how do you write?

[deaf dunderkwac]

o... and I really don't get it. (I mean about ugo)
you create the most amazing stuff in VSTi's and presets. Your presets alone have inspired much of my work.
I look at your creations with awe.

[RTaylor]

Best bets for inspiration... forget everything you know {it's constraining} and experiment... pull everything out of the kitchen cabinets and spend some time recording sounds... wander through town with a tape recorder, etc. Pick a technique and make music with an eye to learning it. Pick a concept and come up with ways to learn and illustrate it. Carry a notebook. Focus every minute of your day on achieving one goal. Develop an obsession...

i've been threatening to buy a portable recorder of some sort for years now. i would really like to work with the audio equivalent of "found objects." i've got a few sample cds like that and i built ironhead to kind of be like that, but i would like to grab my own samples from the real world too.

every year my brother and i pick an auto race to go to (formula 1, grand am, etc.) and there are some great sounds in the pits that i'd love to caputure and write with. (oddly enough, few are picked for the car sound sample cd's that race enthusiasts produce.)

Just the act of planning and plotting might be enough to get you started. Photo/videography {visual equivalent} works pretty well for me.

[tconrardy]

sometimes I start out with a chord progression. But lately I have been working a bit differently. When I folling around, I record short performances of sounds, progressions, whatever comes to my head using different synths or setup in eXT. ( using the audio capture) Then, when I get a good library of short files in a folder, I open up Tracktion or Acid Pro6, and start experiemnting putting together the short segments into a complete piece. Once I get the main structure down, sometimes I go thru the whole thing with a live track, or even an acoustic something to give it continuity.

For synth demo's, I do the same thing. Make a bunch of short performances using a variety of patches, then assemble the whole thing in Tracktion or Acid. It seems to work. You can also experiemnt with effects at the same time. Anybody try this method??

Tim

[deaf dunderkwac]

sometimes I start out with a chord progression. But lately I have been working a bit differently. When I folling around, I record short performances of sounds, progressions, whatever comes to my head using different synths or setup in eXT. ( using the audio capture) Then, when I get a good library of short files in a folder, I open up Tracktion or Acid Pro6, and start experiemnting putting together the short segments into a complete piece. Once I get the main structure down, sometimes I go thru the whole thing with a live track, or even an acoustic something to give it continuity.

For synth demo's, I do the same thing. Make a bunch of short performances using a variety of patches, then assemble the whole thing in Tracktion or Acid. It seems to work. You can also experiemnt with effects at the same time. Anybody try this method??

Tim

Iue that method also...
along with other methods.
In that way I stay fresh (?)
not that my music is...

[ugo]

Anybody try this method??

i havent tried working like that yet but a friend of mine works similarly and has been recommending i try it. (particularly considering my tendency to write 8-16 bar sequences, then do nothing else with them.)

dusted william an i tried our first record-off last night. we stuck to the suggested formula of having only 2 hours to write a song and i found this to be a great exercise. it really forces you to focus only on getting a basic structure of a full song down. there is no time to try to perfect anything as you go along. (including filling in parts, finding "the right" sounds, etc.) by the end of two hours, i found myself with something is resembles a song closely enough that it makes sense to actually work on it further and really finish it. in comparison, normally i could spent all night on 16 bars and never get any further.

in addition to forcing the creation of songs, and training me to make the overall song structure my primary concern (instead of getting caught up in the details too early), i suspect that with continued experiments this exercise could also help me get ideas to flow more quickly out of my mind and into my hands.

if anyone is curious, i suggest giving this a shot. DW and intend to do this once a week now.

[deaf dunderkwac]

I uselessly haven't read this whole thread, but I believe you're on the right track.
ALL of my music, such that it is, is of h '2-hour' variety.
I actually take more time finishing the encodings and the mastering then I do the writing and assembly.
and my music ,if not anything else, is actually fairly complex with evolving changes.

much like some of your presets and synths

[The Chase]

usually in cursive

[eduardo_b]

...I record short performances of sounds, progressions, whatever comes to my head using different synths or setup in eXT. ( using the audio capture) Then, when I get a good library of short files in a folder, I open up Tracktion or Acid Pro6, and start experiemnting putting together the short segments into a complete piece...Anybody try this method??

This is basically how I've been doing it all along, but, I seem to end up with a lot of small wav files that simply don't work well together. I can't figure out if it's the bpm, key, volumes or some combination, but it certainly keeps me from realizing any results.

I also try starting out with some base loop (drone or whatever) onto which I can layer other sounds. This seems to work better, but it seems a chaotic process -- "I'll try this," "no, I'll try this instead," or "I give up."

[deaf dunderkwac]

Please forgive me for my jumbled thoughts, but I'm not a writer by nature, nor is it a field of expression I've ever felt comfortable with.
Instead I express myself through visual and aural and physical artifacts that I create for my consumption, as in I'm consumed to express myself with my humor, outrage and other ill-defined emotions about the state of having to suffer living in this world.
Since I'm an 'old guy' I've been making and recording music a long time. Post wire recorders but not by many years.
In the pre-historic days (before the internet) there was only one way of working, but my brain wasn't wired properly to be constrained in that way only so I became a recording engineer/producer. I learned how to cut up and glue together little pieces of tape and the process of making 'happy' mistakes.
Nowadays I'm perfectly comfortable with sequencing, changing up/slicing and dicing and making patterns and changing their bpm/pitch.
All those tools are built-in to my incredibly simple-to-use sequencer/studio host.
The tools are there to be used.
learn them
Use them
Be happy
-some of you might be happier recording in real-time..
In that case it's a real good idea to have at least one partner-in-crime to work with, as it makes the process one heck of a lot faster.
We're humans, we get bored. I get bored far easier than other humans, so I need to get the process over quickly.
Pattern manipulation, wave editors and virtual synths gives me that power.
I'm not unable to use more complex software, indeed I grew up with this stuff,
I just don't see the need to have billions of tools I 'might' use on one song.

But it seems to me that if I were struggling to create a form of artistic expression, I'd abandon that pursuit and do something else.
Because really, there's quite a lot of 'something else' to do.

If my logic is faulty, it's because I'm human to a fault.

[mystahr]

hrm... do I write even I wonder...

Inspiration can come of so many things, but it usually provides for the fuel to the fire. How music (or abstract art as I sometimes call it) usually starts here is by creating sounds from the synths or trying out different sources (4track tape, feedback loops, noise). Only mono lines are used as I've stepped away from stereo-usage of sources. Stereo to me means I have two split outs to feed/ I rarely really play the synths and opt for held notes or arpegio's or lfo driven rhythms. I've stepped away from using softsynths really and only use the computer for recording and mastering.

Now the interesting part starts; feeding the source sound through a variety of stompboxes and FX. Loads of buttons are turned to see where the sound can travel towards to and what nooks and crannies can be explored whilst in later recording mode. Once the sound is to my liking I'd oft introduce a second sound. This could either come from a different source, but oft in the beginning I would go for the same source but now routed differently.
The fun part is to get all these sounds working together whilst they're not synced. Through time I've learned to let my ears be the judge, but a lot of down-EQ'ing takes place in order to create room between the sounds
Once I feel good about the whole I will search for a beginning point do perhaps a few short dabbles and get a drink and a smoke ready and hit record.

The short version of this being is that I feel I can't quite explain what I'm doing. Most of it is done with intuition, ear and the little knowledge I've learned through time, with ofcourse a few tricks up my sleave.
One thing is sure and that is it takes I'd say about a dozen or two of wires and involves probably only two or three sound-sources and quite a few stomps.

I for one am glad with what I do, for this mad mind does think of some strange settings and sounds and luckily I can express myself quite nicely in it.

[OzoneJunkie]

The tools are there to be used.

A number of years ago a friend of mine and I were conversing, and, the forgotten details aside, he basically said something to the fact that he finds it funny when people get all enthusiastic about the tools instead of their purpose. "Oh, I'm really into this new hammer I got..."

It's humorous at times to see the arguments: cubase vs. sonar, mac vs. pc, etc. vs. blah blah blah. I'm not saying that there's nothing to be gained by comparing. But it usually breaks down into opinion vs. opinion wars...

I agree with you, and thanks for the reminder. Indeed, the tools are there to be used.

[fateamenabletochange]

doing instrumentals with vsti's,I set up synths,whip thru presets,add another synth,looking for 'a sound',something that is different from the last tune I did, mouse in one hand,single finger plonking with the other.I choose a tonic,a note to start from,and as I am doing this,one hand will find the pretty and the blue by trial and error,so I quickly build a picture of permissable notes,get the setup complete,balancing the synths,eg. too many upper register sounds there,delete and add a bass synth etc,so in a way alot of EQ is done in the initial setup process.I like synths you can easily take up or down an octave.Then I push record and go for it.
'the sound' is where the ideas come from.
In rare moments I kind of end up playing along to the buzz of what is there,like with rez on an appeg. preset with lots of delay,accompanying stuff that went quarter second ago.

when I am writing a song,I have a very vague idea about what I want to write about.I turn on multiple sound sources,TV on random music channel song or song video with similar theme to vague idea,turn on the stereo,turn up my walkman with it's little satellite speakers with some element,melody that I like,but more usually some 'feeling' that strikes a chord.
Then I get blank paper and scribble anything that comes into my head,doesn't matter what,no appraisal,I scribble very quickly.As I do this I will talk/sing out aloud what I am writing down,and I think get cues from one of the sound sources and trial and error find a melody line.
While I do this I get really 'emotional'.I get really f**ked up.If it is an angry song,I am farking foaming at the mouth seething,if it is sad I am crying.This doesn't work unless I can find something to get upset about.
I do this for maybe 20 min.then turn everything off,review what I have written,cross out 80% of it,and sometimes add a bit,swap lines around etc. and practise the melody line,move to guitar and find the notes,chords.
On all fours and barking but it works for me.
If I had writers block,I would get really upset,and use the method above and write about it.

these 2 have in common emotion I think,on the edge,some feeling state.

[ugo]

as proof that i am at least trying to write something ...here is the result of my first record-off.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157597

[daExpert]

I usually jam on my triton extreme to get a bass-line and a melody that fits the bass-line. There's this sound called Nu Skool Bleeps on my triton that inspires me a lot and I can always get a good riff going. Once I come up with something that sounds good, I then add chords, drums, and whatever else fits in well with the song.

[silenthill2006]

It depends on what type of music I'm working on.
If it's hip hop, I will first contruct a beat by looking at funk drumming examples and go from there.
If the music has more complex melodies, I will first compose it in Finale 2006 (fantastic notation program- just wished it used more VSTs than just Native Instruments, but oh well) as a full song (verse/chorus, etc) or just part of one. It really depends on how many instruments I want to include. Then I will export it into Reason 3.0 and change voicings, etc.

Sometimes, I would open up a rack in Reason and throw in synths and a drum machine with all types of effects and play around till something gels. This is what I used to do, but after reading the Dance Music Manual, I stopped doing that and got a lot more organized according to the genre I'm making the music in.

Before I start doing anything as far as composing in finale, I determine whether I want it to sound happy or sad (major or minor key), I come up with a basic chord progression, and then I move on to the key I want to compose in (C, A minor, etc).

I mainly write music for myself. I might give piano pieces I create to friends, but that's it.