how do you work?

[Stupid American Pig]

I know this has been done before, but I want some new ideas. my song work flow usually follows this process:

1) sit on piano(or acoustic guitar) and find something interesting to me(usually I start by trying to play in a key Im not all that familiar with)
2) rough out a verse and chorus part, then the bridge
3) start sonar, insert stylus RMX find a suitable beat to match the tempo/groove Im playing
4) do a rough take of piano
5) do a more serious drum track
6) insert bass, electric, acoustic guitar parts as necessary
7) fill 2-3 tracks with shakers, tamborines, overdubs
8) start writing lyrics
9) try to sing
10) render and master...

This usually takes me about 3 months from beginning to end. as I usually have like 4 different tracks going at once.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

i'm still working on a song i wrote when i was 19 yo....i have another thing i started as a collab video project with a friend 15 years ago, a ton of footage, song re-written, etc, we just decided to try and work on it again...i got bits and pieces from then 'till now...

my only point: 3 months seems like a pretty quick turnaround to me!

[emdot_ambient]

Depends on what I'm working on. When it's my melodic ambient stuff, I generally pick a synth and start fooling around with presets. I find one that inspires a riff, then record the riff and tweak the preset. I then build up the rest of the song up by layering parts on top.

You can hear that process quite literally in Aeolian Planes. The layers introduced are pretty much in the order that the composition unfolded. The melody was added last, though.

Another example is Behrlinesque where the first sound is a Pro-53 preset that's repeated (with minor MIDI note alterations) throughout the song. The other layers were conceived in more or less the order presented. The strings and melody were improvised overtop, with extensive MIDI note edits done after the fact.

When I get more abstract, I tend to record sections of individual instruments, then improvise over top with others. After I've accumulated a dense sound world, I then go in and work on the composition via mix alterations and MIDI automation. This can be heard in Gamma Melt 3, which includes a lot of improvised percussion and soundworld instruments. The composition was sculpted and shaped to give a sense of movement and change throughout the piece.

All these are essentially MIDI projects, all samples being played through Kontakt. However, there are some songs where I write individual parts in MIDI, possibly adding audio tracks, and then mix down to one or more stereo tracks. Once I've accumulated the stereo mixes from different Cubase projects, I then merge them all in a master project. I did this for my KVR song entry Free For All, which was recorded originally in 4 different Cubase projects, then merged in a master project.

Then again, I'm working on a CD project with a friend for his band [http://granvillemusic.com]Granville[/url]. He's sent me his guitar, voice and bass parts and I'm adding drum and keyboard parts, plus doing the arrangements/engineering/mastering. In this mode, I start by dissecting each pre-recorded track, then find a drum beat that works. I lay down drums and vocal as a reference track, and then start reassembling the other tracks on top of the reference track. A lot of this I'm doing in Audition instead of Cubase, because it's easier there to work with audio tracks, stretching/compressing them to correct timing issues, etc. Each reassembled track is mixed down to a few stereo tracks, which I then add to Cubase for arranging and real drum/keyboard programming in MIDI. No audio samples of this, though. Maybe later if I get permission.

I rarely start with a musical or rhythmic idea and move from there. Most often I begin

[Shane Sanders]

One cool thing you can try is to experiment with an open tuning on a guitar. There's a new song in every one of them!

-S

[emdot_ambient]

...I usually have like 4 different tracks going at once.

Ha! I missed that part. I've got 11 going at once for the CD, and then probably 15 or 20 in-progress otherwise. Several are . . . so . . . close . . .

I forgot to mention that the mixing/mastering after all the tracks are done often takes up as much or more time than the actual recording/arranging originally did.

[vurt]

idea...
zone out...
result.

[KTHE]

Wow... wish I could answer that one... uhh... I say, experiment. Yeah. do something out of your normal routine and see if you like it.

There. I said it.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

idea...
zone out...
result.

didn't you leave out "smoke a phatty"?

[cron]

1. Find or make sounds with acoustic source.
2. Process/edit, usually offline, or directly record to wav in realtime if using VSTfx.
3. Amass up to several hundred files in this way.
4. Arrange all the wavs while simultaneously mixing them in eXT's sequencer, doing a bit more of (2) as/if required.
5. Master.

[Hink]

One cool thing you can try is to experiment with an open tuning on a guitar. There's a new song in every one of them!

-S

+1

[soulata]

I know this has been done before, but I want some new ideas. my song work flow usually follows this process:

1) sit on piano(or acoustic guitar) and find something interesting to me(usually I start by trying to play in a key Im not all that familiar with)
2) rough out a verse and chorus part, then the bridge
3) start sonar, insert stylus RMX find a suitable beat to match the tempo/groove Im playing
4) do a rough take of piano
5) do a more serious drum track
6) insert bass, electric, acoustic guitar parts as necessary
7) fill 2-3 tracks with shakers, tamborines, overdubs
start writing lyrics
9) try to sing
10) render and master...

This usually takes me about 3 months from beginning to end. as I usually have like 4 different tracks going at once.

same as you, I don't sing though, I invite others to do it.

[Hink]

but let me be pedantic a minute shane...change open to alternate

[respirator]

never do the same thing twice - and vurt

[emdot_ambient]

never do the same thing twice...

I assume that doesn't include rendering the final result as one audio file?

[AndreasKrebs]

I'm slow. And I can't do more than one piece at once (no parallel processing, I guess). But during the process of creating a piece, I tend to change workflow depending on what interests me: doing rhythm stuff, sound programming, orchestration, tweaking effects, writing variations of existing melodies, etc.
If it ist interesting, there will be enough ideas. If there are no ideas, well, there's always "technical" stuff to do.

Btw., my pieces tend to be quite long ... I've spent the last two years writing 50 continuous minutes of music.

Cheers,
Andreas