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Forums - Music techology
Subject: The Making of a Track
Viewing all 26 messages - View by pages of 10: 1 2 3
Original Message 1/26 13-Aug-98 @ 05:17 AM - The Making of a Track
So how you go about creating your tracks?
Do you have a set routine? If so, what is it? Or, do you do it differently each time?
What usually inspires you?
Do you have a set routine? If so, what is it? Or, do you do it differently each time?
What usually inspires you?
Message 2/26 13-Aug-98 @ 05:57 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
This is how I like do it.....
I usually start off with a kick and bassline. I like to have a bassline that swings really nice and my favorite way to do this is to offset one or two of the notes 1/16th ahead or behing the downbeat. Once I have the bassline set, I will drop out the kick and start working on the hi-hats, toms, and other percs in conjuntion with the bassline. Every once in a while I will bring the kick back in to see how it is working with the rest of the percs and bassline. I also reduce all of my percussion (including the hi-hats) to the lowest bit possible. 8 bit is my favorite.
Once that is done, I will decide how I want the bassline to travel. If I’m writing a house track, I will usually have the bassline repeat for 3 bars and then create a variation for the 4th bar.
Pads come next. With house music, I will create a pad sound that involves strings and just about anything else. I keep the chord pregression simple, and I will bury the pad in the mix.
By this time, I’ll have an arrangement going too.
I work on the lead sounds next, and I will either stack them on to the bassline, or I will use a lead sound to compliment what the bassline is doing.
Then I start working harder on the arrangement and I also start using FX to phatten things up.
I usually start off with a kick and bassline. I like to have a bassline that swings really nice and my favorite way to do this is to offset one or two of the notes 1/16th ahead or behing the downbeat. Once I have the bassline set, I will drop out the kick and start working on the hi-hats, toms, and other percs in conjuntion with the bassline. Every once in a while I will bring the kick back in to see how it is working with the rest of the percs and bassline. I also reduce all of my percussion (including the hi-hats) to the lowest bit possible. 8 bit is my favorite.
Once that is done, I will decide how I want the bassline to travel. If I’m writing a house track, I will usually have the bassline repeat for 3 bars and then create a variation for the 4th bar.
Pads come next. With house music, I will create a pad sound that involves strings and just about anything else. I keep the chord pregression simple, and I will bury the pad in the mix.
By this time, I’ll have an arrangement going too.
I work on the lead sounds next, and I will either stack them on to the bassline, or I will use a lead sound to compliment what the bassline is doing.
Then I start working harder on the arrangement and I also start using FX to phatten things up.
Message 3/26 13-Aug-98 @ 07:16 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
I usually make my tracks with a disposable insulin syringe.. Har har har!! No, really, the inspiration for a track comes outta nowhere.. See, I DO have a pattern, but the tracks I REALLY like happen kinda spur-of-the-moment, from say, a pad sound, or a lead sound, or an old drumloop I find on my hard drive, or an old record I listen to, or a sound in a movie.. Whatever.. I'm pretty eclectic. This sucks, of course, because when I do sit down and try to make a track, it's usually shit. But when I can't help myself, and I start busting out and don't sleep all night because I'm recording all these ideas, it always ends up being something meaningful and important.
Message 4/26 13-Aug-98 @ 07:33 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
When people come over to work, I tell them bring records & cd's & whatever instrument they could really call their forte, ie don't bring 5 synths, just the one they know best. Then we sit down, check out sounds or samples, & work off inspiration. Sometimes a preset synth sound through a neat effect is enough.
Whenever I start with the beat, the results are lack-luster, so I try to start with something simple & go back & fix it in the end. Yeah, everybody tells me it's dance music & this should be my focus, but I guess I'm too much of a muso.
You'll laugh, but Lionel Ritchie said "if you can't hum a line that'll stick in your head, then you've got no place making music." Exactly. For me it's the melody or sound that sticks in my head & makes a track special, not the beat.
Whenever I start with the beat, the results are lack-luster, so I try to start with something simple & go back & fix it in the end. Yeah, everybody tells me it's dance music & this should be my focus, but I guess I'm too much of a muso.
You'll laugh, but Lionel Ritchie said "if you can't hum a line that'll stick in your head, then you've got no place making music." Exactly. For me it's the melody or sound that sticks in my head & makes a track special, not the beat.
Message 5/26 13-Aug-98 @ 07:45 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
This has got to be one of the coolest threads i have ever seen! Seriously. I have a syndrome along the lines of Sedusa. I cant write music worth shit but when i have an idea i will stay up all night getting every last bit of inspiration out of it, and with that come several new techniques about format, sequencing, editing, mixing, development, etc. But it seems that that only happens when i either A) Get new gear B) hear new music C) dont get enough sleep D) coming down off drugs or E) shit luck. I cant really say that i make music, i just like to make stuff that makes me think about the technology used to create it. Fuck music, not really but kinda?
out...
out...
Message 6/26 13-Aug-98 @ 08:10 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
noteven...good post.
Derrick May once said writing "Techno (Detroit) music is creating something that no one has ever heard before".
He also said that "it's what would happen if George Clinton and Bootsy Collins got stuck in an elevator for 2 hours"...Ummm...I think I'd personally go for Pammy Anderson over those two sweaty bastards.
I now focus more on melody than ever before. But Mindspawn, as others, are helping me to color outside of the lines. In the past I have gotten too hung up on formula. Now anything goes...
Derrick May once said writing "Techno (Detroit) music is creating something that no one has ever heard before".
He also said that "it's what would happen if George Clinton and Bootsy Collins got stuck in an elevator for 2 hours"...Ummm...I think I'd personally go for Pammy Anderson over those two sweaty bastards.
I now focus more on melody than ever before. But Mindspawn, as others, are helping me to color outside of the lines. In the past I have gotten too hung up on formula. Now anything goes...
Message 7/26 13-Aug-98 @ 08:25 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
Greenie, when are you going to finish that track we started. I thought you'd be done in a week, & now it's been fuckin' months!!!
Just finish it, & if it sucks you can blame it on me.
Just finish it, & if it sucks you can blame it on me.
Message 8/26 13-Aug-98 @ 09:38 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
wrote the beginnings of a track last night - just by getting this monster dubby-bass thing looping from the an1x and then getting my mate to sing random stuff over the top until we had this kind of country-ish vocal (like beth orton kind fo...) over this dirty lo-fi dub beat. sounded good - love the emax for this ability just to lay down the beats quickly - but the first time i've ever done it like that.
the most prolific period of writing i had was last year in manchester - we hooked up a four track (bass, guitar, synths and drum machines) and just kind of jammed - when we had something going we'd flip the 4track into record.....
then later you have all this ready-made material to sample and fuck with - all in the same key, same tempo, all feeding off each other already. sounded pretty good....
the most prolific period of writing i had was last year in manchester - we hooked up a four track (bass, guitar, synths and drum machines) and just kind of jammed - when we had something going we'd flip the 4track into record.....
then later you have all this ready-made material to sample and fuck with - all in the same key, same tempo, all feeding off each other already. sounded pretty good....
Message 9/26 13-Aug-98 @ 09:48 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
Hey how are you guys sharing the track ? What formats do you send in? I wanna play too ...if its techno'ey
cya
cya
Message 10/26 13-Aug-98 @ 11:19 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
if you do want to share stuff you could use cakewalk (i think the .bun files include all the audio files as well) but you have to remember to include any midi data you have as audio...obviously....
or you could use soundforge acid, which can save a song complete with all the samples in - .acd extension.
there's some examples of .acd tracks here:
Some Acid tracks with embedded samples.
Did that work?
or you could use soundforge acid, which can save a song complete with all the samples in - .acd extension.
there's some examples of .acd tracks here:
Some Acid tracks with embedded samples.
Did that work?
Message 11/26 13-Aug-98 @ 12:27 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
Doh ! I aint knocked anything up in years ! Ever since I started commuting to London in fact. Time is the most important factor to me. Gaining inspiration is easy, but when you sit down on the gear to develop idea's you find that you have to stop just as things are getting going, because you need to be up early to get a train into London ! I cant afford to be distracted by the girlfriend shouting upstairs to me "fancy a cup of tea ?", my reply is usually "no fuck off I'm trying to work on something here, leave me alone !".
Before I worked in London I had adequate time, my life was less stressfull and the creativity flowed like lager.
I knocked up a total of just over 3 hours of music in 1 year.
Now after being a suit for 5 years I've knocked out about 30 minutes worth !!!!!!!!
I need some serious disapline. and some more time.
Message 12/26 13-Aug-98 @ 01:01 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
i know exactly what you mean - work 9-5 for 5 days and by the time you get home you're knackered from the london rush-hour - 6.30 by the time you settle down and by 10 you're starting to think about food and having to get home to get to bed for the next day etc - and also, most evenings you're doing something anyway.....
i just took three days off work and did the most exciting stuff musically i've even got close to all summer.
looking forward to getting back to manchester for a while...
i just took three days off work and did the most exciting stuff musically i've even got close to all summer.
looking forward to getting back to manchester for a while...
Message 13/26 13-Aug-98 @ 01:44 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
My routine differs significantly from everyone else's, but I'm doind industrial, not dance. My tracks start with a guitar riff. Sometimes all I have is a 1 bar rhythm, sometimes it's a lead, sometimes it's a mostly completed song, but at some point it's inputted into the PC. From there I usually do the bass (synth) parts, then a scratch drum track, then a basic arrangement. The I either write vocals, or match the music up with existing vocals. Of course some rearranging occurs when the vocals get integrated with the music, but at that point I'm mostly done.
I almost never work off of music, and rarely do I start a song with a synth line or a drum beat.
I almost never work off of music, and rarely do I start a song with a synth line or a drum beat.
Message 14/26 13-Aug-98 @ 02:33 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
you guys have summed me up, pretty much. when i'm not burned out from me day job...
i might have this weird rhythm going on in my head, which makes me fire up the gear and start banging it out. from there i start layering stuff, a bassline, or a melody. for each part i usually start by searching presets for something that sounds almost right - don't give a fuck about notes at this point, just texture or color. then i start editing the preset to make it sound more right, or maybe i'll take what i like from it and create something new. then i just start playing until something cool (musically) pops up. start looping, adding, etc. everything basic at first, details later.
or, i might have a guitar or bass riff that i want to work into a song. so i'll prog a rhythm for it, drop in a bassline. start processing stuff to make it sound weird, which hopefully will give me ideas for the next part.
or i'll dredge up a really cool sample and just start playing with it. i think that's an industrial thing... i've based a number of songs around one really neat sample - in the end, maybe noone even notices it, but it defines the song.
i might have this weird rhythm going on in my head, which makes me fire up the gear and start banging it out. from there i start layering stuff, a bassline, or a melody. for each part i usually start by searching presets for something that sounds almost right - don't give a fuck about notes at this point, just texture or color. then i start editing the preset to make it sound more right, or maybe i'll take what i like from it and create something new. then i just start playing until something cool (musically) pops up. start looping, adding, etc. everything basic at first, details later.
or, i might have a guitar or bass riff that i want to work into a song. so i'll prog a rhythm for it, drop in a bassline. start processing stuff to make it sound weird, which hopefully will give me ideas for the next part.
or i'll dredge up a really cool sample and just start playing with it. i think that's an industrial thing... i've based a number of songs around one really neat sample - in the end, maybe noone even notices it, but it defines the song.
Message 15/26 13-Aug-98 @ 06:33 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
Definately an industrial thing... I've always dreamed about creating a track where the base samples for every sound but the vocals was derived from samples of various vacuum cleaners!
-Craig
-Craig
Message 16/26 14-Aug-98 @ 08:08 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
I use Sonic Foundry's ACID and dance loops from audio cds and I just let my music creativity run wild. Sounds easy but it takes a while to create a wicked song.
Message 17/26 14-Aug-98 @ 09:32 AM - RE: The Making of a Track
well, I come from an Industrial background.. I still have all my ways of doing things.. They haven't changed... I just found at one point that my inner funk overpowered my angst.. Hehe...
Message 18/26 14-Aug-98 @ 06:16 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
I always start with a loop in LDB. Then I export it to Cakewalk and start building a bassline to go with the drums. Then I start adding things to go on top, using a four-bar loop and just stacking pads and loops melodies and so on... Then I start cutting and pasting to get some structure.
Message 19/26 14-Aug-98 @ 08:52 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
JAWA
Posts: 1
Link?: No link
File?: No file
I tidy my stuff up and while i'm doing that i always come up with ideas for tunes......
Errrr.... it just comes from inspriation i suppose, when i heard that album by the Crystal Method i was blown away the tunes you hear makes you think of your own ideas, no idea how, and i didn't emerge from my room for weeks on end..... another was seeing Fatboy Slim at "The End", i just got so inspired by that it kept me making tunes night after night...... it just happens like that i suppose....
Errrr.... it just comes from inspriation i suppose, when i heard that album by the Crystal Method i was blown away the tunes you hear makes you think of your own ideas, no idea how, and i didn't emerge from my room for weeks on end..... another was seeing Fatboy Slim at "The End", i just got so inspired by that it kept me making tunes night after night...... it just happens like that i suppose....
Message 20/26 17-Aug-98 @ 01:57 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
Right, I just saw Dream Theater the other night, and they've got me writing the coolest guit riffs in months! They also got me saving for a seven-string...
-C
-C
Message 21/26 17-Aug-98 @ 02:34 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
I took a day off work on friday to muck about on some tunes and ended up writing an absolute stonker, did a quick tape mix to listen to in the car up to manchester. Decided I liked the track and would work on it some more. Sat down last night and tried to force myself to write and ended completely fucking up the mix I had set up on friday. Did I master it first?
Did I fuck.
That is a pretty good example of my writing ever since I decided to leave the dole.....
Did I fuck.
That is a pretty good example of my writing ever since I decided to leave the dole.....
Message 22/26 17-Aug-98 @ 06:24 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
I can relate to that. I have to walk away for a while every few hours. Sometimes I think I've made The Shit and when I get up the next day and listen to it in the morning it sounds like total log. This is when I get into that 'I can't really write music, the last track was a fluke!'mode.
I don't know how you can write music with other people. I get lots of ideas from friends but nothing comes out unless I'm alone in my own little shread zone.
I don't know how you can write music with other people. I get lots of ideas from friends but nothing comes out unless I'm alone in my own little shread zone.
Message 23/26 17-Aug-98 @ 10:57 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
There are so many ways to come up with a track. One way that I find works well, is that I hear a sound walkingdown the street, or I'm just sort of fucking around on my synths, and sampler, and I just sit back and close my eyes for a minute, and think about how that sound speaks to me, and how it works in a groove, if at all. Could be a soundscape, or a jammin pump track. I'll fire up the drum machines, and build a little percussion line, and just build the groove from there, then start experimenting with manipulating the sounds, til I'm really feeling a solid buzz comig from the sounds. I know I'm up to something good when I start looking around like I just got caught doing something really naughty, kind of like an eight year old, dark skinned kid, that just got caught by his mom with his finger jammed up his nose in church. Not a racist thing, just know the upbringing.
Other times, I'll just do the old faithful, go with a kick line, and build the layers, but the best stuff really comes together when my partner and I play live together. I just set my drum machine into record mode, and load in some samples, semi-randomly, using some short percussion patterns on my sequencer, and he'll do the same, and we'll just hit start and go. We just sort of reach out towards each other with pieces of sound, creating shpaes, and colours, and textures, and grdually it will shape itself into some kind of groove, usually some thing slow, and funky, and once the being takes shape, we jkust sort of work it up into whatever it feels like it needs to become. It also really depends on the audience, if we are playing with a crowd. If the crowd feels that it wants to go faster and harder, then the being moves that way. If it wants to just chill, then that's fine too, but really depends on the exchange of energies. We just keep loading samples,, and bringing up patches, and occasionally loading some more sequences, and just manipulating, until the time has come where we feel our communication has fully come through, and we have made the connection with our audience, and there's not much more to be said at the time. At that point, we stop playing, and relax.
A few days later, when the hype has worn off, we'll go back, and listen to a recording ofthe set, and find the moments of the most intense communication, and extract those. Very little manipulation is required at that point. That's another way of coming up with a track, and it's my favorite. A lot of my friends, particularly, some in France, who play at teknivals a lot, do it that way. That stuff always sounds unique, because it's live, and involves more than just the performers' energies. Check it out some time! I'm so inspired now, I'm going to go and be naughty with my machines now!!! *runs away, cackling*
Monkey Businessman
Other times, I'll just do the old faithful, go with a kick line, and build the layers, but the best stuff really comes together when my partner and I play live together. I just set my drum machine into record mode, and load in some samples, semi-randomly, using some short percussion patterns on my sequencer, and he'll do the same, and we'll just hit start and go. We just sort of reach out towards each other with pieces of sound, creating shpaes, and colours, and textures, and grdually it will shape itself into some kind of groove, usually some thing slow, and funky, and once the being takes shape, we jkust sort of work it up into whatever it feels like it needs to become. It also really depends on the audience, if we are playing with a crowd. If the crowd feels that it wants to go faster and harder, then the being moves that way. If it wants to just chill, then that's fine too, but really depends on the exchange of energies. We just keep loading samples,, and bringing up patches, and occasionally loading some more sequences, and just manipulating, until the time has come where we feel our communication has fully come through, and we have made the connection with our audience, and there's not much more to be said at the time. At that point, we stop playing, and relax.
A few days later, when the hype has worn off, we'll go back, and listen to a recording ofthe set, and find the moments of the most intense communication, and extract those. Very little manipulation is required at that point. That's another way of coming up with a track, and it's my favorite. A lot of my friends, particularly, some in France, who play at teknivals a lot, do it that way. That stuff always sounds unique, because it's live, and involves more than just the performers' energies. Check it out some time! I'm so inspired now, I'm going to go and be naughty with my machines now!!! *runs away, cackling*
Monkey Businessman
Message 24/26 18-Aug-98 @ 06:42 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
Pongoid is a fuckin' Lunatic- do not listen to a word he says. He walks the streets talking to himself. I must admit though, he's one fine musician. When he comes back to the SF area I might even give him a gig at my club. For those in the area, check out my url www.thehipster.com for more info.
Oh by the way, I've ordered the BAFF so you better watch out motherfucker.
-Chad-
Oh by the way, I've ordered the BAFF so you better watch out motherfucker.
-Chad-
Message 25/26 18-Aug-98 @ 11:05 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
rouge
Posts: 2
Link?: No link
File?: No file
Hmmmmm, Chad whats the site all about?? Weird.
Anyway, I'm not making many tunes at the moment because I'm writing a book but when I do I usually start off with some kind of riff, loop it, play something over it that sounds good and progress from there. To start with a beat it has to be one hell of an individual beat to inspire me into working around it otherwise its practically impossible (for me).
Anyway, I'm not making many tunes at the moment because I'm writing a book but when I do I usually start off with some kind of riff, loop it, play something over it that sounds good and progress from there. To start with a beat it has to be one hell of an individual beat to inspire me into working around it otherwise its practically impossible (for me).
Message 26/26 19-Aug-98 @ 03:58 PM - RE: The Making of a Track
Drums are the last thing I do (at leat the last thing to be finished) besides vocals... usually I'll just lay down some hats on beats 2 & 4 if it's a softer piece, or kick on 1 2 3 4 if heavy... those remain the drums until all the rest of the work is done. Then I rewrite the drums parts. On one song I decided not to rewrite the drums just for the pure cheezyness of it all ;-)
-Craig
-Craig
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