How do you produce music? What matters to you? Why?

[wrench45us]

I always put 2 small ice cubes in my coffee so I can chug it

Starbuck's charges something like $5.00 to do that for you.
at $5.00/day for a year -- well that's how many group buys?

we have new soda vendor at work. the old 12 oz cans of Coke were insufficient profit margins. now we're on 20 oz. plastic bottles so everybody's caffeiene dependence has jumped by 8 oz a day -- and exotic, irresistable flavors like Coke with Lime

what this does tend to mean is when I get home I can easily work on the music after dinner, but not so restful sleep.

[Kraku]

Nice People have actually answered to this thread.

Keep the answers coming

[shamann]

• What kind of music do you make?

It is what it is. Sound composition, audio design, sonic art, abstract, experimental, dark ambient, unstructured mess, psychedelia, post-minimalism, fiddly wank. Take your pick. I prefer noise, as in this is the noise I make. Or stuff.

Lately I've had a sneaking suspicion that what I do is music as a visual art. I've also found lately I'm less interested in drumbeats, formal style, and obvious progressions. My stuff is very structured, but not in expected ways. Music is the establishment of three relationships for me: that between sound and time, between sound and sound, between sound and audience. There are known, convential routes to those relationships, which sometimes is exactly what you need, but there are also many other less known ways that should not be discounted wholesale.

• What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?

I want a synth I can actually use as I see fit. I try pretty much every demo I can, but go for very few. So many just aren't designed with a user in mind. They try too hard to be seen as "Instruments" but never quite deliver an experience in any way approaching the actual experience of working with an instrument.

If I hold a guitar, there are so many different ways I can approach it to make sound. Most synths offer one approach. They'll tell you they're an additive or VA or FM or whatever, but all I want is a way to make the sound I want with as little restriciton as possible. Too often they're just sound banks for keyboard players.

Tired of that chimey DX7 Rhodes sound you've been playing for the last 10 years, David Silver, than here, try this sound instead.

For this reason, I prefer modulars, since they are what synthesizers should be. You start with a signal/audio source, and you wend its way through to the speaker. The more sound making possibility, the happier I am. I don't work on distinctions of sampler this, or synth that, as it all comes down to sound source through sound processor.

• What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time? Why? For what purpose?

I'm another one of those tossers who considers Audiomulch to be an instrument. Computer music for me these days starts there. I've been using it for many years now, and I can now approach it as I would any instrument and work with it according to my intent. VAZ Modular is another one. I'm sure many others have had the same experience with apps like Orion, FL, Reason, Max/MSP, &c. These kinds of tools feel like they were intended to give the musician options. Something to work with no matter what you have in mind.

I've worked with host/sequencer apps extensively in the past, but at some point I always felt closed in, as those apps rely too much on outside compartmentalization. This is your sequencer, this is your audio editor, this is your drum machine, these are your effects, your composition should be made to fit this mould. For me, that way of thinking feels like so much reactionary nostalgia.

FL doesn't suit me, but it is what you make of it. It can be your synth, fx rack, drum machine, sequencer at any given time. Or EnergyXT, even though it has limited sonic capabilities on its own, it feels open. Cakewalk to me feels like a sequencer, and that's it. It tells me that composition does not exist unless formally diagrammed.

I've been using lots of effects lately like they're instruments, stuff like retrodelay and supatrigga and nyquistEQ and chromadelay. I like plugins that have enough character to not tell you that they are only one thing. It's the difference between Kjaerhus's Classic Phaser and its GMO-1. Both are great sonically, both useful, but GMO-1 can be all of it and none of it and so much more. I like Classic Phaser, and I suppose I'm happy to have it, but never would have bought it. GMO-1 I happily laid money down for. If they are too strictly designed, enforce their methods too rigidly, only offer one way, then bah!

• How do you work on your music? What are your most common working methods? How do you get started when creating a new song?

I just start and go. Make a sound I have in mind, start working with it. Sometimes that means looping, pitchshifting, cutting up, timestretching, heavy reverb, heavy delay, or a piano note or a synth drone or melody and so on until I have sound to start with. Then I arrange, sometimes by pitch, sometimes by amplitude, sometimes by rhythm. Repeat several times, pause, destroy, until a composition is complete. Once took seven minutes and squashed down to two seconds. Whatever is needed or catches my fancy.

Cheers,
Steve

[Steven West]

For me, it's just like painting a picture... A simple rythem can emote 'dark and brooding', 'happy dancing', 'soulful crescendos', 'technical journeys'.
And with that, the rest writes itself most of the times. But then me being the 'weird guy', I go out of my way to juxtapose it - happy/dark, technical/organic, soulful/punk. And then it becomes about tone. I don't go 'out of my way' to re-create The Sex Pistols meets Barry White, but I do have in my head - and I'll say 'that badly played guitar that hums and buzzes, that's punk! And that smooth R&B sample phrase is nice. How can I put the two together?'. And I just can't be bothered spending days making something that sounds 'really good', sound 'really good'. Or make something 'really bad' sound worse? I'll do what I have to to get the 'emotion/story' out as best I can, and if MCA or WB thinks 'it could be a hit' - well then THEY can spend the big bucks to tweek every little Hz and db to be 'proffesional'.

And chances are, it will kill the vibe of the song in the process and ruin it for both parties.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

- What kind of music do you make?

Damn if I can think of a category. I have two projects, one of which is instrumental electronic stuff - you might call it soundscapes, ambient (light and dark), new-age.. dunno, maybe all of those. The second project, electronic music with my shite singing, has been pegged as "goth rap" - go figure, it's all spoken-word lyrics over dark and evil sounds. These seem to be what I'm happiest doing/best at and all that rot.

- What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?

First, sound quality. Second, available presets to work with (I can't program a synth to save my life, at least for now). Third, support! I intend to use these tools to make at least beer money from selling my songs someday, I need someone to be there if I run into any issues. Ease of use, erm well if it takes note-on and note-off, and has MIDI learn, I ignore everything else (lol) - probably that damnable guitar player background! I'm not a tweaker.

- What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time? Why? For what purpose? (do NOT list all your plugins. just mention the really close ones to your heart, you couldn't survive without)

Usually the first VSTi I load is Rhino. Second is Pentagon I or z3ta. I get a great deal of inspiration from these instruments! After that, EVE or M42 for pads and fills. For VST, I turn to the PSP Mixpack each and every time, to beef up the individual tracks. I could easily live with just what I've mentioned here and nothing else!

- How do you work on your music? What are your most common working methods? How do you get started when creating a new song?

Hmm.. there are a lot of ways my tunes get born. Sometimes I'll write a poem or lyric and set it to music, this is about how 1/2 my songs get started. Other times, I'll get an emotion or feeling but no words and sit down with my stable of "go-to" synths, trying to find a way to express it with sound.. this is how everything else seems to come to me. Rarely, but sometimes, I'll be practicing/learning my synths, find a timbre that evokes something, and it'll turn into a tune!

...and everything else that matters to you so your music sounds like it does today.

Life experience, bluntly. The more things that I experience (or happen to me, I guess) the greater a base of emotional experience I have to create from. Good things, bad things, it's all input into the creative machine and without it I'd be dead in the water (happened a long time ago once when I decided to hide from the world for a while, blech, not a good thing in the end). Beer, because while I can't play worth a damn when buzzed or drunk I've cranked out some excellent lyrics (lol). My friends, for encouraging me to Put Myself Out There and helping critique my work with something other than "that sux dude".

[djguido]

Overall I guess i get an inspiration and go with it. but most of the time I do progressive house and trance. i use FLstudio....have several softsynths including absynth, reactor and recently purchased Z3ta and Wusicstation.
my workflow usually consists of starting with an interesting drum rythm then bass, then melody. then I come up with the arangement. When I first start out I work with 4 bars and then start adding loops and sounds etc etc.
i love lots of reverb and delay and chorus and thats about it in a nutshell.

[Goa Head]

Oh, how people love to talk about themselves. So, here I go...

What kind of music do you make?

Visual music for the mind to explore deeper realms of ones conciousness. In other words, psychedelia in any which way, or form I feel is the best to get my vision to sound.

What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?

Lots of things... A huge routing matrix. If you put the routing matrix options of a Virus in z3ta's form. Pheww... Dual Filters, solid oscilators, FM, etc. Options, options, options. Give me them all.

What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time? Why? For what purpose? (do NOT list all your plugins. just mention the really close ones to your heart, you couldn't survive without)

First plugin I always load is NI battery. My go to drum sampler. Second I ussually get my Virus rolling, or load z3ta as I prefer both for basses. Matter of fact that's about all I use, except a JP8000, Absynth, and Pro53. I really enjoy recent Voxengo stuff for dynamics.

How do you work on your music? What are your most common working methods? How do you get started when creating a new song?

I 'ussually' have a plan before I sit down. If it's either a picture or peice of art that inspired a cool 'image', or just sitting on the porch have a smoke watching the trees sway to the wind. Anyways, I always get a nice kick and bass sounding nice before anything. Build patches and expand in a fluid motion. I don't use drugs (anymore)... So, that is not part of the process like so many others.

...and everything else that matters to you so your music sounds like it does today.

Knowledge of what you're 'really' doing is a big one. Know how you got there. Musical theory experience helped a lot, as well as being a guitarist for a large portion of my life. Dedication, willing to experiment AND FAIL. Blah blah blah. Music is a passion.

Cheers.

[ATS]

WOW that first post was long!!!

[BONES]

- What kind of music do you make?
Cyberpunk - Electro-Industrial - EBM

- What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?
Usability is prime. Most synths have reasonable quality but many of the more popular synths around here are way to complex to be useful to me. I like to have different instruments with different strengths.

- What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time? Why? For what purpose? (do NOT list all your plugins. just mention the really close ones to your heart, you couldn't survive without)
ORION is really the one thing I could not survive without. It has benn a revelation in every way. I use it's on-board instruments and effects far more than any plugins. SynthEdit has also allowed me to tailor VSTi to my needs which has also been a big boost to my productivity and creativity. JX Synth is the only other plugin that I just couldn't get by without.

- How do you work on your music? What are your most common working methods? How do you get started when creating a new song?
I usually start with a sound or a riff [or both] that I like and build everything up from there. Usually it will be a bass sound or riff but sometimes it is another synth sound. I rarely start with drums. I deliberately try to keep everythign as simple as i can - I actively look for sounds that don't require effects and I strip out parts that don't do anything as the song evolves. I EQ the krap out of everything to get it all to fit together but I use very little compression, except in a master insert slot [on the whole mix].

...and everything else that matters to you so your music sounds like it does today.
That's really about it. I try to keep everything as simple and efficient as I can. The result is that our next album will be far less layered but just as full-on.

[bluedad]

-- and exotic, irresistable flavors like Coke with Lime

I love that Coke with Lime

[neverwhere2012]

writing music for me is a little odd. i have a lot of trouble planning things out ahead of time and executing them in the beginning. once i'm into something i can say "well i need this here and such and such there" but most songs i write start from accidents or random idle tinkering. it may be a melody, a progression, a bassline, often times i'll come up with some interesting percussive groove on something or other and start from there. there's really no advance thought put into it. once i get into something, it is different. i guess i write industrial-ebm music... some of it definately is, but i don't really view it like that. i just write darker sounding stuff pretty frequently. i usually draw heavily upon classical theory in my writing, as far as key signatures, progressions, etc. i've been meaning to get into some more modal stuff lately, but just haven't had much time for anything while i'm in school.

as far as synths go, i use my Logic softsynths quite a bit. i really enjoy the ES2 and i use a lot of the Hollow Sun samples with my EXS24 sampler. recently i've started incorporating my hardware again, as i have the means to do it properly now, and i really enjoy my yamaha DX200. i'm a huge fan of FM synthesis, there's just so much it can achieve sonically. also in getting back into using my hardware, i've started using my korg ER-1 for some drum stuff, i really love the various kinds of percussive noise you can get out of that thing. as far as synth sounds are concerned, i really like a lot of "vintage" stuff. i love having analog sounding leads all over everything, i'm a huge fan of 80's digital drum machines (linn, emu sp1200, obie dmx)... in fact the sampler kit i reach for first when i'm sequencing drum parts is the Akai XR-10 kit i got from Hollow Sun. i'm also a huge fan of big lush strings and choirs. i love the sound of mellotron choir and "watcher" strings. some of my favorites.

for processing i love my UAD-1. the compression and eq it offers me are more or less exactly what i want to hear. i also use wavearts plugins and get good use out of them, i really don't like having a heaping pile of plugins on my computer. mainly, i prefer to have a handful of really dependable stuff that i know the sound of inside and out.

at the end of the day, though, there's no formula or set technique behind it. i do what i do and if it's good, i finish it out in no time flat and enjoy listening to it for the next week or 2, if it sucks, i set it aside in case i find something salvageable in it. it is what it is, ya know?

[endmusik]

- What kind of music do you make?

a little bit of everything, for myself and for others now - everything from orchestral arrangements to outright noise terrorism. see my sig for links to craziness...

- What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?

interactivity. I've been investing in hardware more as it has come down to a desire to interact with the noisemakers in my life that I was missing in vsts - I still use software alot, but right now I'm finding inspiration in purpose built hardware that you can build your own direction in from the provided controls.

- What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time? Why? For what purpose? (do NOT list all your plugins. just mention the really close ones to your heart, you couldn't survive without)

Elektron Monomachine - it's expensive, but it's worth every penny. It seemlessly ties together synthesis and sequenced paramater changes to create truly evolving sounds and performances based on interlocked elements - it's a blast to play and even more to sit and program.

Also just coming to grips with a nord modular g2 now, which I think is going to become my main breadwinner in no time - out of the box it just screams record me, mangle me, work with me. The interface on the Clavia synths are incredible, and it's by far the most fun to play board I've ever touched.

For software - my most overused right now is Space designer in Logic - impulse responses and setting up signal chains with SD and other plugs helps define sounds for me as I arrange.

- How do you work on your music? What are your most common working methods? How do you get started when creating a new song?

I start one of two ways - sound design first, or melody first. If I find a sound element I like, I will build a melody/texture out of it and build from the ground up. If I write a melody, I'll voice it and arrange around that. I very rarely give up an idea once started - everything gets a chance at a full track, I keep my project folders lean and focus on finishing the things I start.

.

..and everything else that matters to you so your music sounds like it does today.

I started out with DJing, alongside some piano lessons, and now I think anything goes for me - I'm always looking for new ways to do things, and now I'm definitely into improvisation and interaction (my new buzzword ) I'm trying to add that elusive "live" element to my sequenced music, even if it's just letting the effects build up to a feedback loop

michael

[mystahr]

- What kind of music do you make?
Mainly minimalistic ambient soundscapish textures, but I'll try different kinds of music too

- What do you want from a synth? Features/sound quality/ease of use/what?
Vast mangling and tweaking options to get the sound to my likings and control when I play the sound. Lfo and modulation are the important features for me. What I want most from a synth is the ability of it to play eg. one note which never stays the same.

- What are your trusted plugins/software/hardware that you turn to all the time?
Right now z3ta is fast becoming a prime plug, hardware it is the Fizmo. But I must say that it changes through time. The Rez synth somehow is a plug I come back to often though

- How do you work on your music? How do you get started when creating a new song?
For me usually it starts with creating a new patch. From that point I go searching for added sounds. Sometimes Ï have something in mind; most of the times I just wank about.

...and everything else that matters to you so your music sounds like it does today.
I believe in the concept 'less is more' and within that concept I try to keep plugs/keys to a minimum. Live playing is an important part of this process, where in the beginning a lot of my music was about programming, these days it is recording it in one take and not bother to edit the notes. I don't like syncing or quantizing and I love putting sequences together that have their own tempo, but combined start making shifting patterns.

Most of my ambient music is done by intuition.

I've been known to make 10+ min songs with one patch only

[Kraku]

Well, if there's one thing I've learned from all these replies, it's: there seems to be no point in suggesting some synth/effect/host to someone else because he most probably has quite different needs & tastes than I do...

It's a shame that people didn't do any in depth analyzis about their techniques and such...

[atomic_(no)afro]

No time for the in-depth analysis but what I'm about, and what my music reflects is a love of beats, breakz, sound design, and bass. I'm still finding my unique sound, but for the most part I start a track by building the drum track first, then applying the other bits after. As a result I have MANY drum synths, and samplers on hand. DR-008, Attack, all the free drumsynths out there (Drumatic, Stomper, etc), Kontakt, Sampletank 2, Wusikstation, EVE, and FL Studio all do a nice job of coming up with distinctive drum sounds. In terms of other kinds of "trusted" synths, I have Tera, impOSCar, Synth 1, and the recently acquired z3ta+. But in reality, most of my melodic work is just icing for the drums, bass, and atmospheric FX sounds that I generate.

My strength is rhythm, my weakness is melody, and my talent is production.

ATA