can very relate to the "no work, no bread" :)
Holy shit! I wasn't expecting that. I love the direction you took that track. If you ever decide to finish that, please share.
Thanks for another awesome video.
I'm sorry I love everything you do, you give me so much inspiration, but I can't watch videos of the microcosm anymore (FYI I totally still watched the video). But it's so good and I want it so badly but I am way too poor for it. I even keep checking the price in the chance it's gone down like some plugin alliance VST deal. Not to say that it is not worth the price. This is more to say that if I ever have the money I'm definitely getting one! Such an amazing machine and love what you do with it in this video. For writers block I like to resample everything and put it through a load of FX :) Much love
What an amazing video!! I absolutely loved every part of it, I loved the philosophical side of things aswell as the creative side!! Keep it up 💜
excellent vid... i could relate ... music doesnt seem to flow so well when Im trying too hard... I mean its one thing to learn to play something in order to play it live, that takes effort... but that creative process you illestrated here is what I find reveals special details about how things layer together and can happen rather quickly and in ways that really are inspired... cheers.
When I was a music student, we were often encouraged to experiment with concepts such as oblique strategy cards and the like (the university degree I was studying had a connection to Gavin Bryars, and a more tenuous connection to Eno, which pushed this agenda), and to revel in happy accidents. It made for some interesting electro acoustic compositions and academic topics to focus on, but wasn't so beneficial later when I was writing library music - there, however, deadlines created such tension that it paradoxically yielded positive results. It wasn't fun, though, and quickly made me jaded. I was very productive, but once I changed professions, this productivity in music fell off a cliff. Haven't finished a tune in years. I still love noodling about, but without pressure to deliver, I just never do, and the hardest part is working through the creative block. I find this block starts to shift when you're in about 30% - that moment, after many false starts and meanderings, when you realise you have something fun and interesting but haven't yet listened to it 3000 times to get thoroughly bored (that comes later). I've always existed in the bottom-up camp - perhaps due to lack of skill or imagination, but it can also lead to left field ideas, but just takes more effort and time to create anything worth keeping.
I resonate a lot with what you said as when I was younger I tried to make a business out of a recording studio but it ultimately just sucked the joy out of music and put pressure on me when I was trying to balance that with being in a band. If you love noodling there’s nothing wrong with that keep noodling. Most of my writers block comes from getting attached to one thing I’m working on and not being able to let go and decide it might not actually be so good after all. What’s worked for me is using the techniques above plus everything else I feel like doing and do a little everyday but try to stay in compatible keys and tempos. Then after a while you hit a spark and want to make a whole song and you get stuck half way through you have tons of shit already made that can keep it going.
my guitar wants to be around that pedal
It's a magical little box - been meaning to maybe look at picking up an amp to play with this and my guitars instead of using amp sims.
@@VenusTheory can't wait for that video!
It’s killer with guitar
@@studieslessonstheoryetc141 Yeah, I would love to get one. Maybe one day :)
The microcosm is probably one of my fav pedals I have! It's so much fun to send ideas I made in the DAW to it and mess with them completely haha
This + Earthquaker Devices Spatial Delivery & Avalanche Run really shaped my music for the better, mostly thanks to their specific sound, and limitations that guitar pedals force on you that a DAW doesn't.
This was a fantastic video, especially the wubbage spectrum. (Okay, that wasn't the best part, but it was chucklicious.) You're a thoughtful human being with whom I find a lot in common. If I ever get through Tennessee again I'm definitely bringing you a fine bourbon. Same offer applies if you pass through middle/northern Virginia.
That's just what you need, isn't it? A trigger, a catalyst. I do this quite often, start out with an embryonic "thing" that bears little or no resemblance to the end result. One issue I find though, is i have a tendency to evolve one track so much that it really should end up being two or more tracks, as you eluded to near the end of the video.
The "final" track you ended up with sounds really cool 😎
It's a great box for inspiration , I made a video recently playing Rhodes keyboard sound through it, It sounded like chirping birds. So the idea for slow-mo bird visuals came to mind and I think it turned out well
More of these, please. Awesome video.
Ive been always intrigued in the subject of neuroscience and music relationship. Its very interesting.
thesa are the types of videos i like watching you do.
The result of this is amazing lol, like damn! This is gonna give some inspiration for sure. Really loving your videos giving homework and ideas 😋
You always make me remember VST's that I have and don't use that are excellent creation tools. You have once again made me come to the conclusion that I have a lot of s%^t (stuff) I don't use. You have again taken away the excuse for not creating something, out of something because I always have something. Just have to make something out of it, if that makes sense. Thanks for the upload.
Great to see you at NAMM yesterday xx
I had to give a big thumbs up right away, just because of the opening quip! Hilarious! 😀
Awesome and inspiring! Thank you so much 😁
Great video! Really enjoying your content and your pianobook submissions.
The Jackson Pollock method works for me. Do random stuff and explore novelty without a predetermined plan. NI Playbox looks helpful for this, imo.
oh no, vomiting "painter" :(
More vids like this. Interesting and inspiring
Happily hit both the like and subscribe buttons ! New to your channel , but felt right at home...which is kinda weird... so you are doing something my brain likes. :)
I'd like to imagine that this is a direct response to me, from two weeks ago. But I recognize that the world doesn't revolve around me, and it'd be extremely conceited to think that I prompted a video like this. 😂
Either way, I appreciate your work here, Cameron. Thanks for always providing us with homework, buckaroonie. Keep at it.
...I now have yet another reason to get a Microcosm. Ugh. My wallet screams.
I use my microcosm daily. Originally it was on my guitar board but now it lives with my synths.
Interesting ideas, as always... although, the challenge is now to translate the thinking to something non-ambient :)
As a development/suggestion: Perhaps have a listen to Synergy's "Games" album from 1979. For ME, Larry Fast took similar ideas (with "Delta Four" in particular on the album)... starting off with a similar 'single chord' that phased in and out, adding a crazy ostinato... and then making its way to a Wendy Carlos/Tron -type thing towards the end of the track.
Very much appreicate your videos... as they often implant 'a splinter in my brain' and get me out of many a rut :)
I'll try this with some free plugins like fracture and cloudseed. If I remember correctly it was one of your videos that introduced those to me
Check out the free DEELAY plugin as well - the 'Chaos' modes are quite similar to what you get here!
@@VenusTheory thanks!
Thanks for this idea! Very inspiring!
ooooh, a music production channel that gives homework assignments? sweet!
No - the brain does not use a hierarchical filing structure. It uses some "unknown" sort of associative memory. It may be structured in some way - but it probably differs from person to person. There have been experiments done on animals and humans which do show how some memories are located in space on the brain cortex.
Awesome track!
...and my Hermann Earschach test hears Peter Gabriel's - Shaking The Tree! :)
the demo at 7:19 sounds just like begin by letting go by Etherwood!
I haven't heard one bad sound from any microcosm video...liked your track.
To be fair, I could make one in ten seconds - some of the algorithms really need to be wrestled with to make something musical. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
how do you route VSTs into the microcosm in these setups?
I produce at the bar. Theres the right amount of distraction so I dont get bogged down. Plus redbull to get spun out. Plus whiskey neat to make me nonjudgemental.
Damn Cameron, I really hope you finish this track and release it! This could be a serious banger!
Where you ended up was epic!
Amazing video, appreciate the simpler things are easily made into a story. 😎
Love it. How do you connected the pedal to the DAW to use it as external FX?
Loved this vid. Pushed me to finally get a Microcosm. 👍
Can’t wait for this. Struggle with writers block so bloody much haha
Hope it's helpful!
Nice video, that's an approach I haven't tried yet 😍 (I should also explore more of my brain's "potential waifu" folder). I do try other things, like I just started off with a Dub / Reggae rhythm just to see what I could do with it as it's MILES out of my comfort zone and the actual result was fun and I like it 🙂
Curious to know if you’re familiar with the Oblique Strategies. They were a favourite cure for writer’s block for Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, among others.
Makes a lot of sense...to me. Thank you for this.
I would like to see how you did that killer drum sequence
Not quite as immediate, but equally interesting is Dillon Bastan's work in Ableton/M4L plugins. Thanks VT!
nice inspiration machine 😎😎
Great stuff! Cheers!
This is awesome! Thanks!
Picking one up after this!
Boy that escalated quickly
The blobby thing you make doesn't even have to stay in the final product. I absolutely love writing a melody to a shitty 4 chord pop progression and then ripping out the chords and putting in some chords that actually do it for me.