Do you create a track with a careful plan or do you just make music through improv and experiments?

[V0RT3X]

I'm curious how people start and finish tracks. Do you start a track by writing it out and planning all out as you go? Or do you just improvise and build as you go?

I know everyone has a different creative process, and I'm just really curious.

I make all my stuff as I go, and honestly lots of the time my stuff is started because I made a cool sound when messing about. Then it kind of evolves from there, i don't really set out to make any particular sound, I just kind of .. keep building stuff that sounds cool to me.

This is probably why i like Ableton live so much because it lets me build up my parts in the clip editor, so it's kind of like musical sketching and it just works really for me.

I've also been finding that knowing my main tools more and more lets me get what I want done fast. I have a lot of tools, but for most stuff I've been finding that I only really use very little.

[woggle]

nup

[xalama qo]

Good question!
I've always been an improviser, just jam and see what comes out, UNLESS I had a specific brief to work to and clients with expectations. But now as I'm no longer earning any money from music, and I have no expectations to meet I spend a lot of time fiddling with no end result in mind. And although you learn a lot of stuff by just playing, it's not productive in terms of actually composing and finishing anything.

So my new MO is to not even approach my "serious" DAW unless I have something definite in mind, some lyrics written down, etc. And in a way that's liberating. Instead of staring blankly at a screen hoping for a jolt of inspiration, it frees you up to go do something else, read a book, walk, watch a movie, write, watch the sunset or sunrise...which in turn are inspirational.

So I've stopped feeling guilty about how much equipment i have that I'm not using, and rather just take comfort in the fact that it's there ready for when I'm "there". How long that will take is another question altogether!

[Aleatoriac]

Both.

Usually a sound or a riff or passage will torture me when I'm in a situation and I cannot possibly express it (at work, or driving) in a productive way. So I stew on it in the back of my mind and let it mutate.

Some ideas are so strong they fly out almost complete. Others tease and won't take shape. Probably just like everybody else I have a huge mass of unfinished projects in the two DAWs I use.

If it's an "ambient noise" thing from me it's improv. If there's more traditional "structure" it's planned... mostly planned... eh...

[liquidsound]

Rarely with a plan.
Sounds, that's what makes me click and compose, or sitting at my piano (50 years of it and it's just the best thing for my creativity and soul) which is the complete opposite.

I can't write lyrics

[vurt]

start with a plan
that plan is get high.

[Turello]

Both but often, don't know how, some melody\rhythm\harmonic progression born in my head and after I works to develope it...

... Consciously inspires me geometry, sex, religion and alcohol...

... About mixing\recording etc etc, it's all planned but for example, guitar solos are in improvisation with the mood of the song or with my mood of the moment.

[VitaminD]

I'm far too unskilled to use a plan. The songs come as I play. The songs that pop into my head to write end up morphing, by the time I sit down to record them, into something usually very different than what was in my head initially anyways.

That said I usually noodle with some chords or a bassline and go from there. And it builds into the chorus portion of a track and then I build off the rest from that.

[robogone]

Both. Sometimes I have an idea and I'll plan it out, sometimes I just hit record and start playing.

[Sendy]

Guided improvisation. If you throw a lot of stuff away and keep only the material that fits, and you arrange it well, it'll sound like you had a plan (because you did, it just was executed from a bottom-up rather than top-down approach!)

[do_androids_dream]

I used to write music with a tune almost written and mapped out in my head. Now it's all improv and spur of the moment production. The funny thing is the tracks that mean the most to me are the ones where I had a definite plan before I switched the computer on.

[RunBeerRun]

As a psycho who refuses money, I can do whatever I want. I usually get some Twizzlers and see where the night will take me, waking up in ditches & stuff.

[foosnark]

I make all my stuff as I go, and honestly lots of the time my stuff is started because I made a cool sound when messing about.

This. Improv is my strong suit, and just messing with sounds is a kind of improv. When I try to plan music (or many other things) it winds up mostly bullshit.

It's why I like Maschine; finger-drumming feels really good to me and many tracks -- even ambient ones -- get their start with it.

[The_Hidden_Goose]

Both.

Although the plans are usually quite flexible and broad-minded. I tend to plan more for a collection/album more than single tracks. I will usually set out a mental map or storyboard of some kind to follow and sometimes to get that right a bit more discipline is needed - especially when I'm kinda filling in the narrative holes beween one track or set and another - by that, I don't just mean filler tracks.

I always leave lots of room for experiments and improvisations that might occur. If something good comes along, I won't just abandon it completely for the sake of "the plan". If my musical time was money, then that might be a different story. Perhaps.

[thecontrolcentre]

I usually come up with a sound or a riff (or both) that inspires me, and go from there. I prefer to "feel" my way, rather than stick to a plan (or formula).