As a songwriter I’m (far too) familiar with writer’s block, and when my creative energy wanes, I’m not above using outside help to keep fresh ideas flowing.
In particular, I own and love Naomi Epel’s Observation Deck. If I sense a creative lull creeping on, I pull out a card and ponder its message (for example, “think in reverse,”) and invariably, almost like magic, my brain’s off and running again.
The Observation Deck isn’t free. But these 3 web sites, offering similar imagination exercises, are.
- The Majency Oracle
- Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies
- The Imagination Prompt generator.
Mixer’s Block
It turns out that, along with helping writers, these tools are great for halting mixer’s block. Mixer’s block is exactly what it sounds like: The mixing engineer’s version of writer’s block.
You’ve likely found your mixes fall into two categories: Those that take care of themselves, and those that take years off your life. No amount of knob tweaking and fader pushing seems to bring resolution to those in the second category. Blocked mixes instead wait interminably on a flash of creative insight, for despite its technical nature, mixing is often art more than science.
Like its counterpart for authors, mixer’s block is frustrating and energy-zapping. And this is where the tools above come in. They’re designed to help shift your thinking, to inspire ideas from parts of your brain you’ve forgotten to use. Like a “virtual outside opinion,” it’s often all a stalled mix needs.
In practice
Let me illustrate with an example: I pulled hair out mixing Pushed Around. The mix wouldn’t jell. After fighting with it for hours, I decided to consult the Observation Deck, which told me to “create a conflict.”
Instantly, I realized the acoustic guitars were in conflict, fighting each other for the listener’s attention. I nudged the guitar tracks into better alignment, added the shaker to emphasize the beat and distract from the guitar strums, and the mix immediately righted itself.
This can work for any mix. So the next time you find a troubling mix uncooperative, consider setting the technical details aside and letting your imagination suggest new approaches. “Try faking it,” perhaps (a personal favorite,) or maybe even “think about the last time you cried.”
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Tags: inspiration, mixing
7 comments
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I think the shaker is a highly underrated piece of musical equipment! With regards to writers’ block, the last FAWM spawned the “Hoopshank-Wille Songwriting Challenge Generator“. I think it makes a nice addition to your list up there.
I love this sort of thing. As you probably know from the song idea generator and such. But it goes way back. I think it’s awesome that the page you linked to for Oblique Strategies still has the card drawing program I wrote in Visual Basic back in 1994 or something (go look, oblique.zip, I wrote that!). I have also bought a deck of cards. They can be very helpful.
-bill
I had never heard of this approach for getting outside the box and I will check it out. Not a day goes by where creativity isn’t needed!
> go look, oblique.zip, I wrote that!
Ha, that’s awesome Bill. I had no idea.
I don’t suppose Eno ever emailed you about it, eh? :-)
Nope, never heard from him in support or in antagonization! I wouldn’t have expected to, though… however, I would not have expected that the program I wrote to learn how to use Visual Basic 14 years ago would still be available on the Net, either…. heh.
-bill
PS I like this comment submitter form that shows you the preview as it goes!
how do i edit my voice to sound like t-pain? thats the answer im looking for. and i tryed looking for it. so i was wondering if you knew how and could you tell me. thanks ttyl
Sorry man, thats still a rhythmic mess, the bass being the biggest offender.