dididub wrote:i'm trying to work out how to write music faster and more reliably cos i spend too much time unproductive in fl and i was advised by a mate to develop a routine/workflow that works consistently
Yeah, no duh.
BUT, you've got to find what works for you. There are so many paths up the mountain. And honestly, I don't think that it can be rushed. You just have to go through it. Try all different types of techniques, ways of working. See what works for you. In the end you may patch together three or for ways into one way that is the dididub way.
Also, different types of tracks may have a different kind of workflow. Different genres, with different elements, and different attributes may require different workflows.
I think once you start to really get buff in your knowledge of your tools, of what you want to hear, and of yourself, then the fire starts to come a lot more often.
==
Right now, my big thing is audio in the playlist. Just working with audio. I may use midi bits, but those bits very quickly become audio. I'm doing my drums all in audio. They can come from any place - samples that are placed in a drum sampler vst, or an actual hardware sampler, and then played. Those beats are then chopped and further processed, and then resequenced in audio. I guess I eat the sandwich for the bread. I love the bread. I like drum sounds, I like drum rhythms, weird rhythms, off kilter rhythms, rhythms like a damp flame, that spring to life, and just as quickly go to smoke. I find the best way to get there is with audio, and no grid, no snapping. If I want piece to be regular, I make them regular, but I like putting each piece where I want it. Evaluating where each piece fits best, each time we come through something kind of like a loop. I don't often put stuff in the same exact place. Shit changes up a lot. And I like that. To a large extent, it is just a listening technique. Like you really have to listen to where the hits are happening. Is that the right 'swing' (for lack of a better word) that you want there?
Also can do more micro edits in audio. Just really fine control over envelopes, and various parameters. I feel like putting a device between you and the drum sound, like a vst or a sampler, it is like an intermediary, a middle man, shit gets lost in translation. I like being up in the guts of my audio. Like right there in the audio.
I can do stutters, and little anticipation pauses, in audio. Like doing them in midi or by hand... just doesn't sound right to me all together, anticipations, yes, but not always.
In terms of starting, I'm starting with drums, mostly. I get better results starting with drums (at the very least, better mixes). Get a kick and snare set up. They're like:
The main supports of the golden gate. The backbone, the one and the two. So, spectrally, rhythmically, they set everything. It is from there, that I know where I can fit elements into that framework.
And again, I'm in audio, so as elements come into that structure, I can change rhythmically, just by picking up and moving elements, warping elements, I can move everything as a whole, you know. Like the whole audio pastiche, I can just pick up and move, bend, fuck with, can take in or out little elements.
So, I get a basic beat, kick snare and if I'm decadent, hats, and then I look at what I think of as the music. I really love just the sound of synthesizers. So I might start making a sound, or playing a melody, whatever is clever. Whatever that is, it is probably going to end up in audio. It can be one note into audio, which is then into a sampler to be played as a line, or right as audio into the playlist, where it can be chopped and pitched how I want it. I like making synths sound like voices, like chorused voices, wailing voices, chanting voices
If its not synths, then I may be using samples, again, can be musical instruments, samples of synthesizers, or lines, or it can be nonmusical samples, just sounds, whatever, recorded fabric being pulled over a wooden backed chair, while something falls in the background and a kid's laugh floats through the window. Whatevers. Again, I can play that, that can be in a drum sampler vst to play it as hits, or it can be in a sampler, to play lines, can be in a physical sampler to be played and fx'ed/fucked.
So then I get all kinds of pieces of musical elements. If I'm doing synth stuff, I might start to write lines and develop voices at different octave levels, then some variations of all of those.
Then all that into audio, and start to smush it together, see if some magic will happen, get the flame.
If so, NOW - like *new development happening for nwjz*, NOW I'll start to do arrangement right away. Before I'd stack every thing up, into a thick massive finely tuned 16 bar chunk of music that has little chance of going anywhere. NOW I'll just start doing the arrangement. I'll start laying out sounds for introductory purposes, main section, transitional sections, variation sections, break sections, bridge sections, end sections. It can be really skeletal. It can be if I have drum sections I like, like a four bar drum line, I might roll that out, to have it there, and then I go back when I'm actually writing into that section, I'll then go in and start pushing and pulling, and individuating pieces.
The big trick for me, I don't know how I've figured it out for myself, but the big trick is just to get the song laid out. That is the master blue print. Now, once I've got it all laid out, I know the tone of the song, I start to understand the space, I can see the ebb and flow of what needs to be happening, THEN I can make it happen with drums and synths and instruments and sounds and fx, etc. Like only once I know what it is supposed to look like, what it is supposed to be, only then can I make it be like that! So I'll start to get audio in place, maybe I need more stuff. Find other samples to do things, or back to the synths, write new or different lines, develop new or variations of voices.
Bottom line for arrangement, I used to let the lines dictate the form of the song, and that shit never worked for me, maybe because the lines don't have much to say about the structure of the song. Now I develop the song structure, and fit the lines into what the song is supposed to be doing.
Okay, so all along I'm mixing as I go. Again, I'm using that kick and snare as the backbone. I've got those levels set, kick and snare AROUND -12db. As I bring in elements, I really (REALLY) pay attention to how big the sounds are, how much weight they carry. I honestly used to just stack sounds, bring them in with way too much weight, so I'd be counting on them to carry a lot of force and movement in the track, and then when push came to shove, and I had to start thinning things out, cutting fat (and meat) out of sounds, they'd be weak and wouldn't create the push or pull I needed, the push or pull I had in an unmixed state. So I spend time, I focus on the weight of the sounds, how much they can push the mix, as I bring them in. I'm watching my peaks, feeling out my rms. Really trying to figure out how much dynamic range sounds should have as they come in. Try to get right to it, dealing with that. Try to eq to cut away parts of sounds that don't need to be there, kind of reveal the backbone of the sound itself. Get more intimate with the sounds, actually mean what they sound like more, then when they're fit in, they are in. They make sense, I can expect them to do what I need them to do, and I can move on...
At the end, I should do further mixing, like there is production mixing, that's what I'm talking about above, there is a second mixing I don't do too much off, a sweetening mixing. Just can you make each sound sound a little bit better, a little bit more in the mix, yeah you usually can, but it is maddening. I don't do enough. I guess I have to spend more time here. Honestly, never really had a need, cause songs would never make it all the way to where they needed this. But I'm getting there more and more often thanks to something in arrangement just clicking.
(I've got a folder of like 50 beats that I really liked, like they had something that I was like, this is really special, and now when I listen to that folder, it is like each one, shit is dope, and then either 1. a majorly bad decision happens, and then the track dies, and goes no further, or 2. it just ends cause I don't know what to do, NOW listening back, I've got solutions for each one, I can just know what needs to happen to each one, like I know how to take the next step... I don't know how this happened, but I was stuck at that level for a LONG time, and now, honestly, it is so fucking easy, I'm at an absolute loss, I can't figure out why it was so hard, but it did actually absolutely stump me, frustrate me to the point I'd want to pull out my hair if I had any... so I guess there is hope if you're at where I was, bad news, I was there for YEARS
)
So that is kind of an emerging workflow for me. It is hardly fixed, there is probably as much variation of that as there is continuity, but I find myself doing the above more and more. I really like using the sp-404sx or Maschine in standalone in the early parts of the process. Just like hand played elements. Just stuff that is all ears and hands. At least at the beginning.
But didi, those people that are saying solve your workflow, they sound like 'professional' producers. I don't really like professionalism in music or in the arts. I come out of that tradition, but I rejected it. I really don't like people talking about their 'practice' of music making or whatever, their peerage, etc etc etc. I'm way more into magic. I'm more into people really transcending their material existence, and that kind of professional attitude I think thwarts that. I don't know man, not a totally formed thought.
