One Synth Challenge #134: Easter Lockdown Special - Any Synth (Voting Ended. Results pending)

[photonic]

Hi all,

Great idea to make an any synth contest again. So I could use my beloved Zebra again!
In this difficult time with all the corona isolation, I am sure that most of us do have desire for leaving home, dreaming of beautifull places. Well, with the rule of using bird songs this month, I made a track which makes - at least my desire - audible.

https://soundcloud.com/photonic-1/photonic-desire

26 instances of

Dynamics: U-he Presswerk, Bass Professor II, TDR Nova, Maxwell Smart
Filter: ReaEQ, TDR VOS SlickEQ, MQ57
Satturation: Green Eugen, Thrillseeker XTC
Delay: NastyDLA
Reverb: Dragonfly (what a great free reverb !!!)
Stereo: MidSideMangler, GStereo
Analyser: SPAN

[Aro]

I've got a question for anyone who feels like answering it. I've got such a short attention span. Which I find affects the composing of my music. I tend to rush, on a wave of inspiration, but then feel bogged down in the details.

Any tips on having patience, attention to detail, and greater awareness? I like metaphors or similes, if you've got one.

[schiing]

I've got a question for anyone who feels like answering it. I've got such a short attention span. Which I find affects the composing of my music. I tend to rush, on a wave of inspiration, but then feel bogged down in the details.

Any tips on having patience, attention to detail, and greater awareness? I like metaphors or similes, if you've got one.

I have no idea if this is helpful at all, but when I get to a certain point in the process, I like to think of my raw tunes and mixes as old cars that need a paint job: Sanding down rough surfaces, filling rust spots, dents and scratches, priming, and finally spraying it with fairy dust. Or paint, as it were.

I'm not the least bit interested in car repair - but I like the metaphor.

[Auplant]

I've got a question for anyone who feels like answering it. I've got such a short attention span. Which I find affects the composing of my music. I tend to rush, on a wave of inspiration, but then feel bogged down in the details.

Any tips on having patience, attention to detail, and greater awareness? I like metaphors or similes, if you've got one.

I'm still trying to figure this out as well so I can't be too insightful, but the way I work (almost all the time) is to start simple. Just rush the inspiration, nothing wrong with that, even force that crap into the DAW. Leave it for a day if you've lost the mood, and start working it out top-down instead of bottom-up. I work on the busiest parts of a mix before the simpler transitions. I would create the climax and outro even before the intro.

[schiing]

I agree with both of you on inspiration! Far better with too many ideas than too few. At the same time it's so important to be critical later on and discard the stuff you don't really need in the editing process. This can sometimes be the hardest part for me - I get too attached to parts I don't need.

Also, this just occurred to me: Invent a system that you can always return to. For me, when all else fails I think in eight bar blocks.

If my brain is completely empty, I always start with eight bars of... something. To create some sort of starting point. It can be a range of chords, a melody, a groove or just some weird effects. Then I might add another eight bar phrase - try to make them work together, build an arrangement around them. If I'm in the middle of a song, I might copy and attach a couple of existing eight bar parts and try to build on top of that.

I mean, it doesn't have to be eight bars - that's just my preference. But this kind of compartmentalization is a bit of a miracle drug for me. Even when my inspiration hits rock bottom, this system always gives me some ideas to get the process started.

[z.prime]

I find repeating the same 1 bar loop is far easier for the listener to relate to. 8 bars, whew, like... so complicated...

[Joi Polloi]

I find repeating the same 1 bar loop is far easier for the listener to relate to. 8 bars, whew, like... so complicated...

OMG, this is the secret to my successful career as a Superstar music maker, pls delete you’ll ruin my Amazing tunes sales.

[IV!]

I've got a question for anyone who feels like answering it. I've got such a short attention span. Which I find affects the composing of my music. I tend to rush, on a wave of inspiration, but then feel bogged down in the details.

Any tips on having patience, attention to detail, and greater awareness? I like metaphors or similes, if you've got one.

I will not write complex metaphors, because the translator does not catch the essence and distorts the meaning. But this is one in one my problem, so I will describe what I do in this case.

1) Search for an Idea! She rarely comes for the keyboard (to me, of course), more often on a walk, before going to bed, or even during intensive work! You need to remember or write every soul-touching melody! Let there be many such sketches, they will be useful... It is important to find a suitable one, so that later you do not come to a dead end with it (as I did with CM2 recently...) In case of lack of inspiration, you will have some old but brilliant things... Perhaps it's time to bring one of them to life!

2) You can wait for a good mood or when all the planets are lined up in one line (I can do this forever...), but the first hill is better to take a run! That is, to gather the will in a fist and record the minimum part of the track that you will want to return to tomorrow! While he's gone, I'm running a million ideas through my head, but one of them, selected and recorded, gets an almost physical sense of presence, as if it's a thing that you can pick up and do something with. From this point on, there is a direction and the ghost of the final goal!

3) When you have this Foundation, you can continue in the best way for yourself. Maybe you will work on this in small breaks between other things... Maybe allocate a whole day for this... To avoid getting bogged down in details, you need to regularly play the Original Idea in your head and remember what the Soul of your musical creation! Keep looking for inspiration! If birds are supposed to sing in the track, be sure to listen to live birds singing, at least once! People still claim that analog synthesizers are better than digital ones - in this case, it will be wrong write digital emulations of bird chirping from digital recordings, I think...

P.S. A crow outside the window shouts to me that it is morning and I could try to go to bed... I apologize for being so long (I shortened it) and for possibly not quite on the topic (on topic, I hope). Actually, I don't know English, but I manually edit the translation to bring my thought. And what is this thought...This stream of consciousness took about 1.5 hour, but they passed unnoticed... I hope you will be able to get so captivated in your music composition that you will not notice how the work will be completed! Good luck!

[schiing]

I find repeating the same 1 bar loop is far easier for the listener to relate to. 8 bars, whew, like... so complicated...

1 bar melodies are the BEST!!

[Tj Shredder]

I find repeating the same 1 bar loop is far easier for the listener to relate to. 8 bars, whew, like... so complicated...

1 bar melodies are the BEST!!

What is a bar? When playing my Tibetan bowl, it is one note that will ring for 5 minutes...
Or play that one bar with signature 5197/4... @ 15 BPM full of 64th notes...

[Aro]

start working it out top-down instead of bottom-up.

What does that mean?

Thanks Auplant

[Aro]

So basically what I'm understanding is that the details shouldn't bog me down. That they should come from bouts of inspiration too, and that if I'm feeling bogged down I should take a break, listen to the birds, or work on my car. Thanks everyone!

[Aro]

I decided to make a set of evaluation criteria for the rough draft of this months composition. Questions like, "what sound is essential? what's missing? etc. " I'm going to go through my piece, slowly and thoroughly, maybe kind of like what sching suggested, working like someone who takes pleasure in fine tuning and troubleshooting a fixer-upper car. And we will see what happens.

[Carl_saved]

I decided to make a set of evaluation criteria for the rough draft of this months composition. Questions like, "what sound is essential? what's missing? etc. " I'm going to go through my piece, slowly and thoroughly, maybe kind of like what sching suggested, working like someone who takes pleasure in fine tuning and troubleshooting a fixer-upper car. And we will see what happens.

sounds like a good plan yep for me it's usually A LOT of listening and fixing issues with my track, too. Fine tuning, so to say. *car emoji*

[schiing]

Or play that one bar with signature 5197/4... @ 15 BPM full of 64th notes...

Nevermind one bar - that would complicate my eight bar system considerably!

And we definitely need a car emoji.