I dont enjoy forumgames/lists but since i have a peeve myself i want to share with the world due to not having facebook/a smartphone to do so locally 24/7 i thought to make a forumpost on this beautiful little island in the sun, palmtrees, glass of coconut milk, battery radio next to you like its the 80s and you dont care.

Anyway back to the peeve, i drifted off a bit.

My biggest composing peeve is always how the hell to make music both sound good on headphones and without them, i tend to make awesome effects that you can barely hear with headphones on for instance but the moment i play the track from my boxes you probably wont notice them, and if you do it either sounds way to loud or creates dissonance or something so i have to remove them, or worse the whole track sounds weird/bad/uncule compared to when you listen to it with headphones and it all makes sense.

I am then always afraid the majority of people wlil listen to my track without headphones and judge it accordingy.
And when the track does sound good without headphones and with headphones its to loud or something im afraid the majority of people will in turn listen to it 'with headphones.

;-;

Yes, the life of a composer is very hard.

What is your composing peeve?

At 7/11/13 06:38 AM, Calamaistr wrote: i tend to make awesome effects that you can barely hear with headphones on for instance but the moment i play the track from my boxes you probably wont notice them, and if you do it either sounds way to loud or creates dissonance or something

Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

At 7/11/13 08:40 AM, KgZ wrote: Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

That would kill my style and only cater to the masses, no thx. :)

At 7/11/13 03:15 PM, Calamaistr wrote:

At 7/11/13 08:40 AM, KgZ wrote: Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

That would kill my style and only cater to the masses, no thx. :)

I suppose, but the human ear can only pay attention to so much at a given time.

At 7/11/13 03:15 PM, Calamaistr wrote:

At 7/11/13 08:40 AM, KgZ wrote: Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

That would kill my style and only cater to the masses, no thx. :)

I think what KgZ meant was that your average audience isn't going to hear every little thing within your composition, but rather know what you want the audience to focus on and build upon that. It helps your composition to become more cohesive and focused. It's not about have a bunch of different things happening that makes a composition interesting,but how all of those different elements compliment each other and come together to tell an interesting story.

It can be tough to get a good sound on monitors and headphones. I've had the same problem. There are only so many variables that you can tweak, so either make two versions, one more suited to headphones, the other to speakers... Or keep messing with your sound and checking back and forth until you get the right mix.

Other than that, I have little difficulty composing. I know what my song is going to sound like before I make it. I do enjoy making adjustments though. I just get to work.

Living your life as a composer is one of the easiest and rewarding jobs in the world IMO. You should be grateful that you are even in a situation where you can compose music :D

Going back to the actual topic...

My biggest pet peeve is TRANSITIONS. I have a thing about transitions, and I'm kinda mad when people obviously put no effort into transitions (including the intro and outro to the piece). Having good sections is one thing, but disrupting the flow of the music can ruin them just as easily as pitch-shifting half the instruments playing up by a tritone.

At 7/11/13 06:38 AM, Calamaistr wrote: I dont enjoy forumgames/lists but since i have a peeve myself i want to share with the world due to not having facebook/a smartphone to do so locally 24/7 i thought to make a forumpost on this beautiful little island in the sun, palmtrees, glass of coconut milk, battery radio next to you like its the 80s and you dont care.

Anyway back to the peeve, i drifted off a bit.

My biggest composing peeve is always how the hell to make music both sound good on headphones and without them, i tend to make awesome effects that you can barely hear with headphones on for instance but the moment i play the track from my boxes you probably wont notice them, and if you do it either sounds way to loud or creates dissonance or something so i have to remove them, or worse the whole track sounds weird/bad/uncule compared to when you listen to it with headphones and it all makes sense.

I am then always afraid the majority of people wlil listen to my track without headphones and judge it accordingy.
And when the track does sound good without headphones and with headphones its to loud or something im afraid the majority of people will in turn listen to it 'with headphones.

;-;

Yes, the life of a composer is very hard.

What is your composing peeve?

You should be mixing with monitors, if it sounds good on them most likely it will sound good on headphones.

My biggest production peeve is when my cpu can no longer support my project. I cooooooooouuuuulllld bounce track stems... but what if I want to change it later? lol

My biggest composing pet peave is using a DAW/writing down my ideas.

What I mean is that I often hear a composition in my head before even opening up a DAW, and it sound amazing in my mind. I could close my eyes and bask in the swirling colors of my imaginary orchestra, and it is instantly gratifying. Having to mess with software, take hours putting down notes, tweaking velocities, mixing, mastering...That slow process is painful. I wish I could hook my mind up to software and instantly transfer what I heard in my head.

That's why I love improvising on the piano. It's like transcribing the music from my mind in real time and in just one go.

Finale is STILL 32-bit only... >_<

I hate using the mouse to compose with. If I do then it sounds too mechanic and unrealistic to me.

But he flip side is that a MIDI interface isn't responsive and versatile enough .

FML

Peeve 1 : DAW Wars.
Can't we all just be friends and get on?

Peeve 2: People not helping others
Can't we all just be friends and get on?

Damn.
Seems like it's just a single peeve:
Why are so many of us cruel and competitive when we'd get so much more out of working together?

not being able to compose anything.

My composing peeve? Blasting to your ears with compressed metal until your eardrums bleed. Sum it all up, I'm suck as mixing.

At 7/12/13 04:39 AM, Yoshiii343 wrote: not being able to compose anything.

We should get along...

My biggest peeve is falling into old niches when I'm writing, making my stuff sound all the same. Those who've listened to my music would know what I'm talking about. I try so hard to make something different then my mind is like "hey you should do the thing" and I do it, and it ends up sounding really good and I finish it like that. I'm not saying I hate my music, but I kind of want to branch out a bit, change my style for project or two, y'know?

Also, CPU problems. Always CPU problems. Makes working on a project damn near impossible unless you want to render a whole lot of wav files to be able to hear it without your computer glitching out.

At 7/12/13 09:16 AM, Sielumetsien wrote:

At 7/12/13 04:39 AM, Yoshiii343 wrote: not being able to compose anything.

We should get along...

well, hello there good sir. How are ye on this fine day?

At 7/12/13 10:04 AM, DylnMatrix wrote: My biggest peeve is falling into old niches when I'm writing, making my stuff sound all the same

...I think I might be falling into this one.
Maybe I shouldn't force myself to try and make trap.

At 7/11/13 03:35 PM, KgZ wrote: the human ear can only pay attention to so much at a given time.

True, but when it comes to music, mostly it's the "untrained ear" that can only pay so much attention , and to only a select few things, at that.
I do take this into account a lot of times, but I say just go and include those bits you want - some people may not pay attention to it, but they are hearing it. It does make a noticeable difference, especially to those who *can* tell what you've put into it.

At 7/11/13 07:38 PM, BlazingDragon wrote: My biggest composing pet peave is using a DAW/writing down my ideas.

What I mean is that I often hear a composition in my head before even opening up a DAW, and it sound amazing in my mind. I could close my eyes and bask in the swirling colors of my imaginary orchestra, and it is instantly gratifying. Having to mess with software, take hours putting down notes, tweaking velocities, mixing, mastering...That slow process is painful. I wish I could hook my mind up to software and instantly transfer what I heard in my head.

That's why I love improvising on the piano. It's like transcribing the music from my mind in real time and in just one go.

THIIIISSSSSS. >_< And though improvising on the piano still doesn't cut it for me, it certainly does help. Actually, improvising on any instrument helps, since it gives you more control over what you want to play out from what you're hearing in your mind.

It's so annoying to have to put it down into a DAW. It takes sooo much time and then skill in using your DAW, so it's really bothersome when you can't get or it takes forever to get the right sound you want because you have to do technical things to take down something so flowy as music. But that's also part of the challenge, so meh. It's just an extreme annoyance that always takes some time to get around.

At 7/11/13 03:15 PM, Calamaistr wrote:

At 7/11/13 08:40 AM, KgZ wrote: Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

That would kill my style and only cater to the masses, no thx. :)

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

My "peeve" is more of a "problem" recently, and that's that I can't finish any composition that I start, most notably when I think I'm actually making something decent. Other peeves are being bad at piano/guitar, defaulting to the same scales for a lot of songs, and having a workstation that is so lacking in essential tools that my work process takes far too long.

At 7/12/13 11:09 AM, alternativesolution wrote:

At 7/11/13 03:35 PM, KgZ wrote: the human ear can only pay attention to so much at a given time.

True, but when it comes to music, mostly it's the "untrained ear" that can only pay so much attention , and to only a select few things, at that.
I do take this into account a lot of times, but I say just go and include those bits you want - some people may not pay attention to it, but they are hearing it. It does make a noticeable difference, especially to those who *can* tell what you've put into it.

I think you're misinterpreting. You still need and should put in every detail possible. But you have to prioritize which details are most audible for a common listener to hear, as with any good mix.

At 7/12/13 11:53 AM, KgZ wrote: I think you're misinterpreting. You still need and should put in every detail possible. But you have to prioritize which details are most audible for a common listener to hear, as with any good mix.

Of course. I was referring to the OP to not worry about people not noticing certain parts of the song, and to just put it in anyway. Getting discouraged about people not paying attention to the small things is not the way to go. Although the little details may not go properly and individually noticed (that should be left to the experienced reviewer to point out), they are still being heard, even if so subtle in the mix, and just help make the song what it is.

Not so much a composing peeve.. but when recording guitars I absolutely can't stand when the sound of the pick hitting the string is audible.

At 7/11/13 03:45 PM, StaticBlu wrote:

At 7/11/13 03:15 PM, Calamaistr wrote:

At 7/11/13 08:40 AM, KgZ wrote: Sounds like you want the listener to hear every little thing you did, when you should prioritize what's actually important to the listener.

That would kill my style and only cater to the masses, no thx. :)

I think what KgZ meant was that your average audience isn't going to hear every little thing within your composition, but rather know what you want the audience to focus on and build upon that. It helps your composition to become more cohesive and focused. It's not about have a bunch of different things happening that makes a composition interesting,but how all of those different elements compliment each other and come together to tell an interesting story.

Not everyone loves contrapunt, but there are people that love contrapunt.

My point is that catering to the masses makes you compose in a different style than when not catering to the masses and i prefer to stick to my own wich has a lot of subtle little things. :P

My biggest peeve is that no system seems to be able to handle what I want to put in. I am creatively limited by my computers processing and memory abilities.

I spent way too much money getting slave computers to help and its still not enough. I spend way too much time trying to take out effects or using group buss effects to make room for more instruments. Either my sample quality or my composition has to suffer. Every new computer set up helps but its never enough.

At 7/14/13 12:09 PM, Breed wrote: My biggest peeve is that no system seems to be able to handle what I want to put in. I am creatively limited by my computers processing and memory abilities.

I spent way too much money getting slave computers to help and its still not enough. I spend way too much time trying to take out effects or using group buss effects to make room for more instruments. Either my sample quality or my composition has to suffer. Every new computer set up helps but its never enough.

sometimes i wish there was an option for disabling effects except when rendered

i don't have any peeves with composition or songwriting. actually i wish i was better (or more frequent) at coming up with decent elyrics.

At 7/11/13 07:38 PM, BlazingDragon wrote: My biggest composing pet peave is using a DAW/writing down my ideas.

What I mean is that I often hear a composition in my head before even opening up a DAW, and it sound amazing in my mind. I could close my eyes and bask in the swirling colors of my imaginary orchestra, and it is instantly gratifying. Having to mess with software, take hours putting down notes, tweaking velocities, mixing, mastering...That slow process is painful. I wish I could hook my mind up to software and instantly transfer what I heard in my head.

That's why I love improvising on the piano. It's like transcribing the music from my mind in real time and in just one go.

This so much! Oh the pain and frustration when you make something in the DAW after hours and hours of putting in notes and finding the right instrument and it ends up sounding not as good as it did in your head.

At 7/14/13 02:18 PM, JJM121 wrote: Oh the pain and frustration when you make something in the DAW after hours and hours of putting in notes and finding the right instrument and it ends up sounding not as good as it did in your head.

That's the life of a musician for ya.

About the thing in the head thing, i always wished there was a device that could record music that you hear inside your head, i could make things then that would shake the earth in awe. ;l

Anyway, another peeve of mine is how sometimes my operating system (fl9) refuses to allow several instruments at the same time and starts cutting their sound off randomly, thats so annoying.

My biggest peeve is when kicks. I mean, it's a drum right? It's only going to be used for one song in like one place and it's not even carrying pitch (unless I get some distorted 909s cooking). So why does it demand such attention? This is true for dance, dnb, dubstep and hiphop (boombap, westcoast AND trap). And it kills me.

I like what everyone's saying about transcribing the music in their head, I'd say I've gotten reasonably good at that though. What kills me is not being able to recreate the sounds in my head.

At 7/14/13 09:07 PM, Absilentia wrote: all of you are just not true musicians. if you were a true musician, you wouldn't post about the struggles you have, nor would you reply with your own issues like a bitch.

Says the person with no music uploaded. How cute. <3

At 7/14/13 04:56 PM, AxTekk wrote: I like what everyone's saying about transcribing the music in their head, I'd say I've gotten reasonably good at that though. What kills me is not being able to recreate the sounds in my head.

I know, there are so many musicians out there who don't know any theory,blah blah blah. But really, this is where theory and ear training are REALLY helpful. I'm still far from where I'd like to be, but studying harmony has made it a lot easier to know what is going on in my head and get it out to where other people can hear it.

At 7/14/13 11:43 PM, BlazingDragon wrote:

At 7/14/13 09:07 PM, Absilentia wrote: all of you are just not true musicians. if you were a true musician, you wouldn't post about the struggles you have, nor would you reply with your own issues like a bitch.

Says the person with no music uploaded. How cute. <3

bahahahahahahahhaha!!!! This guy.. he's hilarious. Obviously hasn't written that much music.

At 7/14/13 04:56 PM, AxTekk wrote: I like what everyone's saying about transcribing the music in their head, I'd say I've gotten reasonably good at that though. What kills me is not being able to recreate the sounds in my head.

I know, there are so many musicians out there who don't know any theory,blah blah blah. But really, this is where theory and ear training are REALLY helpful. I'm still far from where I'd like to be, but studying harmony has made it a lot easier to know what is going on in my head and get it out to where other people can hear it.

I have very little theory.. mostly know note values, time signatures, some terms regarding how music should be played, 3rd, 5th, 7th harmonies etc.. but no scales. I gotta say.. learning the scales would be a tremendous help when writing. Though - I do agree with AxTekk. I can fairly easily transcribe what I hear into a tabbing program (based on guitar) and then work from there into what ever instrument.. but sometimes I hear a certain effect and am just not sure of how best to accomplish it. Just takes practice!