ok heres something i've learned over some time.

one of your abilities as a producer, you have to identify quickly whats going to work, how its going to work. everyone's different and different things trigger creative workflow. you build that with experience ofcourse, perhaps it could be taught to be formulaic, but you have to find this stuff out on your own imo. lately, ive been completing tracks atleast, the majority of them in a day or two. you need to have visions... or something like that.

i believe there were threads made of this topic with multiple pages.

set yourself a schedule. There are nifty project programs people use for real world projects that involve many fronts. I use this for a lot of things were the project can last a month and I need to finish on time.

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quote:

Originally posted by MSZ ok heres something i've learned over some time. one of your abilities as a producer, you have to identify quickly whats going to work, how its going to work. everyone's different and different things trigger creative workflow. you build that with experience ofcourse, perhaps it could be taught to be formulaic, but you have to find this stuff out on your own imo. lately, ive been completing tracks atleast, the majority of them in a day or two. you need to have visions... or something like that.

Identifying what works, read that a few times before, will def keep this in mind. I may have seen that other thread, will search it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Mad for Brad set yourself a schedule. There are nifty project programs people use for real world projects that involve many fronts. I use this for a lot of things were the project can last a month and I need to finish on time.

Interesting, might look into those, thanks man.

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Originally posted by alanzo It's like sifting through cat shit to find a penny. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort.

One week is my limit - if I have to force myself to finish something (as opposed to everything just flowing out naturally) I know it'll never work out.

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No set time limit. I pretty much save everything I make, excepting those few times when I just delete all my files and start over.

But when something fails to come together quickly, I shove it off into some out of the way folder. Then months or even years later, I take it out, blow the dust off, and suddenly I figure out how I want to use it. One of my favorite parts of production, actually, rediscovering my old incomplete stuff like that, listening to it with fresh ears and making it work.

This is where I'm pretty lucky as a producer -- I don't start a track unless I'm absolutely sure it's going to work. I've only abandoned maybe 3 or 4 projects since I started producing 3 years ago.

The only downside is it takes me a good 2 or 3 weeks just to come up with an idea that'll work. I've got a good ear for melodies but not a good system of creating them, so I wind up improvising on guitar, piano, noodling around in FL for hours at a time, for days/weeks until I stumble upon something that sounds nice. I develop that into a collection of melodies, harmonies, countermelodies, etc. until I have a solid formation. Once I know how I want the track to sound all I need to do is put the form together and from there it's just a technical process.

I like the different takes in the way some of you work, thanks for sharing.

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quote:

Originally posted by alanzo It's like sifting through cat shit to find a penny. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort.

a combo of maping a track out so i can hear things work once the boring part is done i then come back to it and have some fun try things out.

or work in a compleatly different style and bomb my way through it from start to finish then mix it down

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quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery One week is my limit - if I have to force myself to finish something (as opposed to everything just flowing out naturally) I know it'll never work out.

I will start looking like a Mr.Mystery fanboy soon but once again, I agree whole-heartedly, i am just the same, the few productions that i have made which i have been proud to stand behind, is the ones that have been flowing on naturally without feeling the pressure,I cannot remember going back to an arrangement to finish it because it wont work

i work on tracks for as long as it takes for them to be finished as long as im not tired of the elements and im stilling enjoying it. once im tired of it or its becoming a pain in the ass, its garbage, finished or not, its just to toss it. actually i should have done that to alot of the finished tracks too. if id been listening to them for a few more weeks i could have avoided a few shit tracks out there. but thats part of the learning curve isnt it? my only advice is that as long as you have fun the result might be good. and if its not good, well who cares, u had fun. its therapy man.