4 NIGHTMARES you Must to avoid as a producer

Producers often go through problems, but sometimes we go through some nightmares that crush us and drain our motivation, and sometimes even our will to get back up. If you’ve gone through a nightmare situation, tell me this story as I’d love to hear from you.

But, here are a few that I’ve already gone through myself that you can learn from and avoid going through yourself…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Don’t quit working on music when you get a really bad feedback on your music.

At times, you’re so excited about a song and you think ‘That’s the one’, only to later ask for feedback and get a really really bad feedback on it, to the point that you feel crushed and a bit lost. It happens to every one of us, and if that repeats for a long period of time, it can take a big hit on your will to even think about producing music, which is a terrible spot to be at.

At this stage of the game, this is what you should do:

1. Try to understand why the bad feedback is happening. Is it because of a technical issue or a composition issue? Understanding the root of the bad feedback is important for you to try to tackle the problem the right way and move on with your music;
2. STOP thinking about releasing your song (with or without labels). At this stage, all you have to do is focus on recovering your confidence as a musician, and sometimes that can happen by (a) changing your genres or changing the way you produce, (b) focusing on small wins like showing up to produce, or (c) focusing on a goal outside of music like running or gym that can make you feel better about yourself;
3. Focus on ideas more than finishing songs. Instead of finishing every song you make, focus on making 5-10 ideas per week and only pursuing what really calls out to you since these are likely the best ideas you will have at the moment;
4. Give some advice to someone struggling with the same issue as you are. Research shows that giving advice to someone helps you restore confidence and regain motivation, so try to find someone that you can give some feedback to.

2. Do all that you can to avoid losing your projects and your data.

Now, the biggest nightmare for any producer is definitely losing all their data. Samples, VSTs installations, but especially Project Files since these can’t be recovered, and losing it would be just… heartbreaking, right? Therefore, here’s what you need to do now:

1. Back up everything that you’re currently working on to the cloud. For the projects that you currently working on or are not released, save them all inside Google Drive, Dropbox, or any cloud service because if anything happens to your machine, all is safe and secure in the cloud;
2. For older projects, put them on a hard drive as it will be cheaper than on cloud storage. But, have at least two hard drives for them, one being the main one and the backup of the main, to secure your hard drives as they also fail. Also, make sure to constantly copy them, or get software like CarbonCopyCloner for automatic backups;
3. Create a new save for every project file you work on. Every day you work on a project, save it with a new name so, if anything gets corrupted, you just lose a day of work. This is also useful to later recall midis if you’re converting your midis to audio;
4. Turn on auto-save in your DAW, or save like a maniac every time you work. On Friday, I created the best track of my life, but I forgot to save it, and it was heartbreaking. Eventually, this will happen to you, and if you have auto-save on (or if that is supported in your DAW), you’ll never have a problem with that.

Remember, if you have only one version of your projects, in IT terms, you have none since your hard drives will fail one day, so you have to be prepared for when it happens

3. Don’t let the lack of releases affect your motivation or productivity as a producer.

We all have periods in our lives when we’re stressed out, or something big happens to our lives that knocks us out of our momentum and, most importantly, leaves us without release for a long time. The problem here is that because you have no releases, we feel pressured to release and that we need to rush to get our music released again, and that’s an awful mindset to be in when you need to create something. Instead:

1. Take your time to get back on track. When you’re without releases, putting pressure on getting releases will only make things worse because most of us are not good creators under pressure. Instead, take your time to slowly build yourself up as putting out bad music is worse than no music at all. Start practicing creating ideas again, finishing songs, and soon you’ll be back on track;
2. Use collabs as a way to speed up your process. If you need to make music fast, collabs can be useful because they can: (a) be faster than a solo release since the work will be split in half (ish); (b) be easier to get the ball rolling as someone can show you an idea that you can tag along; (c) end up being better than what you can do alone at that time;
3. Plan your releases instead of just going back to scattered releases. When you’re without a release for a long time, it’s often tempting to ‘just put something out’ than to plan a consistent release schedule, which is better because it’s “consistent” and that often brings better results. So, hold your horses until you have 3-4 songs done, and then start shopping labels or planning your releases

4. Don’t let a failed collab affect your will to finish your songs.

The worst thing that could happen is when you’re collaborating with someone and the track is done, but then the person quits the collab. It could be a vocalist or even another producer, but that’s a horrible situation because it leaves without much else to do other than just trying to convince the person to go back.

Instead, here’s what you can do to fix the situation:

1. Ask the other person if you can still use their parts in the song. When a producer quits a collab, sometimes you can still ask them if you can keep working on the collab as is, and, sometimes, they will say yes to you. If it’s a vocalist, ask them if they can use the lyrics and have someone else singing on top of it. You’d still need to find another vocalist, but at least you have the lyrics already;
2. Before you even begin your next collab, already set the terms of what happens if someone quits the collab. Before every collab starts, send an email asking the question ‘What happens if one of us decides to quit or not release the collab?’. This way, (a) you’re aware of what could happen, and (b) you can set your terms. For example, to me, if someone quits, he/she should just quit the collab, taking his name out of the song name, and possibly the credits, and leave whatever was done there… it’s all up for discussion;
3. Before the collab is officially broken, ask them what is happening and why they are doing it. Most of the time, it’s some behavior or something in the song that you can fix together instead of going in separate ways. Not only can this prevent the collab from ending, but also can leave an open door for the future!

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What also can be a nightmare for producers?

1. Don’t let a bad release affect your motivation.
The easiest cure for a bad release is another released song that performs better, so instead of dwelling over a bad release, just make another song and market it better for a more successful outcome.

2. When you buy new gear, try not to sell your current gear and keep it as a backup.
When you have a backup for your headphone or studio monitor, it helps you by not leaving you empty handed and, therefore, preventing you from working.