My biggest frustration of all

[Nitrax]

And I can't be the only one here...

You start a project and get some nice things going on, good lay-out and sounds, but when you try to improve it further you start gradually destroying the thing against your will, ending up hugely frustrated and with a half-broken project. This just happened with two really nice projects within an hour time and I'm about to go crazy

It's been about 2 years since I started and I still don't get this. You try to improve something but you destroy it. How does that happen? Anybody got any ideas to prevent this from happening? Because I've ruined some great ideas more than once now

[Xenon96]

I experience this when I'm making a kick. I tried to make one today (a spoontech style kick), and the punch wasn't right. I tried lots of tricks on how to make it better, and it just got worse. I'm trying it once again now.

Btw don't get frustrated. Work with backups, and if you're destroying sth, go back, take a break, and then start again.

[Soundphase]

I experience this when I'm making a kick. I tried to make one today (a spoontech style kick), and the punch wasn't right. I tried lots of tricks on how to make it better, and it just got worse. I'm trying it once again now.

Btw don't get frustrated. Work with backups, and if you're destroying sth, go back, take a break, and then start again.

are you layering? Layering is about the most important thing when making a hard kick

[Nitrax]

The good thing is when you take a 30 minute break you finally manage to make it better than it was before

[Xenon96]

I experience this when I'm making a kick. I tried to make one today (a spoontech style kick), and the punch wasn't right. I tried lots of tricks on how to make it better, and it just got worse. I'm trying it once again now.

Btw don't get frustrated. Work with backups, and if you're destroying sth, go back, take a break, and then start again.

are you layering? Layering is about the most important thing when making a hard kick

I tried to layer some high distorted noise with the punch, but didn't really work out.

[UNIFITE]

And I can't be the only one here...

You start a project and get some nice things going on, good lay-out and sounds, but when you try to improve it further you start gradually destroying the thing against your will, ending up hugely frustrated and with a half-broken project. This just happened with two really nice projects within an hour time and I'm about to go crazy

It's been about 2 years since I started and I still don't get this. You try to improve something but you destroy it. How does that happen? Anybody got any ideas to prevent this from happening? Because I've ruined some great ideas more than once now

We know.. Almost every producer knows it, and has been through. I am still experiencing the same thing that you can manage to destroy a good sound by overdoing it. Thats also why it is important to save different versions, so You always can go back to your roots.

So the only idea i can give You is to save different versions or sometimes be happy with what You think sound great.

[Soundphase]

We know.. Almost every producer knows it, and has been through. I am still experiencing the same thing that you can manage to destroy a good sound by overdoing it. Thats also why it is important to save different versions, so You always can go back to your roots.

what I do when I found a good sound is, I immediately record it to wav, if it sounds good in my opinion

I don't bother saving loads of backups like that, unless it was a really sophisticated sound.. but really it's best idea to record a wave immediately in those cases.

[Shadow Interaction]

i know this problem all too well, it's also MY biggest issue in producing

but i found a good way to still continue... but it comes in 2 ways.

First of all, get your mind off of it. Listen to alot of different music and relax, then after a while pick up the project again with fresh hearing.
You'll instantly hear what sounds "off" from your perfect image of how the project must sound.

Next is the project itself, try to remove all non-used sounds and fx. just delete it. it will only eat your memory, and bring you in confusion to what sounds you use. color/name the sounds (including FX busses, playlist patterns etc) you do use so you can instantly find what you want to edit.

Then the third one is analyzing if the project is in balance. usually it gets destroyed by overuse of FX like EQ and distortion. try to bring it all down to a more sincere level. (for example if you boost +10 -which happens quickly if you're anxiously working on a project-, bring it down it to +3 and do the same to rest of the peaks)
also fix the whole mixing panel like this. every bus, every volume fader. this will get you at least a proper sounding stage.

these 3 things really work in my experience, it really makes your project optimal and notable for important hidden details which gets pushed away in the process.

[Dj Reaper]

That keeps happening to me too all the time. That´s why, when I have an important project I click save new version after every little tweak, where I could later forget what the original value was. After a few new versions I see if I am still satisfied and otherwise I jump back to the best older version and start tweaking from there again.

[noaii]

What shadow interaction is saying is so true.. But for me.. I still find it relatively hard to do all that. It has gotten better with time though. I've only been producing for couple of months so I'd expect it to get even better with time. I guess taking breaks is the biggest of all. And not trying to rush things. If you can't finish the thing today... try tomorrow.