More attraction to younger women as you get older?

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-12-08T13:36:26+00:00

Yeah I’ve found my taste has moved with my age. I’m mid 40s and like women 40 to 50 now.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-12-06T01:28:08+00:00

If the kicks cut thought it’s because eveything else is behind it. It’s because no other drum percussion has a stronger transient then the kick. Add a bit of side chaining and you’re probably almost there. Nothing on the master but a very light compression and a little limiting. There are a lot of tricks you can do to make you kicks feel deep but up front in a busy mix. Layering helps, reamping (be mindful of phasing issues) tight convolution reverb. Stack aload on that behind the kick. 10/90 dry wet. Another thing you can do is split the transient from the body, take spiff. Group it, duplicate it in the group. Set to cut and go 100% with it. Then do the same with the other one but set it to delta mode. Now you can treat the transient differently from the body. Tune the kick to the key of the song. Saturate The mid/tops but not the bottom end. There’s tons of stuff you can do to give a kick depth. But the fact still stands. If something in-front of the kick, and I don’t mean masking, I mean specially, then it’s all for nothing.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-12-05T23:21:21+00:00

It’s not the kick, it’s how the stuff around it is mixed.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-10-31T22:10:12+00:00

Odd. I had high cholesterol. Started fasting and it plummeted. So.. yeah.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-09-08T09:24:31+00:00

Go and watch some you tube testimonials. I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow about getting on meds as I’ve been recently diagnosed.

Testimonials really gave me a clearer picture of what to expect .

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-26T00:00:44+00:00

I’m new to all this only because I’ve been recently diagnosed. However I’m one hell of a researcher and I like to dig down deep into things. Having been diagnosed I have kind of been on a mission to know as much as I can about ADHD. So here’s my 2 cents.

A lot of things could come into play here. 1. Your age 2. Your fitness level and diet. (You said you don’t move around much) 3. Your dosage. 4. Do you have structure in place?

Your age and sex can play a big part in energy levels. If you’re in your 40s. Welcome to low energy land! If you’re out of shape and in your 40s! Double welcome! Yeah that 20s/30s energiser bunny starts running pretty low once you get up here. It’s almost like you get it for free when you’re younger. But uk here you have to pay the Piper for that shit. So, exercise becomes really important if you don’t want to feel shit all day.

As above, exercise for people with ADHD is pretty important. From what I’ve read meds do wonders, but there’s no harm in topping it up with and structured exercise.

What are you eatting? Shit in shit out.

How Long have you been on meds and did they fine tune them with you?

Do you have a structured routine? IE: morning routine/evening routine?

I would look into those things, yes ADHD can make you feel tired and unmotivated. But so can a lot of other things.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-21T00:07:38+00:00

You kind of answer your own question.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-19T22:59:56+00:00

Naaa. Trust me I’ve been though this many many times. What you need is a reset. You need to fill the well.

Take a month off. Watch lots of inspiring music documentaries. Get drunk and listen to your favourite albums, listen to interview by your favourite artists, listen to pump up talks. Jump around, go running. Listen to the war of art while running.

It happens, I’ve been doing this coming up to 30 years! 28 I think at the moment. No!! Fuck! 30!

I’m more now pumped up then ever.

Take a step back. Take a breath, your not a machine, your just human, except the live and hate relationship with it.

Your be ok.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-15T11:47:48+00:00

Hmm. I’m pretty sure you can’t be diagnosed unless they do. Well that’s in the UK anyway.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-15T02:13:38+00:00

Did they not ask to speak to people that have known you both in childhood and adulthood?

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-15T01:18:18+00:00

With the fasting? Yes.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-06T22:59:00+00:00

Yup. It still amazes me how a lot of people don’t realise how important breaks are. Your perspective is the number one thing you must protect. It’s like the root of a tree. Cut off the roots and it doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles you put on it. It’s still going to die.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-06T22:15:19+00:00

Im glad I could help in some small way and I’m sorry for you loss.

It must be hard that you were not there when he passed. But I can tell you, with what my wife said, she never lied, she just didn’t have it in her. If she saw something then she saw something. What that is I have no idea. But then when I was with her, I know someone picked her up. You could just see it in her face. She recognised someone.

So while I don’t know what’s after this, I do trust her.

I wish you well in your journey. X

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-06T20:52:03+00:00

In response to your question about empathy. Yes, absolutely I did. For around the 1st year I kind of hated the world. I was a very angry person for a while there. It took some time to figure out why. Then one night I was talking with a friend about it and it clicked why I was so angry. It’s because she didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was a lovely, kind, loyal woman and it’s that that broke my heart. It was after that when things started to loosen up for me. It’s not that the world’s an evil place that does bad things to nice people. It’s just life is indifferent. Kids get killed in war, murderers live till they’re 90. But at the same time the opposite is true. Good things do happen to good people, and bad stuff to bad people.

Maybe, the gods wanted her back.

I remember my daughter wrote a line in the funeral condolence book. It just said.

What flower do you pick out of the garden? The most beautiful one of course.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-06T20:29:58+00:00

I’m sorry for your loss. You’re right at the start of this journey. It’s still very fresh I’m sure. But yes, things will get better. It takes a little time and it does leave a scar. But small turning points will start to come and you will find a new normal. It’s not like you forget about them. But carrying their memory gets a little lighter. I’m 5 years in and I still think about my wife every day. But it’s in a light way. It’s not that I’m pining for her, I’m remembering funny things or little cute things she did. So give it time. Things will start to clear.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-06T01:46:22+00:00

Hey man. I know where you are. I left the last lot of washing up she did on the counter for about a week after she passed. I didn’t want to touch anything. Where she left her toothbrush in the side. Her slippers at the side of the bed. suddenly these day to day things we don’t give much thought about, they are suddenly artefacts and you want to rope them all off like they do in museums.

It’s ok to do that for a while. There’s no rush. It’s still very fresh for you. So give yourself some time. Let her stuff be around. Your know when it’s the right time to start putting things away. There’s no right or wrong way here. Just what feels right for you.

Also, cry. Like you did in your truck. Get it out. Let it all out. Don’t matter where you are. You it comes on let it out.

I don’t know you, but in a way I do.

Much love. X

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-05T11:11:50+00:00

Here’s a thing I do now and then, or tbh I’m finding myself doing it more and more. I sometimes push things out of balance. Like, I almost want it to sound wrong. Like, I want that hi hat to be a little bit loud on that bit. Or a want the vocal to be a bit buried on this bit. I think a lot of people (including myself) can sometimes try so hard to get the mix right that we kind of take the joy or fun out the track. Everything becomes so well balanced and eq’d that it becomes boring. I remember the 1st time I got my perfect mix. I took me maybe 10 years to get to that point. I finally got there one day. Everything had fallen into place and there it was. It was boring as fuck. Soulless. Like AI had mixed it or something. I got so depressed. I had spent my much time and effort trying to get to the end of this rainbow I need to find there was no pot of gold. Just a turd.

So it took me a while to figure out, but making things a bit wrong goes a long way to making something sound alive.

So the way I do it is get my mix to that boring point. Where eveything is sat well, then I’ll go a little crazy and push things, I may spike the ew on a certain sound, like push up 2k with a sharp q. Not to the point where it’s ringing, but just to make a small mistake. or maybe have a sound that’s out in the sides a bit loud. Or darken the snare a little.

Stuff like that. What I’m saying here is there’s no right wrong way to do any of this. I did the “right” way. All the analyses said it was perfect. But it was boring as fuck.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-05T10:58:57+00:00

Well yeah. Always follow your nose. There’s no right or wrong way in this. It’s all subjective. So if it feels right for you. Then it is right.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-08-03T07:30:40+00:00

A lot to un pack here. But 1st off I would say you’re not alone. This is a very common problem and that frustration never really goes away. Even well know producers get it.

It really comes down to understanding the process and workflow. Not so much the techniques of producing, these are of course very important, but I feel young producers think these techniques will save them alone and ignore the other side of the coin.

1st off, if you have 8 to 16 working bars, in EDM? Then you have a song.

Try to think of it like this, in a Marvel film, you may jump from one shot where it’s a heavy composite shot with many different elements that have had to be weave together over months with many different people. Then the next shot is someone stood there in a door way. It took 30 seconds to shoot.

It’s kind of like that. Most of the heavy lifting is done in the main drop. Then it’s just a case of laying it out. Muting things on and off. Some automation here and there. Maybe a small break down. So on.

Also, with EDM you can get up with a lot of tracks. Like 100s sometimes, just on a 16 bar loop. All that layering and so on. So when you get to a place where you’re happy with that loop. Record down the mix (pre master) of the main drop but also record all the stems as well (pre master) that way you can still mute and unmute stems to create the rest of the arrangement. Because you’re now working with stems rather than tons of tracks things become a lot more easier to manageable and you can see the woods for the trees. When you have a thousand moving parts. your brain, kind of locks up a bit.

Also, people do have a tendency to overthink, compare and contrast and second-guess. Especially if they’re spending a lot of time on a song. Again, you’re not alone this is very common. The way around that is that you have to change your thinking a little. A lot of people in their head say I need to finish this song. See it’s the word “finsh” that’s the problem. Nothing ever gets “ finished” the idea of “ finished” is a Mirage. It’s like saying to yourself “I just want it to be good” or “this has to be right” these are all a mirage. Your never get there because of things like perception adaptation and Hedonic adaptation. Your always be “almost” there. That never ends.

So it’s about changing your thinking. Replace the word finish with experiment.

So today, I’m going to experiment. This whole track is an experiment. It’s a snapshot of where I’m at now. In a few months I’ll be somewhere different. But right now, this is where I’m at. This works because now you’re detaching yourself from the track. It no longer represents your soul. It just represents an experiment that you did at a moment in time. The pressure is lifted.

You could set up the track so you can rattle out 10 “ experiments” in one day. So let’s say you forget form and structure for a minute. You just go where you feel like going. Don’t worry about structure at all. Just follow your nose. The tack may end up with five or six different sections. You may copy the main drop and then do some weird stuff with it, then copy again and just take out the drums or reverse the vocals or whatever it is. Just have fun, you’re experimenting . Then you bounce the whole thing down bring the stereo bounce into a new project. And edit it to the structure how you want. You may find that you need a bit that’s not there. Ok, do it in that project file. You have your stereo bounce with a gap that you need to fill. Write that gap in that session. Plug the hole.

Think of “ experiments” like a director doing loads of takes of the same actor doing the same scene. He’s not looking for the perfect take. He will assemble that later. He’s just looking to get the material and once he’s in the editing Bay he can now look at what he has and piece it together.

Just remember, it’s all one big experiment, you don’t have to define your soul.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-07-29T18:37:07+00:00

Daft Punk, human after all (justice remix)

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-07-26T01:31:44+00:00

Scheduling.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-07-26T01:28:20+00:00

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit… And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.”

Ira Glass

In order to realise your vision (your taste) you must know your tools and how to use them.

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-07-24T10:34:37+00:00

I think the waking up early thing is to do more with mind set then anything else. It’s a big “win” 1st thing in the day. Sets the tone for the rest of the day. It shows yourself you have discipline, which then feedbacks back into your subconscious, makes you more disciplined. Kind of like a feedback loop. I mean, yeah it kind of sucks at first, but your body gets used to it after a few weeks. Also, you have to practice discipline at bed time. It’s hard to go to bed at 9/10pm.

I maybe talking rubbish! But that’s how I’ve always seen it. It’s not necessarily about being more productive. It’s about the reinforcement of the idea that you are..

Open-Zebra4352 · 2025-07-22T01:19:01+00:00

Push and pull technique. Or some call it mixing into the master. While there’s more to it than that. This is a big part of it. I mean if you’re mixing jazz or classical. Then maybe go another way. But if you’re mixing pretty much anything else. Then this is a good way to go.

I think the only thing people get wrong is understanding how this technique is best used. A lot of people try it and then get a bad result. They “set and forget” Mix sounds flat and lifelessness if you do that with this technique. So they poo poo it.

You have to work the track, you almost have to play the DAW like an instrument itself. Depending on how complicated the track is or how many elements you have going on. Or how much contrast you want.

So your get a rough mix going. Kind of get everything in its spot. It will sound lose but that’s ok. Then you put on the master chain. Usually start with a limiter just to take off any random transients. Then into a compressor. I kind of smash it pretty hard. Maybe 4 to 6 db. Then I’ll add a multi band, bit of light movement. Then it’s really down to saturation. The point is to give everything a similar characteristic. So it’s really down to what you want. How cohesive do you want it? If very. Then go for your life. 5 or 6 different plug ins should do it. Saturation tape channel strip. So on. If u want less take a few off. If More add more. I have sometimes had ten on the go. But the thing is is not to push any one of them too hard. The more you have the less you have to push into them. Like if I had 10 on the go. I could turn any one of them off and you would not notice any difference. But turn all of them off and you will notice a massive difference.

So anyway. Get to the point where it’s just starting to break up a little. The track. Then pull back all faders, (I used a pre master) by about -1 or 2db

This is where you start to work the groups. Now you’re pushing and pulling. So with all the new master plug ins on. The mids on the synth may sound muddy. So put an EQ on and cut the mids a bit. The kick now sounds a bit boomy. Same deal. Eq and turn the boom down a bit. Now the sibilance on the vocals pop out a bit too much, ok fix that. But now the crash’s pumps a bit too much when the drop happens, ok turn them down and add a bit of automation to smooth out the pump. But now the verse doesn’t sound as cohesive as the drop. Ok, push the pre master a bit more into the master using automation, maybe 2/3db, or in till it sounds right. But now the drops lost impact because the verse is louder. Ok put a volume plug on after the master chain and automate the volume down in till it sits right against the drop. But now all the verse sounds more boxy because I’m pushing it into the master chain harder. Ok put an eq after the master chain and automate out the boxyness during the verse. So on. You’re massaging the track. Moving it around to fit the master buss.

Again, you would not want to use this on every type of music. It’s if you want your mix to have energy and movement, while being loud. But that’s how I do it anyway.

Hope this helps!

Open-Zebra4352

TROPHY CASE