Recently I have fallen into a creative slump. Everything I do feels the same as something I've already done. I'll start on something, than half way through it I decide it's too familiar sounding. I try new scales, new sounds, new everything but it turns out like sh*t. Has anyone else had this problem before? What can I do?

duh! everyone has creative slumps now and again, some more than others. but like I tell everyone else, I just take breaks and put myself into different situations and atmospheres, u could go out someplace youve never been b4 and just soak it all up.
eof

I agree with syn:

Go to a rave. Watch some fucked up movies with
your mates before you go, do moderate amounts
of drugs (stay away from downers unless that's
your thing), stay up all night and go to McDonalds
for breakfast. Don't sleep in your bed, sleep on the
floor, or on the couch. Watch cartoons the next day
and putter around with your gear, but don't try to
make any serious attempts. Make sure you drink
coffee with everyone you went to the party with. Give
it a few days and you'll be inspired again. Try to do
things that aren't in your usual routine.

Also, listen to ALOT of music. No matter what
anyone says, most musicians are influenced by
other music. Buy several albums, and listen to
them. Keep new musical ideas coming into your
head and new ideas will come out of your head.
You have to get your mind kick-started, making
new connections (read the 'connections' thread in
Music Theory). An object in motion tends to stay in
motion.

And for God's sake, get a good book!! I
recommend 'Snow Crash' by Neil Stephenson.

Best of luck... I'm in another slump myself, and
come the weekend I'll be trying to get myself in
motion again.

Holyshit! snowcrash, I finished that a while back, read it in like 3 days, awesome book if that dont inspire some weird digital music nothing will!
laterz

I can't stress these two things enough: Learning and
living. A steady diet of these two things will help
inspire anyone. Here's some more tips...

Classical composers used to turn sheet music upside
down and try to play the music, to gain new insights
into progressions and melodies. While not the same as
'upside down and backwards', listening to music
backwards can also give you alot of ideas. Remember,
learning is all about connecting ideas, and actual
spaces, in our brains. Like water flowing through a
labrynth of channels and passages, when a new
connection is formed, the water can flow into new
areas. A single new connection can cause hundreds of
other connections to be called into more frequent use.

Get some new gear. I hate to admit it, but new
equipment is the quickest way to feed yourself some new
sounds, which entertain the portion of brain concerned
wholly with identifying what sounds are. This part of
the brain creates the best feelings when excited,
contrary to our belief that it's the notes and melodies
that entertain us the most. The pleasing sounds are the
candy coating around the melodic payload...

The best sounds have alot of 'overtones'. Basically, a
piano has alot of overtones. Play middle C, and at a
lower amplitude the c an octave up is mixed in, and the
next c quieter yet, and so forth. As we move up the
keys, the overtones decrease beyond our ability to hear
them. The more overtones (and not necessarily at the
octaves) the better! Ever wonder why we can listen to a
piano or a cello for hours and not get sick of the
sound? OVERTONES. Something lacking from purely digital
instruments. That's why electronic musicians have to
build them back into the sounds using LFOs, filters,
reverbs and delays.

Get a mentor. You need someone who will be honest and
tell you when you're making crap. Someone who can also
steer you away from habitual paths.

Alot of new age musicians claim to have had near-death
experiences. While dead, they say that they have heard
the most beautiful music. They spend the rest of their
lives trying to re-create the music they heard while
dead. They are driven because they have a goal in mind,
one that they may never reach. If you don't have a goal
besides 'a banging track', you may find your creativity
lacking more often than not. I have such a goal, but I
do lose sight of it, sometimes.

If people want me to shut up, jus

there's a very good thread on creativity dips in the main forum...about a year old i think....hmmm....i cant remeber the name but i thought it was excellent..I enjoyed reading it a lot. Try and find it, and most of all DONT GIVE UP...just do some other stuff for a while (like playing your keyboard with the sequencer/computer turned off, listen to many (amateur)mp3s created by other people, also in other genres...)

Best of luck mate

i do agree with more gear == more inspiration, BUT i think that can also be a trap. think about finding the right sound for a track, it can take 6 months or more to crack a certain synth and be able to use it to its full potential and actually KNOW what its NOT capable of doing, and then finding the right sound on another machine. and if your have like 5 synths that u only half know then..........(this is all JUST my OPINION)
btw ggehiere I listened to a couple of your tracks the other day, I like'em :-)

I disagree to a point with more gear, more inspiration. I`d certainly say that a certain amount will stop you being held back, but too much and you`ll just be going round in circles dabbling with each individual piece rather than diggin right inside em like Syn said. I mean, I`ve had my sampler for mebbe 15 months now and I`ve absolutely caned it, but I`m only just now beginning to dig right inside it now and its absolutely fucking incredible the things it lets me do and yet I`ve still only scratched the surface in terms of its abilities. If I`d have actually bought all the other pieces that I`ve eyed up greedily in those past 15 months I`d still be going nowhere fast as I`d only have basic knowledge of each and heave even more debts.

agreed - i'd say dump 80% of your gear and work with an absolute minimum like sampler & one synth... more kit = less work in my experience cos you solve all problems of originality with sounds choices mentally - that is not the answer - you need to be able to make wicked music grooves with just the absolute basics.

I most certainly agree with the rest of y'all - there
are some definitely dangerous perils to the 'more
gear' solution.

I've always said that gas (gear aquisition
syndrome) just gets in the way - the choosing,
obsessing, saving for, purchasing, buying, being
frustrated by, learning and ultimately using new
gear just get in the way of what's really important -
writing music.

But it is one of the ways we feel 'trapped', and like
our creativity is going in circles...

By the way, FLuCKs should tell us what kind of
music he/ she is writing.

Later...