Winter in the UK is dismal. It’s dark early and the weather is entirely random but it does mean I can get to work on some new material.
I wondered if anyone else suffers from DAW Fatigue? I’ll clarify: If I spend more than a few hours creating stuff without being interrupted then I feel absolutely knackered. I can only liken it to that sensation you get when you’ve finished a crucial and difficult academic examination or, as I used to, writing complex algorithms and coding at work for hours at a time.
I started producing a couple of years ago as a way of staving off dementia (it runs in my family,) and I’m convinced that working on music projects is a brilliant brain workout. Dementia scares me sh*tless and I’ll do anything to stop ending up like my dad - a hollow shell of his former self. So, anyone else experiencing DAW Fatigue? Is it a sign that we’re over doing it or is like physical exercise; no pain, no gain?
I don’t know about DAW fatigue but ear fatigue is real. Take 15 minute breaks for every hour. If you feel like you need to turn up the volume during a long session, turn it down that much instead, that’s another sign of fatigue. Tricks from head engineers themselves
Yeah, I get there too sometimes. I also feel like this most days after I finish work and/or my studying for my dayjob… but keeping it on the topic of feeling like this after working on music.
If you’re using your brain, I think it gets tired - just the way it is. I think there’s nothing wrong with that. For me, when I get to feeling that way, is when I lay back and do something more passive. Watch some movies or TV, play a videogame, something like that. I know you want to stay mentally active, but you need breaks too.
Anyways, I really like just laying back and watching something. I obviously don’t really want to listen to music/watch production tutorials if I just spent hours on my own work - my ears are probably tired and it can be demoralizing to go straight from my unfinished work to other people’s finished work that I like.
I’m not a huge reader either, but that could be another good option. For me reading is work, so if my brain is tired I probably don’t feel like doing that. Maybe some light exercise or a walk? Probably not the best in Britain right now and not my personal choice either, but it is another healthy thing that doesn’t use too much brainpower.
Yeah, I get there as well. For me I think it’s two things in conjunction - one is just mental overload like @White_Noise said, staring at and thinking about the same thing for hours on end. The more I work on something in one sitting, the more all I can see is little details that turn into tedium. Tunnel vision, I guess. It’s good for hammering things out but I feel like it runs me down faster once I get in that mode.
The other is that while I love making music, I don’t actually love the whole process. There’s a honeymoon period for me during sound design and early exploratory stuff that totally overrides any tiredness, and the end mixdown where you can really see the thing in it’s glory. But that middle section where you’re delicately EQing and analyzing and trying to fit one more part in that you know should probably be there but it’s just not working, and you’ve listened to a 10 second loop on repeat for an hour and that thing you loved you’re starting to hate…yeah, it wears me out.
Fresh eyes and ears and a good night’s sleep is the only thing that helps me. Time away from the screen and the project. It’s also not uncommon for me to have a shower thought about something I’m working on when I’m not actually working on it that drives me back to enjoying the process, so I really do think there’s something to giving yourself a break.
I used to get that from reading manuals and trying to figure shit out, but at this point most DAW-related tasks feel so understimulating and underwhelming that it’s not really an engaging challenge anymore, and I’m less-likely to engage with it because it feels like something I’ve already done a million times before. I also never really liked writing songs, so I still don’t do that much.
It probably has a lot to do with overall stress levels and things, too. I’ve got a hell of a lot of time to devote to stuff like this, but there’s no way in hell I’d want to do any of it while working a traditional 9-5. It would be mind-numbing shit all day and weekend thereafter.
That’s a really good tip. I get level creep all the time and wonder why my ears ring in the evening. It’s not good but it’s a real effort to resist cranking things up.
The same here. Sometimes I feel as though I’m rushing the mixing just to get the damn thing finished because I’m sick of listening to it. I suppose there’s merit in having a few projects running in parallel just to give yourself a fresh perspective on something different. The danger is that you never finish anything.
Watch out for the ringing. I have tinnitus and it’s not cool. I also know when you’re in the zone, taking 15 takes restraint, and I’m definitely guilty as hell of just powering through hours and hours with no breaks. I have noticed lately, the more frequent I take breaks and switch hobbies, tasks, etc. I come back more productive, instead of hyper focused on one sound. It helps clear the tunnel vision and that mental fatigue
tinnitus sucks, I’ve had it since I was 17 or 18 (garage band and forgot earplugs once, that’s all it took for me). Funnily enough, I took a hearing test recently that says my hearing loss is pretty minimal.
When I first noticed it, I didn’t know what was going on. I started unplugging every electronic in my room, I was convinced it was in the walls. I felt like a mad tweaker tearing shit apart to find this ringing noise lmao. In audio engineering I was trying to think of a device that could match its frequency and flip the polarity to mask it, but it’s neurological so not sure how’d that work
There are devices called “trainers” that generate frequencies to re-train your brain. Tinnitus is reckoned to be the brain filling in the gaps that your ears no longer provide through hearing loss (similar process to the blind spots in your vision you never notice.)
Personally, to wear a gizmo that pumps tones into your head all day sounds like absolute torture.
Are you sure you’re not just one of the people who can hear The Hum?
It’s funny when some people have this going on and then just trace it to a nearby electric box or something really mundane, but as pseudo-insane as it might sound, if more than one person can independently agree on a location of where they think it’s coming from, there might be something more to it.
I’ve also never had ‘those’ kinds of problems, but my brain can make up all sorts of data (bordering on hallucinations, except I know it’s coming from within) from certain (or a lack of sufficient) simuli. Seems to be something in common with some ADHD-types, like seeing a lot of colors and shapes when closing your eyes, etc.
The ADHD link is interesting. My problems with tinnitus started about 20 years ago. Since then I’ve lived in 3 houses and it’s always been the same (probably not the electrical interference theory.) I notice that it gets significantly worse when I’m stressed and sometimes it’s asymmetric. A while back I had an MRI scan because asymmetry is common if you have a brain tumour. Thankfully, it wasn’t that but the specialist suggested that I might have Meniere’s disease. Alas, no cure and I will probably go completely deaf in time. That’s one of reasons I’m learning how to produce - the clock is ticking.
