Ground up, up ground?

[TRohr]

I hope this hasn't already been posted... I have a feeling it has but I am running out the door as I'm typing this and don't have the time to check. BUT! How does everyone throw their tracks together? I usually start with kicks, bass, snares etc etc, melodies, but recently I am trying to go backwards to see if anything "clicks" in my head. Do you guys ever try to push yourselves to make music in different ways? It helps~.

[acidkills]

Here is few different types of workflows, choose your own..

Trance tutorial

[needle ninja]

With all of my music I end up making it a different way.

I don't try to make any type or style of music though.

I believe the more ways you know how to do something, the better you are at doing it.

Although I may be delusional.

[SeaWasp]

Recently I've picked up my bass before anything, and played some strings to see if I can arrange it into something. Then comes sampling & tweaking what I've made, and I make abassline from what I've played....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a bass! :posford:

[needle ninja]

Recently I've picked up my bass before anything, and played some strings to see if I can arrange it into something. Then comes sampling & tweaking what I've made, and I make abassline from what I've played...

Starting with the bass is not a bad idea and I have done it like that in the past.

Bass is quite important in dance music. I should start with my lp's bass next time.

[Anakoluth]

i start at the beginning, with the first tone of the track.

[Guest antic]

i start at the beginning, with the first tone of the track.

+1

 

I usually build my tracks from scratch - firstly intro, then some kind of build up, breaks & climax. If I'll start with some kicking loop, it is likely to remain unfinished because anything I'll try to put before or after it somehow doesn't feel right. If however I'll build the track gradually, then it all sticks & flows together. This has probably something to do with the fact that I don't have any musical education whatsoever, but also is due to the environment I've been using - the trackers, which make it complicated to work in different way.

[drekmajster]

 

i start at the beginning, with the first tone of the track.

+1

 

Make that +2. I just start making it and I make it. It's sometimes hard to get rid of a loop I like without using the usual 'one part remains' thing.

[acidkills]

+1

 

I usually build my tracks from scratch - firstly intro, then some kind of build up, breaks & climax. If I'll start with some kicking loop, it is likely to remain unfinished because anything I'll try to put before or after it somehow doesn't feel right. If however I'll build the track gradually, then it all sticks & flows together. This has probably something to do with the fact that I don't have any musical education whatsoever, but also is due to the environment I've been using - the trackers, which make it complicated to work in different way.

Thats +3..

But also its good to switch workflow methods from time to time, otherwise u loose your creativity and all tracks sound the same.. Thats maybe good for one album, if u want it to make some theme that goes through whole cd.. But its really important not to work always with same process..

I sometimes start with bass.. Sometimes with a loop, sometimes from start, sometimes I just make kick and then press record and play until I get some good tune, after that I fit bassline.. Stating with basslines makes me do really groovy tracks.. I sometimes have problems when I start from start of the track, I create a pro intro, and everything is pro till half of the track, than I have that feeling that something is mising and start adding stuff to the track to create a total mush and ruin the track that was perfect.. But luckily I realized my mistakes and Im overcoming that.. Also a lot of guys complain I have too much brakes.. Does anyone dont like the brakes? For instance took track from Manifold - Faces if I remember good, that track has breakes every 4 bars and its awesome...

[drekmajster]

Nothing wrong with brakes imo, but I generally try to avoid the "drop everything except one part and restart a buildup" kind of brakes. I love those one bar technoish transmissions tho.

[Aeros]

I ran into this too, if you start by making a loop and trying to build off that, ala making a loop of what the middle of your track will sound like - you will start hitting brick walls and not know what to do or where to take the track, or it'll come out jumbled and disorganized.

 

However that is a good way to explore your synths and sounds and test them to see if they sound good together, like building your pallette of sound so to speak. Do this enough and you'll be able to start building a library of sounds to use, then you can just pull up a lead, background, sweep, crash etc when you need a new element to your track. Once you have all your colors together, remove your sketchwork and begin painting the track from the very begginning.

 

Once you do this however, if you want to produce logically and progress the track easily, do a very quick intro building your bass in, kick, percussions, background melody, up until a crash and a break until your lead will start - if your composition is good the track will write itself from there.

 

As it becomes more complete I start thinking how to be more creative with the progression and beats and try to do things that I haven't heard before - then once the composition is sounding complete (beginning middle and end) I'll go over it all start to finish a bunch of times layering in fx, pads, anything cool and crazy - then I will go and do the complete intro and outtro - I do those last because I like them to foreshadow themes of the song you will hear later - also you can do much much much more creative things doing this last since you know what your track sounds like now and you can make the intro and outtro meaningful rather than something generic. When you guys hear more aerosis in the future this sort of detail will become something you recognize in my music =)

[buzzman]

I usually starts at the beginning and finishes in the end Like when writing a story... Otherwise it can end up messy. Then when im done with the rough mix, i go back and pulish what might need some extra work; breaks, automation, panning ect..

 

But sometimes when im creating a track, i come up with something i can't fit in... Then i often cut it out and use it for a new track.

[TRohr]

I usually starts at the beginning and finishes in the end ....

Ahahaah, this is about as far as I got through your post ^ ^. Thanks for the very constructive part, but I wish you would post more posts like this :]. It sounded so ridiculous when I first read it~.

[alleycat]

Depends... Sometimes I get an idea for the melody first, sometimes its the rhythm, sometimes bass... Sometimes its a sample from a movie that a song kinda crystallizes around... Sometimes its just some SFX, or an atmosphere, or...

 

I think you get the idea.

 

More often than not, though, what I do is start out with a percussion pattern and a basic bassline, adding a melody and some acid lines, then changing around the bass to fit the melody or percussion. Then a bit of initial mastering (EQing, panning), and then I pound out the rest of the track. Then more mastering... Tweaking effects, sweeping filters, automating volume envelopes, tweaking sample filter envelopes, send-track EQing... And so on til eventually a track is born.

 

So basically there's no one 'right' way to start out a track, start where it feels natural and go from there.

[Aeros]

Yeah, all true. I suppose its like asking a painter what he paints first...

 

you'll always get a response like "just whatever man"

[Otto Matta]

I tend to start with chord progressions, then beats, then basslines, then melodies, then percussion, then greater composition and finer detail. It changes so much through the course of the work that by then end it tends not to resemble the original. I like working organically, trying my best to let the thing become what it wants to be without intruding too much.