Not sure if it’s been mentioned or not - but you could be facing ‘burn out’…some times the best way back to something is to take a step away from it for a little while…give yourself perspective…if it’s really in you to do it - you will…been facing the same thing with back to back intensives…it’s hard to find the drive sometimes to complete the given tasks…but I know this is what I wanted - so I power thru…but I’m absolutely gonna take a break after this intensive is finished

@Rosa Lee - well, the simple answer to your question is: ‘maybe’…in my experience, the most consistent indicator of ‘burn out’ is a constant grind…meaning you’re spending so much time working on something that you never really allow yourself time to fully process things before taking in more - then it’s very probable you’re running into ‘burn out’ if you’re hitting roadblocks & getting nails in the tires - ask yourself some questions like: ‘why is this a road block?’ - ‘why am I getting nails in the tires?’ - ‘is this truly a deal breaker or am I just being lazy?’…then step back and honestly evaluate yourself before responding…one thing @Caleb Loveless has said several times that is accurate in my view - is that roadblocks tend to show us where our gaps are…but if it’s something that you’ve never been exposed to before - then it’s probably not burn out…if it’s something you’ve been exposed to a few times but you’ve never really dealt with or taken the time to really try to learn - then again it’s probably not burn out…if it’s something you’ve already looked into a thousand times, you know it backwards and forwards but you’re now learning something new about it you’ve never really considered before - then it’s possible it’s burn out The only way you’ll know is by being honest with yourself about your abilities and your shortcomings…It takes a certain level of self-awareness to be able to identify it within yourself…plus side here though - I have learned it’s also a muscle…the more you work it the better you’ll get at recognizing it and combating it in the future

I’m still in the process of refining my process/workflow…so this could very possibly change - but I typically follow the same basic steps…I usually start with the drums & bass…in my experience - almost all of the EDM genres use a fairly easy kick/bass pattern to create which has a major impact on the final product…once those fit and have the basic tone I’m going for - I move on to the other elements…at this point - I also make the final decision on what genre/subgenre I’m aiming for…so I can narrow it down further…once that’s decided - I typically work on the remaining elements individually (getting the sound right, getting them to sit in the mix, patterns, etc.)…once I’ve got it expanded out into a full arrangement - that’s when I start trying to incorporate mixing/balancing/mastering…all of which is just the fine tuning of everything…I hope this make sense 😂😂

@Luiza Milenova yes - but very basically…if I need to iterate multiple patterns or things like that…I’ll typically work on those as I progress further into the production…I also predominantly work in EDM - so I could see how this approach might not work well outside of that space

I am working my way thru that course as well…although i haven’t gotten to that specific section yet - do know a couple things that would probably be helpful at hitting the correct loudness The first is your gain staging - making sure you have this correct is gonna be a big part of it The second was mentioned in the cheat sheet binder (which if you don’t have a copy - I highly suggest grabbing one) - that would be to get your individual mixer track up to -18db Another point that was mentioned here was ‘mixing into your limiter’…so put the limiter on the master bus - set the ceiling to -5db - then mix all mixer tracks into that I typically also use an L4 Ultramaximizer on my master bus as well - typically at the end of the chain - which makes it super easy to hit what ever loudness target I am aiming for beyond -10db Hope this helps

I use FL Studio…it is absolutely a beast of a DAW with a very steep learning curve - so I totally understand and can empathize with people who move on from it…there’s like 18 different ways of doing literally anything…so it really puts an emphasis on your being able to understand what you’re attempting to do and why…even with all that being said - I would still recommend it tho…since making the purchase (I got the ‘All Plugins’ edition) - I have realized that this difficulty isn’t a ‘bug in the system’ - it’s a feature…this feature makes the overall user interface highly customizable…there are still limitations of course - but once you can wrap your head around all of it - it becomes super easy to move around and get into flow…also (I know this might be a little controversial) but the new AI assistant is an amazing bonus feature…It’s an LLM not generative - so you basically have a expert programmer level assistant who knows the ins and outs of the program…which helps speed things up even more…okay - end of my FL rant 😂😂 As for the other DAWs - I really do think that it depends on what your workflow is…finding something that works WITH your workflow is a must…I just happen to have found it with FL - it just took a while to find it - since I was also trying to figure out my workflow at the same time

I have found I use them fairly often…a lot of the basic ones actually…I also own Phase Plant tho…so I try to hold to all of them for that purpose…I’m not particularly worried about redundancy…I’ve found I never really know which particular plugin is gonna hit what I’m aiming for - plus they all have very subtle sound differences…so as long as it’s not taking up too much space on your hard drive and making it difficult to process things - I don’t see see why it would be a problem to have a little redundancy in your plugins…it’s just options at that point… as for this specific plugin bundle - I do think they have some interesting options that I haven’t found in others…so to me it’s def worth it…it being free is simply a bonus