Transcribing a track to improve your production skills

WillyZi

WillyZi

New member
I'm sure this has been proposed before but I couldn't find the topic.

I was thinking about this the other day and wanted to run it by the forum to see if it is possible or attempted before.

Let say your enamored by a certain track (Know yourself by Drake)
Would it be possible to reverse engineer that track and recreate it in your DAW of choice?

Would you start off matching tempo and then move on to drums and bass?

Has anyone ever done this before with positive results?

Let me know.
 
everybody does this haha. Or should.

I dont think its possible to get negative results from it. Youll learn a hell of a lot more doing this in a lot quicker of a timeframe than sitting on your daw docking around trying to do it by trial and error.

Piano players learn piano songs before they sit down and start making their own. This is no different.
 
I disagree with Yumid. There are two kinds of producers in this world. Those who make what other people already have and those who make something new. Yes you can learn lots by recreating another producer's track, but unfortunately the more you do this your style will slowly develop into traditional producer and genre's styles. You learn quicker but you don't become original. Any artist in any medium who learns by trial & error will learn a lot slower, but become a stronger and more original producer as an end result.
 
Wapiti said:
I disagree with Yumid. There are two kinds of producers in this world. Those who make what other people already have and those who make something new. Yes you can learn lots by recreating another producer's track, but unfortunately the more you do this your style will slowly develop into traditional producer and genre's styles. You learn quicker but you don't become original. Any artist in any medium who learns by trial & error will learn a lot slower, but become a stronger and more original producer as an end result.
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Disagree %1000000. I didn't say copy their style..its production practice. Whats stopping you from reproducing a track then using production techniques that you've picked up to make your own stuff. If practicing other styles all of a sudden puts a barrier up where you cant make your own stuff then thats a personal problem, not a general problem. Your creativity doesn't change..and adding more knowledge of how stuff is done isn't hurting you or anyone unless you get lazy.

Do you really think people with their 'own sound' started off making that stuff? You find your own sound AFTER you get all the technical stuff down. This isn't copying, its technical practice. Foundation building. Youll never see someone against critically listening to music, this is just critically listening taken to the next level. Remaking songs is just as good as songwriting theory. Remaking songs has answered every question about chord progressions ive ever had where the only answer I was getting was 'learn some songs'. Its good advice, i just took a different approach. In order to write a good song you need to know what goes into a good song. Remaking electronically is just a modern way of doing that.. I dont even know what else to say, i just couldn't disagree more.

Dont get me wrong I get what you're saying, I just dont agree that it traps you into copying others.
 
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Yumid 100%
In music you learn by imitation, no different than how you learned language-by imitation.
Learning to deconstruct music is the best method for understanding how music works. Transcribing is ALL trial and error, Wapiti. Using your ears to learn songs is the process by which we strenghten our own abilities, and develop our own style-there really isn't any shortcut.
Also, Wapiti, if you talk to any "innovative" musician, chances are they will tell you up front who their influences are. No one develops "originality" in a vacuum, only asshats seem to think so and they usually get nowhere. Both Miles Davis and John Coltrane, two of the most distinct voices in music, always shouted out Charlie Parker when asked how they developed their style. Yet, neither of those guys sound anything like Parker. Everyone is a product of their influences and rather than trying to run away from learning for fear of some percieved loss of originality (which is stupid), I'd rather be studying the masters who came before me and use that knowledge to develop my own voice.
 
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I never once said don't learn from the masters, I have a ton of influences. A song you create is influenced by every song you have ever heard, that's why music and emotions make sense. I only said actually REPRODUCING someone else's track is a waste of time, that's one more track where your personality wasn't shining through. Music is all about personality when making originals, yes you absolutely learn from all the influences before you, but you only apply what you know to your own music, not downright copy someone else.

But all do as you wish simply my opinion
 
Wapiti said:
I never once said don't learn from the masters, I have a ton of influences. A song you create is influenced by every song you have ever heard, that's why music and emotions make sense. I only said actually REPRODUCING someone else's track is a waste of time, that's one more track where your personality wasn't shining through. Music is all about personality when making originals, yes you absolutely learn from all the influences before you, but you only apply what you know to your own music, not downright copy someone else.

But all do as you wish simply my opinion
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Why does it sound like you're assuming we release these reproductions? They are practice..thats it. I dont feel like you're getting that point. Not every track you sit down and make is gonna 'shine with creativity' because you need to figure out what that creativity...actually f*ck it i just changed my mind I'm not gonna sit here debating this lol. If you think that from the beginning everyone has this ability to just sit down and make creative tracks without any knowledge of how something real is put together then I dont even wanna start trying to make you realize otherwise. Thats just too far off.
 
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Yumid said:
Why does it sound like you're assuming we release these reproductions? They are practice..thats it. I dont feel like you're getting that point. Not every track you sit down and make is gonna 'shine with creativity' because you need to figure out what that creativity...actually f*ck it i just changed my mind I'm not gonna sit here debating this lol. If you think that from the beginning everyone has this ability to just sit down and make creative tracks without any knowledge of how something real is put together then I dont even wanna start trying to make you realize otherwise. Thats just too far off.
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Nailed it.
 
it goes further if you do serious study of composition it is expected that you will transcribe whole works from a recording with no indication of what is going on

way back when we had to transcribe a brass band passage (only 16 bars but still heavy going). Later that same year we had to transcribe "real emotional girl" by randy Newman

try it for yourself (vocal, piano and strings) and see how far you get before crying foul (I got a mark of 88/100 for mine 28 years ago)

 
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