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1. begin writing track
2. continue writing until you feel you cannot do anymore (for the level you're at as a producer)
3. when no more can be done the track is finished
4. listen back at a later date, if you feel that you can improve then go to step 2


The point is no matter how good or rubbish it is, the song is finished, you can't do anymore till you improve as a producer, and if you can then go ahead and do it. Just accept the song for what it is then move on.

Point has probs been made plenty of times but I found it funny that I only worked this out as being a simple 4 step thing recently.

I do this all the time.

kinda the way ive started looking at things.

recently, when i feel that i cant add more or improve the track. i save it, render it to mp3 and listen to it on the way to work for a week and i find that with each listen, something new comes into my mind that i can add in. sometimes its just changing the hats, or adding a splash or something else precussive (is that a word), sometimes its changing the way it sounds afer the second drop, adding a pad, changing the lead slightly.

ive been adding and removing things to one song for about 2 months now. every time i finish it, im happy and then i listen and become inspired by something again.... i should really just save it and be done and move on though

I like this idea and it's true.

But, once you've made 100 songs and they kind of peter out at the same point, you've got to start knuckling down and trying to push your songs further (if you want to make songs).

Yeah dude, this is true as, I had it happen tonight, and those were my exact thoughts... 'this isnt getting better until I do'... SO I threw my stems in a pack and self mastered what was there.

One has to stress, that you shouldnt be pushing anything you dont feel is a good display of how far you can go... I wouldnt go rendering epic fail projects and calling them done, but, if it reaches my limit now, I do reserve right to go back to it.

New free20's available btw guys...

i mostly just make loops.

if i ever start working on a "full song" i consider it to be finished when i'm bored fiddling with it.

I ALWAYS finish whatever tune i start. I think it gives more. You get out what you put in... simple

my golden rule -

never make a rubbish tune. so if you start writing one, delete and start again, this will save you hours trying to finish it cause the hearts not in it.

Depone wrote: my golden rule -

never make a rubbish tune. so if you start writing one.

I wish everyone making dubstep music had this quality control .

normally when i start on a new track i normally finish it by that day could be only a few hrs but it normally take's me 1 week to months to clean it up or re -edit but on the 1st go i make sure i know what i want.

Depone wrote:I ALWAYS finish whatever tune i start. I think it gives more. You get out what you put in... simple

my golden rule -

never make a rubbish tune. so if you start writing one, delete and start again, this will save you hours trying to finish it cause the hearts not in it.

Thing is I used to do this but what happens for me is this:-

1. start writing song
2. have good drum loop going
3. get bored (subjectively it's a rubbish tune but I'll never know)
4. delete, go to step 1

I never get around to practicing arrangement, adding final touches, automation, etc because I delete long before this point.

I believe in: - Never put out a rubbish tune, that's not to say never finish a tune you think is rubbish

I have plenty of tunes atm that I've made, don't know how to improve, fair enough they aren't release worthy but I've improved on something each time I finish one of these things and I think that's what's important at this level.

good thread

I realize that if I don't get to a certain point before I stop.. I'll never go back

waste of time and creativity

lowpass wrote:1. begin writing track
2. continue writing until you feel you cannot do anymore (for the level you're at as a producer)
3. when no more can be done the track is finished
4. listen back at a later date, if you feel that you can improve then go to step 2


The point is no matter how good or rubbish it is, the song is finished, you can't do anymore till you improve as a producer, and if you can then go ahead and do it. Just accept the song for what it is then move on.

Point has probs been made plenty of times but I found it funny that I only worked this out as being a simple 4 step thing recently.

I have the exact same train of thought, but I feel like that makes it so no track is ever finished even when it is finished. I find if I ever go back to just work on the mix I eventually will change the bass or the drum kit or something and the song will take on a new life and shit will need to get drastically changed.
But 99 times out of a hundred I will not finish a song completely because I get bored with it or uninspired or something.

Once i got a few riff, i will always finished a song, because that all i need a few riffs, from that you can make endless chord progressives

I don't like the idea of having a formula for a creative process.

I kinda just fell into that rhythm naturally.. never really thought about there being steps

Motorway to Roswell wrote:I don't like the idea of having a formula for a creative process.

Not the formula for a creative process my friend, more a formula for finishing those creative processes that you start.

Go about writing a song in whatever way you want, I'm just saying this is a fairly straight forward process for anyone who's in the situation of spending a lot of times stop starting projects and never really having anything to show for it.

lowpass wrote:

Motorway to Roswell wrote:I don't like the idea of having a formula for a creative process.

Not the formula for a creative process my friend, more a formula for finishing those creative processes that you start.

Go about writing a song in whatever way you want, I'm just saying this is a fairly straight forward process for anyone who's in the situation of spending a lot of times stop starting projects and never really having anything to show for it.

Yeah, I know. I'm just not keen on having a formula for anything. That's my view on it.

There's no right or wrong.

Low is not stating this as any kind of normative system to be followed. This is just the realization of the way things work.

The more I try to just go from intro in to the more I get done... Pleased to say my last 4-5 tunes have all been written takin each bar one at a time, instead of my normal, confined 16/32/16/32/16 32/64 dj track formula... Heard everyone goin on about it on here... I dont see it changing anything serious about the quality of what Im writing aside from structure... but writing bar by bar gives me more coourage to change my structure up, so I recommend anyone try it. When I was writing loops and then trying to fill in the gaps, everything had to stone a plan, Id have 32 bars worth of after 'drop' material, and Id put it on the 32, becasue thats where my logic would tell the introshould end and the drop should happen, and Id find myself bearing that in mind, and writing 32 bar intros.

I dropped that way of though, and my last tune has a 24 bar intro. 2 bar rests. crazy shit I wouldnt normally do. And its not done yet. Because before I read this thread, I was unknowingly following it, and saying to myself 'Im gonna fuck this up if I keep at it right now'

Break the formula. These arent formulas. These are ways of thought.

alternative solutions to the 'finishing a song conundrum,' as I like to call it, include:

learn some theory...

I say this because the majority of problems encountered in finishing a song aren't down to production tech, but are in fact down to a lack of music theory knowledge which prevents people from moving on or developing the musical themes or ideas they've created...

EDIT: I couldn't finish songs for shit when I first started, then I learned theory, and often something as simple as a transposition of a theme can save a song from sitting unfinished or even worse the dreaded rubbish bin.