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Rhett wrote:I'm really trying to get some new creative ways to begin writing my songs.

For example: Do you write all the notes/midi out in 1 piano channel and then when you're done break the notes up and begin sound design? Or do you jump straight to sound design and build from there?

Huts wrote:

Rhett wrote:I'm really trying to get some new creative ways to begin writing my songs.

For example: Do you write all the notes/midi out in 1 piano channel and then when you're done break the notes up and begin sound design? Or do you jump straight to sound design and build from there?

Recently its been load a piano and make a chord progression, make a lead, make the first drop then go from there. Through out finishing the rest of the song the everything usually changes a bit, but that's usually where I start.

OfficialDAPT wrote:A catchy chord progression and melody!

Rhett wrote:

OfficialDAPT wrote:A catchy chord progression and melody!

Yeah that's the way to go. The only problem I have his when I start transferring all the midi to instruments, sound design tends to make me lose my creativity

sub_lox wrote:I pretty much always start with drums, I'm trying to stop this for a while though because it's definitely slowing things down. I always end up trying to perfect a 16 bar drum loop and by the time I get around to messing around with chord progressions and melodies I'm sick of the drums I've made and scrap the whole thing, so I'm thinking of trying something different next time.

wub wrote:Another thread on this = another cut & paste;

wub wrote:I've ranted on this enough, so am going to be lazy and do a copy paste of a previous rant;

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

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

wub wrote: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.