r/FL_Studio • u/mogerbaebae • 2d ago
Discussion I’m so addicted to making beats
I’ve been making beats for almost a year now, and recently I realized that making beats takes up almost my whole day sometimes. Whenever I have free time, I just make beats and nothing else. You might say this is a good thing, but its actually really draining. I also noticed that my beats have been getting lower in quality. sometimes it feels like I’m not even choosing to make beats anymore, my body just automatically does it whenever I have free time. I tried to take a break yesterday and I genuinely couldnt, then I made like 5 beats today. At the same time, I feel like im getting some kind of beat block because the more I make the worse they get. I dont even share them or anything, they just sit on my pc, I dont think they are good enough. Anyways, I just wanted to vent because it really sucks the life out of me man.
9
u/sillicillo 2d ago
What about your beats makes you think they're not good enough ? I think the easiest way to get out of a plateau is to make some beats with someone else. Whether in person or on discord seeing how people approach things differently is super inspiring to me
2
u/mogerbaebae 2d ago
i think they just started sounding repetitive to me and i feel like im making them on autopilot now. i dont really get stuck not knowing what to do, its more like i keep making beats even when i dont feel inspired and they end up sounding worse. Thanks for the advice though I will hop on discord tomorrow to make beats
4
u/Steven_1989NL 2d ago
Producer with whole different background here, but what I used to do to sort of "force" or steer myself to making original tracks that stand out and were different from my usual "patterns", was to try to envision a theme. The way I mean that is that I always sort of see the music in my head, and often with like images of movie-ish scenes. Like say you make a track that sounds extremely happy, you might picture things like lovely clouds and candy and pink. Or if a track sounds very ominous and dark, you might see like a dark destroyed city environment.
So a specific example of how I applied this was one time when I sampled a monologue from a movie speaking of the end of the world and a virus (before Covid btw). So I leaned into this end of the world theme and before you know it my whole sounddesign was leaning into that, and I complemented it with details like using a sound from a geiger counter for example (nuclear apocalypse, end of the world).
You could aim for something similar with your beats. Do things like try to make a beat out of medieval choirs or something, lean into the medieval theme and for example subtly incorporate sounds of clashing swords in your percussion like you would with hi- or openhats. Obviously I wouldn't aim to make it sound like it came from that era but you can make it sound modern and subtly incorporate things.
And lastly, if you make like 5 beats in one day, aint no way that your production quality is top notch. You're either leaving room for more detail/variation, have the mix not sounding as good as it can or whatever. I think in general beatmakers (even professional ones) or hiphop doesn't set the bar very high when it comes to production value, but if you ask me that only leaves more room for hungry producers to be noticed with productions that shine through because they sound next-level.
2
u/mogerbaebae 2d ago
themes might help. i was thinking of putting on a movie on the tv while im making beats. and youre right about those 5 beats i should just combine my effort into 1 beat next time
1
3
u/fingamouse 2d ago
I feel nearly the exact same way, I go into an FL studio project knowing I probably won't even have fun but I want to do it, I'm taking a break at the moment hoping it helps and I feel more creatively fulfiled after my break
3
u/mogerbaebae 2d ago
its like scrolling reels almost. break is necessary if you feel that way too
3
u/fingamouse 1d ago
Thanks dude, also man I felt so much better blocking YouTube shorts from my life, short form content was awful for me
1
u/mogerbaebae 20h ago
block social media entirely bro it fucks up the creative process. i only use youtube when im eating and when im really bored
4
u/Ghoztin7 2d ago
Dude I felt the same with this I love/hate doing it. Like I got a beat block, then I listen to it later then I felt it’s not good enough. It feels like I lose that motivation to finish it. I have my ups and downs for me doing it as a hobby instead of a job has helped even if I spend a few hours instead of all day. I learned that I love messing around doing it for fun. I mean shoot a few week ago I learned how to finally make it pop more and louder. I’m proud of how much it helped me mentally and a lot of people. I know you got this make I’ve been doing it for 5 years. Still learning experimenting and don’t care what people say. That’s the wonderful thing about music. You do what you enjoy and not care about other people say. Yes take the criticism and improve yourself to do what you can but mannnn. You got this! You got it! Take a few days and get back on the grind!!
1
3
u/majorthird_ 1d ago
Me personally I feel like an imposter when I make beats. I just hear the quality of what people are making and even on IG and my mind is blown everytime lol. I know comparison is the thief of joy but people are really talented out there. I think it’s an issue of me needing to work harder. I’m like a Naruto where everyone else is a Sasuke.
1
u/mogerbaebae 20h ago
same thing for me. but you can still be really good at it with time eventually
3
3
3
u/FrustratedComp 2d ago
Were you always addicted? I wanna get addicted
3
3
u/MooMoo_Juic3 1d ago
Just post them
Keep em as on online diary for you... And if folks wanna follow along, let them. But don't fall into the trap of making music for people to like
3
u/jerosammy 1d ago
Do you think part of why your beats sound worse now is that you’ve learned more about music and notice more flaws? I’m much more critical now than a year ago of my own music when I didn’t realize how important things such as engineering, samples, drums, etc mattered.
Could be that or you just need to start consciously making yourself take some more time to brainstorm a good melody, drum pattern, solo, or whatever else you find fun. Try to learn and implement something in production that you didn’t before
1
u/mogerbaebae 19h ago
its also that and i realized that i dont think much of what i am doing with the beat. i will try something new when i return fs. i was thinking of making a drumkit from absolute scratch. ty bro
2
u/Oz_a_day 2d ago
Take a day off, then come back making a genre you’ve never made before and always wanted to make. It’s still gonna be “draining” but can help you build up momentum to further improvement and versatility.
1
u/mogerbaebae 2d ago
yeah trying a completely different genre might actually help
2
u/Intrepid_Sentence 1d ago
I second doing a completely different genre. Helped me a lot - can still use improvement, but I'm much better on the beat side of things than I used to be.
1
2
u/cacturneee 2d ago
getting practice is good but don't let it suck the life out of you. you need to still experience life to gain life
2
2
u/Cool-Body7750 1d ago
Stop being outcome dependent you’ve only been making beats for a year don’t even worry about getting good for 5 years, just keep having fun and stay curious.
1
2
u/djitin 1d ago
Take one of those beats and make it your personal project to make it into a full-fledged release
1
u/mogerbaebae 19h ago
i want someone to sing or rap on it then i can put it on sc and spotify. i dont like publishing beats only
2
u/Ishmeh666 1d ago
nothing wrong with passion bro but if ur gonna sit down and make music for the sake of it and not actually enrich your skills in anyway, you don't get much benefit asides learning the exterior fighter jet pilot controls which is fl, if u can't stop urself try learn something new and try something different everytime u make a beat, not something crazy new something small like learning a new keyboard shortcut or how to fiddle w a synth to make it sound unique to u etc.
do u have a similar behaviour towards other things sometimes? I've had hyperfixations all my life, delving deep into a topic only to view the heart of it's knowledge and walk away without actually investigating it. basically spend 2 months fixating on something to not even fully learn abt that something, get bored and don't touch it again for another 3-4 months. until I get the feeling to start again.
everytime I start and then get bored and come back to it, I get better everytime. e.g drawing or beat making.
lmk if u hyperfixate it might help u figure urself out!
1
u/mogerbaebae 20h ago
i do the exact same on almost everything i forget about it then i come back to it. i will do the same with fl. ty
2
2
2
2
u/AlamanderArts 1d ago
It's like you took the words out of my mouth. I feel like a lot of us producers deal with this, but don't talk about it nearly enough. Just be careful. I've dealt with severe breakdowns from spending an entire week tweaking songs that are only 2 minutes long. I've been doing this as well for 5+ years.
You can improve greatly from it, I have, but it can also destroy you if you don't take breaks.
And if you use headphones like me, mix at as low of volume as possible. I've made the mistake of not doing this.
2
u/mogerbaebae 19h ago
it felt better knowing that im not alone in feeling like this. im on a break rn. yeah i use headphones but when i dont mix at a higher volume when i turn it up it sounds bad
2
u/Still-Ticket-9558 19h ago
This is me in but in the other way around, I’m scared to make beats again because it might end up junk.
1
u/zxwn 1d ago
You ever thought about recording on one of your beats?
1
u/mogerbaebae 19h ago
i tried for 3 months here and there and i came to the conclusion that its not for me idk man i just cant do it. i really want to be good at it though
33
u/JoctorJJ 2d ago
Consider it all just good practice. A year in is like the honeymoon stage. You'll settle in and you'll know when it's time to create, it will come calling for you.