Page 1 of 2

Capturing energy in your productions...

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:21 pm
by legend4ry
Is it one your strong points or something you struggle on?

Personally I find it EFFING hard, I listen to quite a wide range of music and each artist has its own way of having energy in their tunes, if its metal where it just has them breakdown to a incredible drop or a subtle switch in a hiphop track what just NEEDS to be played again or even a slow-acoustic track what doesn't have a huge rush of energy but it leaves you with this feeling what makes you wanna experience again you get my drift anyways.

Do you *aim* to have this effect in your tunes or does it just happen, do you aim to have a hidden depth etc....I am just wondering peoples opinions on this because I think I am aiming to do something what hits you to much instead of just making a clean tune, abandoning loads of good starts or even finished tracks because it doesn't give me that little 'something' I have in my mind.

Sometimes I just get it, instantly sometimes I really have to try or it doesn't come at all.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:34 pm
by subindex
i find it happens on its own or dosent happen. sometimes u just click the right places

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:56 pm
by docwra
His it's Docwra just popping into say Hello


Hello

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:38 am
by elbe
i get u.

One thing I struggle with for sure, but I don't think it is something you can programe, It happens, there are tricks to it, tho I don't knwo what they are.

I do the same, make a load of beats, find they are missing that something, that push, and end up deleting the lot in a angry rage. :lol:

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:36 am
by Littlefoot
avoid visual/computer aided tools!

my creativity/enjoyment of making music has gone up so much since I stopped composing using a screen!

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:52 am
by stier
My advice: Stop focussing on production, try to set the focus on your mood.

When in the right mood, you can reach past your limited daily horizon and capture ideas worth working on. Unfortunately, that's very rare. If you find out how to invoke that consciousness of creativity, you will be unstoppable.
I already know my personal receipt, but rarely find a chance to apply it:

Being sober.
Being for yourself.
Having the right tools.

And with sober I mean REALLY sober.

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:45 pm
by Sharmaji
write songs not riddims

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:08 pm
by drifterman_
HATS

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:08 pm
by drifterman_
OR COCKNEY SAMPLES U CHOOSE

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:48 pm
by bjackman
lol drifterman's got the right idea! listen to any rusko tune, all the energy seems to come from the hihats [as weird as it sounds], same for Spongebob - without those loud 3 hihats it would just be a bassline and some sloow drums. admittedly the very best of basslines...

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:59 pm
by hugh
it's all about fitting in your percussion around your melody, effectively holding and releasing where the brunt of the melody comes in, or at least this seems to be a standout aspect to me when im putting beats together.

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:28 am
by aleks zen
i think its about having the vision. the intention of ur track is to smash the rave, so if u see it in ur minds eye, ull be able to make it happen

go get 'em tiger

edit: i know wot u mean though, ive recently switched up from reason to logic and while i used to make molten lava with reason i cant seem to get that element with logic.

i think its all about taking ur time and constructing the track with alot of thought AS WELL AS particular intentions

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:01 pm
by r
well its just 1 word you need to know and have to fuse in your productions:

CONTRAST

-Don't use bass in a climax so the bass after the climax will bang the shit out of ya.

-Don't give a way too much information like your melodies and stuff.

-When you made your climax, bounce it and import it again Put it -2db so the stuff after your climax sounds much harder... thou its again the contrast of the volume.


-use sweeps gently... lowcut your sweeps etc.

-Use fx's like reverb and delay... Try to create some bigass chaos in the climax so the stuff after your climax sounds FREAKIN clean. The punch will sound much stronger.


iits a bit of mindfuckin. just some little tricks u can use.... It's nothing that 'just' happen. It's CONTRAST!

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:04 pm
by two oh one
TeReKeTe wrote:write songs not riddims
:)

Yeah. Glad somebody said it. Learn about the structure of ACTUAL SONGS and ACTUAL MUSIC and not just loops that you mute and unmute to give the impression that there's actual progression happening. Stop listening to just 2 kinds of music.


"No, geez, no, oi, geez, it's just some, oi!, beats, yeah? Gert-cha! it's not muso shit, it's all undagrarnd, see? Oi? It's not about actual music, it's about putting sample loop A with sample loop B, yeah? It's just a bit of fun. Oi. Gert-cha."

:|

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:23 pm
by drifterman_
two oh one

good attempt at comedy.

i see what you are trying to do.

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:34 pm
by FSTZ
PUSH THE CAPTURE ENERGY BUTTON!!

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:20 pm
by aleks zen
lol two oh one smashed it!

heres a good one...

"yeh man, im into dubstep its proper sick innit like, im not really into the jazzy stuff so much though.. i like to rave it hard with the lads rather then chill with sexy honeys u know wot i mean" :lol:

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:06 pm
by slothrop
two oh one wrote: Yeah. Glad somebody said it. Learn about the structure of ACTUAL SONGS and ACTUAL MUSIC
Do you want to expand on 'actual music'? I mean, what isn't actually music?

I'm being a bit argumentative for its own sake here, but it's kind of an interesting question to me...

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:21 pm
by slothrop
I think it's a bit of a false dichotomy, meself. The idea that either you're writing proper songs with middle eights and perfect cadences and Dm7sus13 chords and thinking about doing a collaboration with Courtney Pine or you're writing mindless dancefloor choonz where you bung two premade loops together and mute and unmute bits for 5 minutes.

What seems really important (and what I'm still a bit shit at myself) is that whatever you do to give the track variation and structure, it only seems to be effective if it follows naturally from the material. I tend to end up thinking "there ought to be a drop somewhere around here, so I'll strip everything out and then bring the bass in" rather than listening to what I've got and thinking "where does this tune want to go next?"

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:34 pm
by Jubz
Take quantize off.