Personal workflows?

[JFK]

Im interested to learn what everyone eles workflows are, mine is:

Drums ----> Percs/Hats/Cymbals ----> Sub -----> Bass (mids and highs) ------> FX ------> Pads/Atmos -----> Vox ----> Mixdown.

[KoenDercksen]

Tend to do everything at the same time to be honest... Usually start with like a kick and a snare and then start adding melody stuff, while further fleshing out the drums and already adding fx before I even think of bass. I constantly keep adding to everything at the same time, while mixing down as I'm going.

[ehbes]

toms/bongo/incidentals -> hats-> snare -> kick -> vox -> pad ->sub -> high register stuff -> impacts -> done

mixing as i go and then a final mix

[JFK]

toms/bongo/incidentals -> hats-> snare -> kick -> vox -> pad ->sub -> high register stuff -> impacts -> done

mixing as i go and then a final mix

Toms etc first? Very interesting mate....

What are "impacts"?

[Lucifa]

Mess around until i create something I like, whether lead, bass, drums or sampling. Then just take it from there with whatever next comes to mind.

Although usually it's, stumble upon something nice, don't know how to mould a track around it. Leave it. Never come back.

[ehbes]

toms/bongo/incidentals -> hats-> snare -> kick -> vox -> pad ->sub -> high register stuff -> impacts -> done

mixing as i go and then a final mix

Toms etc first? Very interesting mate....

What are "impacts"?

ill take a kick or something and drench it in reverb..i sometimes use them subtlety to introduce new element to a track

[wub]

This is copied from a previous thread we've had re; workflow...

Ok, I'm going to be lazy and just quote myself from a previous topic on this subject so bear with me...

Got my main template already set up with several different buses, routing etc etc. I'll usually start with messing around with something. Whatever that something is changes every time I start. Sometimes a vocal sample, a crazy ass effect I've been working on, some synth patterning with modulation, instrument loop from a dusty old 50s record I've sampled, whatever.

I'll play around with that for a bit, loop different bits, chop it up, add effects, bounce & reimport, create some basic patterns etc, find out what works and what doesn't. Once I've got a nice little pattern looping for about 16 bars or so that won't drive me crazy on listening to it hour after hour, I'll start to construct the tune around it. Place the drums where the sample dictates they should be placed, or apply the bassline so that it evolves organically around the sound.

Generally once I've got that done, will work on tidying up the drum programming a bit more, making a few variations of the patterns, spread them out over the course of the tune. Same with the bassline, add some variations, plenty of automation to give it some movement. The tune programming should be evolving organically at this point, as it becomes apparent when listening where the necessary elements should change or drop in/out of proceedings.

I'll usually add a few bells & whistles at this point, incidental sounds, echoey bits, heavily reverbed hi passed sirens, vocal snippets (nb; I mean spoken word samples in this case, not actual vocals), maybe some white noise sweeps etc etc, extra layer of ambience, stretched our snare sample over 64bars to give some background grit, working it into the arrangement to keep things interesting.

Once I've got a rough arrangement of how the overall tune is going to be, I'll bounce out a rough copy, burn onto CD then go whack it on the main system in my lounge. Get myself a cup of tea, sit down on the sofa with a notebook and listen to the track on repeat. I'll make notes as to what I like/don't like, what needs working on etc, then I'll go back to my studio machine and make the necessary changes.

Then it'll just be a case of doing a basic mastering job (not too fussed about mixdowns, these generally get done as I'm working through the tune), and jobs a good 'un.

Basically, starting with the drums is IMO boring as hell. If I start a tune with drums, the tune will be dictated by those drums and anything I add to it after the fact will be added to and around the drums. FUCK. THAT. I'd much rather get some fun stuff going on, samples/pads/synth loops/melodic bits etc, get them looping the way I like then construct the drums around them.

I never listen to a track for the drums. If I'm trying to tell someone what a tune is like, I won't bang my desk to give an idea of the drum programming. Course not, I'll hum the melody, sing a poor version of the vocal, whatever. The fun bits of the tune, basically. And it's for this reason that I'll start with those bits, as those are the bits I want my tunes to be identified for.

That way I'm changing the emphasis of the track from the drums to the more interesting bit. Like thinking of a tune as a sandwich. The drums are the bread and hey, you can't have a sandwich without bread (this isn't an excuse to correct me on sandwich preparation techniques nor is it an excuse to give examples of great sandwiches that don't involve bread so don't bother), but at the end of the day I'm not eating a sandwich for the bread, I'm eating it for the filling.

[nowaysj]

Posting to remember this thread. Post more latter, it is complex.

But 95, maybe 94% start with a kick, it is the capstone of the pyramid, and the whole pyramid itself. 69

[MoonUnit]

Posting to remember this thread. Post more latter, it is complex.

But 95, maybe 94% start with a kick, it is the capstone of the pyramid, and the whole pyramid itself. 69

Interesting... I always always always start with the snare. Get myself a loop going copy snares across the loop, build the kicks upon it from there. I leave the first two beats of the beginning of the loop empty, though, to help create some shuffle. Once I get my hyphy kick/snare pattern going, I'll do the hi-hats or shake-things. When I have those three elements sorted and I'm happy with them, I'll copy the loop and slim it down to create an 'intro.' I keep it super simple and introduce the elements one at a time, but in a slimmed down fashion (i.e. less kick hits - only the ones that are consistent in the main part of the song). Then I build a really simple drop pattern on the drums. Viola, great starting point for a tune.

Never do I let myself think that any of what I have just created is set in stone. The 'intro' section is always subject to and will change, it just helps me get a better feeling for the track/where I can go with it. Without it, just a simple drum loop doesn't feel fleshed out enough for me to build upon - it's too ambiguous.

My style of music has always been more percussion driven than anything else. I played the drums when I was younger and have always favored them. Tunnidge is a huge inspiration of mine... I can relate to his style and I love the importance percussion plays in his tunes.
Tear-out shit is cool too, and I love the sound design found in a lot of tear-out dubs, but the kick, snare, kick, snare, kick, snare, RIMSHOT percussion is too mundane for me. I like rolling percussion with switch ups that tear your mind away from bass for a second and make you go WOAH. That's why I always start myself with the drums. Maybe to find where my bass in gonna go, I look at any dead space I have created in my percussion and see how I can use that to my advantage when writing in the bass. Also, I look at where the kick drums are, cause you can really get some nice oomph by placing the start of a bass note right on a kick.

Then once I have the sub pattern going for the most part, I'll work on the midrange sound design.
Speckle with FX, one shot percussive samples, risers, what have you, and that brings me to having a pretty full sound.

[MoonUnit]

While I'm thinking at it, I also have a couple expediters set up to get my drums sounding good quick. Spending too much time mucking around with them makes me lose interest faster.

Goes like this (I use Reason):

Kong ---> stereo imaging busses - kick, snare get mono - hi hats get a little bit of spread - ride, shaker, crash get wider spread, clap gets channel, spread wide

Kick ---> stereo imager ---> audio splitter ---> one signal gets sent to combinator with sub for side chaining, the other to the master drum mixer.

snare ---> stereo imager ---> audio splitter ---> one to master drum mixer, the other to side chained EQ combinator (explain later)

Percussion (not kick/snare/clap) ---> processing buss with EQ's to cut out low end and a notch for the snare fundamental ---> combinator with automated EQ. snare signal enters combinator as trigger for the automated EQ so that whenever the snare hits, the high end of the percussion ducks really quickly ---> master drum mixer

This way I can plug my drums in really easily, pull a few tweaks and they already sound halfway decent together.

[Huts]

melodies/pads/leads > bass > incidentals > drums > hats. I sometimes pick out a kick/snare before starting the track if I already have a certain vibe in mind. However I just leave them on their own channel muted until i've finished making some bass/leads/pads. Once I've got the idea I'm headed for with the musical elements, I'll add the drops and either make the drums fit what I've already made, or rework what I've made to sit with the drums

[samurai]

I think what wub said is really interesting. all my tracks are entirely centered around drums. in fact that's what I'm listening out for in tracks. but I do think it's very interesting to sometimes not start with the drums, even if that's what your track is going to be centered around. I sometimes like to throw a simple chord progression together. try to get a nice groove going. then try to get my hats to fit around that, then add the kick and clap.

[65L]

I often start with atmosphere's, working off of the tones inherent in the sound, or audible but oftentimes vague melodies. Then sub to introduce some z plane action which is then accentuated by percussion of some sort. It varies between that and starting off using kontakt (my preferred sampler, despite some workflow speed reduction) loaded up with a midrange sound of some sort, to be introduced as the focal point of my mixdown. Then using kontakt's algorithms, i'll go straight in and go ham with the native effects kontakt offers, including modulators to meld the pitching and sometimes volume and envelope (using external modulation mapping via a symbiosis between kontakt and the ableton interface). after i have a good sounding loop, i'll strictly produce in the timeline portion of ableton, either with bounced audio that i am satisfied with or a rather more difficult strategy, which utilizes available modulation options in my DAW, and focus primarily on progression of the structure to maintain interest.

Regarding mixdown, i religiously try to avoid using compression too much, unless it's for a creative purpose. I believe in creating a good sounding mix with little to no compression (excluding mastering process). Using a gain - based mixdown workflow is where it's at.

[samurai]

Posting to remember this thread. Post more latter, it is complex.

But 95, maybe 94% start with a kick, it is the capstone of the pyramid, and the whole pyramid itself. 69

"The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone."

[Shum]

I usually build songs in my head, maybe write it down first of all, staying away from computers/instruments (except the piano/keyboard) is important for me when writing. I used to write a general MIDI "skeleton" of a song on the computer but got lazy so I stopped that. Now I just dial up the sounds in my immediate vicinity that I need and start recording and writing in the software, any other external sounds i might need (live instrumentation/vox/other) get recorded after this. I should add that I'm a big fan of compression while recording as well.

As far as mixdown is concerned, I like to get things turned into audio ASAP and to apply effects as late as I possibly can. I also like bouncing return channels given my preference for audio, editing reverb/delay bounces is very cool.

Probably got more to say... might edit this a wee bit later.

[Talált]

really depends how a song hits me..

if I'm creative
1 a melody or song comes to me from silence
2 plug that melody into fl studio and tweak it how I like it
3 listen to that pattern and "visualize" the finished product (imagine sounds that go along with the sound I have plugged in)
4 repeat 2-4
5 build ONE pattern of a full climax of a song
6 mix levels
7 break that pattern down by channels
8 spread those patterns out (structuring)
9 mixing and tweaking
10 export to wav
11 master
12 export to mp3

if i'm in a creative lull (writers block)
1 sit down with a synth and make patches and hope that one stands out and gives me a melody and then I can do the above

or

1 work on old songs, remastering, restructuring, mixing, tweaking, fuck around experimenting with everything, different genres. etc, or youtube/forum try to learn a lil

[almostskate100]

I almost always start out with drum patterns, not because I think theyre the most important piece of a song, but because having a specific drum pattern laid out helps me hear and discover melodies and basslines in my head a little bit better (if that makes sense). I like songs where the drums and melodies don't just compliment one another, rather, they sort of become one in the same. But that's also just my style, I guess.

[Efrafa11]

Sample dig ----> Cut ------> Bang around on pads----->Record----->Drums(favorite part)------> Bass-----> Clean up everything a bit & loop a while-----> Incidentals & vocal chops (can take months)--->Mix

Of course, only assuming I find a sample I like enough
and
That I can get it past a loop.

[wub]

Posting to remember this thread. Post more latter, it is complex.

But 95, maybe 94% start with a kick, it is the capstone of the pyramid, and the whole pyramid itself. 69

Isn't the capstone the bit that goes on top i.e. finishes off the pyramid, instead of starting it?

[hasezwei]

lately i start by firing up some synth, browsing presets while playing keyboard til i find something where im like "woah thats lush/fat/gnarly/beautiful" and get stuck. maybe then i further tweak the preset til it sounds as good as possible with no additional fx and start writing a basic melody.
once i've done that i add melodies staying in key (reapers scale-function for the piano roll is great if you have no musical background like me)

at the end i mostly have
a bassline (as in low notes being played, not distorted sounds or sub)
a kinda arpeggio-like sequence of short notes
a lead-line
a couple string/pad sequences

when i got these all layered up and they sound good together i start adding drums SEPARATELY from the melody (same bpm tho) and then tweak both so they fit together. maybe the melody needs a more straight beat, or i can get away with doing rhythmically more complex stuff. depends, really.
then i go towards structuring the tune and since i already have those multiple layers of melodies as well as multiple layers of drums (kick/snare, percussion, hats n stuff) it's only a matter of copypasting a couple blocks and you have your basic song structure down.
THEN i start mixing down, doing sound polishing or change drum samples, add fx to the synths, add the sub bass and if the tune needs it start doing the classic resampledistortfilterbidnizz


however thats just how i do it lately and the results are way different from my usual output. a lot less club-oriented, more like 'electronica' or so. if i wanna make a techy banger i just start off with drums and then make bass sounds til i stop having fun and never finish the tune like normal people.

EDIT: i should add, i still do the basic 'mixdown as i go' thing in form of lowering fucking everything whenever i add a new channel to avoid clipping as well as compensating for extreme volume differences. but no eq'ing, compressing or anything.
if you have to EQ something during the songwriting stage you should reconsider your selection of sounds or your song structure (less shit playing at once)