Art vs Music vs Writing
paulawp (marahzen)
Posts: 1,718
Here's an off-the-wall question I was just pondering. I recently subscribed to Suno after many months of freebie usage, so I've been finishing some unfinished old songs, remastering some finished ones and creating new ones now that I have all those song credits to use up every month. The same happy circumstance that led to my decision to do that (finishing a big project I do every winter) also gives me back my free time to work on art and also continue working on my book.
I have found in the last few days of trying to multitask that while I can tinker with Daz and Suno at the same time, I have not been able to usefully work on Suno and re-read my existing book, which is how I always start my writing season. (I'm perpetually trying to finish the second book in the series, so I start off every spring by re-reading the first one and the finished part of the second one.) I have no problem reading or writing while playing my preferred writing music, which consists mostly of 80s rock.
I know some percent of the Daz regulars also have interest in reading, writing and music, so it prompted me to inquire what other people's experience is.
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I use Riffusion, Udio and Suno but only free goes
mostly just to add sound to my videos that doesn't get me flagged on Youtube or Facebook
because in spite of using CC4 music with Attribution, that happens way too much and threatens my accounts
the bots don't seem to flag Ai music though I also attribute it
I do not use Suno so I may be of little help there. But I do write and am an artist who is also a song writer. I write original lyrics and create melodies using a Korg, electric, acoustic and bass guitars recorded via cables hooked to a Boss. Oftentimes I write and record the music before I write the book but not always. I have to feel it to write it. If I don't care, nobody else will care when they read it. Art was once my main priority but when I write art takes the back seat. I ignore it until I polish the drafts. Then the art takes a front seat. Often novels (not non-fiction) and fictional characters have a way of coming to life and changing the course you intended, making anticipated artistry futile. When I write I write like a madman in quiet because my mind is filled with what I feel think smell and hear in my head. I find music a distraction to my thoughts. Most writers write to music and that's what works for them. It just doesn't work for me. Right now I am building a Catio. An Indoor highrise for cats. I am committed to it and remind myself of this when my thoughts stray to writing. When I write, nothing else matters. Just the writing. Everything else, the music the art, is just a means to the end. This changes for picture books where art shows the story you tell, but even then I write the book first.
I have written and performed my own music too
... and gotten flagged for it
anything using only 3 chords is a huge risk
Think I'd have to use Suno to create music - I'm one of those who's so immune to holding a tune that I'm not afflicted by ear-worms. I do enjoy listening to music, and have the pleasure of treating it as new everytime I hear a tune, however often I've heard it before. The best electric guitar music I ever heard was mixed up in the white noise from a Gulfstream G4 that was going through ground engine warm-up tests. Went on for hours and the melodies were incredible. The guitarist was such a virtuoso it was almost painfully wonderful to experience, though I couldn't write any down seconds later (even if I could write music).
I do love listening to music while playing with DS, it seems usually to be calming & influence the mood of the image. However, I get badly distracted when writing & listening. The low quality of my writing drops yet further when I listen to music, so not a good idea. In all honesty, I ought to give up fiction & restrict myself to reports.
Regards,
Richard
I keep reading the opening paragraph over and over again, looking for a question mark- to find the question.
So here's 5 random things from a person that does a bunch of stuffs.
1. I listen to instrumental music, mostly, which has now been ruined by AI- as every "music mix" is now hours of generated 'ambient sci-fi-epic-inspirational-lofi-productivity-relaxing-compositions looping.
2. When it gets too quiet, I listen to podcasts about everything and nothing "How X movie was made, who invented X product, the history of... stranded at sea...worst disasters in history, horrific last moments, eaten by a...etc". It's sad because I even watch podcasts about things I don't care about because I need something I can fully ignore in the background.
3. When Daz renders took 3-4 hours, I used to make music and art at the same time (like watching TV while doing homework) you're either doing one or the other, never truly both at the same time.
4. When I get stuck on dialogue or a line of poetry or a tough song lyric, I need SILENCE to fully concentrate. That's why we turn down the music while looking for a house number. lol
5. I sometimes get stuck on music and listen to songs over and over again, while making comics. Eventually my brain locks them in and later on- seeing the artwork automatically plays the songs in my head.
This is a serious problem. I love orchestral music, too, and YouTube has sadly devolved into a platform for AI generated music of various styles, mostly the lofi music. It's very disappointing. I've been bamboozled into thinking some content was real, when it was AI. The perfection of the audio and proficiency is usually a dead giveaway. Personally, I use music to help keep me focused, and I listen to a variety of stuff-my recent Lyna renders were done while jamming to 70s disco.
I've been delving a little bit with FL Studio as a side hobby, but haven't bought the full version yet (free trial just ended). I think making music can be pretty fullfilling-and a nice thing to check out while we wait for our renders to finish.
OMG, I feel so many of the things you guys have brought up. Obviously, I'm here because I use DS for my artwork, but the art I make is to go with my writing. ArtAngel, you are so right about the characters hijacking the story. My characters do that all... the... time! I'm just the conduit for their stories. I just published my newest book this week and the next one is already screaming at me, ready to go. I have a feeling I'll be outlining this weekend.
I also LOVE music. I always have. I was a singer while in school and now I'm always listening to something. I'm very particular about what I listen to at specific times, though. While writing, I can't listen to anything with lyrics or it derails my own words. While making art, I love upbeat, energetic music, as it keeps the creativity flowing. I keep curated playlists on Spotify for all my music moods and switch stuff out when I get tired of hearing it.
But yeah, all my creative pursuits are tied up together. It's nice to see so many others in the same boat.
Absolutely! All of us here are artists at heart, and no matter what you're doing, be it writing, visual like DS or other forms like painting, or music, it's all about unleashing your creativity; because it's all art. I also love music and was in choir in school, so I completely understand how you feel. Orchestral does the most for me, as it sets a mood, a tone, and also helps put me in the right mindset. Other times I'll do mainstream stuff like my previously said disco, 80s pop or other random stuff just to keep my mood where I need it to be. It's a lot of fun!
Fair enough. I blather - it's what's I do. It was something that had vaguely nagged at me after a few days of trying to multitask between the three activities, now that I finally have some free time again.With the music, I've been listening to some unfinished songs deciding whether to keep them, fix them or just trash them, and that wasn't a distraction to playing with Daz, but I found that I could not properly pay attention to reading, much less write anything new. I commented about it to my husband, who doesn't do art or writing, and he joked about it being "on the same side of the brain;" but then, my husband has completely different expertise - he builds and fixes things.
So I suppose the question in there was: Do you find music to be something that fades into the background when using Daz vs writing (or reading your work)? For writing, I have a set of music with several hundred songs that plays at random, stuff I've heard dozens of times in my life, and that fits into a background environment - but not new songs, or maybe songs of a different genre, since what I'm creating at Suno is not 80s hard rock. But with Daz, the new songs become background material, something I only look up and notice if it's particularly good or terrible. Given my husband's "side of the brain" joke, it prompted me to present the question to this group, as it seems to me that creating art, vs writing are, for me at least, utilizing different creative pathways.
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I've been reading works by Brian Eno. He concentrates a lot on art, what it is, etc. Music in art. How humans interact. There are quite a few videos on youtube with him. I've been interested in electronic music for a very long time and have started to learn synthesis. I have a few software synths as well as some smaller, low cost hardware synths. Its rewarding turning them knobs
The generated AI music is a bit different, but there is a thing that Eno started, "generative " music. It just plays and plays. Ambient music. I think it can get a bit monotonous, but it can also be very useful in relaxation techniques. It flows. I've just purchased an ebook form a man in Czechoslovakia that concentrates on creating generative music with software synths. My overall thought was to create the music to match with my work with DS. So far have not gotten there, but I've seen quite a bit of synth music now that uses AI generated art as video. A lot of it is really good. Mesmerizing.
I don;t think of myself as an artist even a little bit . I'm more helter skelter with no cocentration or concrete ability in anything. I can wirte, I use Daz Studio, and some other programs, I'm learning synthesis, etc etc etc, but not good in any of it. I think I have a very creative mind but I'm so all over the place that I don;t get good in any of it.
Photo of 2 of my synths.
I'm not quite sure what the question is that OP is asking. But if you're asking about what we do while working in Daz Studio, or what we listen to while working in DS, I often will have a YouTube video playing in the background. Or I'll listen to an audiobook. My local library has a big online audiobook selection. It was super easy to sign up online and get a library card number to access all the audiobooks and ebooks. While I'm a HUGE music fan - particularly 80s music - I find that I much prefer these days to try and learn something new. YouTube videos on topics I find interesting that I want to learn more about, and audiobooks, are great for helping me to absorb a bit of new information while I'm working on something in Daz Studio that doesn't require my entire focus.
If, however, I'm working on my comic (setting up precise scenes for my comic, that need to be exactly right to tell the story), I will often have music playing in those instances. Music allows me to bring more focus to the scenes. In contrast, YouTube videos and audiobooks tend to require a bit more attention paid to follow them. Music that I'm highly familiar with, or even just music without lyrics, help me to be more focused on scenes that require more thinking and focus.
TL;DR: If it's a scene requiring precision and focus, such as with storytelling scenes, listening to music that has no lyrics tends to work best for me. If, however, the scene is a promo image or a "for fun" scene, that doesn't require a lot of brain work or precision, I will often listen to YouTube videos or audiobooks that help me to learn something new while working in Daz Studio.
I wanted to add something - Creating a playlist for your storytelling is a great way to get in your character's heads or get into the mood of the scenes. Each of my characters have their own playlist that suits their personalities and attitudes. Music that reminds me of the character or music that the character themselves would be "into", helps me to flesh out the characters. The more you know the characters the easier they are to write for, because you start to know what they would or wouldn't do in any given situation.
You can even create playlists that fit the different scenes. A high-energy playlist for action scenes, a romantic soft playlist for more romantic scenes, wholesome playlists for sweet and fun moments, etc. Listening to those playlists while creating those specific scenes can really help the scenes to come together better. Just don't fall into the trap of spending so much time creating playlists that you neglect the actual storytelling part. lol
What I read in the op post is a question about whether writing and making music interferes with making art and vice versa. I don't write songs or music, though I listen to a lot of music. I think music influences the art we make - not talking strictly about DS, though. More about drawing and painting. Writing can inform art as well (and vice versa). Reading and what one reads also has an influence. It all plays together in the mind. That's what I've found, anyway.
As someone with fairly severe ADHD, I always have something playing on Youtube, whether it's a music video, video essay, comedy set or what have you. I can work on 3D stuff no problem, but if I'm working on anything audio-related like video editing or music production, I have to turn it off.
When doing work in DAZ or writing, I may have some music playing in the background, but often not. When there is music playing, I tend to focus on it to the exclusion of everything else. Naturally, when working on (i.e. composing, arranging, recording) music, I can't focus on anything else.
Some with a creative or writers block swear by writing to music. Some use music to define characters whereas I rely on character flaws to define characters. I do not consider myself normal so maybe most normal people would disagree with my thoughts. I love love love music. I soak in music when doing mindless chores, building stuff or painting things. But when tuned in, dialed to rip out a specific project, the music stops. If you listen hard, you might hear a hair prickle. Also when putting on finishing touches, past the rough-in stage, the artistry starts and the vibe is less intense . . . but the room is still silent. The only sound is a whisper of what I imagine. I watch it drift and settle into place. And the next thought plummets upward wavering for a home. Each facet of artistry steals the stage at different moments or days in times, akin to performers waiting in que. When I read my manuscripts, I listen to nothing but the words. I read them out loud, without distractions. I am checking flow and engagement. And when it is done I fire up the Kareoke machine, dance with my dogs, and sing at the top of my lungs to blasting music.
@richardandtracy I find listening is fine. Watching is too distracting and no work gets done. Knitting and crochet are a different sort of activity. I don't do them either. From observation, it seems like the hands can do that while the mind watches a movie.
I used to do a lot of hand crafts when I was younger. I used to be able to knit or crochet while watching TV (though I don't do either any more). But like Richard, I found it impossible to watch TV while cross-stitching or doing needlepoint: speech radio or playing music CDs was my preference for that. (I 've not listened to music radio since my teens, I find other people's playlists too annoying!)
I usually listen to old broadcasts of Art Bell whether I am writing or working in Daz. I think I have most if not all of his old shows saved as mp3s. The subject matter coupled with the sound of his voice puts me in the perfect creative zone for my paranormal stories. Its one of those voices that makes me feel like I am sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories. I dim the lights, even put some candles on some time. Helps me channel that creative energy.
I create music using Wavelab and it doesn't interfere with Daz so far.
It's interesting to hear other people's experiences on this. Speaking further for myself, when writing, I play the music of those times in my teens and 20s when I was finding my confidence as a writer.
I spent countless hours writing. I can picture writing at night in the mid to late 80s on the household's shared computer in the kitchen. I had this absurd huge boom box (with flashing lights no less, truly a creature of its time), and I had a stack of tapes that I'd play, over and over; a small stack of tapes, I might mention, as I was a teenager who worked at a fast food place and couldn't afford a large collection of music. Most of the tapes were just songs recorded off the radio, with the first few notes missing since it would take those first few notes to recognize the song and lunge for the "Record" button on the tape player.
I wrote vast volumes of stuff in those days. That material would be cringe-worthy if I hunted it down to read now, but the important part was that I wrote it. That was a time when I could easily engage in getting ideas from my imagination to a page, and music was a part of the environment. For me, it would be distracting to write in silence: to hear nothing but the ceiling fan, the dog breathing, a neighbor's door being closed.
That I write best to the music I listened to back then is not news to me - for a long time I've had a playlist for writing consisting of just that. But what I found interesting, leading to both the conversation with my husband and starting this chat, was how actively distracting it was - at least to writing and attentive reading - to play songs that were works in progress themselves. Assessing new music doesn't seem to interrupt what I've been doing in Daz, which for the moment is testing new stuff that I've bought while I was busy over the winter and haven't had time to play with yet. It's almost like different creative pathways are involved and can interrupt each other.
The effect became so distinct that I now decide on a given day or evening whether I am doing work on the book, or work on Daz and the songs.
Anyway, thanks to all for taking a moment to contribute to my thread.
Smart move. That is why niches do so well. Artist pick a niche, or genre, and focus on it. Some very successful writers and artists, who do not write music, do not consider it a niche, and instead consider it an inspiration or mood setter. One of my main focuses is music and another main focus is writing and another main focus is art . . . 3 different streams of income. But we can only do one main thing at a time if our goal is to do a thing well. We have many tools in the toolbox, but we never use a table saw, or a sander simultaneously, and we never use either while painting wood.