Well, I mostly know what I still have to do. It’s more like I‘m getting tired of actually doing it. It just feels a lot like work, and I don’t want to spend all my music time with „work“. But yeah, I guess I just need to do it and then move on, will be worth it. Thank you for the confirmation.
3 Likes
Sometimes when I get home from a long, hard day at work, I pop a microwave burrito in or heat up a frozen pizza because I’m too tired and just want something to eat. We’ve all been there I’m sure.
Other times I’ll steam and season some nice basmati rice, chop and cook some fresh vegetables (seasoned to taste with some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper), I’ll split, butter, season, and wrap a potato and get that going in the oven, then I’ll marinate and pan sear a nice cut of pork chop or maybe dry rub a choice fillet.
One way is easier than the other, takes far less work. One way gives me a microwave burrito. The other way gives something much more desirable, but it’s more work.
Both ways are valid and will sustain you. I’m hungry now.
6 Likes
For me, music activity alternates between periods of:
- practicing songs that I want to learn from scratch or to play differently than they were meant to be;
- capturing my ideas because I feel inspired and transforming them into songs.
I always play through the blackbox. This way, I am ready to record on the fly, no matter which period I’m currently in. I do not make music every day, unless I want to finish something and it is actually comforting to know that this approach does work, even with a small daily footprint (eg 15-30 mins).
2 Likes
Most of my projects rarely get further than loops or a few changes, but I have made a few full tracks.
Arranging is an art in itself though.
Btw. is there something like a workshop thread here? If you have specific questions while producing something like e.g. “not sure where I should remove the bass for a while, do you prefer A or B” and then upload a file. Would that be in the spirit of “current sounds coming from your gear” or where would you put that?
3 Likes
Yeah I saw that, but I’m not making Hip Hop 
.
2 Likes
Great, thank you!
2 Likes
If you have 10 years of loops, putting up a track is probably a matter of minutes. Drop loops in Ablewig or Bitleton, jam with them for 5 minutes, then make quick edits for 10 minutes, done. Now post it here.
4 Likes
This
3 Likes
Don’t know if this has posted yet, but:
Take a track that’s similar and just rebuild the arrangement with your track. Probably the best method imo
3 Likes
I wonder how many of your loops can be put together together into a progression. If you make it work sometimes songs that are loop based but dramatically (yet effectively) change halfway through is really satisfying. So maybe consider taking some loops of similar BPM and getting them to the same BPM and use the creative juices to find how to transition.
1 Like
I know it’s perfectly valid to do that (and I do :P)
I just long for the ability to completely sketch out a track end to end and not arrange entirely in Ableton.
Maybe I need to sketch more on an acoustic guitar first to get that linear flow down
I wouldn’t ever do that as my only process but I figure it might help my process.
1 Like
Another technique that dovetails nicely with this is taking a loop and slowing it down to halftime.
Make the arrangement first, label the clips, then generate the sounds. Professional writers do it like this for novels, when the story is set, its then easier to write it down.
Oh hello Digitakt firmware.
1 Like
I just want to add that some of my favorite songs r loops.
There’s endless rap beats that I love that r very simple loops. Disintegration loops is one of the most celebrated ambient albums of all time and it’s really just a very short loop for a very long time.
I think disintegration loops is actually a perfect example of how you can stretch a loop out to infinity. There’s so much u can do to a simple loop to give it movement, feeling and shifting dynamics to make it feel alive.
1 Like
“This is a grotesque example of a band’s sickening self indulgence. At 0.032 during The 2nd drum solo, the casual listener may well ask why there is such need for such overblown showmanship. As skilled as the drummer is, there’s no need to drag a solo out for an excruciatingly long 0.0025 seconds, shortly followed by another of almost equal length.”
4 Likes