This video helped me alot



Taken from THIS thread

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I just write out all my ideas in 3xosc with the generic sine sound, and do minor sound sculpting so that it represents a similar timbre maybe add delay, reverb, phaser but not to make the sounds fuller or to be mixing it. Just what's used for effect. Then i save all the midi, and audio data, open it in sonar and i do the arrangement and more elaborate tweaking and stuff there until the song is finished. Sometimes i don't think it's good enough to finish so i just have these bare bones sitting around.

For me the key part of my work flow is to break up the sound writing with the mixing and mastering, That way i have the song first, and i can play around with weird sounds and all that later, and i actually spend a lot more time on the latter. I have also noticed the time i spend just mixing and mastering has decreased now that i can whip through a song and when i do my mini sculpting i'm fast enough with a lot of my synths that i can get the sound i want pretty fast. However, this made my songs seem a little stale as i was drawing from various sounds in my memory bank,and basing it off of real instruments. I learned that even though i was quickly getting the sounds i wanted i got the best results if i had this finished product sitting, while i held onto it just tinkering and impulsively playing over a song which i though was a finished product. The trick is you gotta know when to stop or you'll never get anything done.

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quote:

Originally posted by kevin shawn This video helped me alot Taken from THIS thread

I generally agree with all of this, and almost always work this way. The 8 bar loop thing and getting all the sounds figured out is great advise, because you can easily deconstruct/reconstruct everything to build the track, and then when arranging you can glue those parts together. But it's always good to go outside the box and and try new things.

Last edited by Evolve140 on Apr-22-2011 at 01:16

I'm not a pro but I've read and seen a lot of pro talk, so here are my 2 cents:

-A lot of people actually use paper to put down ideas (and even draw a simplified arrangement) before starting the project (and during the project), BT is known for that...other famous producers too (don't remember though).

-Thin line between being organized and killing creativity, always keep it in your mind that you're making art, practicing a hobby, not doing a job, if you cross that line every session you make will change like half of the stuff you did in the past sessions.
Also if you get a new idea you don't have to replace an old one, just Always Remember to 'Save As' before you replace anything.

-Some aspects of mixing should start with you from the beginning of the project, like EQ (general idea), reverb (general idea), volume levels...etc, will save you tons of effort in the end because you'll build other sounds on solid ground, and you will treat your tune the way tunes should be treated, like art.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this piece of advice.
Some people -like DjVespers in the YouTube video- prefer to mix in the end, I guess its a matter of personal preference, but most advice I heard was 'mix as much as you can as you go along' and never heard about it killing anyone's creativity.

-The moment you're tired close the software immediately because the second your ears get tired your judgment of music will be ruined, also applies for drinking and drugs.

-Always have a general idea of the tune before you start it, for example if its a remix...what part of the original mix did you not like? how can you fix it in your remix? what part do you think you can improve? will your remix be dark? jumpy? dreamy? funky?
Be committed to a theme is what I'm saying I guess.

-I usually start with the most exciting part in the track and work my way around it, some people prefer to start from the beginning (usually progressive makers)
But both methods are not different if you don't have a general idea in mind like I said before.

-If you can't find or think of a good synth sound just use piano and later on think about the sound with a fresh mind.
Same thing with other sounds, just use basics until next session you get a fresh idea.

Long story short I guess is that you should treat the whole thing like a hobby, I don't believe this is something that can be done by being too organized.

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Music might not be the most important thing in life for many of us, but it helps us deal with the most important things in life.

Give REAPER a shot. It's pretty fast, stable, and lean. Especially important if you are using a laptop or an older machine.

I rewire Reason and Record into it. I bought it as a stopgap until I pick up Logic, but it's more than capable of doing amazing things.

Was hoping to wait a bit longer and order Logic and a new Mac, but my old laptop has gone to the screensaver in the sky.

Anyone else out there that prefers to make music where-ever?

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Originally posted by Nightshift keyboard shortcuts

This, bigtime. Pride yourself on being a ninja with keyboard shortcuts. I see so many people doing things the hard way and wasting time. Nearly everything can be bound to a keyboard key or combo of keys, so find out what the shortcut is or make your own and commit it to memory.

2nd, and this is just my personal preference, but do yourself a favor and get a 2nd monitor. I don't know how anyone on the planet uses a single monitor only. After I got a 2nd monitor, my workflow increased 10x.

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If you have the spare cash, you can always buy a keyboard with DAW shortcuts on the keys, get decals, or just print out the list.

The biggest irritant is that almost every piece of audio software has different shortcuts. Can get a little annoying.

If you're mobile a second monitor isn't always practical.

OSX has Spaces and Expose, and Windows users can download applications to get close the functionality of Spaces and Expose