Ok guys, I wanted to get some opinions on this.

I'm the type of person that works better with a system/process. I've been producing my own dance music for a few years, and I engineer at a local studio.

however sometimes i feel overwhelmed when producing, because its easy to try to mix, design sounds, and all that good stuff, but it is unorganized. that's the producer in me, but the engineer in me tells me i need to leave effects off and just write, but the producer says to make it right as you go..........


any thoughts?

You know the answer.
There is no rule.

There is only one solution.
Close the browser and just make it.

yea i know. as it were, its art and there shouldn't be, though because i don't have a process, my add lol takes over and it takes me forever to finish a track

Just make it a goal to finish it by tomorrow's evening.

Should take less than a week to finish a track.. just slap a rough arrangement down and adjust. Quite simple. The problems arise when you start messing about mate trust me
There are no rules either as stated above by another member so just do it

I recently finished the track released 2 days ago within 4 days of starting it which could have taken weeks and weeks if i'd pissed about adjusting stuff as i used to do

Keep it simple and straight to the point.

Cheers

Rob

problem is hell I've been working on same loop for well now trying to get it to sound right. so you're saying get the ideas in, implement them across an arrangement and use the waterfall idea and keep fixing as i go? that's your method? i'm just making sure i'm clear.

i appreciate the input

If your loop ain't working after 30 mins or so then dump it mate.. what kind of music are you producing?
Anyways i do exactly as you said above. It works for me

Rob

something you can do if your working on loops for a long time is you can use sample loops from sample packs that are similat to the sound your interested in and then keep working on the rest of it and then at the end when your done with the song you can go in and change all the loops and all of the stuff that you put in a sample or a quick fix to get it to sound the way you want

Thanks guys for the input.... something ive been knowing all along, just dont get stuck, keep moving to completion.

What has helped me a lot was realizing that the sound that's going
on in my head is not that important as I thought it is.
Nobody who will listen to your track will say "if he only adjusted some more
of those 11-12 kHz, and a longer compressor release by 2 ms"...etc.
What's important is to have a good "enough" sounding track and move on. Otherwise, when you get stuck on something for a long time you get bored with it, lose interest, it starts to sound bad "to you" even if it could fit perfectly fine in someone else's radio single.

The workflow that seems to get me back up and running when I find myself stuck is to create a temp arrangement.

Find at least three but no more than five different feeling but complimentary canned loops and pick an arbitrary song length. Organize how ever many loops you decide upon into some sort of arrangement that fits the song length you've decided upon. Don't agonize over it because it's all going to be replaced eventually. All you're doing right now is creating a temp drum track.

Next, call up a bass preset on any synth, again don't think too much about which patch, and lay down a VERY simple monophonic, quarter, half, or even whole note bass line using the temp rhythm track as a guide for where and when to introduce your changes. Keep in mind that all you're doing is creating an outline. None of this should take too long.

Now you have a drum part and a bass part, albeit, very simple. Sit back and listen to it and you should get an idea of where to take it, if anywhere. If it speaks to you then you should start working in earnest. If it doesn't move you then put another quick temp track together. Sooner or later something will click. Once it does you can start fleshing things out. Replace the canned drum loops with your fav Battery, DFH, BFD, etc. kits. Start "realizing" the base line; by using a monophonic bass line in your temp track you have quite a bit of leeway regarding key center so let it take you were it wants.

As you try out different melodic lines that the bass line seems to suggest other things will begin to suggest themselves as well regarding rhythmic variations, changes to your bass line, sound design, and final length of the finished track; it all starts to feed on itself until the song seems to be writing itself.
Last edited by optofonik on Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:36 pm; edited 2 times in total

Mythbusters once tried to polish a turd...

Hopefully they wore gloves.

That's quite common. I've heard it called 'loopitis'. I've outlined a couple of ways to break out of it here:

http://blog.kimlajoie.com/overcoming-loopitis/

There's also some interesting stuff in the comments too.

-Kim.

That's great reading Kim. The OP should definatly have a read through.

Rob