Plan before Producing?

[FoolsGold]

Hey everyone,

 

Over the last 6 months i have got a good understanding of logic, my question is, when producing do you guys have a plan of the song layout, and what sound you want the song to have prior to sitting down at the comp? I find i dnt know what sound i want a song to have or the layout mind you? But when i sit down and just start playing around til i find something i like it, i end up just going around in circles? Any help in this area?

 

Almost like a producing block....

 

Thanks

 

Whitelabel

[fuzzfilth]

Hm. Not long ago you stated that you have lots of production ideas, so what happened to those ?

 

As for recipes, it clearly depends on the genre of music you want to do. A 3'10" bubblegum pop song has different form restrictions than a 12min minimalist piece that John Cage has instrumented for one empty bottle on the seashore.

 

Being a producer means, among other things, bringing an idea/fragment/song/arrangement/band into a state where it reaches its full potential, so that more or less excludes the act of actually writing the music.

 

So, where is it that you're stuck ? In writing the music ? No producer can help you here. Well George Martin might, but that's a different story. If you give no input as an artist, a producer can either produce bland music from a bland idea, or take over and make it his own vehicle, none of which is to your advantage.

 

But if you have the licks and hooks and chords, then producing them shouldn't be that difficult, given your talent as a producer. If you can't decide which of three directions you should go, go them all and see what comes out.

 

Or maybe it is time to think about a collaboration.

 

Christian

[Kent Sandvik]

There are so many ways to produce music. The best cases happens by mistake or by experimentation. Setting up a certain style easily leads to a copycat situation or a somewhat boring and non-creative experience, me thinks.

[M.DraQla]

Yeah mistakes and experimentation are usually the best cases I find as well(for me atleast). I usually have a concise idea of where I want to go with a song once I get atleast one take of an instrument down. Then I build off of that idea and everything else about the song to keep going.

[will666]

Most of the stuff i make is dance in one form or another.

 

If i'm doing a remix ill sit down and load all the parts into logic and then listen to them each on there own and see if anything jumps out at me. Around this time i'll need a coffee hahahahaha. so away from the mac i'll just start running through what i want from the record. Do i want it to be a club banger or do i want it as a intro track or a closing track or what does the original Dj/producer/band want. From that info ill start thinking of what sounds i would like to hear (calvin harris did a interview on his last LP talking about "happy sounds" that he used) This is when ill then sit down and start on the track so i know in my head what i'm trying to make not just making sounds and going with what sounds good.

 

If it's a original track again i'll have the idea of what i want from my track (club banger, chill-out track etc) and what i want the sound to be. Ill then get into working in blocks to get the hook sounding nice. I spend time just making synth patches and sounds for this reason but if you have a in-depth knowledge of synths you could just sit down and start making your patch. From there i work the same way as with the remixes (intro break drop build break drop outro this is the same as intro verse chorus verse.......) I normaly work on a track in blocks because it's nice and easy to do so with dance music.

 

I think the key with making the most of your music making time is to have a idea of the direction of the track work towards that, but as with everything rules are made to be broken and if your tracks starts moving in another direction and you like it go with it.

 

I'm not sure if any of this will help but i'm at work and don't really want to do any work (i have six ships left hahahahaha)

 

keep rocking

 

Craig Williams

[shivermetimbers]

Hey everyone,

 

Over the last 6 months i have got a good understanding of logic, my question is, when producing do you guys have a plan of the song layout, and what sound you want the song to have prior to sitting down at the comp? I find i dnt know what sound i want a song to have or the layout mind you? But when i sit down and just start playing around til i find something i like it, i end up just going around in circles? Any help in this area?

 

Almost like a producing block....

 

Thanks

 

Whitelabel

 

No Rules. What you like and what others like may differ.

If you don't know then you can't produce it.

 

At least record all the basics and then go from there.

 

You can change the Software instruments ATF (after the fact)

You can change FX ATF. In other words, keep everything non dedicated to permanent things like recording guitars with compression or distortion before the input.

 

Don't stagnate yourself by over thinking. Do SOMETHING and work with it. You are not committed to having the first thing you try chiseled in stone. You can do remixes and/or arrangements.

 

 

The main thing is to get the song parts recorded. You may end up with 10 different versions to choose from after your finished. That is better than having nothing to choose from because you are over thinking.

 

Get busy and stop thinking!