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Is the I pad actually hurting my creativity?
I've been seriously considering ditching the ipad altogether. I absolutely LOVE my iPad mini retina. I love it so much that I spend/waste almost all of my free time on it. Yes, I do make some music here and there. Usually loops that I save in Audioshare for "later use." But really I just read a lot and watch YouTube videos while lying in bed, pooping, sitting on the couch, sitting outside, etc. I also do a lot of ebay lurking and app buying. It's out of control really.
As soon as I walk in the door I automatically pick up my ipad and immediately check my email and all the forums and blogs I frequent. Then before I know it, I'm dozing off because it's 3 AM and I have to get up for work at 7.
I have a home studio full of awesome gear that I used to create music with. I have a MacBook Pro with Live 9, Traktor, Machine and a metric shit ton of VST's. I have a MicroBrute, Bass Station 2, MicroKorg, UltraNova, tr8. I have Push, Launchpad. You get the idea. I also play guitar and have a pretty nice pedal setup yet since I've gotten ipad I find I waste so much time on it. My poor MacBook must be so lonely.
It's almost TOO convenient!!! I'm trying to force myself to produce music on this little device with all these apps when I've already mastered Ableton Live and other Hardware that can get it done so much easier. IDK. I'm feeling like I should get of rid of it. Like, it's actually sucking the life out of me. Sounds intense I know but I'm pretty passionate about making music and it's depressing when I look back at my day and see that I did nothing productive at all aside from making a few loops. Does anyone else find themselves felling this way at all ?
Comments
I reckon you have answered your own question, please understand that I do not wish to sound flippant. but I think you are the best person to make the call.
YOU, have choices to make. There are only so many hours in a day. There are hundreds, if not thousands of distractions vieing for your time along with the things you NEED to do and the GOALS you want to achieve. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it's all up to YOU.
And I say this based on experience and the ongoing battle ;-)
Yes, it happens to me, too. It seems, a new kind of discipline has to be established with these devices. It's like growing up again, and learning basic time-management... . I cling to the choir, saying: everyone has to find ways of intelligently using these devices themselves, somehow (I'm not just there, yet myself, wrestling with "temptation" day to day).
Good luck, cheers.
I dont think you are alone, you are clearly in love with music technology of the hardware and software variety, dont beat yourself up over it, it is what it is. Honestly, one of the reasons I do all these app videos is a way to justlfy the crazy amount of money we have spent on gear, not just apps, gear in general, but it was the same before I had an iPad, with VST's, before that with synths and studio gear etc etc.
I doubt very much that if you ditched your iPad you would all of a sudden become ultra creative with your other gear, You may for a while but then there would be a new VST that you needed, and use it maybe twice, and on it goes. I'll bet there have been periods in your life where you have been very creative and times where its like nothing happens for months, even before the iPad. I know its like that for me.
Sometimes I'll have this great idea for a track and by the time I should be thinking about staring it, the days half gone and I'm thinking well that was a waste, but was it really, I spent time doing something else, wether it be on the iPad or Piano or whatever, obviously I was happier doing that than being creative. No one suffered because I was not producing music and the world went on.
Being a musician of any kind takes lots of different guises, and one of them is just messing about with loops and browing apps and all the stuff you are doing, and I bet nearly all of us do most of the time, infact the amount of time a lot of us spend on here would make it impossible to anything other than what you are talking about now.
Anyway for what its worth dont worry about it, theres nothing wrong in what your doing, its just a feeling of guilt that you have all this other stuff and you should be using it, the gear will be there when you want to play, and it will still be happy when you don't :-)
Very true, well said.
I don't know about your creativity, but a little tip i learned, turn down the brightness on your i-product, it can save your eyes and your battery; They have these things so amped nowadays.
Kings Hawaiian Bread dude, that's all I'm going to say and while you're trying to figure that out you're going to forget all about your iPad.
Great comments. Thanx guys. I kinda already know the answer to this problem and you all touched on it. There are only so many hours in a day but there is so much that I want to do and most of it is music related. It's overwhelming so I end doing NOTHING and that sucks. We all know the struggle. It's real man. I also have the added pressure of bouncing between writing guitar music and lyrics and singing and making electronic music. I love them both.
Plus, @soundtestroom you're totally right: inspiration cannot be switched on and off. God, how wonderful it would be if it could work like that. I definitely go through dry periods where nothing happens and I have zero motivation to create. Then there's the times when it's overflowing out of me and I just have to somehow organize it, record it , write it and remember it. Also, I love what you do. Keep up the good work.
I'm probably not gonna ditch my ipad. On the contrary I'll probably upgrade to the AIR 2 w/ 64 GB. because 16 is not cutting it. Lol.
I have my own issues I need to work out and I definitely need to manage my time better and stop being lazy. ::::::::::: there's just so many distractions!!!!!! Information Overload!!!!!......>shut down
I know the feeling... but I think it's great. One moment you're reading mails, the moment later you pick up the piano, then you read a book, and then you play a synth bass groove... without changing your position. Great for lazy folks like me, too.
The iPad is great for experimenting and sketching ideas. I run my own business and have a 5 year old so my free time is seriously limited. I've got a ramshackle studio with analogue gear, guitars, mixer, effects etc. going into Logic but by the time I've plugged everything in it's time to go to bed. Whereas I spend half an hour every night on the iPad - it takes a few minutes to boot everything up and I'm ready to go. The only distraction for me are new Soundtestroom videos...
Power is nothing without control. I know people who own entire arsenal of instruments and can't do jack with them and the guy who makes amazing music on a shitty 5 string squire. Best thing just find 4 or 5 apps and use only those. Apart from learning well your tools you'll also get 'your sound'. In my current set up I use 16 self programmed patches on the sunrizer and have been using only those for the last few months. It sounds samey but it is my sound. If you can't control the amount of opportunities ipad brings, strip back, simplify.
@supadom... wise words.
If a person isn't compelled to make music everyday regardless of other distractions in life, do they actually have a passion for making music at all?
Plenty of people like the idea of making music, and it causes them to acquire thousands of dollars in gear with the assumption that if they acquire a giant pile of expensive things it will guilt them into doing what they don't actually have a passion for. It will always be staring at them making them uncomfortable for having so much money tied up in it while not using it.
But then, if a person makes music out of guilt, are they ever actually satisfied with the results?
I had the same issue with a huge German style board game collection with nearly 100 games that I never played, took up tons of space, and held a substantial investment which constantly guilted me to try to get them to the table, but the extra investment in learning rules well enough to teach them to others, putting up with the fact that it would be difficult to find other people I liked who would want to learn the complicated rules, and the basic fact that I didn't get any real satisfaction actually playing board games lead me to a simple realization: there is a difference between hobbies and passions. Hobbies are something that I do with my spare time and are by nature second tier in my life. A passion is something I always am doing regardless of any circumstances.
Music, particularly playing acoustic guitar, has always been that for me. When I look back at my life, without fail I was always playing acoustic guitar. I never needed to acquire something to finally add the last piece that would make me finally do it or finally allow me to "make the music I see in my mind" (something I regard as a BS statement today). No guilt was ever required, and it wasn't tied to acquisition syndrome in any way.
Once I realized this distinction between passions and hobbies, I immediately sold that board game collection. I wish I could describe how free and relieved I felt afterwards! Now I constantly apply it to any collection of things I have because removing any non-passion related pile of products from your life equals that much less guilt!
So, I'm not saying you're in that situation, but at least consider it. I believe though that if you have to force yourself to make music, if you have to "make time" to make music, and have to blame your iPad for being too distracting, that maybe you don't derive the amount of satisfaction out of making music as you do out of using your iPad the way you do.
Just something to consider.
So much on this thread rings true. When i first started on the production journey I had low quality second hand recording equipment a synth and a couple of guitars. It was simple to get tracks down. Low quality recordings, but tracks none the less. As more and more tech has become available at steadily decreasing prices the range of options I have available is far more than I could have imagined.
And the time required to master all these options grows exponentially. So I got an ipad to simplify things and take stems from hardware studio around with me so I could spend more time mixing and polishing the numerous tracks I have on the go at any one time. You know the logic..add a tool that allows you to make progress during what was previously dead time
After only four months I have more apps than I know what to do with and a bunch of unmixed stems still sat on the music PC that has been slowly gathering dust.
And now I also have all the other distractions that the ipad brings...
To be honest though I'd rather spend my time off with all this than watching the brain-rotting garbage we get on TV, even if the next album is taking a little longer than planned.
I think we shouldn't flog ourselves, either. There may be dry spells, there may be times when the inspiration arrives in channels well outside the iOS ecosystem, we maybe overworked, stressed, overwhelmed. An example: I haven't been playing or recording for a few weeks now. I'm working long hours and don't feel a source of inspiration when I get home. Yesterday, however, a friend invited us over for lunch with a bunch of other friends. I took my djembe along as I had not shown it to him (he's a producer/keyboardist). Turned out we had an impromptu percussion session that made up for all that dry spell of the last few weeks. Plain old, live acoustic percussion. Sometimes that's all it takes.
There is a train of thought amongst many artists that the idea of waiting for inspiration is a falsehood and that in fact it is all about application or a work ethic if you like, hence the old saying Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration, or a variation of that states Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration … I am not trying to claim to know the answer but it seems to me you do need to get stuck in to get any results be they good or bad.
Just a thought in relation to @Supadom's last post.
The whole "making the music you hear in your head" thing... That is totally alien to me. I don't hear any music in my mind. My mind is blank
.
Does that mean i'm not really musical? Dunno...
I just listen to other people's music and try to identify things about it I like. Then sit down with various apps and try to make my version of it - and it slowly becomes a track.
This is fun, and a challenge, and involves quite a lot of buying, reading about, and messing around with different apps etc. (which I don't feel at all guilty about since it's obviously part of the process). But it does produce a fairly regular stream of tracks that get made.
The only discipline I try to apply is to try to just work (or not work) on one track at a time. And not start the next track until i've finished (or aborted) the current one
If I have ideas for another track then I try to park them and i'll consider them for my next track when the time comes.
I think 'messing around' and reading about music etc. = experimentation/learning and I think it's an extremely healthy part of the creative process. So I wouldn't beat yourself up about it.
Been there, done that Bro. I purchased my iPad specifically for music production. I put my...distractions...on a different page. I put Audiobus, Beatmaker, Alchemy & Seekbeats on my main menu and trained myself to habitually hit Audiobus every time I grab my iPad. I am now once again productive.
I don't think it really matters whether you record anything or not. Unless you're making music as a means to earn a living the most important thing is to enjoy what you're doing. For me sitting down for half an hour mucking about with a new app, or blasting Thor through Turnado via AB is major fun, and a creative experience whether or not I press the record button. Just enjoy it, you're a long time dead.
@Thomas said:
I second this advice. I'm a political junkie, and a few months ago, I deleted all my political RSS feeds. It's amazing how a small change in interface and just a little commitment can change your behavior.
Put your music apps in persistent app shelf, and your distraction apps a few screens back.
Think about this a lot. My effort has been to find a work flow that inspires me rather than drag me down. Nothing competes w/ Ableton Live as a platform for me. Some apps offer a unique value, such as the ability to use Loopy as a multitrack soundscape generator with "scenes" that aren't locked into a fixed relationship for performance. I think of the whole Pad as a workstation, but it's noteworthy how often a small issue or omission in an app can prevent things from clicking. One typical example, I spent some time trying to implement iMPC Pro as a loop generator only to eventually discover it won't export a clean loop but adds time to the loop length rendering it useless to me. This happens a lot because I've got a different agenda from the dev I guess and tend to abuse the app but sometimes there is head scratching. Meanwhile I've had fun programming and making unique noises with the various synths and keeping up with developments. I've collected a lot of raw material in Audioshare and did mix one long piece in Cubasis. But this year I've completed more projects in Live. Hopefully iOS will become more viable for me next year.
Well I definitely play music everyday. I play guitar also and I pick up my acoustic everyday. Guitar was my first instrument and it is what I'm genuinely good at. I write songs on it all the time. I have a full time job and a kid but I'm also part of a little crew that throws parties and so I make a little bit of money with electronic music. It's mostly DJ'ing but I like to keep it as original as possible.
Maybe I do feel a bit guilty. I feel like I always need to be creating something. Like, if I'm not making music then I'm not doing what I should be doing. I still make music quite a lot and think about it when I'm doing other things. It's definitely my passion because it's the one thing I truly enjoy doing. But since I make music in so many different contexts: ie. studio/hardware, guitar jamming w/ people, DJing, I feel like the ipad is eating up a lot of the time I used to spend making music. I've only had an ipad for about 8 months and I've definitely noticed my production has gone down.
Everyone has some good advice here. I'm sure we've all felt this or some variant of it. I like the idea of moving things around physically on my ipad. Ill be trying that. Of course were all quite familiar w/ G.A.S. And I'm no exception. I'm constantly looking for new apps, trawling ebay for hardware, and reading about the newest piece of gear to come out. I'm always selling and swapping gear. I spend a lot of time on forums like this one and gearsluts and synthtopia.
Maybe I should just accept that it's a lifestyle thing. The whole process of researching, reading about, talking about, buying, selling playing music is all part of the package deal. I already have a job that I'm pretty (kinda) satisfied with and a place and a car and a motorcycle and a studio full of gear and just enough extra $$$ to feed my gear habit. Perhaps I should just be happy with that.
I'm not saying that I'm delusional enough to believe that I'm going to someday "make it'' in music but I still have dreams of getting recognized and touring the world and living off of just my music. I realize how naive and childish this sounds as I am 30 yrs. old. But it seems that right now is a unique time in music where just about anything goes so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. That's not why I do it though. I do it because I love to do it and I need to do it in a therapeutic way. It's the one thing that quiets my mind and actually makes my soul happy.
Anyway. I'm glad so many of you could relate.
@TheoVoid
30 yrs old is still plenty young enough to realise your dreams. Lots of people don't hit the high spot in their journey until they are older and (hopefully) a little wiser. We forget this 'cos we get used to being blasted with images of Martin Garrix videos and the like, playing to 100,000 + at some corporate 'festival' at 17 years old. It deludes us into thinking if we haven't got there by 25 then all doors are closed.
I'm the wrong (or potentially right, depending on your point of view) side of 40 and am still aiming for an income from music production that gets me out of the 9 to 5. It may happen, it may not, I'll have to wait and see.
@synthandaon
Hell yes
I've spent 40 odd years learning what I have in this life... I'm sure as hell not going to waste all that effort now by wishing I was 20 again!
The best day of my life? Well that was today. And if it goes my way, tomorrow will be even better.
Hey man, I'm about your age and come from a TV writing background. There's a lot of similarity between screenwriting and songwriting. You don't always have to create. Sometimes you need to listen, or research, or mimic. But at some point you do have to create. It helps me to have a goal and a plan. Maybe if you sit down and write out what you want to accomplish with your music that week, you can find the time to sit down and dedicate that hour to a small piece of what you need to accomplish.
The Internet is the biggest time-suck ever invented. Use it for encouragement, but maybe limit the time on forums. Only check it in the mornings or only at night. There's a drug that gets released when we get a new message or email or see a new post that's the equivalent of getting a hug and it's been academically proven to be addicting. Sometimes I have to realize I don't need to check Facebook again. I just need to write.
With too many options and apps it's way too easy to loose focus.
Just for fun I picked up my Korg Electribe ES-1 that is was/is collecting dust in the closet simply because i wanted a 'gadget' with somewhat fast workflow for sampling and I have to say that even with the 3 digit display and mostly dedicated buttons it's pretty fast to work with. I'm surprised I still remembered how to use it after all these years...
I'll definitely be taking a closer look at the new Electribe Sampler when it comes out next year. I just can't keep my self focused on music when using the iPad because there are so many other things that are fun to do on it too so I mostly just tweak some synth patches, doodle with beatbox apps and jam.
Don't get me wrong the iPad with all the Music Apps is a great resource for creating sounds and feeding the samplers & trackers, the problem is it's good at other things too and that's where the problems arise and focus is lost...
So, yes, for me the iPad is hurting my creativity when it comes to a lot of things, but it's too damned fun to use so i can't drop it
It seems like this is related to the ease of access on a mobile device. An iPad can easily become a time-killer out of habit. It is just so convenient, quick and easy to check this or that forum and research some apps, watch some youtube. So in that sense, yes, an iPad can "hurt your creativity" because of the time-management habits that are so easy to form. The iPad becomes a distraction from focusing on music.
Others have noted here how to change up your habits. Even just re-arranging your app icons, so that Youtube and Chrome are an extra swipe and tap away would help reset those habits.
And play to the strengths of the iPad: it's ease of access! Reserve 10 minutes a day to exploring new synths (on the toilet). But don't open those synths during your "production session." Check the forums on little 5 minute breaks in your day.
When it comes to writing/ producing time, guard against the weaknesses of the iPad (it's ease of access). Pick your 30 favorite patches, stick with them (and don't explore the remaining 950 patches in Thor, etc.) Pick 5 apps that you want to use productively and set up a few Audiobus presets with those 5 loaded up so you don't even have to swipe thru the pages of tempting app icons.
That's where I would start probably. along with all the other good advice given here: goals, focus, following passion, having fun, etc.
Personally, I still find the iPad to be totally inspiring. But that is probably because I'm in the segment of iOS music that just would not have the time and funds to do any of what iOS has allowed me to do. I imagine it is different for those who have a basement studio with loads of hardware setup and waiting to be tinkered with.
@thesammiller said:
Wise words, cheers, especially on the internet thing. I'm normally pretty disciplined about it, but at the moment I've got so much going on at work I'm consciously pausing the music until the middle of November. I'm spending more time on line as it is opportunity to just chill. Once this current peak is out of the way I've got time off owing and a plan to spend it finishing a few tracks.
Actually, if I honestly reflect on where I'm at, it could be worse. I'm making steady progress and (in my mind anyway) the quality of the output is improving year on year.
I have become more productive and creative with iPads. But what has really helped me not become overwhelmed by all of the excellent and numerous music apps that populate my iPads is the setting of project goals. Example: With Halloween approaching...I took as a goal to create some spooky kind of music. And I achieved that goal! Another is an idea for a concept album where all of the songs are related in some way (not necessarily in the same music genre).
I'm not good enough to keep strict to these goals, but as I explore apps, read and understand more music theory, and/or learn more about music recording (doing all of that on iPad of course) -- I try to keep my musical goals in mind. I try to ask how I can apply an app or a technique to my current project.
Still, there are times when I consider my choices for music creation and I get hung up just trying to decide what app to launch -- staring at all of the pretty icons. To help with that, I will use some of the advice given here and do both, remove some apps and "hide" some others...just to cut down on the dilemma of choice.
Now that we have it all figured out -- let's go create some new music!
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.... -P. Picasso.
Kind of relevant....