I find it challenging (and humbling) to devote a period of a couple of weeks each year to attempting to recreate ten of the best sounding songs of the last year. Some of the sounds I get nowhere close to, some of them I don't end up close to but I end up with something which sounds great, some of them I get very close to, which also gives me options for my future songs - I can keep the low end foundation and build my own pads and leads over it (as well as changing things melodically and rhythmically, of course!)

So yes, you don't want to end up making clones of other songs, but this will give you a very defined goal in terms of what you're trying to learn. As I said, it's very humbling. I always find out how much there is I don't know!

I bet it would be humbling! You know that's something i've always wanted to do but never actually sat down and done.. Ten would be ambitious with my time constraints but even doing one properly would be useful, and as you say regardless of how close you get to the tune you're aspiring to copy the groundwork could still be used for something original.

So much of this pursuit is self discipline and time management.. Persistance i've got but the other two, "needs work" lol.

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The thing I like about doing ten is that when I hit one of those "argh how'd they get that bass sound" moments I can go onto one of the others. Often i'll come back to the other song in a couple of days and already have a better handle on things.

I try to implement completely new techniques a lot... Like do something strange with samples, granular synthesis etc. I try to watch a lot of tutes about styles other than what I conventionally produce and listen to lots of new music for inspiration. Then I try to recreate those sounds and combine them with my current sound.

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New Mix: March 2010 Promo
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