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New "way" of mixing/producing my tracks...
This was an idea I mentioned once before but instead of putting it into action I got a quad core.
But lately I've been noticing that **I** am a cpuwhore, not my vsts. I have no respect for computer speed and I hate compensating as I work to conserve it.
I hate turning up my latency, I hate when the meter passes 60% and things start getting "bouncy" in FL. I can't work like that, and just FEELING like I only have a certain amount of space/speed left as I'm mixing DRIVES ME CRAZY.
I never really made an effort to change the fundamental way I produce, and because of that, have always felt limited. This is really huge for me because like I mentioned just the aspect of feeling limited is enough to fuck with my motivation to do something "special".
Well I finally made an effort to change and I fucking LOVE working like this now. For every 1 track I make, it requires 4 seperate projects.
I make a new folder, then in that folder make 4 new folders, I call them simply "bass", "percussion" "synth" and "fx/optional". Fx/optional just means I can use it for fx, or I can just use it as a last resort in general if I need more speed.
I tried this before by using 2 tracks, and one thing I didn't do was save a new version of the track everytime I made a significant change. I didn't realize that this alone was really fucking me up, as anytime I needed to go back to change something it could only really be the last change I made. But if I wanted to change something fundamental, like the entire bassline in general, the whole project was already devoted to that bassline, and it would result in entirely too much wasted time deleting/undoing shit.
But what HELPED ME the most was simply saving each of my 4 projects anytime I added a new synth, or did anything significant in general to the track.
Now the way I work, it takes a few seconds to set up everything, and I wind up with about 20-30 different saved versions (which turns into a mess) but ass long as they are all contained in their seperate folders (bass, synth, etc) its a million times easier to find the project I need to change, and most of all do it quickly.
I've been working like this for only a week now, but wow have my tracks already done a 180.
I'm the type of person who needs all sorts of synths open and ready when I work. And now when I make a bass I can have trillian open, z3ta, ace, albino, nexus ANYTHING I need for that track will be devoted just to the bass line, so I don't have to worry about conserving any space at all now for other elements of the track. I was hesistant about working this way thinking I'd either start overdoing layering, or wind up cluttering my tracks, but its been the total opposite so far. Everything is much more organized, everything is exactly where I need it, and I'm winding up with a TON of different synths for each element of the track.
As long as I keep the levels low, and clean up sounds right, it seems I can always add a new layer or sound if something is lacking. This opposed my whole "less is more" ideal of working, but I've pretty much concluded at this point that style of working is not for me. And I'm not sure how you can really produce quality trance w/out layering the crap out of your sounds. Maybe I'm merely compensating for a lack of programming skills, but I DO find for me "more synths" in general equals "better sound". And the whole point of layering in the first place is to make a single cohesive sound, so the end product is still usually fairly clean.
Anyway on this last bass I made, I have trillian, z3ta, ace, nexus, all going to 4 channels, extracting the frequencies I need from those sounds, and I love what I've been winding up with. It just reignited my whole motivation to mix now... feeling like I truely have no limits.
Heres the bass I did.
bass
Is it anything incredible? No way, is it 100times better than the basses I was doing last week? Absolutely. You can just feel the "depth" in it much better and its way stronger sounding in general.
Does any else work like this or have I taken this too far? lol
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