01-04-2017, 12:01 AM
I'm curious what kind of composition workflows other people practice. I know this is a really general question, but I really mean the start-to-finish mechanics of coming up with musical ideas, capturing them in some kind of draft, recording, and producing a finished audio file.
For example, lately my habit is to start by playing the piano without a DAW open, only pencil and blank music notation paper available. I'll explore chord progressions and melodies, and if something strikes me as interesting, I'll write just enough of it on paper that I can remember it later. I usually don't even start using a DAW until I have a number of ideas written down that fit together in some way, because historically I've found that if I open up the DAW first, I end up looking at a blank project on the screen for some amount of time before I admit that it killed my creativity.
I traditionally have done step-entry in a midi sequences, but I'm trying to practice live recording more. This morning I was considering that it might be a good experiment to force myself to live-record EVERYTHING, even harmonic parts consisting of simple whole notes. It could certainly be more spontaneous, and the idea kind of terrifies me, but that's probably an indication that it's a good idea.
Something that I'd like to try is writing a harmonic part, then having the DAW loop over the harmony multiple times while recording improvised melody, and then keeping recorded phrases that I like.
How much do people quantize parts after recording them? Do you find that some styles of play are better left not quantized? Sometimes I'll play a flowing piano melody with parts that subtly slow down and speed up for expression, but I haven't ever tried capturing anything like this in a DAW; I have this irrational idea that I would have to some how line up the DAW's concept of tempo with the flowing tempo that I played on the piano... surely there is an elegant way to capture such melodies with flowing tempos, and admittedly it probably doesn't require the DAW to know about such things.
I've found it easier to keep the momentum going if I don't endlessly go back and edit existing material. If I listen to something too many times, it gets boring and I quickly lose interest in the project. With that said, I understand that finishing music requires several iterations, so I'm wondering how other people push through that? Do you have several projects that you work on at one time, so that you can switch context after listening and editing the same thing too many times? Or do you find some way to discipline yourself and finish one thing before starting the next?
For example, lately my habit is to start by playing the piano without a DAW open, only pencil and blank music notation paper available. I'll explore chord progressions and melodies, and if something strikes me as interesting, I'll write just enough of it on paper that I can remember it later. I usually don't even start using a DAW until I have a number of ideas written down that fit together in some way, because historically I've found that if I open up the DAW first, I end up looking at a blank project on the screen for some amount of time before I admit that it killed my creativity.
I traditionally have done step-entry in a midi sequences, but I'm trying to practice live recording more. This morning I was considering that it might be a good experiment to force myself to live-record EVERYTHING, even harmonic parts consisting of simple whole notes. It could certainly be more spontaneous, and the idea kind of terrifies me, but that's probably an indication that it's a good idea.
Something that I'd like to try is writing a harmonic part, then having the DAW loop over the harmony multiple times while recording improvised melody, and then keeping recorded phrases that I like.
How much do people quantize parts after recording them? Do you find that some styles of play are better left not quantized? Sometimes I'll play a flowing piano melody with parts that subtly slow down and speed up for expression, but I haven't ever tried capturing anything like this in a DAW; I have this irrational idea that I would have to some how line up the DAW's concept of tempo with the flowing tempo that I played on the piano... surely there is an elegant way to capture such melodies with flowing tempos, and admittedly it probably doesn't require the DAW to know about such things.
I've found it easier to keep the momentum going if I don't endlessly go back and edit existing material. If I listen to something too many times, it gets boring and I quickly lose interest in the project. With that said, I understand that finishing music requires several iterations, so I'm wondering how other people push through that? Do you have several projects that you work on at one time, so that you can switch context after listening and editing the same thing too many times? Or do you find some way to discipline yourself and finish one thing before starting the next?