Musical Minimalism: How To Finally Finish Your Songs

I have two pushbacks against rule of 3. (1) Discovering new details every time you listen to a piece of music brings me immense joy. (2) Even when we can't consciously perceive more than 3 layers in music, we can still perceive them subconsciously and be affected by them.

Excellent thoughts, simply and directly expressed (in keeping with the core idea). Thank you for making this.  
"The wise person speaks because they have something to say, the fool speaks because they want to say something".

ahh nice, i hadnt seen your videoes in a while and i was like "wait is this the guy with that ridicoulusly soothing voice? 2 sec into video: oh hell yeah!
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👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 well put

"An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity. A physicist tries to make it simple. For an idiot anything the more complicated it is the more he will admire it. If you make something so clusterfucked he can't understand it he's gonna think you're a god cause you made it so complicated nobody can understand it." - Terry Davis, Schizophrenic Author of TempleOS

Great video. My issues producing come down to two things. One. Comparing what im doing to professionally released tracks and being frustrated it doesnt sound as good. Two, having too many tools and samples at my disposal. The funny thing is, i just do this for fun. Hoing to try some of the tips from the video.

wow. man. really like it!! very helpful!! thx!!!

Looks at my 26 tracks of midi (most will never be unmuted) and 52 audio tracks of samples I liked, experiments, techniques I tried, other drum hits I might swap in (I won't) and 12 different vocals processed/chopped 24 different ways that I will never use because the one I'm using sounds great, I just lacked confidence in it

Yup time to abandon this one and never come back to it because it just stresses me out so much to look at my cluttered mess of a DAW

I think this video might be for me :)

this self-deprecating millennial bums me out

A familiar & current situation for me at the moment writing, got every possibility to write and plugins I earlier dreamt about having yet, somehow making it even harder to make anything. I resonate with your thoughts on minimalism especially regarding "having only what you need", which puts in the seat of what and why you need that.

This is still very in very early stages but I'm experiencing and experimenting with a greater intent and focus on what and why over habits. Recently went ahead and got the Fabfilter plugins, which I think further emphasised this question, realising that most of the stuff I want can be achieved with those solely, and when in actual need of color, flavour or specific feel I reach for plugins like 76, 2A and or other more creative FX. With no distracting or glorified Ui's (even though Fabfilter are stunning, more in a technical way) I feel problem-solving gets easier and more natural, instead of being stuck with 10 plugins who combined creates a specific sound, probably unintentionally lots of time (which can be cool too) but cannot be changed and many times gets over processed.

What I'm experiencing is that many tips I've heard recently imply and comes down to the same thing. Minimalism

Proper gain staging and levelling - improved base, can greatly reduce processing that in the end could've been solved with a louder volume
EQ - fix clashing problematic areas no effect can change really, just mask
Stereo - Less fighting over same space, less clutter (although not to avoid clashing because of mono)

This, with a focus on the above, more than stacking effects til somewhat cool result could be done with 1 plugin, then some dynamics with the rest of the fabfilter tools only. Drastically reducing plugins in this stage of the process will not only save me time but also release me from the overstimulating situation of being able to choose everything, resulting in nothing.

For production it might be a bit different but I'm seeing the same pattern, Fabfilter got all I REALLY need (from technical to reverb and delay) which in my experience so far has shifted the focus more to the songwriting aspect, hopefully to keep going.

Great video, got me inspired to write this, very long, comment!

EDIT: Also, less but more intentional elements decreases clashing, overcrowding and muddiness and sets you up for a better chance of a dynamic, interesting and alive mix. This I've experienced by having the track many times sound equally or better without ANY melodic instruments other than bass and drums. Basically the less you have, the less problems can exist and less you have to do to make it sound good, to an extent.

Maybe they were always right saying "limitation increase creativity", history implies exactly that.

1:09 Because of my neverending quest to be better at mixing/mastering. Maybe the true lesson is to know when to let sleeping dogs go outside and sniff things or whatever the saying is...

This was really something to think about. Also it was very fun to watch!
Outstanding work, thank you sir.

Another great video. The three things 'maxim' is one of the few pieces of advice I remember whilst making and producing music. And often it can help to ask yourself, "What are these ideas (or idea) I'm trying to bring through here?" and concentrate exclusively on answering that question.

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4:47 This is the difference between minimalism and modernism. Minimalism is simply an aesthetic while modernism is a mindset

Listen and learn, a millennial is speaking 🙏

Minimalism was invented by Big Small to sell more less!!

Hi, can i make it on garageband only..? Can i copyright it?

Thank you ❤

This is why I lean more into the generative stuff. Record several tapes, play them at different intervals, run them to their own mixer tracks. What can go wrong is what's actually right 👍🏻▶️. Or I'll do it digitally with sequences. And if I want structure, create a drum folder and do the basics like side chain comps on what ever outside the kick. Each track and layer no matter how many tracks chosen get different intensity of compression. Idk if I sound clear but this really can only go wrong if it is not tried. Playing around is when it starts to actually matter and make sense.

You remind me of the musician version of my friend @techright - thanks for this helpful vid bro, you're helping me build my framework to complete 40+ started songs one by one.

Great video…..but how comes you both look and sound like Nick Fantano? 😂 Are you related? 😂

Starting the video out with three shit-tier experimental pieces (interesting in their own way, but hardly what most of us are going to spend hours upon hours listening to) wasn't necessarily the most confidence-inspiring move for a subject such as this.

😎🫡👏🏼

Thank you, very good lesson, I am lucky to click in your video and learn something new, only do or take what I need , ask myself for what and why am I doing this ，洼则盈，敝则新，少则得，多则惑

Super interesting, thanks !!

"But they did it" is the real advice

I needed this. I took all the information given to heart and listened to one of my most favorite songs and I counted about 5 or 6 elements that were in the track that is only necessary to make me love it. I get so caught up in mixing, ear candy and fx... sometimes we just need to reminded of the most fundamental things.