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Ha, I knew it.

So, yes, we all face this issue in the creative space.
And honestly, it is a curse, it is probably the most damning thing that happens to our ability to work.
This book is all about that https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmaking/dp/0961454733
Interesting read if you want to read, but my main point with sharing the book is to let you know how common this issue is.

Now, the solution is, you suck, you need to accept that you suck, and you need to stop caring that you suck.
What you need to focus on is your love for music, your love for sound. That feeling you get when you press the keys using a synth with a cool sound or listen to a cool beat.

The problem really starts there, because while you produce, your love for music will so easily get trumped by the music that you love.
Do not do this, do not compare yourself to others like that.
They are different humans, with different experiences, and different lives, different brains. You will never be like them.

You are your own person, your own brain, your own experiences, and this is where your beauty lies.
People often tell you, when you want to pick up a girl just be yourself.
Well it's the same is with making music, just be yourself.
If what comes out of your head is beep boop beep, then make beep boop beep, do not feel shame for your simplicity, focus on the love of the sounds you choose, focus on the ideas that pop into your head and express them, no matter how primitive they sound to you.
Another link about this exact topic, little more esoteric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHW1I8T0caI

Trust in your own ability to get better, do not compare yourself to others all the time, again, they are different people.
Don't buy a shirt because it looks cool on some dude, buy a shirt because you like it and it fits you.

In short, you are trying to climb a ladder starting at the top.
It's a very common feeling for all, we all have to go through this, the solution is to accept your suckage and try to improve yourself not by trying to be someone else, but to be a better you.
If that pulls you away from the music you love, let it pull you away.
If you find yourself making classical music or pop songs or punk or whatever instead of techno, let it pull you away. You need to set yourself free creatively, you need to relearn the joy of play.
To box yourself in with a genre or worse, music that you like, is extremely damning, especially if you are not well conscious of your own creativity etc.

Grab your instruments, play around, have fun. Drop some notes, drop some beats, just make music and play. If something does not feel right to you, tweak it until it does, but stay within yourself, trust your own gut, your own inspiration, stop the automatic response to start looking at other work to try and find their solutions.
Do look at other people work to study as you please, you can learn a lot, just do not do that while you are producing your own song.
Don't do so when you are trying to put yourself into your creative/expressive mindset.


Anyways, hope it helps, feel free to hit me up if you feel crappy about stuff. I have suffered this exact issue for years and years, it took me like 10 years to finally start to grasp the issue.

EDIT
more ranting

In more practical terms, I suggest you try to find your creative playful mindset.
If you are bored with a track and not inspired, fuck it, let it die, trying to finish so you can share it, will quickly kill your creative mindset, you need solid awareness of this conscious switch to be able to deal with it.
Do not try and make music like others, make the music that you hear in your head, even if it's just beep boop beep human music, hmm, I like it. You will get better and more expressive as you dig deeper, trust that.
Do not make drum patterns the way they are supposed to be, make drum patterns that sound good to you.
Use your hands and feet as much as you can, record things live using your midi keyboard, tweak after, it does not matter if you can't play piano, the point is to express yourself, using your body to do so is a much shorter road for your mind to fall into that mindset.
If you dance, then dance, do you know this moment while you are dancing and forgot to care you look stupid? That moment when you are just having pure fun and are feeling one with the music, flowing like some ninja or whatever? This is it, this is what you want to dig for.
Dance on your midi keyboard and record it, and tweak it after, with your dance recent midi keyboard dance still fresh in your memory.
Music is language, try and think of it like that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKyySG6qp8
Listen to you beep boop beep, reply to it, maybe another boop? beep boop beep boop boop boop BAM! Whatever, have fun with it.

For me techno sounds like "yeh, yeh, let go, woohoo,, watch out, wait, wait watch out,, here we GO! yeh yeh yeh" It's primitive, stupidly retarded in a way, and gloriously fantastic.

Classical music is often like "can you hear it? can you? omg it is beatiful... no... no wait!.. it is happening again.. my love where have you gone?.. now I am here alone again.. waiting for you .. alone alone.. forever alone.. .. alone... NO NO NO I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS.. FIGHT.. I will FIGHT!!!.. glory glory!! fight for glory!!"
It is more an emotional rollercoaster ride, which people find is more complex I suppose, fair enough.

EDIT

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Spirit-Robert-Henri/dp/0465002633/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0465002633&pd_rd_r=893TKNMA88H6YMF627F7&pd_rd_w=TcJuv&pd_rd_wg=temwA&psc=1&refRID=893TKNMA88H6YMF627F7
This book I also recommend, it's about painting, but the same ideas apply to pretty much any creative endevour

I'm a 40 year old with very present tinnitus (years of punk and rock concerts and playing in bands, DnB and Techno raves/club nights, a decade working in a wood shop around loud, high pitched machinery, and more recently dnb/techno production). There are a few things that have helped me out.

• Always be conscious of your listening volume. For me this means finding the volume I instinctively want to listen to things at then rolling back a few notches. I also use an SPL meter on my phone occasionally to test my listening position but I don't consider it accurate.
  It doesn't take long for the turned down listening volume to sound normal/pleasing, but it does take some time to get used to being conscious of how loud I want vs what is safe.
  This is the only magic bullet in my suggestions, the rest are just things that I do to help. Control your volume!
  
  
• Ear protection when I'm gigging or at shows. I have a couple sets of these guys that I keep in my gig bags and other places that are easy to remember when I'm going to a show. They're reasonably priced and don't make everything sound like shit
  
  
• This one won't be popular, but I keep a neutral always-on EQ on my 2bus when producing/arranging. Currently I have a 6db LP filter rolling off everything above 18kHz pretty much all the time. I only turn it off when I move to mix/master, and as the final stage during sound design (I specifically plan to treat the top end last, and when the eq gets turned off, the volume gets turned down). I've tried a few different things (setting the LP higher/lower, using a dynamic shelf on everything above 15kHz, etc), but the 18k filter works best for me
  
  
• Finally, I recently switched from closed back cans to open back and it's made a huge difference. My ears are less fatigued so I don't get into the trap of constantly turning things up during long sessions

You could try this book. Might be the best is if you got some music lessons on piano. You don't need to learn to play Rachmaninoff but having somebody to show you proper techniques is going to be helpful. Since you will be paying for it out of your own pocket you are likely going to be more motivated to practice and to continue. Once you have the basics down you can then start to pick up other bits and pieces from other people on YT, friends or what have you. If you're interested in more sort of classical Detroit techno then you would want to look into learn some jazz and gospel for more complex chords. Of course its possible to make techno with out learning any theory and there are many who have done so but you will likely get there faster with it.

There's no expectation that you produced every sound yourself either. Just ask the Beastie Boys, or any rapper for that matter.

The thoughts you express here are harmful to creativity. I'd advise you to change your perspective on what constitutes authenticity.

Also, you don't know me. Don't assume that you know my artistic process. My post here comes from having studied and taught mindsets that are beneficial for creative output.

Some resources for you that I'm sure you'd find helpful:

The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production by Jason Timothyhttps://www.amazon.com/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U

The Secrets of Dance Music Production by David Felton
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Dance-Music-Production/dp/0956446035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538863017&sr=81&keywords=the+secret+of+dance+music+production

I'd also highly recommend the music school taught by Mike Monday. He's coached people like Claude Von Stroke and is a well-accomplished producer himself. His insights into the creative process are among the best I've found. Nothing technical, all mindset, which is the biggest stumbling block to making and releasing lots of quality music in my opinion. https://mikemonday.com/

2 of the books which helped me a lot, both great for beginners (but also pros):

This ones focuses more on the right mindest towards learning the skills (hugely important imo): https://www.amazon.de/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U

And this one is more about concrete techniques: https://www.amazon.de/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8

And this one is what iam reading right now, it's more for experienced practicioners who want to understand how to make the step from being "solid" to "great".

It's also very much about developing a healthy mindset to learning and playing / producing. It's written by a classical music / piano guy, but most of what he says translates 1-1 to electronic music production.

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B005OUHOLY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

When i look at my own progress, i really feel "mindset" is the key word - in short, you need to accept your current level, and that learning takes time - but you also need to feel that your potential is only limited by the time and effort you are willing to put into your craft.

And: when you wanna learn a certain technique, try to find a youtube video about it! That can really speed things up.

This 4in 4 out interface is actually really well received. It is Behringer, but has Midas preamps and sounds just as clean as the Scarlett 2i2. It's also class compliant, so will work with iPhone/iPad. Best bang for the buck.

BEHRINGER U-PHORIA UMC404HD https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QHURLHM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9pvDzb4RCYHQG

OK, thanks so much for all your help!

Would this be similar enough to your first suggestion?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Numark-MultiMix-USB-FX-mixers/dp/B00IPF9DX2/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1450373354&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=Numark+M6+USB+4-Channel+DJ+Mixer

Would this be a good option so its kinda best of both worlds maybe?

> the shitty kind you buy at the drugstore arent doing much

This isn't true. A simple foam ear plug that is properly worn provides adequate hearing protection for many uses. The cheap foam plugs are not even in their attenuation of frequencies, which is why musician ear-plugs are more expensive and fitted; they allow a true balance of sound into the ear while still attenuating the volume.

The Hearos Extreme disposables have a NRR of 33dB while the 3M disposables are 29dB. Compare that to the Peltor ear muffs that are only 23dB.

I would consider these for music: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044DEESS/

I would strongly suggest going to an audiologist and having your hearing spectrum checked. You might even consider hearing aides as the current ones are incredibly sophisticated in terms of customized EQ.

(Source: my father is safety professional.)

The volca stuff is great, though if you are going to use Ableton a good starting point may be the Akai mini so you can work with various software instruments and have tactile elements - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IJ6QAO2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_LzWxDb6DVGZPF

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034

This book teaches you everything you have to know about the fundamentals of music theory and even how to play the different scales on the piano. The chapters are in a logical order, so you don‘t get overwhelmed. After each chapters you can test your knew knowledge with some excercises.

I‘ve read it twice and i think it is an easy way to learn the basics without spending much money.

A usb audio interface like this

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlet2i2G2--focusrite-scarlett-2i2-usb-audio-interface

And 2 XLR to TRS cables like these

Cable Matters 6.35mm (1/4 Inch) TRS to XLR Cable (XLR to TRS Cable) Male to Male 6 Feet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KO8VY80/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KdXWCbG8S2SB2

I'm using them with JBLs hahaha, using this cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000068O16/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dS5WCbZCY4S82

how about plugged into an interface like the scarlet 2i2?

the 250ohm are $140 and the 32ohm are $180

https://www.amazon.com/beyerdynamic-770-PRO-Studio-Headphone/dp/B0006NL5SM?th=1

Paul White’s books are a 1stop shop on understanding everything in electronic music.. at least the technical side. I think they have a glossary as well, if memory serves.
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Midi-Paul-White/dp/1860742629

I am going to settle with this or this when I ^finally get Ableton.

You missed a Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual.