|
Song arrangement...
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Four_On_Four-er |
Greetings, I was curious about starting a discussion about general track construction.
Lately, I've been in 2-different modes:
1. Sound sculpting (messing around with knobs and rythms)
2. Melodic Composure (lots of fingers on the MIDI controler)
It seems that lately I'll start a track, create some good sounds, and play with some melody's until I reach a barrier of creative smoke. Then, I'll redo the track with the same synths from the middle -- the climax (espeically true of trance), and branch out from there.
I'm finding that if I go into a fresh project file with the loudest part of the song in mind, the rest seems easier to engineer (hope this isn't a crutch). However, I'm finding out that I'll sometimes end up with multiple project files of the same song -- all different pieces.
I feel wierd that way...
I was wondering what you all generally do. This isn't really asking so much for advice as it's a curiosity note. |
|
|
| azndragon0613 |
I hear you man. I have like FLP files of the same song with little tweaks and minor changes between them. I mostly do it out of fear that I will alter a critical setting and lose what I started with. :whip: . I branch out too sometimes. You like mess up with notes and all of the sudden you have sweet honey to the ears. Just goes from there.
To help you stay on track though, try to pin down a plan for each song. Like the atmosphere and the feel behind it. That way most things fall in place and you'll continue on a straight track. For example...make a loop with everything in it (melody, bass, perc, kick, effects, pads or whatever) Refine all the instruments so they sound nice and fit. Then try to start the song. Experience tells me that it's best to get the melody first, but that's to you.
I personally discourage working on more than 1 project at a time. If a new idea comes up...save it and work on it later. Or else...you'll end up with fragments of songs. |
|
|
| skot_e |
| I knew a guy a few years back who would make 32, or 64 bar loops which sounded really good, but he could just never finish of a complete track. I don't think I ever heard a whole completion, just kept moving on to the next idea. he was happy with that tho. |
|
|
| mzvirbulis |
| oh! that would have to drive you nuts.. |
|
|
| DJ 00 Tommy |
| quote: | Originally posted by skot_e
I knew a guy a few years back who would make 32, or 64 bar loops which sounded really good, but he could just never finish of a complete track. I don't think I ever heard a whole completion, just kept moving on to the next idea. he was happy with that tho. |
Kind of like me. I always make short loops and such that im realy happy with but i always struggle to put them into full songs. I havnt been producing for a long time so i hope its just something i will grow out of.
I think my biggest problem is not knowing enough music theory though. |
|
|
| Nemesis44 |
I hear you.
They way I write tracks can vary so much, but yes I have stacks of loops that will probably never be finished.
I only have about 50 odd finished tracks but the amount of loops is easily 5 times that amount.
I can usually tell if I'm going to finish a track though right from the start.
Will often start with the breakdown and then work backwards. Sometimes I struggle with making a good arrangement to get to the big finale though.
Cheers
Nem |
|
|
| Four_On_Four-er |
Yes, Nemisis, I agree there. Arrangement is one thing I seem to lack.
Often, my best track are the ones that I finish the quickest. I think I'm starting to grow out of that, tho (hoping). Anyone else feel the same? |
|
|
| TranscendentalP |
most of my tracks are finished in my eyes in one day really.. because generally once i start a track I want to finish it and I don't stop till I do. My problem is that when i get something good down, I then rush to finish it and it comes out less than what it really could have been.
I just started a new track tonight and I'm going to try to take my time on this one cause i already like the way its going and i dont want to fuk it up lol.
I basically just start out playing with a synth then ill find a good sound and write a melody to it and go from there.
I've been finding my songs have been following a very similar structure to each other, and I dont know if that comes from the way I'm writing or just my style. |
|
|
| ASFSE |
| i'll start to create a track and then give up due to the fact that i dont want to deal with my CPU. |
|
|
| dj_kane |
| that happens with alot of my tracks. everytime i want to listen to a new part i added i have to mix it down. drives me nuts! |
|
|
| pho mo |
I've been trying to overcome exactly this problem for a while.
What I currently do is, I use one session to put down as many musical ideas as possible. The result of this 'brainstorm' is maybe 20 or 30 tracks, each one 8 - 32 bars long.
Then I put cubase into loop mode, press play, and begin muting tracks in different combinations to get a feel for which ones work together. Here I'll tweak patches for tracks that fit together, to make them fit better. I try to stay away from eq and effects at this stage.
Once I've got loops, and some ideas for which ones go with which, I'll do a 'live' arrangment, meaning i just record the audio into my mp3 player, hit play on the sequencer and try as best I can to mute / unmute, tweak filters etc to make a live song. This creates an audio arrangment which sounds messy, but often produces some serendipitous ideas due to the scrappy live and unrehearsed nature of it.
Then I'll go and listen to the arrangement away from the computer, and write down ideas. This is the first time the 'song' comes together and its usually the only time I can really work on the arrangment. Once i've heard it too many times I get blocked and find it hard to re-arrange any more.
After this stage, I've usually got a good idea of the track and can then undertake the tedious task of properly arranging, then tweaking, eqing, effecting, perfecting etc.
The reason I make tracks this way right now is to keep the creative flow alive - due to the two 'live' sessions - making up the musical ideas, and creating the arrangment. |
|
|
| dj alliance |
| quote: | Originally posted by skot_e
I knew a guy a few years back who would make 32, or 64 bar loops which sounded really good, but he could just never finish of a complete track. I don't think I ever heard a whole completion, just kept moving on to the next idea. he was happy with that tho. |
Thats like me i ahev like over 300songs that are unfinished. Dont think i have ever realyl finished a proffesional song. Its only now though that my mixdowns are half decent. |
|
|
|
|
