so when you start to work on a track, which do you generally focus on first?

bassline?
melody?
build around a sample?

I play countless hours on my synths. Just playing on 'em while I do other things on my computer. Every now and then I make a good melody, and that's how it all starts.
I've tried just starting with percussion, but I never finish up those tracks.

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i build it around a melody...then i slowly add the rest...

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I'll put down a simple beat and bassline first. Without those I thing the melody has no reference point to grab onto and lead your ear.

Then I'll usually work a fair bit on the melody before coming back to the bassline and then finally back to the percs.

After that, it just gets messy

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I put a bassline first with all possible changes and then the beat...
Melodie comes easy after that thought....

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psy tunes in the mix "psyunite"

Drums, bassline, misc percs, and then the melodic stuff.

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it all depends... sometimes i start with melody, sometimes with the beat..

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quote:

ALFI - BOHICA - DJ MIX (Stream+Dropbox)

I tend to start with melodic elements, but there's really no formula for it. If you get a great idea for a cool bassline, you can just start laying that down and the ideas will start popping in your head from that.

quote:

Originally posted by Aquarian I tend to start with melodic elements, but there's really no formula for it. If you get a great idea for a cool bassline, you can just start laying that down and the ideas will start popping in your head from that.

I'd agree with that too. If you manage to pull something original out of your ass, be it bass, melody or percs.... go with it!! A hook is the most important part of a track... so if you find yourself bopping away to just a simple catchy bassline with nothing else going on... jump on that and try building some other elements around that and see how it works.

Another thing, which when I was told about it improved my production, is to allow yourself creative time. Allow a few days or a week to just throw around ideas without getting distracted by the actual sound engineering aspect. The creative and logical sides of your brain work separately and you dont want your critical, analytical side getting in the way of the creative process. Its basically the process of brainstorming and roughing things out.

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Kick, Bassline, some melody, drums...
Sometimes I begin with the melody, but standard is to have the 4/4 kick...

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The absolute first thing I do, generally, is working on some percussions. Trying to create a cool rhytm. When I'm done with that I, generally, choose a key to go in. Most often it's A Minor because it's easy to remember.

But the best thing you can do is doing it different everytime.

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wow, i didn't expect such a wide variety of responses...

my next track will be a breakbeat track, so i'll start with the kicks, but i think in the future i will loop a 4-4 kick and play around with melodies....or not.

it sounds like if you have an idea with a bassline, melody, whatever just get that down and then build around it....