What comes first?

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

Just wondering;

I seem to get an ok idea going, then i become obsessed with effects, eq etc... but in the end i ruin what i was doing and start over....

At what stage should the composing stop and engineering begin??

[mrgreynoise]

Personally, it's ALL composing to me. Effects, EQ, mix routing, compression are all compositional tools. The only aspect which is engineering, to me, is mastering.

[royen]

I have pretty much the same problem.

I try to force myself to not worry too much about the sounds until I have a rough draft of the song, and then I alternate between mixing and arranging. I convince myself that it keeps everything together because I won't do anything while mixing that messes up the arrangement and vice versa.

Can't say it's easy though

[Crimson Chamber Music]

At what stage should the composing stop and engineering begin??

Intriguing question, I always try to adhere to the following steps:

1. composing:
i.e. laying down a groove, a few patterns in live that I put into a few scenees

2. Arrangement:
well you know jamming the stuff together and then editing,
adding breaks etc. but trying not to add too many sounds

3. mixing:
when I am happy with the flow i try to mix it nice,
eq fx etc happen here, at least the fine tuning, of course sounddesign is always a part of the others as well, but i try not to obsess too much about a single sound while composing

4. mastering:

well usually that just means a bit of compression, am no engineer...
sometimes I think I should just stop after 2. and get someone else to do the rest ;-)

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

At what stage should the composing stop and engineering begin??

Intriguing question, I always try to adhere to the following steps:

1. composing:
i.e. laying down a groove, a few patterns in live that I put into a few scenees

2. Arrangement:
well you know jamming the stuff together and then editing,
adding breaks etc. but trying not to add too many sounds

3. mixing:
when I am happy with the flow i try to mix it nice,
eq fx etc happen here, at least the fine tuning, of course sounddesign is always a part of the others as well, but i try not to obsess too much about a single sound while composing

4. mastering:

well usually that just means a bit of compression, am no engineer...
sometimes I think I should just stop after 2. and get someone else to do the rest ;-)

Thats a nice structured approach, exactly the kind of answer i was looking for...!

I love sound design, but i think i obsess too much... ive spent all day on a single synth patch before, maybe i should get over it!!

How about everyone else, are you methodical, or do you just see what happens?

[Tekcap]

I always do the same thing and never make actual songs! I start off by making a nice kick drum and making it nice with effects. After that I do a bassline or percussion. Once that is a decent I do the leads and or pads. I stop after this though for some reason. I create interesting loops but I dont ever get past that stage.

[Crimson Chamber Music]

I love sound design, but i think i obsess too much... ive spent all day on a single synth patch before, maybe i should get over it!!

well or maybe not, after all this music is about exploring soundscapes...

I often have difficulties doing these things when they are due, when I am kind of flowing along making stuff up I try to preserve that energy and not obsess too much about sounds, in the spirit of if it feels good with a shitty sound it will be even better once I find a really good sound to play this pattern,...

If I never find that sound, well it still grooves ;-)

but sometimes I can´t stop myself and two hours later I realise, well now the kick sounds nice, but I don´t feel it anymore,...

I guess everyone experiences that from time to time, right?

[mlexicon]

for me what comes first is a folder - i then name it whatever it is that project might be - then i start creating samples specific to that project only ( ill go make samples on some early morning walks, just thinking bout the title and what im after - ill think of the setting of my song and try and use instruments i imagine would be playing in my space funk one man band show -

after ive made all my samples i then just let go and o course it depends on your mood or whatever but really i just make a huge loop

the big trick for me in actually finishing a song is agreeing to only use the samples youve made for that song specifically, and youll tend to make the most of them and thats good


ok but once you have the loop, i then arrange the parts to my loop by what they are doing for the loop specifically

is it a a rhythmic melody? percussion? melody? percussion elements? bassline? atmospheric sound sh!t?



then with this music sometimes what the sample is isnt clear anymore....maybe its a voice but its become part of the bassline somehow , so that voice clip alone coming in before or after the main bassline wont work alone....maybe it will maybe it wont, so you should really consider not sequencing that voice/bass part without the main bass....of course it just totally depends, but its important to realize whats driving your song

but i think for beginners this is why sometimes making loops they find so much success, but then the minute you stretch it out....the feelings gone and youve killed it

so yeah massive organization basically

i dunno if any of that made sense, but thats how i like to do things