Starting a new track

Hey guys,

I'm fairly new to the electronic music world. I love to write electronic music, however I often have trouble starting on a track. Have you guys got any tips that could help me start off?

Thanks a lot,

Calum

if you're not inspired you probably ought to wait until you are... little good will come of forcing yourself... and read the rules

i just get random loops going on my gear - get a simple drum beat programmed then layer some random basslines over the top until i find something i like....that usually gets me started pretty well.

I usually just start throwing things together until an interesting bit emerges, then focus on that. I find if I try to start off making one perfect element I end up not going anywhere with it.

Try and pastiche/replicate a favourite piece of music. It will soon go off on a completely different tangent, and sound nothing like the original intention. If it doesn't, you turn into the flahbulb.

find/make a neat sample and just go from there.

open daw, (if equipped) smoke marijuana, get pissed off that you can't do anything worth a damn. Open up firefox. Look at watmm in frustration. Close firefox. open daw back up. listen to a track you started last week. Dislike it. Close daw. Open up firefox.

Rinse/repeat.

For me, starting is easy. It's the finishing part I have a problem with. If a track takes too long to make, it gets to the point where I don't like it anymore, and I would have been MUCH better off starting a new track than beating a dead horse for days. I finish about 1 in 6 tracks I start. Only every now and again do I listen to what I have from an unfinished track and hear something worth keeping.

^I think the solution there is to know when a track is going somewhere. For me, when it is I'll stick with it even if it starts off crap because I know it will get better. If it isn't, I'll try to waste as little time as possible on it & move on to a new one (I probably go through about two or three false starts for every completed track, but I tend to try starting something at every possible opportunity so it doesn't really matter).

Also, can't have distractions going. No internet, no reviewing old material. No organizing your vsts. One thing I like about working with hardware is there's much less opportunity for distraction than working on a computer.

yeah i've gotten a little better believe it or not.

I get far too easily distracted even though I'm using hardware (I do record into cubase though)... but yeah, I'll be halfway through a track then suddenly realise I've got to wash the dishes/take out the rubbish/fix something etc and have to abandon my track until I've finished the mundane every day things....just the joys of trying to make tunes when in a serious live together type relationship I guess - you can't really ever completely concentrate on the music as there's always something more "important" that needs doing....

disconnect your internet for a weekend

  On 3/12/2010 at 12:56 PM, chimera slot mom said:

disconnect your internet for a weekend

My music rig doesn't even have internet going into it anymore. I just use my gigging laptop for that.

  On 3/12/2010 at 1:15 PM, Jonas said:

Always rub one off real quick before music make session so you don't get sidetracked on the interwebs.

^workflow bible^

don't start a track, don't think of ever releasing music, just enjoy DOING music and everything else will follow.

when I make a really good track I start with the intention/idea of a finished track. Other times I just experiment with little fragments and I guess I'm trying to see how they would fit together. If you're starting a new track it really doesn't matter much what you do to be honest, it's the easiest part there is!

Usually:

1) basic drums

2) bassline

3) stabs to follow bassline

4) build out drums

5) create another theme for bass and stabs

6) pads to flow throughout

I also just kinda dicker around with things until I get something going that I like. I'll usually make some awesome-sounding synths and drum patterns, only to realize later that I can't for the life of me figure out how to connect the pieces and make it sound natural, or at the very least halfway decent.

people have most of my usuals covered (make a loop and see where it goes, try to replicate some song or style and let it go off on a tangent) so i will suggest:

1) sometimes a melody just comes to you. you can't demand it, but work at music enough and it starts to get handed to ya

2) i am tangentially hyperverbal. i've found i can extrude entire tracks from a suitably unique phrase, such as "L. B. Huntington Original Drone Spoons" or "Stilted Wobble." Just, you know, try and make some sounds 'n' melodies 'n' grooves to match the phrase. i always come up with way more than i figure i possibly can from the outset...

3) non-afx interviews are generally inspiring

I just fuck around with synths.

If I'm stuck in a rut and keep making the same crap over and over, I cycle through presets.

  On 3/13/2010 at 1:34 AM, joshier said:

don't start a track, don't think of ever releasing music, just enjoy DOING music and everything else will follow.

That's really really good philosophy.

+1 to the "everything else is more important" problem. I need to get a studio away from my apt so I can go there and not be disturbed so often.

either i have an idea already formed and i beatbox it with idm squish noises in my mouth, and then step sequence it out, or i have no inspiration and muck about until i find a hook like a little hihat run or something, and then see if that inspires me. don't take my advice, I never finish anything.

I used to hate it when people talk about music by describing visuals (or the way Eno says he "paints") but lately I've been finding inspiration in landscape or sci fi imagery for my tracks/ideas.

marijuana helps a LOT with my productivity and helps me spend much less time being afraid about adding new ideas and more time pushing forward and adding new patterns, automating new things, etc. marijuana = balls

marijuana is actually quite detrimental to my music making - if I'm stoned I just like listen to the same pattern over and over again for 3 hours. I still smoke it anyway though lol.

kick the springreverb

  On 3/11/2010 at 10:29 PM, tht tne said:

if you're not inspired you probably ought to wait until you are... little good will come of forcing yourself... and read the rules

It really depends. Sometimes, by forcing myself to do stuff, I came up with great stuff. Sure, nothing beats the feeling of being inspired but accidents happen. Also, it depends on what you're trying to achieve, if you're into sound design/research, there's no need to be inspired as it comes with experiments, by tring differents sound manipulations.

oh, and I only smoke after making music, to see how good it is, never before.

  On 3/16/2010 at 4:35 PM, BCM said:

marijuana is actually quite detrimental to my music making - if I'm stoned I just like listen to the same pattern over and over again for 3 hours. I still smoke it anyway though lol.

great for minimal techno!