u/1sunday

Been producing for several years now and am at the point where I make finished tracks that I love and I feel are ready to start putting out sequentially, but been getting a bit stuck on what people who have been doing this for awhile kind of go through as a process.

The goal is to obviously become an established producer, get signed to labels, and have support from the DJs I admire but would love to hear some different workflows people have, especially those more seasoned.

Going from finishing the mix —> release, what is your process typically like?

Is it finish the mix, send the demo on track stack to the labels you think it’d fit, wait to hear back from a label that bites then go from there? Or do that and also tease it on social media, sending it out to DJs, etc? At what point do you typically like to pay to get your track mastered or master it yourself, before sending to labels, after, etc?

Sorry if this is a bit of a vague question, just curious to see what others peoples processes look like so I can get an idea and start to build a sort of system that works for me!

Listen, I know most people are going to read this and probably race to tell me that this isn’t worth saving and what not but I truly would just like some neutral advice. I know it’s a pretty bizarre case.

Basically, there’s me, my girlfriend A (1 grade below)and my ex best friend M. We are all 20 and currently in college. A and I met right before high school when I had moved into her neighborhood and we were basically next door neighbors. When we were around 16, we ended up having a drunk one night stand in which she had cheated on her boyfriend at the time by doing. This resulted in her and I seeing each other for some time and eventually her boyfriend at the time finding out. They break up, her and I see each other for a bit but for some reason ultimately fizzle out and we both get into separate long term relationships. I understand this was a horrible thing at the time by both her and I, and I look back and am definitely ashamed by my action of being apart of that but at the time I was young and felt some sort of ego which totally wasn’t right

Cue 2 years forward, I’m now in college, single and very much promiscuous, and A ends up committing to the same school as me. It turns out she actually lived right down the block from my apartment, and so her and I naturally got into contact again after not having spoken for about 2 years. We immediately return to old habits and become friends with benefits, but I had made it clear to her that I was still seeing other people. She on the other hand had wanted a relationship and was very committed to me. My ex best friend M at the time would kind of third wheel us a lot and hangout with the both of us and they had formed a friendship as well. He was very aware of me and A’s history and during this time never made any weird advances. A few months later, A and I end up having a bit of a falling out due to having wanted different things, but honestly I still had some feelings for her having known her so long and cared for her. We end up going no contact from January until July. It was painful and I did think about her a lot but I knew ultimately I had hurt her because of my inability to be monogamous even if we weren’t official and no contact was the best thing to do at the time for both of us.

During this time, M had secretly begun seeing her, as they had formed a tight connection and he proceeded to stay in contact with her. He originally had told me when her and I first stopped seeing each other though that he wouldn’t be friends or hang out with her out of respect for me. This was a complete lie. From mid january until May they had a fling, had sex twice (from what she tells me but honestly I don’t know if I believe this is accurate given how long they were seeing each other) and were pretty much in some sort of secret situationship. (She tells me that she ended this due to the secrecy and weirdness in may, and they stopped at that point.) I didn’t know any of this at the time.

Cue july, and I had reached out to her and let her know that I regretted the way things went and I wished to be her friend and make a fix to our connection. We end up going back to old habits again, hooking up and seeing each other for a bit until november, in which she tells me she doesn’t want to do this anymore because it hasn’t been going anywhere. For a month we just stay friends and don’t do anything serious. During december, we went on a group cabin trip in which both A, M, and some other friends were all there. It turns out A and M half hooked up on that trip while I was asleep downstairs and her feelings for him had come back out. This was still kept in the dark from me.

Moving forward, a switch flipped inside my mind and something about me fell in love with A. Towards the end of december, I exclaimed this to her and while she appreciated it she told me that I had hurt her one too many times for something to go on. I went a little haywire and pined after her as much as I could after this. She agreed to somewhat give it a try and from January to late february, we were seeing each other but not official. It was as if she was testing to make sure I wouldn’t just bounce again. In late february, I woke up one day while she was asleep next to me and as much as I know how wrong this was and a huge violation in privacy, I decided to read her journal. I wanted to know what it was that held her back from fully committing to me, and I found out that her and M had hooked up while me and her were no contact. I honestly lost my mind and think ever since this point I’ve been in retroactive jealousy hell.

To speed things up, M ends up getting cut off from my entire friend group and house (we were housemates which makes things 10x worse) and is basically kind of just shunned after everyone found out. I still had insane feelings for A and I end up still seeing her, and from that time to like april, her and I are seeing each other but there were a lot of problems given this whole situation and what not.

We end up seeing things through though and began officially dating mid april, and since then have been very locked in. M has been thrown out of the picture and everyone around us no longer associates with him either. I could go into so much more detail but this is kind of the best recap I can give.

However, honestly I find myself being reminded of it almost every day, some weeks are a lot better and some are a lot worse. I’ve always dealt with retroactive jealousy, but I’m honestly so in love with this girl that I’ve been putting it down as much as I can. I snooped through her phone and came to the conclusion that she still had some feelings for M while she began seeing me and up until this incident happened.

Now the reason I post this is because I genuinely feel like maybe there is something deeper down and I require some sort of therapy from this. I don’t know if it’s a reach but I almost feel like this is one of the most traumatic things I’ve been through in my life and it’s been hunting my head ever since it happened. I know most people would say to just end things, that I’m so young I can always find someone else, but I spent so long looking for someone else and A has always been the only person I’ve ever been able to see myself with. I know we’ve both done lots of wrong, I’ve hurt her many times and she’s hurt me with this but I find myself constantly sneaking on her phone, trying to find things from the past as if she’s still hiding something from me, when this all went down four months ago. I don’t want to be this type of person, I never had been up until this. I guess I just needed somewhere to vent to be honest.

I guess it just hurts knowing that she had feelings for this guy who was a piece of shit for so many reasons. I know I may have done things wrong but this guy was genuinely a narcissist and had so many issues that my house and friend group had dropped him for aside from just this whole love triangle scandal. Yesterday I had snooped on her phone again (awful I know) and found a conversation from february the day after I had read her journal and everything blew up in which she was talking to chatgpt and it had asked her if she could choose to save one connection between me and him who would she choose and she had chosen him. Now a bit after all of that went down, she did realize how shitty of a person he was and how he had honestly used her for his own advantage for many other reasons, but it just sucks to know that it took so long for her feelings to fade for him and actually start for me. i could write pages and pages about this whole thing but that’s a basic wrap. Fuck this sucks.

I've realized I haven't bought any sample packs in a while, and although people may say to shape your own sounds and what not, I tend to get a lot of inspiration and some of my favorite tracks I made started from an idea I found in a sample pack and went off on. Currently very inspired by Maccabi house sound and artists like Peace Control, LuSid, and also in the tech house realm more of ANOTR, ANATTA, Gio Lucca, etc.

What are some good sites to shop for sample packs for these days?