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When I first got into trying out dubstep I read the wiki on the style first, then made around 10 tracks, a rough album, based around the description without listening to anything anyone else had done.

Here is one of those tracks: Soundcloud

At the time I was still using mostly loops and not doing much of my own beats or sound design.

So those tracks are pretty much purely my own style at the time, just incorporating what I understood about dubstep.

I then did a second set of tracks that got me making more of my own beats and sound design. Mainly because I had no loops that worked with dubstep well. But it did help me expand my abilities, so it's all good. Those songs were also what I consider to be my experimental stage of trying a new style. So they were rather strange.

Then I did a dubstep halloween album for the fun of it.
This is off that:
Soundcloud

Now to the point.

The songs I ended up cutting were more like the other stuff I had done, and didn't fit the album really. I wanted to do an album that was me, but was also commercial enough to get some of the fan boy attention. I finally decided that instead of trying to make them fit the album, I would just retask a couple of other songs, and make some news ones that did fit it.

This is one of the more dancey tracks. An older working copy at any rate.
Soundcloud

So in the last 7 months I've done 4 dubstep based albums, the one I'm working on now is just the one I've put the most work into refining to a more commercial form. I suppose that may be one thing I do that's different is I don't work on one song at a time till it's done, I always work with groups of songs and try to build a cohesive album.

If you were talking about the last line I'm sorry for talking about the rest. I just accept that it's impossible to please everyone, so I don't beat my head against a wall trying.

Sometimes a day sometimes a week sometimes like a month. I generally find the longer it takes to build a track the more you loose the feel for it and you start to change the good parts for worse ones and it all just gets a bit pap. You forget what sounds good after like the 1000th time you've listened to the same 4 bar loop

JTMMusicuk wrote:Sometimes a day sometimes a week sometimes like a month. I generally find the longer it takes to build a track the more you loose the feel for it and you start to change the good parts for worse ones and it all just gets a bit pap. You forget what sounds good after like the 1000th time you've listened to the same 4 bar loop

Im starting to feel that way now with the track im working on, i think ima just try to finish it quick tonight because I have to admit ive never stuck to a track the hole way though. I'm a perfectionist to the extreme and for some reason i think that my first track has to be a chart topper.... Anyways you think they would let me join the 1 track a week challange? I know I havnt done it yet at this point, but it would help me stay focused + i just became single for the first time in a good while and Im sure that would help me stay productive instead of stressing out over the past.

i find the longer the i spend on a track the more likely it will turn to dribble and i have to scrap it and start again.

After I make the drop, arround 20 hours, depending on my inspiration for intro/melodic part. But to make the drop, it can take days (most of the times I start from scratch, so I don't know if that counts).

e-motion wrote:After I make the drop, arround 20 hours, depending on my inspiration for intro/melodic part. But to make the drop, it can take days (most of the times I start from scratch, so I don't know if that counts).

Yeah, the drop is definitely my biggest issue at this point.

I usually write most of the clips I'm going to use in a couple of hours. I then come back later and arrange the piece, another few hours. Then I listen to it like five times adding shit and tweaking the sounds, etc, another couple hours. I then sit on the track for a few weeks and come back to add finishing touches/mix better. So probably around 10-20 hours or so?

Sometimes I just have a flow and can get most everything done in a night. I just did this track the other night from around 10pm until 6am?

Soundcloud

But I believe this is the last song I'm writing for an album I've spent ~8 months on (11 tracks).

bri1 wrote:

JTMMusicuk wrote:Sometimes a day sometimes a week sometimes like a month. I generally find the longer it takes to build a track the more you loose the feel for it and you start to change the good parts for worse ones and it all just gets a bit pap. You forget what sounds good after like the 1000th time you've listened to the same 4 bar loop

Im starting to feel that way now with the track im working on, i think ima just try to finish it quick tonight because I have to admit ive never stuck to a track the hole way though. I'm a perfectionist to the extreme and for some reason i think that my first track has to be a chart topper.... Anyways you think they would let me join the 1 track a week challange? I know I havnt done it yet at this point, but it would help me stay focused + i just became single for the first time in a good while and Im sure that would help me stay productive instead of stressing out over the past.

Yeah i dont see why they wouldnt to be honest. Normally when i get to that point in producing where i dont know if my track is good i let my mates listen to it, if i get a bit of a funny look with no feedback i just start a new tune haha

anywhere from 10 to 1000.

literally.


when it is done, it is done. (kind of)
i have been known to keep tweaking tracks even after they've been released, even if I am the only one who will hear the difference... just cos I always want to hear them better.

Sonika wrote:A wise producer once told me

I shouldn't become TOO attached to my work. If something is generally just not sounding great, especially in the early stages, I shouldn't continue to frustrate myself and bog myself down with trying to make it work.

If I like a track I'm making, then go to bed and wake up the next morning and hate it, don't try to salvage it. It's just inefficient.

I'd disagree tbh, my most recognised/successful tracks have come from salvaging shitty projects that sounded awful and reworking them completely

Cheeky wrote:

Sonika wrote:A wise producer once told me

I shouldn't become TOO attached to my work. If something is generally just not sounding great, especially in the early stages, I shouldn't continue to frustrate myself and bog myself down with trying to make it work.

If I like a track I'm making, then go to bed and wake up the next morning and hate it, don't try to salvage it. It's just inefficient.

I'd disagree tbh, my most recognised/successful tracks have come from salvaging shitty projects that sounded awful and reworking them completely

yeah this, the last track i made (ocean air - in my sig) started out sounding horrible it was a bit broish and i thought it was a lost cause for a good few days but nah i just had a chilled out day sitting in and reworked it and now im really pleased with the turn out

JTMMusicuk wrote:

Cheeky wrote:

Sonika wrote:A wise producer once told me

I shouldn't become TOO attached to my work. If something is generally just not sounding great, especially in the early stages, I shouldn't continue to frustrate myself and bog myself down with trying to make it work.

If I like a track I'm making, then go to bed and wake up the next morning and hate it, don't try to salvage it. It's just inefficient.

I'd disagree tbh, my most recognised/successful tracks have come from salvaging shitty projects that sounded awful and reworking them completely

yeah this, the last track i made (ocean air - in my sig) started out sounding horrible it was a bit broish and i thought it was a lost cause for a good few days but nah i just had a chilled out day sitting in and reworked it and now im really pleased with the turn out

yeah, i reworked a really bad sounding track and it ended up getting played on 1xtra haha /namedrop

^^respect haha

my project file usually says something around 15 hours. feels much longer sometimes tho.

Each time I write a tune I end up releasing, it ends up taking more and more time. My last tune clocked out at 25 hours, but my first track a year or so ago I finished in like 6, 7 hours. I know alot more about mixing, compression, eq and other sorts of misc stuff now though, so incorporating all of those elements certainty takes up a bit more time.

Sean Vonzie wrote:Each time I write a tune I end up releasing, it ends up taking more and more time. My last tune clocked out at 25 hours, but my first track a year or so ago I finished in like 6, 7 hours. I know alot more about mixing, compression, eq and other sorts of misc stuff now though, so incorporating all of those elements certainty takes up a bit more time.

did you just work it out from the times u spent or is there a way to find out through some log or something?

Back in the days around '99/'00 it took me about 8 to 10 hours to finish a track, no mixdown and no mastering since I didn't knew anything about those things by that time. Now I spend months on my tracks finding the perfect sounds and rhythms, I finally got happy with my new sounds about 4 months ago after switching to Ableton and I'm now working on my new album. So far I made about 4 projects with just a 16 bar 'drop', so let's say 10 sec clips. Yesterday I spend ±8 hours designing nothing else than bass patches, the day before was ±6 hours of processing drum sounds, and today ±12 hours of arranging the main drop for one of those tracks. In the end I usually take about 50 to 150 hours to finish a tune.

Mad EP wrote:anywhere from 10 to 1000.

literally.

can i hear whats taken you 1000 hours

Last few tunes I've done have all been started and finished within a 48hr period. Not to say I've spent all of that 48hrs on the tune. Usual process is get the sounds together, have a break. Work on arrangement, have a break (usually leave the tune alone overnight at this point).

Come back with fresh ears the next day, check arrangement still works, and if it stands up (usually does, bar a few micro edits that no one probably notices anyway but I know they're there) then finalise my mixdown. Have another break, come back with rested ears again and bounce out a few mastering variations. Cup of tea and a sit down in front of my main DJing rig to see how it sounds and that's usually about it.

For me it really depends on the song. I've had a song take me 2 months, just to be scrapped, as well as created songs that I particularly like in a couple of hours. Some songs are harder to work with than others for me. Interesting enough, I just watched an Ill Gates video a couple days back and he talks about limiting himself to 20 hours a song. If it drags on, he just recycles his samples and moves on to something else. This really made me realize that by limiting the time you allow yourself to make a song, you set a goal that must be accomplished. Everytime you repeat this process, you will improve workflow and in time you can accomplish songs that may have taken 2 months before, in a much shorter time. There is no perfect way to make a song, but after a while, it becomes so much of a habit that you have an easier time putting your ideas into action.

One of the most interesting producer videos ive seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVQ8c19u ... rjV-p64Nnp