hi

we all know that, if we watch 100 different people, we might see 100 different ways of starting a new project, song, track, idea, etc.

i was just wondering how your daw looks like, when you start that new draft, or that new idea for a melody, or that 16-bar drum loop, etc etc.

 

Keep in mind, I do orchestral music but this is what I do:
- Play around on the piano until I find an 8/16 bar melody, chord progression I like.
- Then I build on those 8 bars until I feel like it is full. This is the longest part of the process. Then these 8/16 bars become the most intense part of the track.
- Then I work on intro, variations, outros, break, etc. It's much easier once I got the climax of the song taken care of.

I find that focusing only on 8/16 bars really helps and avoids getting you lost all over the place. And once you have that "main" part, it's much easier to come up with the rest.

 

Here is mine ...

 

No shit Zenarcist, me too!

 

I'm with Zenarcist, fuck all that pre-made, pre-assigned, template'd nonsense.. I start from scratch... never the same.... Evuuur..

I don't care if it takes more time, it leaves my palette open for anything.. fresh, new, empty... lets GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Except.. I use Live 9. It's like a canvas waiting to be painted on... Mmm.. can almost smell that canvas...

Pre-conceived is overrated Randomness, spontaneity, instant inspiration, is king.






having said that... Everyone should do what works well for them... we are all unique and different!

 

I usually just press record and start playing what ever comes into my head

I have a few project templates stored away, they are from when I have liked the tones I have created, but I wasn't happy with the musical ideas (which I ditched). I may revisit them someday since the sounds are already matched and interesting to my ears

Maybe creating interesting sound pallets is something to think about when we don't have the inspiration to compose music? It might even be the catalyst that brings new ideas into our minds.

 

The only thing I have as a template is a bunch of tracks with Superior Drummer laid out and separated in tracks the way I like it (kicks, snare toop, snare bottom, rack toms, floor toms, etc...). I also setup some levels and fix compression and other bits and pieces on them. Only because I'm pretty consistent with the way I like my drums. The col thing is that with that setup I can switch through drums libraries easily). With everything else (guitars, bass, synths, etc) everything is done from scratch, one reason style.

And like he says... we're all different. Good to hear others' techniques though. Lots of ideas to learn from.

 

I like One Reason's statement: "It's like a canvas waiting to be painted on..."
And its working the same for me. I start with an empty 'canvas' myself.
Though I'm planning to do a template. Since I have the Korg Nanokontrol 2, it seems easier to have a template with my fave VSTi already mapped to the Nanokontrol and maybe some effects setup already on a vocal audio track.
But then.. "Randomness, spontaneity, instant inspiration, is king" another good point I like by One Reason.

About the VST drums (e.g. ezdrummer, addictive drums):
I never seperate them into kicks, snare, etc.
What is the benefit of doing that? Better tweaking?

 

Shit yeah.

You can control everything and add individual tweaks to each component. You can setup the output to multichannel on EZDrummer for starters and then adjust if you want even more separation between components. I never use the whole thing on one channel anymore.

 

I haven't been making electronic music with VSTs for long but, if you listen to any electronic track with a beat, pretty much how it can be made easily is this:

For e.g. in Maschine..

1. Build up about 5 tracks, all on top of each other.

2. Extend all tracks to around 5 minutes.

3. At the beginning delete everything except, say, leave the bass track playing as intro, then delete everything except two of the tracks playing (now you have bass and hi-hat), then three, and so on.

So, the idea is, to build up the song with all the tracks playing at the same time, then a process of deleting will give you intros and breaks etc.

Not saying all is created like this, but it's an easy way to get started creating whole songs.

 

Nice!

The songs/tracks that generated most income for me started out as melodies/ideas that I had in the shower or bathtub.
I rarely just open up an empty project and go "Soooo, what shall I start with???".

On the other hand, I also create generative music (in Buzz and MAXmsp). There I have templates and random shits going (me just turning knobs/sliders and clicking cross-boxes, compared to actual playing/writing/programming).

 

i must still have dozens of melodies i recorded on my phone. just don't know if they're worth spending 50 euros on a battery + cable for bringing the phone back to life.

 

Harmonizing melodies is fun!

 

Maybe it contains a melody (or two) that you can make into a track that you can make more than 50€ from. ;) Win/win.

It sure is. Fun and easy (at least for me). Sometimes you can harmonize, then mute/remove the lead - and víola! You have a new "lead". ;)

 

Even if you are not too technical you can use Melodyne and key the notes into Chord! and use the reverse function

 

Below is a screengrab of my personal Logic Pro X template (with GUI modded; click to enlarge). This is a general rule for me, and rules invite breaking, but the template has Kontakt loaded on the top track, the Apple guitar gizmos loaded on the next track down, and a general-purpose audio track below that. The "piano roll" MIDI editor is at the bottom of the GUI. Because I do a variety of styles of music, this seems the most versatile and most welcoming of whatever sort of idea I'm starting with. I might start with a Kontakt instrument, played ("input") with a keyboard and then tweaked in the piano roll, or with a guitar track over a perfunctory beat or drum part. I like to create drum parts "hands-on," in the MIDI editor.

 

I start on some empty file.

No.

I first listen to some unfinished work. This will never end up in a new piece as is.

take just a melody or a line there, and/or I export some interesting sound design (floppy on upper right of the ableton device)

I start a new session.

I have quite a few preset, only for base sound so I don't need to build a bunch of input track for an hardware synth. (if i'll use one)

Import some already done stuff, and get a new direction from there.

- Then , I bring the most shitty kick I can find out.

- Build a first bass, usually the main one. (only mid part)

- Work on a kit (I pick up a real shitty one first, so I have to go back on it)

- Make a shit load of tracks.

- Remove most of them , survival of the fittest.

- Export it as private on my sound cloud.

- listen to it next day

- work some more

 

Using a template will definitely restrict your creativity, getting up at 3.00am, a blank canvas opened on your DAW, a tumbler of Jack Daniels and a bucketful of imagination as your creative brush

 

if anyone knows how i could randomly select some notes from my selection, and change their status to muted to unmuted, via the logic editor, it would be cool. the logic editor is really limited. i wish we had "if", "is/is not", and a few other conditions.

 

3.00 am... jack Daniels... my brain cells would be dead in no time. but an ultra fresh Carlsberg or Desperados, i say