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So everybody has different styles starting off a mix. most of youtube tutorials always suggest to create the drums first then follow up a bass line after. Im just curious, how do you guys usually start your very own mix?

I just started producing electronic music lately so I'm still really open to all tips and suggestions

i usually start with drums and then vocals and then bassline - for me its easier to arrange the vocals to my liking and then create the bassline to fit those vocals, instead of trying to like match vocals to an already created bassline

are you talking about mixing/gain staging or do you mean creating a track? i'll answer as if you meant mixing...

assuming you've got all the elements down already: drums > sub > bass(es) > higher frequency instruments > fx > vocals (if there are any)

Both actually, you can actually give away any information. but since you already brought that up (gain staging and all those "things" you add once you already have lay down the mix) , I'm curious about it now x)

Like this now!

Bang in a rhythm (hi-hat, etc) and then start building onto that

About half of my tracks start off with drums and bass, And the other half are built off of an 8 or 16 bar melody riff.

I'm always shocked at the amount of people that start with drums. I mean, I used to, now I usually start with either the bass or melody, then figure out some chords, then I get to the beat. Otherwise it feels like I'm wedging in everything else around the drums. I've cut down the number of "false starts" by a lot with this process.

fragments wrote:I'm always shocked at the amount of people that start with drums. I mean, I used to, now I usually start with either the bass or melody, then figure out some chords, then I get to the beat. Otherwise it feels like I'm wedging in everything else around the drums. I've cut down the number of "false starts" by a lot with this process.

I agree, I start with either a melody/bassline, or since my music is sample heavy, arranging a sample. I find my tracks turn out so much better when I build the drums around the melody/sample.

i got an audio effects rack preset that i use which contains a few plugins i throw it on the master and the track sounds amazing

Basically what fragments said. I recently only use drums first if they are not samples of drums. For example found sounds as percussion because they will often be the main focus. I started a track off with the bass the other day and I found the work flow much easier

Arrangement;
Drums----Sub-----Everything else

Mixdowns:
Mix elements throughout the writing stage. Never put anything on the master out bus. Import the mixed master wav into T-Racks 3 for Compression/EQ/Limiting.

Sinestepper wrote:Basically what fragments said. I recently only use drums first if they are not samples of drums. For example found sounds as percussion because they will often be the main focus. I started a track off with the bass the other day and I found the work flow much easier

Yea, I mean if percussion is really the focus of the track, I can see starting there. Was listening to a FKOF mix recently w/ a lot of tunes that were basically percussion, subby bass and a few atmo synths and I could tell the rest of the track was purposefully built around a percussion focus.

I like starting with bass though because it is that cross over element that is both rhythmic and melodic. So it can really set the foundation for how everything else will be arranged.

Occasionally if I am having trouble coming up with a rhythm and the metronome isn't doing it for me I'll whip up a super basic kick/snare beat to help me find the groove, but I most often erase this and start over from scratch.

I never start the same way tbh. Depends how i feel, sometimes the bass, sometimes drums, sometimes highs.

get kicks going 4x4 usually then write chords n harmonys with synths or pianos that give the track a feel that i want for what ever section it is or what ever it ends up being... used to just say fuck it and go in with like 5 tracks of nexus2 n try to do all the sections at once tho