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-- How can I work better, faster, and stronger? Work flow advice thread...

How can I work better, faster, and stronger? Work flow advice thread...

Hey guys, I need your advice and tips on getting a more efficient work flow. Right now what I'm doing is starting in at least a 4 bar loop or at most, a phrase, and then I spread it out. While thinking of making a faster work flow, I thought about saving my own self made loops from scrapped ideas into the HD . Will that help for the work flow? I usually start from a blank template, I don't make drum kits or anything as I just like flipping through my sample collection.

Do you also dedicate days to sampling and making patches on your synths or do you just go with the flow?

Feel free to share thoughts of how you generally work.

I created a template that has my basic percussions/kicks already loaded and ready to go (Not that I always use it). Also when I am working on a track and I come up with a patch that I really like and can see using it in future tracks, I make sure to save the preset and my mixer settings to it. I've just been getting in the habit to doing this recently because I started finding how much time I wasted tweaking away at individual sounds. Plus starting up with a blank template and having to sort through and find all your kicks/drums/hats/etc. at the beginning, just wastes a lot of time for me as well. In most cases I wind up using the same percussion's/kicks anyhow as my other tracks with minor adjustments.

Another thing I do when I am coming up with my chord sequence; A lot of times I will load a simple piano preset and come up with a basic structure with that. Then from there you can surf through your files and find the perfect sounds to replace it with (Same thing with pads/leads/etc). Get your generic ideas down first because I have found that I spend too much time searching for the "right sound" and tweaking sounds instead of actually progressing the track.

Re: How can I work better, faster, and stronger? Work flow advice thread...

quote:

Originally posted by -FSP- Hey guys, I need your advice and tips on getting a more efficient work flow. Right now what I'm doing is starting in at least a 4 bar loop or at most, a phrase, and then I spread it out. While thinking of making a faster work flow, I thought about saving my own self made loops from scrapped ideas into the HD . Will that help for the work flow? I usually start from a blank template, I don't make drum kits or anything as I just like flipping through my sample collection. Do you also dedicate days to sampling and making patches on your synths or do you just go with the flow? Feel free to share thoughts of how you generally work.

What DAW?

I spend lots of time on youtube listening to various genres of music that I find are simply well composed/produced.

When I have that spark of inspiration, I get to work.

There was a thread a few months ago that had some really helpful posts in it regarding structure/arrangement and workflow. This is not what I was talking about but I have THIS thread bookmarked

faster!=better

(!= means not for those who dont know)

Re: Re: How can I work better, faster, and stronger? Work flow advice thread...

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux What DAW?

I'm making the switch to Ableton Live.

Good stuff in here guys!

Re: Re: Re: How can I work better, faster, and stronger? Work flow advice thread...

quote:

Originally posted by -FSP- I'm making the switch to Ableton Live. Good stuff in here guys!

One of the things that slowed me down was having to go to the browser to add instruments and FX, so I figured out a work around of sorts.

I made "Storage" channel at the bottom of the project. I made an instrument rack with all of my commonly used VSTi. Then I put all of my most used FX on the channel as well. I used the keyboard bind command to bind the number on top of the keyboard(1-9,0) to the FX and VSTi. So whenever I want someone I press the number, Cntrl + C, select the channel I want it in and Cntrl + V.

Since whatever you copy gets saved to the clipboard, you can paste an FX multiple times without having to recopy it again.

The really nice thing is that with some FX, like Pro-Q you can't save its default state with the built in analyze on, but since I have to ready to go in my storage channel its exactly the way I want it when I copy and paste it into a new track. Same thing with Sylenth1: I have my favorite bank loaded up so I do not have to go through that tedious task. I also have a configured compressor already set up for side chaining.

Save this as part of your template so you do not have to do this over and over again.

I can see that if your signed and under serious pressure to produce a vast amount of tracks you should be worried about how fast you can put said tracks together. But, its at this point when the "fun" is turning into "work".

If you have you samples arranged by category(kicks/perc/claps...etc) and your vst's arranged in a way that it is easy for you to find what your looking for then you will become fast by habit.

If you have you program open with the same samples every time your going to be looking for other samples every other track anyway so there is no point in doing that.

VP

keyboard shortcuts

Been thinking about getting that Stylus RMX, but do you guys think it's worth the $s? Why not just chop loops up?

my 2cts here:

- what tasks do you consider repetitive? think about them, write them down, Automate them
- face your demons and become friends with them by spending more time with them (what holds u up producing and do u really need to get better on, train yourself in that area, rather than postponing with workarounds)
- what are your current distractions? solve them (i.e. that driver that crashes, the same old rifs / loops you try but you don't really like etc.....
- learn to command your daw by keyboard, shortcuts rule! (for a reason)

quote:

Originally posted by Conway Twitty faster!=better (!= means not for those who dont know)

I totally agree if we're only talking about getting to the final product. But, if we're just talking about having an efficient workflow that doesn't get in the way of creativity, then I disagree. I've mentioned it in other threads here on TA, but I rely heavily on templates, but not templates that have sounds/samples pre-loaded. My templates are for different styles/genres or tasks (e.g., tracking vocals, guitar & vox, vox and guide track, etc.). My templates have certain instruments already instantiated, routed, busses set up, etc. But they don't have any sounds loaded - I'll choose or create these on a per-song basis. I use these templates because, when inspiration strikes, I don't want to waste my time setting up, for example, Mashine with its pads all routed to their own output, reverb and delay sends, metronome, etc. That's already done - I just open the template, find some sounds/samples, and get my idea down quickly. That said, many of my "new song idea" templates do have a piano preloaded and routed to the appropriate buss so that I can get the chords/melody down quickly.

This video helped me alot



Taken from THIS thread

Better, faster, stronger? Weed, caffeine and nicotine?

I just write out all my ideas in 3xosc with the generic sine sound, and do minor sound sculpting so that it represents a similar timbre maybe add delay, reverb, phaser but not to make the sounds fuller or to be mixing it. Just what's used for effect. Then i save all the midi, and audio data, open it in sonar and i do the arrangement and more elaborate tweaking and stuff there until the song is finished. Sometimes i don't think it's good enough to finish so i just have these bare bones sitting around.

For me the key part of my work flow is to break up the sound writing with the mixing and mastering, That way i have the song first, and i can play around with weird sounds and all that later, and i actually spend a lot more time on the latter. I have also noticed the time i spend just mixing and mastering has decreased now that i can whip through a song and when i do my mini sculpting i'm fast enough with a lot of my synths that i can get the sound i want pretty fast. However, this made my songs seem a little stale as i was drawing from various sounds in my memory bank,and basing it off of real instruments. I learned that even though i was quickly getting the sounds i wanted i got the best results if i had this finished product sitting, while i held onto it just tinkering and impulsively playing over a song which i though was a finished product. The trick is you gotta know when to stop or you'll never get anything done.

quote:

Originally posted by kevin shawn This video helped me alot Taken from THIS thread

I generally agree with all of this, and almost always work this way. The 8 bar loop thing and getting all the sounds figured out is great advise, because you can easily deconstruct/reconstruct everything to build the track, and then when arranging you can glue those parts together. But it's always good to go outside the box and and try new things.

I'm not a pro but I've read and seen a lot of pro talk, so here are my 2 cents:

-A lot of people actually use paper to put down ideas (and even draw a simplified arrangement) before starting the project (and during the project), BT is known for that...other famous producers too (don't remember though).

-Thin line between being organized and killing creativity, always keep it in your mind that you're making art, practicing a hobby, not doing a job, if you cross that line every session you make will change like half of the stuff you did in the past sessions.
Also if you get a new idea you don't have to replace an old one, just Always Remember to 'Save As' before you replace anything.

-Some aspects of mixing should start with you from the beginning of the project, like EQ (general idea), reverb (general idea), volume levels...etc, will save you tons of effort in the end because you'll build other sounds on solid ground, and you will treat your tune the way tunes should be treated, like art.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this piece of advice.
Some people -like DjVespers in the YouTube video- prefer to mix in the end, I guess its a matter of personal preference, but most advice I heard was 'mix as much as you can as you go along' and never heard about it killing anyone's creativity.

-The moment you're tired close the software immediately because the second your ears get tired your judgment of music will be ruined, also applies for drinking and drugs.

-Always have a general idea of the tune before you start it, for example if its a remix...what part of the original mix did you not like? how can you fix it in your remix? what part do you think you can improve? will your remix be dark? jumpy? dreamy? funky?
Be committed to a theme is what I'm saying I guess.

-I usually start with the most exciting part in the track and work my way around it, some people prefer to start from the beginning (usually progressive makers)
But both methods are not different if you don't have a general idea in mind like I said before.

-If you can't find or think of a good synth sound just use piano and later on think about the sound with a fresh mind.
Same thing with other sounds, just use basics until next session you get a fresh idea.

Long story short I guess is that you should treat the whole thing like a hobby, I don't believe this is something that can be done by being too organized.

Give REAPER a shot. It's pretty fast, stable, and lean. Especially important if you are using a laptop or an older machine.

I rewire Reason and Record into it. I bought it as a stopgap until I pick up Logic, but it's more than capable of doing amazing things.

Was hoping to wait a bit longer and order Logic and a new Mac, but my old laptop has gone to the screensaver in the sky.

Anyone else out there that prefers to make music where-ever?

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift keyboard shortcuts

This, bigtime. Pride yourself on being a ninja with keyboard shortcuts. I see so many people doing things the hard way and wasting time. Nearly everything can be bound to a keyboard key or combo of keys, so find out what the shortcut is or make your own and commit it to memory.

2nd, and this is just my personal preference, but do yourself a favor and get a 2nd monitor. I don't know how anyone on the planet uses a single monitor only. After I got a 2nd monitor, my workflow increased 10x.

If you have the spare cash, you can always buy a keyboard with DAW shortcuts on the keys, get decals, or just print out the list.

The biggest irritant is that almost every piece of audio software has different shortcuts. Can get a little annoying.

If you're mobile a second monitor isn't always practical.

OSX has Spaces and Expose, and Windows users can download applications to get close the functionality of Spaces and Expose

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