most often i start out with two parts that complement each other and i start to flesh them out then when i’m semi-done with that i tend to get stuck. i like how it works but i have nowhere near a whole track which is kind of depressing. :<
i’d rather start with some rough outline and work with whole parts and more in a top down fashion at an early stage.
any tips on how to go about this? or just your thoughts on the whole process. would be much appreciated!
All my tracks start with a certain sound that triggers my enthousiasm.
Like sculpting, you hear this potential and you start ‘digging out’ the
sound until it is exactly what you imagined. Then I start building from
there, first asking myself what sounds ‘logical’ with what I already have.
After that, I try one or two alternatives before I choose what direction
I’m going for and move on to the next aspect.
Once I have about 16 patterns and it sounds like a loop, I start ‘building’
the actual song. I find it easier to remove aspects to emphasize certain
things than to add it up. So I first make the ‘climax’, then the ‘bridge’ so
that I have the most intense and the least intense parts of the song.
Then I’m start looking for ‘what flows’, or ‘what’s groovy’… you get the
idea…
After awhile I have some loose components… Some easier, groovy parts,
some banging parts, some bridges… Now comes the most fun part:
listening and listening and listening and listening and moving components
around (they almost always consist out of 4, 8 or 16 patterns) to seek
the bestest ‘song flow’ so that it keeps me interested during the listen.
If a song starts to bore me, I keep tweaking the arrangement until it
doesn’t and if that doesn’t help, I delete the track.
I realize I have very ‘standard’ arrangements and a pretty straight
forward way of setting them up, but I’ve come to realize that this is
for me the easiest way to make a composition that keeps me on the
edge of my seat the whole time and that’s what matters to me.
what do you mean it feels like a loop? like all the parts flow together but they are not repeated like in the final track?
you are the bottom up knob twiddlah kind of guy! (= i wish i was that good! i’d prefer to work as you do with production going hand in hand with actual arranging and whatnot but somehow i tend to get bogged down in details.
i’ve tried to actually “abstract away” some instruments while tracking so that i just have the bare necessities and can get somekind of rough sketch of the track and then i flesh it out in my mind.
feels like i would be much more interested in the detailed work if i had the broader picture of the track.
I try to identify some kind of theme that’s being used in the music and use it as the central idea, and then I build a texture around that, and then I come up alternate themes/textures that complement it. Then I lay out a plan for how the whole piece will go, roughly, in terms of the form and what the large scale structure is going to be.
I find it really helps me to know how much more I have to do on a song before the rough version will be done. It’s very motivating for me to have blanks to fill in, so I try to establish what and where those blanks are as soon as I can.
I often find myself bogged down by the limitless potentials offered by technology nowadays.
When you get ‘stuck in a loop’ something such as a crash cymbal, explosion or filter sweep sound effect can help introduce a new section or development.
Personally, i have found not having to large a collection of vst synths and effects to choise from helps workflow.
Keeping your sample collections in some sort of logical order also helps.
One tip i have that helps with the creative part of the mind is personal organization.
This may seem to be going off topic - but the creative part of the brain is also the same part you use to remember things…
Say im working on a tune and remember i need to pay a bill or phone somebody - i write it in a notebook i keep.
The thought is then out of my head and the mind is free (at least more free) to create.
Something many do that i don’t is using ‘song templates’.
You could have a blank renoise file, with kick, snare, percusion, your fave bass synth, etc all loaded up whenever you start (almost) afresh.
You’ll be straight into aranging withiin moments of firing up renoise.
Have you ever tried to draw your music?
I usually visualized the music in my mind, I am able to see shaps and colors, then I try translate them into sounds. Most of the times it’s a hard job, but this is how I get inspired, and if I can advise you, DON’T LOOK FOR THE INSPIRATION, because it comes to you when you don’t expect it.
In order to be creative and avoid getting depressed and frustrated don’t go ahead and try making music when you don’t feel to. Just have a break, forget the music completly at least for 30 mionutes and think about something else. Think about what you love the most and try to “tune” with your inspiration
In terms of sounds I build my music all on the kick drum and the bassline.
In composition I adopt classical coposition rules like harmony and song forms, and so on.
