Do you have a set way of working, where you always try and compose, say, a melody or rhythm or killer sound and then systematically build up elements around it until you have a finished track?

Or are you more like me, with a flash of an idea set down in a WAV file, the original arrangement lost about a year ago, and then you come back to this audio sketch and finally invent a way to extend it into a complete work? In other words, a totally haphazard and unpredictable process that seems to come together once in a while almost as if by magic?

I start with what I hope is a good idea, and I tend to start at the middle of the arrangement of the song. Usually if the idea works, it's easy to finish from there, I just break apart the song from beginning to end and add or subtract what's needed.

When I first started out, I was all about the loop based style of production. You know, come up with an 8 bar loop, add all the elements of the track in that loop, then try and stretch it out into an arrangement and finished track.

As I have gotten more experience, I have begun concentrating much more on getting the arrangement nailed down first with only a few simple elements. I begin arranging immediately with just a simple drum pattern, bass, pad and lead. I find that I can generate more predictable results in a shorter time frame working this way.

This way of working almost always starts out with the melodic elements as they relate to the arrangement. Simple progressions and basic melodic foundations. Working this to makes it easier to turn a moment of inspiration into a complete musical work.

Almost all of my tracks are written with vocalists in mind, so my approach may be different than most. I start the majority of my tracks at the piano, with a main melody and chord progression, then I add additional parts (verses, pre-chorus, bridges, etc.). The initial melody idea usually comes from my mind, or from just improvising over different chord progressions until an idea comes together. I usually, but not always, start my ideas by playing along with a drum loop that I create with my Maschine and/or from a loop library.

Then, I sequence the melodies and chord progressions in my DAW, and build the song around it, saving the intro/outro and transitions until the end.

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I usually start out with an idea but it never ends up close to what i started with. I think only one track really shined through with the original idea and it's prob my best haha. maybe that says something.

Normall I arrange as i go though, starting from the beginning then working my way to the breakdown and finishing it off from there.

Final tweaking in the mix down sometimes.

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My composing and mixing are quite separate - composing is done with inspiring sounds - generally starting with a melody, then adding the bassline and chords. I render the result and leave it sitting in my ideas folder. Mixing sessions are focused on getting together sounds which work really well together, learning how to improve things from a "mix quality" perspective. These use generic progressions, or are attempts to recreate some of my favourite songs.

When the time comes to turn a musical idea into a finished product, I have a bunch of solid templates I can turn to, to quickly get a good sounding song happening. Sometimes it falls into place quickly, other times (like a current musical idea) I've started from the ground up five times (so far). I don't get too attached to any particular set of sounds - if it doesn't sound great, I'm happy to scrap it and start over, rather than spending hours tweaking one sound, then another.

Always have to have an idea but I keep a very open mind. I'm very picky about my drums sounding perfect together, so I almost always prepare my drum kit or any loops first and make sure they are all perfectly pitched.

After that I do a lot of what Eric said. It's important to get some simple things down (don't worry about processing audio and running compressors, eqs, gates, etc. so early in the process), at least get to the break in the arrangement, and then fill the track out with sounds that sound good together. Getting a simple arrangement down with minimal work really will get your creative juices flowing. And since you didn't spend half of Christmas processing audio and creating complex sounds for the arrangement, it's always a flexible and fluid process. (Never heavily process audio until you have nearly all your elements going. It's beyond pointless for so many reasons.)

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both I would suppose. Idea brainstorming is unstructured. Plugging those ideas into something cohesive is structured.

It's a mix of both, really - I rarely have a solid idea when starting, more like rough sketches in my head which often leads into aimless noodling around but if/when I actually scrape something workable together I have a very structured approach to the whole thing from that point on.

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Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

The normal way would be a jam session with a sound I like. Could be anything like a real instrument or a nice synth sound. Sequencer will be recording and I might just record like 5-7 minute long takes with some chords. After recording I listen to that take again and pick the best parts which will give me like at least 2 or 3 useful themes to work with. Mostly now its up to either use all themes in one song, or make different songs out of them. When I have this set, I would start to find some other elements and start to rearrange that to a kind of sketch, to see how stuff works when developing over time.

The other way would be to make the song as it grows. Start with drums, more drums, more more drums, little fx sounds, get a bass rolling, add some sequences, play with some filters and effects, and try to develope a theme.

3rd and last way is the stuff I do sometimes which i would say its themeless. Its more about atmosphere and little melodies here and there, but no real theme and also not the regular, break down / mainpart thing.

i simply have something in mind ie a tribal type track then go about finding/making everything i need or want in one big lump.

and work my way through it all until im happy

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i work very random but most of the tracks that are finished was started with a groove.