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Season 2 ·

S2E07 – Producers Need Breaks, Too

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The main reason I wanted to make this episode is to share that after starting to teach beatmaking education with FL Studio full time, mindset and self-discipline are at an all time high for myself!

If you are wanting to somehow be involved in the music industry full time, you get the flexibility of more time, but you also get the weight of doing most of the work yourself!

This require knowledge and preparation in MANY AREAS rather than just knowing how to make music..

It’s important to be aware of your “Producer Health Meter”.. and question how you are feeling, where you are at, and maybe it’s time for a break.

Take that walk, read that book, or maybe play that video game for that hour or two that you need.

Just remember, you need to come back to do the work, but it’s about being prepared to do the work, with a well-rested mind.

If you rush things, that’s usually what your end result will be.. rushed.

Discover my tips on keeping yourself well-maintained for long-term efforts as a music producer.

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S2E07 – Producers Need Breaks, Too

  1. Season two, episode seven. Producers need breaks
  2. too. Being a music producer, you're always on a computer.
  3. So it's important to take breaks, to have hobbies away from the
  4. computer, so that you, as the music producer, can get the best results.
  5. Before we get into this episode, I want to tell you that I created a page, it's
  6. called the resources page. Just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash resources.
  7. I have listed all of the free things that I ever mentioned.
  8. I want to talk about the MAudio Oxygen Pro MIDI keyboard.
  9. So to get a really good experience inside of FL Studio, it's important that you have
  10. a good MIDI keyboard, at least a minimum 49 key.
  11. Now, in order to get this working good with FL Studio, I wrote a free script.
  12. So as of FL Studio 20.7, I believe they introduced something called MIDI
  13. scripting. It's huge for FL Studio because back in the day, sometimes MIDI
  14. devices didn't work the best inside of FL Studio.
  15. So back then there really wasn't a workaround.
  16. Either the hardware worked or it didn't.
  17. But now MIDI scripting allows you to write a script, or many times there's free
  18. available scripts online. It's easy to install, you just have to install it once,
  19. and then your keyboard is up and running.
  20. And so what MIDI scripting does is it allows you to set up any of the buttons to do
  21. whatever you want them to do. And so that's pretty cool because you have full
  22. control. And even the old controllers back in the day, the ones that were nice but
  23. didn't integrate well with FL Studio.
  24. if you know how to do the scripting or if there's a script out there, you can easily
  25. just install it, and then that MIDI keyboard is now good to go.
  26. Now, this MAudio Oxygen Pro, in my opinion, checks all the boxes for what I'm
  27. looking for in a MIDI keyboard..
  28. one thing to mention is that the pitch wheel is having some problems
  29. MAudio even wrote a little update in their code, but it still didn't fix it.
  30. But for me, it the pitch wheel isn't a big deal because I don't use the pitch wheel
  31. as I make beats. I'm mainly concerned with having nice keys where I can use the
  32. octave button to go up and down.
  33. It has the transport buttons, it also has the loop button so you can switch in
  34. between song and pattern mode.
  35. So if you use FL Studio and if you're looking for a MIDI keyboard, definitely read
  36. and watch my review of the Oxygen Pro 49.
  37. I have one main review, and then I also have about 10 or 11 small videos showing you
  38. how to set it up, how to install the free MIDI script, and why I think the Oxygen
  39. Pro will give you a great experience inside of FL
  40. Studio. Alright, so into the topic about
  41. producers need breaks too. For those of you that know, I was an electrician for
  42. about 10 years here in Canada.
  43. And I was always doing music production on the side.
  44. I would do my tutorials on the side.
  45. And so now for me doing this full time, I'm telling you guys that you know it's
  46. important that producers need breaks too.
  47. Because when you work a job that doesn't require being on a computer and you come
  48. home and enjoy being on the computer or making music, so if you take a break and go
  49. on the computer as a music producer, right, it's kind of hard to differentiate
  50. between you know business and playtime.
  51. And also, if you are a music producer, always being on a computer, it requires a lot
  52. of self-discipline so that you don't get distracted and going on to different
  53. websites, social media or something.
  54. Like that stuff is so distracting.
  55. And you. know, when you have a feed and you keep going through that feed, get out of
  56. there as fast as you can Now, another thing is a regular 40-hour job that is Monday
  57. to Friday, you also get weekends off many times, right?
  58. Like not all jobs, but a lot of jobs.
  59. Like when I was electrician, I did work Monday to Friday.
  60. The hours were from 7 a.m. So it was it was early starts.
  61. Many times I'd have to leave my house by about 6:20 or 6 30, sometimes earlier,
  62. sometimes later, depending on how far the job site was.
  63. Sometimes a job site could be an hour away, sometimes it could be 10 minutes away.
  64. I really like the 10-minute ones because on the way home, you know, you're just home
  65. and you're good to go. but again, you get weekends off.
  66. So, as a music producer, I really don't have the weekends like that.
  67. So I have to decide when do I take time off.
  68. Maybe it could be a couple hours in the afternoon.
  69. Maybe I go for a bike ride or you know, take a break, but then I come back and maybe
  70. I get some stuff done. But all I'm saying is that your time is spent differently.
  71. you still get whatever time you want because you know that's just kind of being like
  72. an entrepreneur. Like you have to be able to juggle your time and be good with your
  73. time. And again, that requires a lot of self-discipline.
  74. So as a music producer, you need to learn balance and when you are tired, and you
  75. need to find outside hobbies. Okay.
  76. If you do, it's just gonna allow you to still live like a normal life.
  77. And when you come back to making music, or in my case, also doing these podcasts or
  78. courses, books, all that stuff.
  79. When I come back to that stuff, I'm fresh, I'm excited about it, and I want to get
  80. it done, right? Now, a big thing is being efficient allows you to tackle
  81. more and less time. When you set up templates or you start thinking about your
  82. workflow, it can save you a lot of time.
  83. But again, thinking too much about your workflow, it can also hinder you if you're
  84. not careful, right? I tell I'll tell you about that in my book, Ultimate FL Studio
  85. Template Creation Guide. And so what I discovered with a template is sometimes you
  86. can create a template and it saves you a lot of time, it's awesome.
  87. It's simple, it saves you a lot of clicks.
  88. Sometimes a template can slow you down, right?
  89. Sometimes the project can always take so long to open, you don't even use half the
  90. things. So you just got to be careful when it comes to a template.
  91. But sometimes a template, like if you think about a template properly and implement
  92. it properly, you can shave off like maybe 30 or to 40% of the repetitive tasks.
  93. And that's just because computers can do repetitive tasks, such as if you guys check
  94. out my FL Studio template, it's available for purchase, just nine bucks.
  95. I have gone through the pain of trying to set up these big templates only to realize
  96. that you know I set up my template this way because it allows me to work
  97. universally, whether I'm working with vocals or whether I'm working with you know
  98. just a beat. Now, again, because you don't have those two days off every
  99. weekend, sometimes you do have to take that full day off away from work.
  100. Now, work for a music producer, may be someone else's fun and leisure time.
  101. When I was an electrician, I would work from 7 to 3 30 being an electrician, but I
  102. always would come home and I want to make music.
  103. I wanted to go on the computer, I wanted to learn something about making beats..
  104. And so when I came home at night, like this was kind of my fun time, my practice
  105. time, whatever But for me now, I wake up and it's like this is this is
  106. it. But then let's say I'm working a full day, but then what do I do after?
  107. Right? Because if I just keep going back to music, I'm gonna get burnt out, it's
  108. gonna be boring, it's not gonna be fun.
  109. And so that's what I'm saying.
  110. You have to find your hobbies or find things to do.
  111. It just allows you to take breaks.
  112. Also, one final thing I want to say about that is creating music and finishing
  113. music. Okay, listen to those words carefully.
  114. Finishing music. Creating the music is pretty much the easy part, right?
  115. Finishing it is the hardest part because you know, you got to get your arrangement
  116. right, you got to get your mixing right, you got to get your mastering right, and
  117. you want it to be a complete project.
  118. And so this requires a well-rested mind.
  119. When you sit down, you need to be ready to work to finish that song.
  120. Like if I were to sit and make beats, like I could make beats, you know, one after
  121. another, quick, quick, quick, quick.
  122. But if you wanted me to finish those beats, I'd say, okay, well, I'll come back the
  123. next day with a fresh mind, and I'll sit down and I'll put more effort into that
  124. arrangement, more effort into you know, audio painting, all that stuff, right?
  125. Again, check out my book called Audio Painting if you want to learn about that.
  126. It's all about communicating with the listener and preparing them for what's next in
  127. the song. Now, I want to close out here with an example.
  128. I call this the ping pong example.
  129. And so in high school, I played a lot of ping pong in my basement.
  130. I had a ping-pong table growing up.
  131. You know, I wasn't amazing at it, but it was a lot of fun to play with friends, all
  132. right. Now, one friend would come over often to play, and sometimes what would
  133. happen is we would take two or three month breaks, and then we would start playing
  134. ping pong again. And each time we came back, we always felt that we were getting
  135. better than before. Now, maybe we were just thinking that, but the rallies were
  136. getting better, you know, when you hit the ball back and forth, and the rallies were
  137. becoming longer and they were becoming more intense, you know.
  138. Maybe we were we were hitting the ball a little bit harder.
  139. And when we came back from those two or three month breaks, we also felt more rested
  140. and we enjoyed playing ping pong more, right?
  141. So, this is what I'm trying to tell you that when I come back to making music, or
  142. when I or when you come back to making music, right?
  143. You come back refreshed. maybe you had time to read more, you're more educated, you
  144. come back in fresh. So I think this ping pong example of taking breaks has some
  145. merit in allowing you to be a music producer for a much longer term who is well
  146. rested and you know can think with a clear mind.
  147. All right, so that is this episode on producers need breaks too.
  148. You know, if you're working yourself hard, sometimes taking a break, reading a book,
  149. or you know, finding just a different hobby that just gives you a little mix up in
  150. your life, it's going to do wonders for you.
  151. Okay. So thank you so much for listening.
  152. Remember, for any of my free downloads that I mentioned they are all available on my
  153. resources page. Just go to it'sgratuitous.com forward slash
  154. resources. And finally, visit it'sgratuitous.com to learn more about my FL
  155. Studio training. Thanks for
  156. listening.
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