Having watched several of your excellent “How To’s…”, I notice you always follow much the same order in creating the track. Drums, Bass, Stabs, Leads, then arranging that with drops and risers. Is this actually the way you write your tracks, or do you just put them in that order for the tutorials?
I ask because with me, I always start with a guitar/keyboard/sample phrase that grabs me. Then I hunt for drums that fit it, mixture of loops and programmed. And then…well, that’s exactly the point where I get stuck! :angry: Can’t find the next thing that adds to it and takes it from a 4 or 8 bar loop to a full tune.
Do you think it better to produce in the order that the tutorials follow, especially for a beginner? Is it easier to find ‘top/melodic/harmonic/hook’ lines that fit an already fully grooving rhythm/bass, than the other way around?
I tend to produce in the same order as the Sonic Academy guys. More or less. But then maybe that’s because I learnt how to produce here.
The key thing is to work in whatever way is best for you. I don’t think that there’s a perfect method.
In some ways producing from the ground up (the Sonic Academy way) is the more logical one as it tends to be the beats and the bass that will carry your track the most. They tend to be the parts that your listeners will hear the most as they’ll take up much of the timeline of your track.
But if you have a good idea for a melody then there’s no reason not to build from that.
It makes no sense whatsoever to do it in a way you find contradicts your creativity and limits your production.
In some ways its true that starting with the bass and drums almost guarantees a strong groove on the dance floor (or at least a hard hitting groove better than your usual one).
However, that being said catchy-but-not-corny melodies can do just as much as a powerful bass line IMO.
A lot of people love tracks from the likes of SHM where they do not have the most powerful bass line out there (IMO anyway, hear some people saying SHM have “INSANE” bass lines) but no one can deny that “One” had a very nice catchy yet some what epic melody to drive that track along.
You could argue it started off with some dude sampling a clap and then setting the loop on and loop it at a very low timing but I think for a melody like that you need to start with the melody before the bass line.
Note the I think part of everything are the key two words in this.
tl;dr: I dont even know… Maybe I shouldnt press “Post Reply”…
[quote]MistroPain (19/07/2012)[hr]In some ways its true that starting with the bass and drums almost guarantees a strong groove on the dance floor (or at least a hard hitting groove better than your usual one).
However, that being said catchy-but-not-corny melodies can do just as much as a powerful bass line IMO.[/quote]
These are good points. An idea could start from anywhere, maybe a bass line that sounds good with. It’s best to get some drums in ASAP, though.
I think my problem is not the order of producing then, but that I get stuck on bass lines, whichever order I go in! Another thing I noticed in the “How To’s” is how easily they drop a few bass notes in and it just sounds right with the drum groove. I really struggle to do this, it’s like there’s only 16 places to put the notes and still I can’t find the right places. :w00t: Got some work to do there…
If I don’t do it the way Sonic Academy normally lays it out I almost always end up making the “highest” part of my song first or I guess you could call it the part that gets everyone dancing…Problem with that for me though is I always have trouble building up to that point as well as getting out of it so I try to stick to the way SA makes their productions or else I never finish a song!
I used to struggle with this myself, if your a Techy kind of producer, then by all means start with drums and percussion, a bassline etc. but personally, for the kind of stuff I make (Try to make ;)) I’ve learned to always start with a chord progression, usually a minimum of 3 chords for Prog/Mainroom House kind of stuff (no rules though, a good progression is a good progression) Then I’ll flick through presets on a synth and find sounds I like and that work with the chords, this is just to get things off the ground, I’ll make my own sounds eventually or tweak the presets till it works with the track. After I have a few good sounds, I’ll dissect different melodic lines throughout the progression and apply the different sounds to the different layers of midi notes, I think people call it “Orchestrating” basically, all the different instruments come together to make up the whole chord progression and it sounds a lot bigger and more interesting than just the one sound. After that, make a topline melody and then it’s processing the sounds with plug ins to get it how I want. Longwinded and a bit off topic, but I hope it helps Anyway, watch this mate, I think they nail it.
There’s no right or wrong answer here, many people can start with a look/line/chord/whatever and build around that. To be honest it makes more sense that way because if you start with the kick/bass then you’re already setting the key of your track before you’ve had a chance to play around with melodies in various keys and see what works for you.
I’d built up from various ways, it really doesn’t matter. Just depends on the track, idea or remix I’m working on. In fact if it’s a remix then i usually start with the parts, take what i want to keep then build up around that.
Anyway, watch this mate, I think they nail it.