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Is it boring because you've been cycling round the same 16 bars making tiny tweaks for half the night? I always have at least 2 tracks in different stages of production. If one seems boring, I switch to the other for a bit. Often, I'll find the first one is fresh and exciting again when I go back.

Another trick I use is to make a massive 20 minute long remix of a track, fairly quickly, making every transition, breakdown 'verse' and 'chorus' different. Forcing myself to do brutal things to keep the interest up for 20 mins, combined with knowing the results are never going to be heard by anyone else frees me to try loads of things I'd never normally do... and quite often I stumble on something really great that I wouldn't have tried in a serious mix. Quite often I trim the 20 minutes down to a 5 minute 'best of' edit, and work from there. The downside is sometimes I can't bring myself to throw the rest away... prog-dubstep, anyone?

LX_Nen wrote:Is it boring because you've been cycling round the same 16 bars making tiny tweaks for half the night? I always have at least 2 tracks in different stages of production. If one seems boring, I switch to the other for a bit. Often, I'll find the first one is fresh and exciting again when I go back.

+1

Also as far as progstep goes one of my current projects is 9:09

The Widdler - Froggy Style.

This is one of the tunes I love in terms of structure - So few loops and it really takes you on a roller coaster of bass.

Sick, sick tune. Always rinse this, never gets old! Great structure.

Is it boring because you've been cycling round the same 16 bars making tiny tweaks for half the night? I always have at least 2 tracks in different stages of production. If one seems boring, I switch to the other for a bit. Often, I'll find the first one is fresh and exciting again when I go back.

Man I get stuck in 16 bar limbo so often it isn't even funny... I now do exactly this, have something else on the go if something I am working on gets 'stuck'. I find this also results in possibly finding something where you think 'ah, that will work in the other track', so you switch back again and lo and behold, one simple sound or patch gives you the spark to get going on the other one.

Saying that, one I am working on at the mo is totally chilled until halfway though, then goes mental wobble stylee after the breakdown... It's certainly kept it interesting and I still can't decide whether it gels or not, but it sure is fun making it

stereotactic wrote:Saying that, one I am working on at the mo is totally chilled until halfway though, then goes mental wobble stylee after the breakdown... It's certainly kept it interesting and I still can't decide whether it gels or not, but it sure is fun making it

now this sounds interesting really wanna hear it might have ago at making a song that switches between a bunch of styles deep, filth, bro...whatever i can think of, might come up with a good few ideas to be used in other songs

BLAHBLAHJAH wrote:Few loose ideas...

'Always' bring new sounds to the track in pairs or more, when a new sound enters, modify or alter another part of the track... Use this for control of contrast as well as directing the chosen theme/sounds where ya want it

Associate musical tricks to linguistics... Set up questions to keep people intruiged then dot around the answer

If you're a dabbler, try using a different chemical for a different point of view

Throw in sounds that stimulate the mind into identifying what physical event would give rise to it

Nostalgia is the best drug! Make use of this... Rinse any idiosyncratic sounds for all they're worth (see 'computer game sampling topic' for instance)

Assign phrases to body movements and try to work within that (80s glam metal kick on the kick, pimp backhand on the snare for example)

If things get boring throw in somethign uncomfortable to interupt attention


Dunno man, the list goes on... Just treat it like what you consider an interesting conversation

That guy pretty much covered it. Atleast someone else knows what they are talking about.

These other clowns dont have a slightest clue, theyre still bumping each others heads for the "supreme" answer.

If anything follow what Blahblahblah is talking about . Music is more than just a SOUND, its also a language.

Moxxiedubstep wrote:That guy pretty much covered it. Atleast someone else knows what they are talking about.

These other clowns dont have a slightest clue, theyre still bumping each others heads for the "supreme" answer.

If anything follow what Blahblahblah is talking about . Music is more than just a SOUND, its also a language.

No, the rest of us were just giving practical advice rather than wishy washy nonsense that sounds poetic but doesn't actually mean anything..

paravrais wrote:

Moxxiedubstep wrote:That guy pretty much covered it. Atleast someone else knows what they are talking about.

These other clowns dont have a slightest clue, theyre still bumping each others heads for the "supreme" answer.

If anything follow what Blahblahblah is talking about . Music is more than just a SOUND, its also a language.

No, the rest of us were just giving practical advice rather than wishy washy nonsense that sounds poetic but doesn't actually mean anything..

to think..i left out "and probly most people here will not understand what you said BlahBlahBlah" to not be mean.

You also left out the part where popping four thousand pills is a pre-compositional requirement.

paravrais wrote:

Moxxiedubstep wrote:That guy pretty much covered it. Atleast someone else knows what they are talking about.

These other clowns dont have a slightest clue, theyre still bumping each others heads for the "supreme" answer.

If anything follow what Blahblahblah is talking about . Music is more than just a SOUND, its also a language.

No, the rest of us were just giving practical advice rather than wishy washy nonsense that sounds poetic but doesn't actually mean anything..

yea what you said sounds very very broad and not necessarly helpful. i mean its helpful but its more on a philosophy helpful. all the other things people have said are more structured and hands-on. its hard to know how to make the emotions flow thru the music if u dont know how to peice it together.

Pedro Sánchez wrote:

Sharmaji wrote:honestly, swing your chair around and listen while NOT looking at the screen. you'll hear what needs to come and go.

+2

I Always do this

billybuxton wrote:

Pedro Sánchez wrote:

Sharmaji wrote:honestly, swing your chair around and listen while NOT looking at the screen. you'll hear what needs to come and go.

+2

I Always do this

As do I. Great thread, thanks to everyone's helpful responses.

Try to pretend you are someone else who is just hearing the track for the first time. It is easy to over value certain parts of a song you made because it may have taken you some crazy amount of effort or imagination to pull off, but in a lot of cases only you will know that so just try to listen objectively.
Changing drum sounds from part to part is really great
Also adding extra layers on certain drum hits adds nice feeling
It usually a good idea to keep variation in your hat patterns from part to part
Little details things go a long way
Leads and pads sounding unique is just as cool (to me at least) as huge basses. I feel like people flock to presets far more often for those kinds of sounds.
Automating effects on vocals can give them cool vibes especially if they're just being used as little one shots and stuff in the breaks on a drop
Last, but certainly not least. Do everything you can to not over think a part. I have listened to a song back so many times before that i ended up changing just about every single part of it probably because if you hear any song 2000 times it probably doesn't sound good anymore haha

oh ya sometimes really simple nursery rhymes work as good rhythm ideas. recently i used 1,2, buckle my shoe and it sounds heavy as hell =)

Having a good mate you can bang you ideas off to is also a pretty good thing to do, Its always good to bring a completely fresh pair of ears in

Mexztah wrote:Having a good mate you can bang

mthrfnk wrote:

Mexztah wrote:Having a good mate you can bang

Goddammit

Yeah, listening the track without looking to the screen helps to spot some of the "boring" parts, and sometimes when im alone at home so that i can use my speakers instead of headphones, i play the track and walk around the house and just listen how everything sounds if your listening the track away from the speakers.

i actually just found out something really interesting, that also allows you to keep things interesting.
I don't know what it is called in music theory, but there surely is a word for this method;
I was just working on my remix of an animals as leaders track, and in one section the chords of the 2nd guitar were all the same throughout the whole section. some powerchords and stuff. So i thought, to make the section more interesting, i changed the chords on the pad, which i layered with the original section with the whole guitar stuff to make it more organic. I made the chords of the pad play around the original chords from the sample, of course still in the key. this allowed me to give a different to the chords and also lay emphasis on the notes that i changed.
It's sort of like how in the original ambient/atmospheric music those slow movements in chords lay emphasis on certain tones.
might be helpful when you have some orchestral stuff, adding certain details to string sections or lower stuff like cello sections