About "It depends"
- Published: 2024-10-12 17:05
- Updated: 2024-10-13 02:04
I’m grateful for having started my journey in the early 90s. Using trackers: Rather simple programs with a limited feature-set. Capable of playing back a few samples at the same time. Which came as a set of floppy discs along with the program. For the first two years, I wasn’t thinking about external synths, effects. Plugins didn’t exist yet. My choices and my learning scope were limited.
That said, I don’t envy anyone who started music production after ~2010. Paradox of choice is real. So is decision fatigue.
Contrarily to the content-farm culture of social media. That feeds on making everything look easy. Polarizes basic craftsmenship skills into ‘best kept secrets’. Washes contextualized, and useful information down the drain along the way. Whilst plagiarizing each other to >Nil:
Source/Copyright: Unknown, submitted to /r/Pics August 2010
Unfortunately, one of the most fundamental messages about making music got lost along the way. As much as I dislike this (please don’t shoot the messenger):
Music production = dependency hell 🔥¶
Everything affects everything. And to make it worse—Everything depends on you. Your processes and expertise. Above all: the sound aesthetic, the resulting flow and feel that you really want. Which, often at best, comes as sort of abstract, emotional blurb. Like a compass pointing towards a direction. Where, at best, the end is rewarded with a sense of integer cohesion.
Sticking to the owl analogy—what kind of owl would you like to produce?
This be the most challenging part about music production. Especially when starting. Fueled by the notion that producing equals cherry-picking a little bit from this owl, with a little bit from that owl. Across aesthetics. And it’s gotta be aggressively bright. Because bright is trendy. Despite intending, on a profound level, to make something like this:
✅ Been there, approached music production like that—too. Of course. Until I started pulling that tooth. Which hurt. Everybody went through this.
And if you want to experience what I’m talking about: go to some AI image tool, and try generating an owl-scene with a mood that specifically conveys what you want to convey.
So, you righteously ask: If this is correct, and everybody has been there, then
Why do conversations end with “it depends”?¶
Credible mentors—with an actual track record of results you genuinely like, as opposed to caricatures of it—remember banging their head against above wall, too. They too remember asking questions that openly rejected the complexity of dependencies (without being aware of it). They remember not understanding what exactly they wanted. They too remember not accepting the answers that smelled like more effort than necessary. In turn, insisted on faster and easier ways. And they remember ultimately hearing “it depends”. Or getting “the look”.
Those who arrived at developing ‘a sound’ remember how much valuable advice they rejected. Because it was beyond their ability to ‘take it’.
And they recognize the questions they once had in the ones they’re now being asked. They recognize the slowly boiling frustration about not getting the answer they wanted: a quick fix. Instead hearing some convoluted blurb about stuff they didn’t ask for. Because they’ve got this (seemingly) simple problem. Without being aware of trying to make something work that just doesn’t work this way. They also remember the frustration of deeming themselves stupid.
Ultimately beaten by their unknown unknowns: Things they were neither aware of, nor understood—about what they really want. And that the only thing a credible mentor, who pulled that tooth can offer: are well adjusted questions.
The ball’s in the questioners’ court now!¶
💡 Through this lens, “it depends” is not about ‘elitist gate-keeping’. Nor about implying “you’re stupid”. Instead, it returns the responsibility to the questioner. To let them decide whether they want to continue by asking an open-ended question. For diving deeper into differentiating dependencies. Or if they want to move the topic forward at a later point in time. These decisions are the mentees’ responsibility.
What to do if I don’t know how to proceed?¶
I personally understand there’s a lot that I don’t know. Way more than I can possibly know. I don’t have an issue admitting that. Whenever I run into an unknown unknown, I’m open about it.
Moreso: curious and appreciative. Because I identified a point where there’s something new to learn. Maybe even an interesting 🐰 hole to jump into. I’d ask for help. In case of doubt:
“I don’t yet know what to ask, can you help me figure it out?” I very much appreciate everyone who does the same.
However, I’m not interested in discussing quick fixes or cheats. Nor processes and techniques that I deem to be detrimental to the sound aesthetic people ask me about. In my experience, these form habits that become obstacles along the way. That need to be unlearned at a later point. To prevent getting stuck really bad.
✅ Been there, done that—too. What a waste of resources. 🤦
The implications of these two words¶
If I try to make the strange situation of being on thin dependency-ice tangible, when I offer “it depends”, it means sth along:
“The way we got here implies there’s something you don’t understand, yet. Since I can’t know what you understand and don’t understand, I don’t know how or where to start. Because I can’t ask you what you don’t understand. Also, I don’t know how you respond to hearing you need to know, and maybe don’t want to hear. Because I don’t want to make you feel stupid. And hope you find a curious, open-ended question to help me move the conversation forward. Although I’ve been in your situation before, and fully aware how challenging that can be.”
If that reads as paradoxical as it feels to write, I nailed it. Unknown unknowns are Scheiße. For those saying “it depends”, it’s as frustrating to say as it’s frustrating for you to hear. If not for the inherently human challenge to differentiate between ‘knowing what we want’ vs ‘thinking we know what we want’ alone.
I hope this read helps you approaching situations in which things depend on frugal communication with a weeny bit more holistic perspective.