Approaches to making music

#1

What are your approaches to making music? I’m stuck in a rut of constantly starting tracks that I’m really excited by but never developing them beyond a loop that I occasionally load up (on Octatrack) play around with a bit, maybe sample some stuff from modular, and then save without it ever becoming a finished track. Interested to hear other people’s approaches and any advice on how to get out of this loop phase and move forward into actually finishing full tracks.

#2

@deprecate took me years to break out of the loop phase. two strategies in particular have helped me out a lot.

  1. shelve the idea and come back to it. could be a week, could be a year. coming back to something I’ve effectively forgotten about most always renews my creative approach.

  2. add blank space to your arrangements and force yourself to break the loop. visually seeing where you are NOT going to play your loop can be a great way to build an actual song and not just a tracky DJ tool. occasionally I’ll leave just one remnant of the original loop in the blank sections to keep me grounded to the overall idea.

#3

I know loopingitis all too well! The trick I’ve used to get out of it, should work well with the Octatrack:

  • force yourself to make longer loops (so at least 4 bars/64 steps long)
  • copy that awesome loop to a new pattern and make LOTS of variations
  • copy that pattern and mutes some tracks
  • copy that pattern and add some elements and remove a few
  • start a completely blank pattern and use the same elements, but forget about the arrangement of the last patterns
  • copy that awesome first loop again and make just a few variations to key elements
  • etc.

Just pure old forcing yourself to make that loop twice as long, and mutating it over various iterations. Then you can play around skipping back and forth between them and see what could work. If you find a few patterns that work this way, just add a bit of randomness here and there, play around with mutes (which sounds can you just drop?), and try to figure out an intro and ending. :slight_smile:

It might not sound very “romantic” and “he’s channeling the music” or whatever, but it does make the track more interesting. Just make sure you’re really into that first loop you make, and see if you can become equally mesmerized by the subsequent loops. :slight_smile:

#4

sometimes leaving it too long does the opposite for me haha; the tune becomes some sort of nostalgia-tinged holy grail; too precious to go to the next thing. So I try and just push out a new idea that would complete the tune as quick as i can, because that’s the hardest bit for me…

(p.s. is there any news on a separate 555 production forum branch? Was mentioned at some point as a possibility)

#5

A separate production branch would be good, or even a space to share WIPs and give each other constructive feedback.

#6

The never ending loop cycle is definitely something I’m familiar with too. What I’ve found to be helpful in certain cases is to just hit record and jam out your pattern. Similarly to what Daisuk mentioned, while you’re jamming that loop you can alter parameters and mute certain tracks for variation.

The nice thing about this approach is that the build ups and come-downs of your loop don’t have to be predetermined and could sound more organic since you’re doing stuff on the fly. Once you’re all set, you can layout your recording for cleaning up and sculpting your track in a DAW.

#7

You’ve all got me inspired now. Hopefully finish a track this weekend trying out your different approaches.

#8

I like to save two copies of the project file and then just take one and fuck around try to make it sound bad see what happens. If it sucks I always have the OG copy to go back to.

#9

I can recommend Dennis DeSantis’ book “Making Music” for good ideas of how to get unstuck. Personally I find that if I’m in a rut, I’ll listen around to other music that I like, and then try and re-create a whole track from scratch. It never works, but I get a few new ones out of it!

#10

I actually have this book already. I guess I should read it!

#11

Only recently started getting into music after being put off by DAWs a few years ago. I’ve found the new mode in Ableton 10 that records midi for any keys pushed while not recording to be really helpful. I’ll play for 10 minutes over my loop just jamming ideas, then move it into arrange and just start fiddling with loop length, velocities, effects, moving notes, adding outliers etc. Even just dropping one element from a loop for a bit can conjure some new ideas. If I get stuck I usually shelf it for a week and come back to it after trying a new project, but I am still very much in learning stages.

#12

Lots already suggested here that I was going to but my 2c:

  • build out your song structure immediately. Follow the conventional pop format then build upon the arrangement with additional instrumentation/taking elements away/altering the chords, melodies and drum patterns as necessary. Leave the WHOLE TRACK looping, and you will feel where change is needed because the song is getting too stale.
  • use an external task list to ensure you’re coming back to finish what you start at a dedicated window of time.