Your Top 3 Intuitive Concepts to Making Music

[fhsueh]

1) It's not pointless to ask how a specific sound was made. As a producer still trying to understand how amazing tunes are made, when I hear inspiring music, I often feel compelled to "understand" how it was made because I feel a need to incorporate it somehow. I believe it's because the music that lasts is the kind that acts as a carrier of something deeply inspiring, to both past, present and future generations. It's like a spiritual sample that can give your work (which is a product of a fixed place and time) a timeless quality. And it's something we instantly recognize. But for me at the end of the day, that inspirational piece usually isn't the sound of a particular sample, but the overall vibe.

2) When I hear something that inspires me, it's usually the combination of sounds/silence/rhythm creating a vibe that I just want to sink into again and again. And like any new language, there is a set of rules requiring learning how to say new words and combining them into a comprehensible order (grammar) so that a listener can understand you. Understanding the sounds we hear is essential to picking up this language of music production. But I'm also wondering why I don't see more questions like "What makes the vibe of [such-and-such track]?" There is usually a larger universe of factors (particular sounds, placement, effects, mixing, gear, etc.) which could be interesting to hear folks' opinions about.

3) Finally, stay true to yourself. We all have specific tunes we love for various reasons. Those tracks subconciously influence everything about our productions, from the types of sounds we naturally gravitate toward, to the potential audience we have in mind whether we acknowledge them or not. Lots of folks say "make music for yourself" or "don't worry about what others like". I think these are just shorthand for "if you focus on making music that you like, someone out there is bound to like it, because what you create is necessarily a product of what you like, and it will resonate with others who have the same taste, so don't worry about it". Just the other side of the same coin.

Sorry, just been thinking a lot about this recently.

[FSTZ]

^^quality post

esp the 3rd part

nail on the head

[Motorway to Roswell]

Originality, experimentation and patience.

[madmeesh]

1) It's not pointless to ask how a specific sound was made. As a producer still trying to understand how amazing tunes are made, when I hear inspiring music, I often feel compelled to "understand" how it was made because I feel a need to incorporate it somehow. I believe it's because the music that lasts is the kind that acts as a carrier of something deeply inspiring, to both past, present and future generations. It's like a spiritual sample that can give your work (which is a product of a fixed place and time) a timeless quality. And it's something we instantly recognize. But for me at the end of the day, that inspirational piece usually isn't the sound of a particular sample, but the overall vibe.

2) When I hear something that inspires me, it's usually the combination of sounds/silence/rhythm creating a vibe that I just want to sink into again and again. And like any new language, there is a set of rules requiring learning how to say new words and combining them into a comprehensible order (grammar) so that a listener can understand you. Understanding the sounds we hear is essential to picking up this language of music production. But I'm also wondering why I don't see more questions like "What makes the vibe of [such-and-such track]?" There is usually a larger universe of factors (particular sounds, placement, effects, mixing, gear, etc.) which could be interesting to hear folks' opinions about.

3) Finally, stay true to yourself. We all have specific tunes we love for various reasons. Those tracks subconciously influence everything about our productions, from the types of sounds we naturally gravitate toward, to the potential audience we have in mind whether we acknowledge them or not. Lots of folks say "make music for yourself" or "don't worry about what others like". I think these are just shorthand for "if you focus on making music that you like, someone out there is bound to like it, because what you create is necessarily a product of what you like, and it will resonate with others who have the same taste, so don't worry about it". Just the other side of the same coin.

Sorry, just been thinking a lot about this recently.

Awesome post!! Nice that someone's thinking out there. I agree particularly with point 2. People are focusing on specific sounds, and samples, but aren't really thinking wholistically, like how each element is relating to the other, and how the synthesis of elements are creating a vibe. I just want to hear people use more terminology like "rhythm, groove, offsets, swing, SILENCE, space, vibe, placement, arrangement". These things are central to making good music.

Ya so re: the OP. I'd say the one intuitive concept that keeps getting reinforced when I sit down to make music is the different between Mixing down elements in a vertical sense and arranging elements in a horizontal sense. They are completely different disciplines! Mixing down is pretty technical, and can be mastered, but arrangement can always be improved... just like in a film, no edit is "perfect".

[Wrigzilla]

1) Groove - if my head isn't nodding with only the drums playing then something's wrong (it doesn't have to be some scatty groove like Burial's, it's just got to work). If I'm still feeling the groove after working on the same 16 bars for 1-2 hours it's good enough, if I ain't it's back to square 1. I like to make music that I could dance to even if my artistic intention is that it's a more mood/reflective piece. Final point on groove is that SILENCE is key, it's the spaces between notes that make the groove (I'm beginning to understand this).



2) Timbre - we're making electronic music and considering the wealth of possibilities that are so readily available I think it's a bit stupid to not explore sound. I've done a little bit of classical style scoring in music tech a level and a very important part of it was choosing which instrument would play which line, now as electronic composers we have a far greater possibility of sound than a traditional orchestra. Now I know it's easy to fall into the mentality of "I want to write sick wobbly basslines EXACTLY like x" but the problem with that is that you're just going to be copying someone else's sound. I'm not saying that the "how do you get this sounds" threads are all bad (in fact I think it's good to set yourself the challenge of achieving certain sounds, my current one is the neurofunk bass) but you've got to keep sight on the goal of finding your own sound.

3) Make music because you love making music, because you love making music, because you love making music, because you love making music, because you love making music, because you love making music, because you love making music...
I you get the idea.

[narcissus]

just like to add, when I'm making my best music, i'm doing almost no real thinking... just a lot of feeling.. i don't know why i add the notes i do, i just do it and i like it... i'll start w/ a kick and a snare, and then they just grab hold of me and my mind stops functioning... an hour later i snap out of it, grab a glass of water, and am usually pretty surprised by how sick things are sounding..

[FSTZ]

just like to add, when I'm making my best music, i'm doing almost no real thinking... just a lot of feeling.. i don't know why i add the notes i do, i just do it and i like it... i'll start w/ a kick and a snare, and then they just grab hold of me and my mind stops functioning... an hour later i snap out of it, grab a glass of water, and am usually pretty surprised by how sick things are sounding..

basically you are saying "use the force" to make tunes

[soulshynchyld]

lose the perception of reality that you were taught
find what resonates your soul
strive to find the truth

.....oops wrong thread!!!

its easy to make music for others, i dont do it anymore, it lets people steal your energy.
make music based on what you can hear in you head.
heartbeat(drums), body(bass), life(melody/riff).

fuk i waffle!!hahahaha.chea

[Basic A]

Quit trying to write music. Start trying to paint a picture.

[tylerblue]

I've been reading all of your posts and thought I'd pop back in to say thanks. There's been some great concepts that have been discussed, and frankly they will be more beneficial to me as a beginner than any specific sound/editing technique. While I do agree that learning what goes into making specific sounds is important to developing yourself as a producer, I feel like beginners can get lost in the overall point of being a music producer when focusing on exactly how to make wobble bass just like XYZ Artist. That's why I love comments like "if you have nothing to put into music, don't make music."

There are reasons behind making real, inspirational music -- an expression (tone) -- a story (arrangement) -- a feeling (vibe). These are the "wow" tunes where others seem lifeless.

There are plenty of great threads on techniques and methods, so It's good to take a step back and revisit the thought behind it all. Thanks again!

[narcissus]

glad we could help

make 'em feel it

[gravity]

Quit trying to write music. Start trying to paint a picture.

yeah this is another good one. this is the way ive always seen creating electronic music - like painting a picture with sound.

[thesis]

Good question!

- When you're listening to some music that you really love, ask yourself the question.. what is it about this particular piece of music that makes it special to me? If you do this enough, you'll start to notice trends. This can really help you solidify your own musical 'vision' as you can start to put a finger on what really inspires you.

- Don't listen to too much of the genre you're making (as others have said!)

- Accept that you'll make a lot of bad music, in order to get a few pieces of gold. In other words, don't be too self critical and don't stress trying to make every track perfect.

[deadly_habit]

be original
experiment
seek out knowledge rather than ask for it

[iambullet]

1) Experiment
2) Talk to people who know better. A few years ago you had to do it in person, now there's the internet
3) Learn your sound theory stuff.

Regarding 3): To me it seems like quite a few people lack basic understanding of what sound is, what synthesizers do, what those funny waveforms in your favourite wave editor mean etc. This isn't going to get you far. Sure you can make a bass by knowing those weird "saw" waves sound edgy and gritty. But any further processing like EQing, compression, phasing issues, frequency clashes etc require to have a basic technical understanding. So if you don't know what any of these things means, go to Wikipedia and look them up!

[Basic A]

Never be afraid to open your DAW just to study.

You need to answer every one of those little questions that pop in your head. Get a notepad. And make a point to sit down, open your tools, and work out solutionsto the theories in your head.

Another one.

Invent a way to trascrbe your music, that is more indepth to you then simple chord notes and rhythms patterns (Id learn to write those too though!!!) and start keeping notes on those when thy come to mind... If I still had a scanner, Id show you my system, but, I can write my lfo rates, track to track mixdowns, ect. down if I want to, to each thier own, but if you can jot down what you think of outside, in day to day life, you mght find more inspiration later.