I wonder how many people approach their musical projects with a clear idea in their heads of what the end result is going to be, and how many people - like me - start off with a tiny seed of an idea which is then thrashed around and twisted and warped and revised and ditched and reinvented many times over before finally resulting in a finished tune which is maybe 1% similar to how it started. 

Seriously, I cannot work any other way. Sometimes it worries me, but most of the time I love it. It's just so much fun.   

Take the tune I'm working on now. It started off as a kind of homage to 80's/90's video game music. Then because of a wild distorted synth guitar sound I came across, it changed course and took the form of an 80's action movie soundtrack with lots of feedback. It wasn't long before the mix became a little dense and problematic, and so I started cutting things out of it and mellowing it out. The overdriven synth lines became clean and staccato (think "Popcorn") with a nice rhythmic delay, and the somewhat muddy, sustained synth chords were put through a step sequencer linked to a volume pedal to give them a fast, staccato rhythm, and my recent acquisition of the 70's/80's Vintage expansion pack for Z3TA saw the bassline taking on shorter, squelchier notes instead of a sustained rock style bass. At this point it's sounding like some real retro early 80's electro-funk/vintage hip hop (think Grandmaster Flash). 

This is how I almost never finish tunes to my complete satisfaction. But who cares? I love it. No doubt by this time next week it will sound a lot different. To tell you the truth I'm a little envious of people who can plan and arrange music with a clear cut idea of what they're doing and knuckle down to it. I guess that's why I'm a hobbyist instead of a working muso 

I usually start with the kick and bass..   but I never have an idea of how, "a melody is going to come together."  However, even though the way I mix, is in a constant state of evolution, I do have:  A comp I use on my bass, and EQ I use on my hats, a reverb I like for my kick/clap..   I seem to do a lot of things, "the same way."  I never use, "the same settings, or presets," but I use, "the same lock and key," of plugins on certain sounds...  IMHO, this defines my productions..  I don't consider it a bad thing..  I hope that makes sense...

Cheers

Inspiration comes in many forms.  I wrote a tune once inspired just by the way my guitar made a particular sound in the delay of the AX212 amp I had at the time.
My last song, "Clouds On Fire" was inspired by the little 7-note piano phrase a doodled with one day.
Sometimes I start with lyrics...then a melody/chords....and build the rhythm around that.

So I sort of fit into your category of never quite sure where I'm going....  LOL.  But it sure is fun getting there!

I hear the tune in my head usually or at least the groove.... but like you said.... the end product is often not exactly the same thing that was in my head. Sometimes it even comes close. 

Although that is not a bad thing. I am normally fairly satisfied with the result. 


Maybe one reason is that what I hear, I don't have the chops needed to translate it accurately. 

 I wonder if folks like Steve Vai and Carlos Santana and Herbie Hancock have that same problem..... just on a different level? 

My best chops are PORK.

I write the hook first, I work from a template that's tweaked as close to perfection as I can get so I never have to break off from the creative process into messing with some preset or tweaking something to be "just right" and running out of juice before I get the important stuff down.

Then all I need to do is write the stuff that leads up to it and away from it, I have an anchor to build the rest from, but I know what the important part is going to be, and I don't need to compose blindly hoping everything is going to turn out good in the end, I keep it simple until the main song structure is down, then flesh it out.

If the main hook is not working the first day right of the bat, usually that means it's not strong enough and it frequently goes into the pile of "meh" that builds up somewhere on my HDs that I never delete but never use anyway, so I don't know why I keep it, sorta like my grandma that used to collect plastic containers that she never used but wouldn't throw out

sharke

many people - like me - start off with a tiny seed of an idea which is then thrashed around and twisted and warped and revised and ditched and reinvented many times over before finally resulting in a finished tune which is maybe 1% similar to how it started.

Maybe a bit more than 1%, but pretty much like that. I'm quite used to swopping melody lines around on different instruments and getting lead in different directions as a result. I like that though, it's like a little mystery story. 

I guess our technology has a lot to answer for. We can pretty much change our minds as often as we like these days, without having to worry about studio time or tape wearing out etc. 

My approach seems to be:

1)  Start with a beginning idea
2)  Search for a patch to use that idea on
3)  Find 1,428,239 other patches and play around with at least half of them
4)  Haven't gotten this far yet...

craigb


My approach seems to be:

1)  Start with a beginning idea
2)  Search for a patch to use that idea on
3)  Find 1,428,239 other patches and play around with at least half of them
4)  Haven't gotten this far yet...

Sometimes finding a patch is the best part of all. I'll sit for two hours going through 1000 patches, and writing a short list on paper, then whittling that short list down again, then seeing which of those sounds would sound even better with some parameter tweaking....such fun. I love the feeling when a new sound completely revolutionizes the whole track. 

And then of course you can play with the pitch of parts. Sometimes I'll be having trouble making a synth part sit in the mix with a sound that I otherwise love, but then I move the Key slider in the inspector up or down 12 semitones and hey presto, instant mix fix!