YOUR individual artistic process!

MAXY

MAXY

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I thought this would be an interesting thread idea if it doesn't already exist (searching found nothing). As we are all producers/composers of many genres we often forget what we are dealing with through the vast world of plugins, techniques and process. A lot of the time we forget that we are all artists, and at the end of the day when we bounce our sessions we end up with art.

Now how we get to that point is the greatest of all. We all have ideas that come from within, we paint our sonic pictures and synthesize ideas from an infinity of options. I figured this tread would be good for people who are lost or are looking for new ways to approach their journey of expression.

Ill start by sharing my process as it may be helpful to some (and I hope others share so others can be inspired to create!! :cheers:)


I always sit down and start like this....
1. I will start with nothing but saw waves. 3-5 tracks and bang out melodies and chord progressions. This helps me get the actual arrangement of the track im about to work on down so im not turning knobs and tweaking settings (I've trashed countless songs tweaking settings before im done even writing!!! easiest way to kill a track!)
2. After I have my motifs and progressions. THEN Ill start bangin beats out (others start with this, theres no wrong way!!)
3.After I have a really rough idea of what im doing, then I will go in and tweak my sounds! (at this point everything is arranged and written! I have my bass, chords, pads melodies all written! its easy from here just make them sound good! It makes sound design fun and way less complicated! You have a CONTEXT for your sound to live and breathe in!!!)
4. After that you go in with the nuance! add your personal touches! its all you from here. Go for it and tweak the living shit out of that lead! Your melodic content is all there its trial and error!
5. Once the rough sounds are tasty and the way I like em, all faders to -inf db!!! Its time to mix the bad boy!! There is more sound design to come, but then bring everything in! (in order of importance to YOU!!! I start with the beat because thats my GROOVE! then the bass, then vocals/leads and then give everything its space! I'll do 3-5 mixes and save them all individually so I can A-B-C-D-E-F them and pick my favs!
6. Then after everything is sounding good. Back to sound design if something isn't fitting! Final tweaks here. Extra effect busing and what not minor tweaks. BOOM!!!! I got myself something that resembles a finished product. off to master that beast! (completely different territory!)

alright that is kind of my rough process! works for me maybe it will inspire someone else. THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY TO DO ANYTHING! THE RIGHT WAY IS YOUR WAY!!!! Remember that the only rule is that there are no rules. Look to others for guidance and tips but at the end of the day its all you homie!! :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool: curious to see what other people do because it is easy to get psychologically lost in the vast world we know as art. CHEERS!
 
I make music for different purposes and I like to approach it very differently depending on what I am working on. For my songwriter stuff I always start by getting my tempo for a new song. This is the most important decision I make in terms of affecting the whole track's feel. I find the best instrument to use for this is the Hi-hat as it can get the most dynamic grooves without worrying about pitch at all. Nest, I usually have something worked out in my head and my fingers so I can lay down a few tracks of different instruments when I start going. Once I get one with the groove (usually either high hat, guitar or bass) I start making the nut of the drum beat I will use (unless it's a song with no drums). I use Addictive triggered by an Alesis Control Pad to make my backbeats and a Zildjian 14" Mastersound hi-hat to infuse the liveness into it. Once I can loop out the basic groove of the track I do that and start tracking the song with the basic instruments of bass, guitar, and keys/synth. I'll also record some vocal tracks of percussive sounds and random rhythms to get some unexpected results that I either use or I don't.
Once I have basic tracks up to where I have written the current material (I usually start recording once I have a couple verses and a chorus) I switch over to vocals and get my vocal line's feel down. This usually precedes figuring out the final bass line so that it plays with the vocal correctly. Once the vocal is down I go back to the drums and start making my backbeat vary and add some fills using my control pad. Once the full song comes to me I finish tracking those parts in no particularly set fashion and I start recording a full hi-hat track played through the song in as few takes as possible. Once I have all basic tracks it's on to mixing.
I also make some ambient soundtrack music and I approach that a little bit differently. I usually just play along with the film once I have footage to work with. My favorite instruments for playing with film are bass, guitar and random percussion stuff. I also use a lot found sounds. The most important thing for soundtracks is communicating the intent of the film (at least to me), so I just keep doing it until it feels right. I find it really important to keep this material simple and with lots of space. This type of stuff can be fully tracked in a couple of hours and mixed in a couple more because I keep my track numbers down and rely on as few things as I can to make the vibe. I think I got this from working on a film for the 48 hour film festival where I had to write, track, mix and master everything for a 7 minute video including sound effects in about 24 hours. I got traumatized because it was about half done when the bell rang so to speak. This year I will be prepared!
 
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