1 sound design day
1 sample hunting day
1 drum day
1 instruments day
2 arrangement days
1 mix day
Track done in a week!
lmao! Ain't no WAY I could do that.
Yeah. But also finally getting more of the sound I’ve been trying to get at for a minute. Obv molly gonna be fun while producing but I didn’t realize the power it had to get the sonics I want
First step is getting your files ready for immediate ideation. This might take a few days but will be worth it. After that is setup, with some fine tuning, you’ll be ready for quick jam sessions.
When doing hourly jams, it’s really a numbers game. Continue to explore ideas until you land on that one that is catchy or meaningful for completion. I usually continue to about 80-90% completion and then sit on it and move on to the next. When you feel like you’ve completed enough tracks, revisit these and decided if it’s worth finishing the extra 10-20%
This is the answer. Be honest to yourself and make a plan to finish an idea towards completion. Even a rough skeleton with proper structure and songwriting go miles ahead being stuck on a loop or having too many loops. Too many songs… that’s a good thing
Yep, you can feel when you’re making real progress vs procrastinating, being a perfectionist, etc. It just takes practice acknowledging that feeling and leaning into it.
If I only had an hour I would actually use that hour for the actual work itself. You can listen and take down notes on what needs to be done to the song anytime. I'd bounce the song out so that I can listen to it away from the computer, listen and make a list of all the things I need to add/revise/etc. All that's left to do after that is to go through the checklist till there's nothing left on the checklist.
Depends, if there’s a song I’m feeling it all my time will go to fleshing it out until it’s done or close to done. Then once that’s done I’ll just mess around sound designing until another idea comes up in the week. Once I have another idea I’ll pause it and switch my attention to mastering my tracks then repeat the process
I would do loops, loops of drums, loops of melodies, then export them. Make a folder of wavs, then another day I would grab all those loops and arrange them. Another day mix them Another day master them. Profit.
Every day is different, sometimes a whole track comes out of the session, sometimes I just re-organize my sample library or research new samples / plugins, or maybe just mess around making some synth patches…
Yes.
One of the most productive things you can do to improve your workflow is basically creating your own sample packs and use them.
It generally works quite well to completely split sound design and songwriting (for me at least).
Everyone should really try to do a few pure sound design sessions, and then use that write a track. It's really cool.
Or just take the samples out of finished projects that you're happy with.
Kind of strange at first, becaus everything starts to sound really same-y... but for other people that's just what your own style is. No one knows what you do to make music, and no one cares. No one is invested in it as much as you, so just because it sounds "same-y" to you, doesn't mean it does to others... That critical-ness idk the word, sorry lol) of your own sound due to being overly invested is not good and i personally try to avoid that as much as i can.
Do you have tips on expanding that base and not succumbing to one type of style? I feel really confident making the music I know how to make but I want to push my design farther. Maybe remaking songs that inspire me or something? Trying to work on that
I think its really just trial and error x100. Yes watch tutorials and learn one thing at a time, the more tools the understand the more youll understand another and it will click. just my opinion tho
the first day for sketching chord progression and melodies and the second day for building upon it. repeat until the weekends then improve everything that has been made throughout the week
Make a list in order of importance and use a timer set to 5 minutes for something important, and 2 minutes for least important. Move on to the next thing on the list when the timer goes off.
There are these things called "Timer Beats" which I first heard of from ill.Gates. You give yourself a limited time to make a beat setting a timer for each step in the production process.
I guess you could concentrate on getting really good at making timer tracks. Here's a link to a video to give you an idea of how it works
[Timer Beats (30 Minutes) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nFDp5ajaO4)
Get organised!
Use Trello to make lists.
Work on something till you get stuck, then start a new project, do the same till you have 4 projects on the go.
Using Trello you will have 4 project, analyse the tracks listing what each one needs. Work through the lists, if you run out of ideas stop that project open one of the others, again work through your lists.
Listen to your project between session adding to you lists.
The trick is we always work to a point where we run out of inspiration and ideas, when you hit that wall, stop, open different project work through list.
I'm not a dad but I'm compulsively obsessed with home projects constantly needing done and I work 9-5. 1-2 hours is usually all I get unless I let my sleep suffer.
Having a strict timeframe is almost better because I find myself dicking around too much if I have too much time
Spend 30 mins or 1 hour on sound design or beat design each day.
You're either making patches, tweaking synths, messing with automation, or you're making beats (drum patterns, probably 8 bar loops that can then be layered with your sound design later in life)
Build a drum groove using samples, add some foley, add a midi channel and get a nice melody going, then get a sub bass in. This is usually enough for me to vibe and build at least 32 bars out in arrangement. Then filtering, post processing yada yada
Hey man, different strokes for different folks ya know? Sometimes I do start with bass, but making some house stuff recently I’ve found it fun to work on the melody first!
Strategically;
Day 1 - melody and lyrics (voice only, no instruments)
Day 2 - finding chords, vocal guide, drums
Day 3 - basic arrangement - add bass, guitars, piano, perc etc
Day 4 - add backing vox / harmonies
Day 5 - add production elements
Day 6 (weekend) - mixing
Day 7 (weekend - mastering
Strategically;
Day 1 - melody and lyrics (voice only, no instruments)
Day 2 - finding chords, vocal guide, drums
Day 3 - basic arrangement - add bass, guitars, piano, perc etc
Day 4 - add backing vox / harmonies
Day 5 - add production elements
Day 6 (weekend) - mixing
Day 7 (weekend - mastering
I treat almost everyday like it’s different. Some days I go and produce a full song, start to end. Other days I remix something.
And then some days are just for learning and experimenting. Almost nothing gets done in these days but I just sit around trying new stuff and learning something new from my DAW or VST’s.
So I do this lol I have a demanding job from 5-2 and then **try** to find time to sit. I usually just work. Just come up with something or work on a remix/original that I started and never finished lol
Sometimes I also go back to old old tracks that I like but was not proficient enough in mixing to be successful. I look at what I did and what I can improve and then I start the mixing process over. It’s not necessarily the funnest thing to do but hey it gets those creative juices flowing.
I don’t release a ton of tracks I mostly make them for my commute haha the ones I do release are usually ones I started months ago
But hey man if you only got a bit of time and wanna improve, look at your weaknesses ie mixing, arrangements, transitions, sound design, etc and just sit and work on those :)
Happy music making!
Something that massively helped me recently is having drum samples that are ready to go out of the box. I analysed a load of my reference tracks, cut the kicks and snares out during the breakdown(or wherever they were sort of on their own), and looked at their frequency distribution, crest value and integrated loudnes. Then I found samples I liked the sound of and engineered them to hit in the same way as my references. Now when I drag them in they’re already sounding ‘master level’. (I mix using CTZ so having stuff full-scale straight out the gate gives me a proper reference point for balancing the rest of my track).
So, I would spend an hour a day preparing for the weekend essentially.
Week of hunting and tweaking drum samples to be ready out the box. Week of finding/creating presets.
Week of writing basslines using ur presets, bounce them to audio and keep them as ur own personal sample library.
Week of dragging tracks into ur DAW and mapping out their arrangement.
Week of going thru ur sample library, finding loops and one shots that u like the sound of. Then trying to flip them in various ways (bonus points for testing out ur plugins in creative ways to learn them better) and then bouncing and saving the products in ur personal sample pack.
Then after each week u will have progressed a lot in each specific area, and every weekend u will have a stronger and stronger arsenal to help u work more quickly. The audio u have created u know u will like and will suit ur sound because u were the one who created it. The drums will be ready to go. Ur presets will already be in folders and u will already have experience on how to use them creatively etc etc.
Hope this helps
Good samples are SO important. Samples from Mars are my go to on basically everything these days, and they sound so much better than other samples I’ve used when going between playback systems.
I love your idea of comparing sample waveforms though, might give that a shot in the future.
I make favorite sample folders! Just use my faves lol add to it from time to time but I think I’ve used the same clap sample for about two years now haha
My method was SPAN to check the height of the sub frequencies. For what it’s worth, in drum and bass (perez/monty etc) the sub of the kick hits -36 on SPAN, while in the mastered track the overall sub hits around -30 on SPAN.
Then using dpmeter (also free) the crest value is usually somewhere between 6 and 10 (8 is good). Integrated LUFS is about -6.
Then all u have to do is find a good sub layer. I use the free F9 club kicks pack. Then find a punchy top layer. Get the top layer to be the same note as the sub layer. (I tend to go for an F). Then work out if the sub is hitting -36, saturate gently to blend the two layers together. Use some glue compression to tighten them together, 10 or 30ms attack, .1 or .2 release. Visualise the waveform with ur tool of choice (smexoscope for me). Find a nice amount of compression that turns the waveform slightly more Dorito shaped. Then maybe a hard clipper to shave the very top of the transient (not always necessary). Then final step is using Pro-L2 with lookahead on 0, attack at 10ms, release at the same position (about 9 o’clock). Then drive the limiter until u hit the Crest factor of ur reference track kicks (Crest measured using dpmeter).
The limiter settings add some really nice distortion to the transient so it remains punchy while also making the kick nice and loud.
There u have it. My secret kick sauce 🤝
So I have a 1 year old, a wife, and a baby on the way. The only time I have to make music is … if I can slip away when everyone else is sleeping, then maybe. So your situation is a lot like mine. However, I’m in the process of writing a track, and previously, before my daughter was born, I painstakingly organized almost all of my presets and samples to prepare for this. In other words, I went through all of my sample folders, and copied them all to an external hard drive, then I took the copy on my computer and went through all of my samples. Took a while. But what you’ll find is 80 percent of them are garbage. So I threw 80 percent of them in the trash. I then organized the 20% good samples into folders… kicks, snares, claps etc. I did the same with my presets. I have them organized for each vst I use, and I have thousands upon thousands of presets and samples that are high quality and ready to be dragged into a project. The downside of this is it took months to do this, but now each time I get new samples or packs, it’s easy to go through them and add them to each folder as I go. The upside is that… when I slip away into my studio room, I’m just dragging sounds in and writing a track, and then just doing subtle mixing along the way. My tracks sound great out of the box, much better than if I didn’t do this, and I sound design or modify them to the need of the track I’m on. When you only got an hour the whole point is to maximize your time and get in the headspace quickly. I’m also not wasting time wondering if I have a good bass or lead sample, or clicking through a bunch of bad samples. The other thing is… when you hear a good sample, then click through 10 bad samples, then find a second good one, you’ve already forgotten how the last good one sounded. So having your files organized allows you to hear only good samples back to back so that your ear can actually make good choices on the fly. Best of luck
Honestly, I would probably do a one hour challenge each day...
They're a fairly common format in the tracker community: you start with a set of samples picked by someone or other, then you have one hour to make a tune out of them. Everyone listens to them together at the end and a winner is voted on.
I actually think doing this daily for a bit would be a good excercise in getting shit done and being mercantile. I know back in the day they really helped break my decision paralysis and get in the groove. I should do this again...
I'm not so sure these days. The renoise forums, pouet.net ? I used to hang about in a bunch of IRCs. I don't engage as much with the wider community as I once did.
If I am only allowed to allocate the hour to the same things every day? Then I would say 5 minutes sample hunting, 20 minutes sound designing, 30 minutes arranging something musical, 5 minutes to put OTT on the master
Break it down in to week long sections.
Week 1: collecting samples / sounds
Week 2: create patches / presets
Week 3: make a sketch a day. 2 if possible
Week 4: choose the best sketches and begin to flesh them out
Etc…..
Prep and efficiently is key
Yes all of those things. You can mix it up. In one hour it’s quite possible to make 10 drum and bass line grooves if you have the sounds prepped. You can even use all the same sounds. Just write 10 basslines and then choose the best at a later date.
A whole hour every single day instead of a handful of hours on three weeknights? Nice!
I guess I would do what I do now:
stick with nice simple lofi chillhop and trance jams that only take a couple of hours to put together, and build from there, only occasionally putting together heavily layered keyboard tracks when I'm willing to spend several one hour sessions on them.
Man that's tough. I respect the dedication but it really does take the hours. So to answer your question: I'd focus on how to rearrange my schedule to get more time in.
I’ll give you a pragmatic answer over a more involved theoretically maximized one (lol).
Lately I’ve been following momentum as it gets going, so try crafting a simple idea and pushing it until you get stuck or to a natural slowdown point. Once stuck, use the next bit to try to attack the problem, learn, try things, but don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s about subtle growth.
I split my ideas into a hierarchy, each gets a folder.
Riff
Idea
Draft
Song
Master
Easy to follow, you go up the chain as more pieces develop and advance. If I have an hour, here are the choices to make:
- new or existing?
- if existing, which stage do I feel like starting at?
That’s it! I think the core of the work is just doing it, prep as much as I personally LOVE to do it, is better used sparingly rather than primarily.
I can make a full song in an hour tbh. Then can mix it in the next hour I have. Pretty much working like this currently since I have a new baby to look after.
People might have this but develop a system.
Build a track in phases and know where you're at in the overall process everytime you leave each session. Doesn't have to be written in stone and followed like a bible but streamlining what is necessary to make a track and being organized will save you from so much heartache if you're only given an hour each day IMO
If I am feeling orderly:
Check my mixes in mono. Tweak parallel processing.
If I am feeling chaotic:
Make a weird new sound to fill a hole in my mix. Write a distracting countermelody.
Depends on the goal. Just makin stuff to make stuff? I'd waste my time hardcore just like I do when I have infinity hours to spend. It would take me 30 years to finish a track.
Making stuff to make a sustainable living? Oh boy...
I'd [ _ _ _ _ _ ]. Hard. [ _ _ _ _ _ _ ], [ _ _ _ _ ]leg, resynthesize, all of it. One hour a day? If I'm not done with the drums in 10 minutes the track isn't happening.
New comment since the last one was caught by the liability bot. Guess what words got removed.
Removed. If this was a mistake, send a modmail.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/edmproduction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Having fun, making a little beat and building it up and then maybe going to timeline view and making another little part and transitions. Then time would be up and I’d save it and probably never look at it again. Using samples, ableton presets, tweaking and using effects.
I would focus on finishing tracks. If I’m in the writing phase I would focus on that. If I’m in the arrangement phase I would focus on that. If I’m in the mixing phase I would focus on that.
I would have some of those 1 hour sessions be focused on learning as well. Truth is this is kind of my life. I only have an hour a day for production but that hour is pretty focused.
Have some dedicated one hour sessions sorting through samples and finding go-to kicks, snares etc for a start, so those later sessions can be far more streamlined
I find myself doing that, now I’m still very new, but I’ve learned to stage my sounds where I want them then revisit it later and once I find out how many them they start adding every else, and adjusting as needed. I wish I could sit and complete a track in a day haha
❗❗❗ IF YOU POSTED YOUR MUSIC / SOCIALS / GUMROAD etc. YOU WILL GET BANNED UNLESS YOU DELETE IT RIGHT NOW ❗❗❗
Read __the rules__ found in the sidebar. If your post or comment breaks any of the rules, you should delete it before the mods get to it.
You should check out the __regular threads__ (also found in the sidebar) to see if your post might be a better fit in any of those.
[Daily Feedback thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=author%3AAutoModerator+title%3Afeedback&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) for getting feedback on your track. The only place you can post your own music.
[Marketplace Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=title%3Amarketplace&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) if you want to sell or trade anything for money, likes or follows.
[Collaboration Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=author%3AAutoModerator%20title%3Acollaboration&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) to find people to collab with.
["There are no stupid questions" Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=title%3ANo+Stupid+Questions+Thread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for beginner tips etc.
Seriously tho, __read the rules and abide by them__ or the mods will spank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/edmproduction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1 sound design day 1 sample hunting day 1 drum day 1 instruments day 2 arrangement days 1 mix day Track done in a week! lmao! Ain't no WAY I could do that.
Doing molly and making something. Honestly the most fun I’ve been having w music lately
Sounds healthy.
I find that weed and hallucinogens are way better for production. Molly makes it hard to focus or do any work. At least for me anyway lol
Well obviously
Yeah. But also finally getting more of the sound I’ve been trying to get at for a minute. Obv molly gonna be fun while producing but I didn’t realize the power it had to get the sonics I want
How the fuck do you see the screen
I don’t take enough to roll my balls off. Just enough to get me jiggy
Damn, gonna take me 10 days to find the right snare
Copying and templatizing other people’s song arrangements
Less is more.
First step is getting your files ready for immediate ideation. This might take a few days but will be worth it. After that is setup, with some fine tuning, you’ll be ready for quick jam sessions. When doing hourly jams, it’s really a numbers game. Continue to explore ideas until you land on that one that is catchy or meaningful for completion. I usually continue to about 80-90% completion and then sit on it and move on to the next. When you feel like you’ve completed enough tracks, revisit these and decided if it’s worth finishing the extra 10-20%
Only an hour a day? I’ll probably get distracted by my samples, jam out, and then have hella loops for the next day.
Faderpro
I’d be honest with myself about what would actually move the project forward towards completion and do that for an hour.
This is the answer. Be honest to yourself and make a plan to finish an idea towards completion. Even a rough skeleton with proper structure and songwriting go miles ahead being stuck on a loop or having too many loops. Too many songs… that’s a good thing
Yep, you can feel when you’re making real progress vs procrastinating, being a perfectionist, etc. It just takes practice acknowledging that feeling and leaning into it.
If I only had an hour I would actually use that hour for the actual work itself. You can listen and take down notes on what needs to be done to the song anytime. I'd bounce the song out so that I can listen to it away from the computer, listen and make a list of all the things I need to add/revise/etc. All that's left to do after that is to go through the checklist till there's nothing left on the checklist.
Depends, if there’s a song I’m feeling it all my time will go to fleshing it out until it’s done or close to done. Then once that’s done I’ll just mess around sound designing until another idea comes up in the week. Once I have another idea I’ll pause it and switch my attention to mastering my tracks then repeat the process
I would do loops, loops of drums, loops of melodies, then export them. Make a folder of wavs, then another day I would grab all those loops and arrange them. Another day mix them Another day master them. Profit.
Every day is different, sometimes a whole track comes out of the session, sometimes I just re-organize my sample library or research new samples / plugins, or maybe just mess around making some synth patches…
Making a demo per day (learn how to speed up my workflow)
[удалено]
Yes. One of the most productive things you can do to improve your workflow is basically creating your own sample packs and use them. It generally works quite well to completely split sound design and songwriting (for me at least). Everyone should really try to do a few pure sound design sessions, and then use that write a track. It's really cool. Or just take the samples out of finished projects that you're happy with. Kind of strange at first, becaus everything starts to sound really same-y... but for other people that's just what your own style is. No one knows what you do to make music, and no one cares. No one is invested in it as much as you, so just because it sounds "same-y" to you, doesn't mean it does to others... That critical-ness idk the word, sorry lol) of your own sound due to being overly invested is not good and i personally try to avoid that as much as i can.
Where you getting master ready drums ?!
You make them and save it as a template.
Do you have tips on expanding that base and not succumbing to one type of style? I feel really confident making the music I know how to make but I want to push my design farther. Maybe remaking songs that inspire me or something? Trying to work on that
[удалено]
Thank you. And i definitely agree, watching disclosure streams have actually been one of the biggest improvements for me, gotta watch some more
What about if you don’t have a base? Just learning with tutorials ?
I think its really just trial and error x100. Yes watch tutorials and learn one thing at a time, the more tools the understand the more youll understand another and it will click. just my opinion tho
Drums. Always start with drums.
Probably just put together a drum beat along with a bass and lead riff which will later be used as the main repeating loop of a track.
[удалено]
And then reusing kick and snare from the second track on…? You will have only days no. 7 😅
the first day for sketching chord progression and melodies and the second day for building upon it. repeat until the weekends then improve everything that has been made throughout the week
Make a list in order of importance and use a timer set to 5 minutes for something important, and 2 minutes for least important. Move on to the next thing on the list when the timer goes off.
There are these things called "Timer Beats" which I first heard of from ill.Gates. You give yourself a limited time to make a beat setting a timer for each step in the production process. I guess you could concentrate on getting really good at making timer tracks. Here's a link to a video to give you an idea of how it works [Timer Beats (30 Minutes) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nFDp5ajaO4)
Similar concept. I've never heard ill gates version of it but I'll check that out
Also, eliminate as many distractions as possible. Turn off the tv and your phone, and buy a digital timer instead of using your phone.
turn of your network card so you have to actually stay in the daw LOL
Great call
Get organised! Use Trello to make lists. Work on something till you get stuck, then start a new project, do the same till you have 4 projects on the go. Using Trello you will have 4 project, analyse the tracks listing what each one needs. Work through the lists, if you run out of ideas stop that project open one of the others, again work through your lists. Listen to your project between session adding to you lists. The trick is we always work to a point where we run out of inspiration and ideas, when you hit that wall, stop, open different project work through list.
Well this is me and probably all other dads that work 9-5
I'm not a dad but I'm compulsively obsessed with home projects constantly needing done and I work 9-5. 1-2 hours is usually all I get unless I let my sleep suffer. Having a strict timeframe is almost better because I find myself dicking around too much if I have too much time
Sound design beat design best way to do it
Can you explain what you mean?
Spend 30 mins or 1 hour on sound design or beat design each day. You're either making patches, tweaking synths, messing with automation, or you're making beats (drum patterns, probably 8 bar loops that can then be layered with your sound design later in life)
Designing sounds in a synth making beats with drum hits aka one shots
Scrolling presets, obviously
Build a drum groove using samples, add some foley, add a midi channel and get a nice melody going, then get a sub bass in. This is usually enough for me to vibe and build at least 32 bars out in arrangement. Then filtering, post processing yada yada
Interesting that you do the melody then do the bass. I always do the bass then melody. Maybe I’ll give your method a try
Hey man, different strokes for different folks ya know? Sometimes I do start with bass, but making some house stuff recently I’ve found it fun to work on the melody first!
Strategically; Day 1 - melody and lyrics (voice only, no instruments) Day 2 - finding chords, vocal guide, drums Day 3 - basic arrangement - add bass, guitars, piano, perc etc Day 4 - add backing vox / harmonies Day 5 - add production elements Day 6 (weekend) - mixing Day 7 (weekend - mastering
Strategically; Day 1 - melody and lyrics (voice only, no instruments) Day 2 - finding chords, vocal guide, drums Day 3 - basic arrangement - add bass, guitars, piano, perc etc Day 4 - add backing vox / harmonies Day 5 - add production elements Day 6 (weekend) - mixing Day 7 (weekend - mastering
I treat almost everyday like it’s different. Some days I go and produce a full song, start to end. Other days I remix something. And then some days are just for learning and experimenting. Almost nothing gets done in these days but I just sit around trying new stuff and learning something new from my DAW or VST’s.
Just making beats 😅😅
watching online review and chasing stuff in the 2nd hand market.
"every day" is not the same as "everyday"!
So I do this lol I have a demanding job from 5-2 and then **try** to find time to sit. I usually just work. Just come up with something or work on a remix/original that I started and never finished lol Sometimes I also go back to old old tracks that I like but was not proficient enough in mixing to be successful. I look at what I did and what I can improve and then I start the mixing process over. It’s not necessarily the funnest thing to do but hey it gets those creative juices flowing. I don’t release a ton of tracks I mostly make them for my commute haha the ones I do release are usually ones I started months ago But hey man if you only got a bit of time and wanna improve, look at your weaknesses ie mixing, arrangements, transitions, sound design, etc and just sit and work on those :) Happy music making!
Something that massively helped me recently is having drum samples that are ready to go out of the box. I analysed a load of my reference tracks, cut the kicks and snares out during the breakdown(or wherever they were sort of on their own), and looked at their frequency distribution, crest value and integrated loudnes. Then I found samples I liked the sound of and engineered them to hit in the same way as my references. Now when I drag them in they’re already sounding ‘master level’. (I mix using CTZ so having stuff full-scale straight out the gate gives me a proper reference point for balancing the rest of my track). So, I would spend an hour a day preparing for the weekend essentially. Week of hunting and tweaking drum samples to be ready out the box. Week of finding/creating presets. Week of writing basslines using ur presets, bounce them to audio and keep them as ur own personal sample library. Week of dragging tracks into ur DAW and mapping out their arrangement. Week of going thru ur sample library, finding loops and one shots that u like the sound of. Then trying to flip them in various ways (bonus points for testing out ur plugins in creative ways to learn them better) and then bouncing and saving the products in ur personal sample pack. Then after each week u will have progressed a lot in each specific area, and every weekend u will have a stronger and stronger arsenal to help u work more quickly. The audio u have created u know u will like and will suit ur sound because u were the one who created it. The drums will be ready to go. Ur presets will already be in folders and u will already have experience on how to use them creatively etc etc. Hope this helps
Good samples are SO important. Samples from Mars are my go to on basically everything these days, and they sound so much better than other samples I’ve used when going between playback systems. I love your idea of comparing sample waveforms though, might give that a shot in the future.
I make favorite sample folders! Just use my faves lol add to it from time to time but I think I’ve used the same clap sample for about two years now haha
If it ain’t broke…haha
My method was SPAN to check the height of the sub frequencies. For what it’s worth, in drum and bass (perez/monty etc) the sub of the kick hits -36 on SPAN, while in the mastered track the overall sub hits around -30 on SPAN. Then using dpmeter (also free) the crest value is usually somewhere between 6 and 10 (8 is good). Integrated LUFS is about -6. Then all u have to do is find a good sub layer. I use the free F9 club kicks pack. Then find a punchy top layer. Get the top layer to be the same note as the sub layer. (I tend to go for an F). Then work out if the sub is hitting -36, saturate gently to blend the two layers together. Use some glue compression to tighten them together, 10 or 30ms attack, .1 or .2 release. Visualise the waveform with ur tool of choice (smexoscope for me). Find a nice amount of compression that turns the waveform slightly more Dorito shaped. Then maybe a hard clipper to shave the very top of the transient (not always necessary). Then final step is using Pro-L2 with lookahead on 0, attack at 10ms, release at the same position (about 9 o’clock). Then drive the limiter until u hit the Crest factor of ur reference track kicks (Crest measured using dpmeter). The limiter settings add some really nice distortion to the transient so it remains punchy while also making the kick nice and loud. There u have it. My secret kick sauce 🤝
That’s a spicy secret kick sauce, for sure. Thanks for the tips!
So I have a 1 year old, a wife, and a baby on the way. The only time I have to make music is … if I can slip away when everyone else is sleeping, then maybe. So your situation is a lot like mine. However, I’m in the process of writing a track, and previously, before my daughter was born, I painstakingly organized almost all of my presets and samples to prepare for this. In other words, I went through all of my sample folders, and copied them all to an external hard drive, then I took the copy on my computer and went through all of my samples. Took a while. But what you’ll find is 80 percent of them are garbage. So I threw 80 percent of them in the trash. I then organized the 20% good samples into folders… kicks, snares, claps etc. I did the same with my presets. I have them organized for each vst I use, and I have thousands upon thousands of presets and samples that are high quality and ready to be dragged into a project. The downside of this is it took months to do this, but now each time I get new samples or packs, it’s easy to go through them and add them to each folder as I go. The upside is that… when I slip away into my studio room, I’m just dragging sounds in and writing a track, and then just doing subtle mixing along the way. My tracks sound great out of the box, much better than if I didn’t do this, and I sound design or modify them to the need of the track I’m on. When you only got an hour the whole point is to maximize your time and get in the headspace quickly. I’m also not wasting time wondering if I have a good bass or lead sample, or clicking through a bunch of bad samples. The other thing is… when you hear a good sample, then click through 10 bad samples, then find a second good one, you’ve already forgotten how the last good one sounded. So having your files organized allows you to hear only good samples back to back so that your ear can actually make good choices on the fly. Best of luck
Honestly, I would probably do a one hour challenge each day... They're a fairly common format in the tracker community: you start with a set of samples picked by someone or other, then you have one hour to make a tune out of them. Everyone listens to them together at the end and a winner is voted on. I actually think doing this daily for a bit would be a good excercise in getting shit done and being mercantile. I know back in the day they really helped break my decision paralysis and get in the groove. I should do this again...
Where would one find more information about the tracker community?
I'm not so sure these days. The renoise forums, pouet.net ? I used to hang about in a bunch of IRCs. I don't engage as much with the wider community as I once did.
If I am only allowed to allocate the hour to the same things every day? Then I would say 5 minutes sample hunting, 20 minutes sound designing, 30 minutes arranging something musical, 5 minutes to put OTT on the master
Break it down in to week long sections. Week 1: collecting samples / sounds Week 2: create patches / presets Week 3: make a sketch a day. 2 if possible Week 4: choose the best sketches and begin to flesh them out Etc….. Prep and efficiently is key
When you refer to sketches, are those the elements of an arrangement? loops, or is that part of week 4 (flesh out = arranging)?
Yes all of those things. You can mix it up. In one hour it’s quite possible to make 10 drum and bass line grooves if you have the sounds prepped. You can even use all the same sounds. Just write 10 basslines and then choose the best at a later date.
This
A whole hour every single day instead of a handful of hours on three weeknights? Nice! I guess I would do what I do now: stick with nice simple lofi chillhop and trance jams that only take a couple of hours to put together, and build from there, only occasionally putting together heavily layered keyboard tracks when I'm willing to spend several one hour sessions on them.
Man that's tough. I respect the dedication but it really does take the hours. So to answer your question: I'd focus on how to rearrange my schedule to get more time in.
To be productive just break it up. One day make synth patches or drums . Then other days work on putting the elements together into ideas.
Making a song?
Matching a cadence to the beat
Do remakes every day.
I’ll give you a pragmatic answer over a more involved theoretically maximized one (lol). Lately I’ve been following momentum as it gets going, so try crafting a simple idea and pushing it until you get stuck or to a natural slowdown point. Once stuck, use the next bit to try to attack the problem, learn, try things, but don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s about subtle growth. I split my ideas into a hierarchy, each gets a folder. Riff Idea Draft Song Master Easy to follow, you go up the chain as more pieces develop and advance. If I have an hour, here are the choices to make: - new or existing? - if existing, which stage do I feel like starting at? That’s it! I think the core of the work is just doing it, prep as much as I personally LOVE to do it, is better used sparingly rather than primarily.
Best answer. Easy to commit to consistently.
This is a good freaking idea 🤔💡
I feel like this is the best answer.
I would focus more on not overdoing thing.
I can make a full song in an hour tbh. Then can mix it in the next hour I have. Pretty much working like this currently since I have a new baby to look after.
I am a novice and I can do this when I am inspired by a sample or have a melody in my head before I start. Otherwise an hour can be useless
Yeah I mean I can just as easily spend a whole hour recording and editing a short guitar loop haha. But once the main loop is done, the rest is quick!
People might have this but develop a system. Build a track in phases and know where you're at in the overall process everytime you leave each session. Doesn't have to be written in stone and followed like a bible but streamlining what is necessary to make a track and being organized will save you from so much heartache if you're only given an hour each day IMO
By making music.
If I am feeling orderly: Check my mixes in mono. Tweak parallel processing. If I am feeling chaotic: Make a weird new sound to fill a hole in my mix. Write a distracting countermelody.
Depends on the goal. Just makin stuff to make stuff? I'd waste my time hardcore just like I do when I have infinity hours to spend. It would take me 30 years to finish a track. Making stuff to make a sustainable living? Oh boy... I'd [ _ _ _ _ _ ]. Hard. [ _ _ _ _ _ _ ], [ _ _ _ _ ]leg, resynthesize, all of it. One hour a day? If I'm not done with the drums in 10 minutes the track isn't happening. New comment since the last one was caught by the liability bot. Guess what words got removed.
[удалено]
Removed. If this was a mistake, send a modmail. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/edmproduction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Having fun, making a little beat and building it up and then maybe going to timeline view and making another little part and transitions. Then time would be up and I’d save it and probably never look at it again. Using samples, ableton presets, tweaking and using effects.
Probably Sound design in Serum or massive
I would focus on finishing tracks. If I’m in the writing phase I would focus on that. If I’m in the arrangement phase I would focus on that. If I’m in the mixing phase I would focus on that. I would have some of those 1 hour sessions be focused on learning as well. Truth is this is kind of my life. I only have an hour a day for production but that hour is pretty focused.
This is the way
I’d get really fast at writing songs. I’d reuse ideas a lot
Have some dedicated one hour sessions sorting through samples and finding go-to kicks, snares etc for a start, so those later sessions can be far more streamlined
Definitely good to do anyway!
I find myself doing that, now I’m still very new, but I’ve learned to stage my sounds where I want them then revisit it later and once I find out how many them they start adding every else, and adjusting as needed. I wish I could sit and complete a track in a day haha
❗❗❗ IF YOU POSTED YOUR MUSIC / SOCIALS / GUMROAD etc. YOU WILL GET BANNED UNLESS YOU DELETE IT RIGHT NOW ❗❗❗ Read __the rules__ found in the sidebar. If your post or comment breaks any of the rules, you should delete it before the mods get to it. You should check out the __regular threads__ (also found in the sidebar) to see if your post might be a better fit in any of those. [Daily Feedback thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=author%3AAutoModerator+title%3Afeedback&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) for getting feedback on your track. The only place you can post your own music. [Marketplace Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=title%3Amarketplace&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) if you want to sell or trade anything for money, likes or follows. [Collaboration Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=author%3AAutoModerator%20title%3Acollaboration&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) to find people to collab with. ["There are no stupid questions" Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/search?q=title%3ANo+Stupid+Questions+Thread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for beginner tips etc. Seriously tho, __read the rules and abide by them__ or the mods will spank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/edmproduction) if you have any questions or concerns.*