Thought of the day: Keeping things interesting.

[eggnchips]

Would like to hear your ways of keeping things interesting in a track.
We all know it's pretty easy to get something decent going though the hard part is taking it somewhere after that.
Put too many sounds in and it sounds too much. Too many effects and it sounds shite. Too little and it sounds bare.
My own fault is working too often with breakdowns when really my aim is to keep the track interesting using a few same elements. I think, 'yeah this is ok but it gets boring so let's have a breakdown'.
I notice good techno keeps the interest there and leaves you wanting more even though it is simple.
How do you approach it guys?

[Opuswerk]

Was thinking of building such a list for myself, so here i go:

• Play and record jams, instead of "writing" the track.
  
  When you sit on listening to the same loop over and over again, it quickly becomes "the same thing" over and over. But on a dancefloor or when listening to the whole track it's a very different feel. When you jam, all the little changes you might do, the little mistakes will make it sound interesting.
  
  Filtering some elements, pitching others one octave higher can also help of having the same but a bit different.
  
  Removing one element and bringing it back in can keep things interesting too, as when they come back it feels like it starts all over again. Even if you only get it out for a 1 or 2 bars.
  
  Send one element to a delay/reverb/fx chain.
  
  Apply an fx to the whole track.
  
  Have some subliminal stuff happening, like 16th delay on the hats that grows and fades, but never gets loud enough to be heard, only perceived.
  
  Add one note, remove one note, play the sequence backwards.
  
  ...

The thing is if you actually setup your controllers well enough, doing all those happens very naturally. If you look at steevios videos, he "only" has a simple sequence going on, but because he has direct access to all those knobs (and knows very well what they do) he keeps on tweaking things here and there and things keep interesting very naturally. It really is much simpler to achieve loopy things that way.

[oblioblioblio]

i play what i want to hear.

[Phase Ghost]

Was thinking of building such a list for myself, so here i go:

Play and record jams, instead of "writing" the track.

When you sit on listening to the same loop over and over again, it quickly becomes "the same thing" over and over. But on a dancefloor or when listening to the whole track it's a very different feel. When you jam, all the little changes you might do, the little mistakes will make it sound interesting.

This. I love hitting record and just going with it.

[RichardLodge]

A loop can become boring because in the composition process you listen to it hundreds of times.
Remember when you play it to someone they will be hearing it for the first time.
I think it's important to not over complicate things, subtle changes.
I tend to write a one bar loop, then add something in a 4 bar loop, gives it variation but still grooves.

[eggnchips]

Was thinking of building such a list for myself, so here i go:

• Play and record jams, instead of "writing" the track.
  
  When you sit on listening to the same loop over and over again, it quickly becomes "the same thing" over and over. But on a dancefloor or when listening to the whole track it's a very different feel. When you jam, all the little changes you might do, the little mistakes will make it sound interesting.
  
  Filtering some elements, pitching others one octave higher can also help of having the same but a bit different.
  
  Removing one element and bringing it back in can keep things interesting too, as when they come back it feels like it starts all over again. Even if you only get it out for a 1 or 2 bars.
  
  Send one element to a delay/reverb/fx chain.
  
  Apply an fx to the whole track.
  
  Have some subliminal stuff happening, like 16th delay on the hats that grows and fades, but never gets loud enough to be heard, only perceived.
  
  Add one note, remove one note, play the sequence backwards.
  
  ...

The thing is if you actually setup your controllers well enough, doing all those happens very naturally. If you look at steevios videos, he "only" has a simple sequence going on, but because he has direct access to all those knobs (and knows very well what they do) he keeps on tweaking things here and there and things keep interesting very naturally. It really is much simpler to achieve loopy things that way.

Thanks for these. I really need to get some kind of live jamming going as my normal approach is to get a few decent loops together then go to composing mode, writing the piece on a timeline.
I have so many seperate tracks that I wouldn't know where to begin with assigining etc. etc.
To be honest I have a fear of jamming.

[Stomper]

imo the secret is subliminal modulation and missplaces.
if i have a hat sitting between every kick, ill take it back by just a few ms. sometimes ill try a few places all 1-2ms difference, but it makes a big impact on the groove.
i also always use a modulated filter. not something obvious to the everyday listener, but when you listen carefully, you can hear the changes. when applied on all tracks (different filter for each, not a group) it makes the drums less boring.

[NoAffiliation]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrythm