making beats

Out of context: Reply #599

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  • microkorg0

    Fadein11,
    Have you tried using Ableton Live (or the new Bitwig)?
    Live has two views the Arrangement and Session views.
    Arrangement is like DAWs like Logic, Cubase etc - a multitrack linear timeline. This can be quite stale when it comes to inspiration and may lead to doing the same structure in songs over and over again.

    The Session view however allows you to split your song into "lego blocks" to bring in and out as you please and really 'jam' with your parts to create mixes and compilations of elements that you might not have used together in arrangement view.

    Using a mouse is still quite restrictive with Session view as you can only click one thing at a time.

    Get yourself an iPad and get the app Touch-Able or similar. It allows you to be able to trigger multiple clips at a time and also to control lots of effects/channel volumes etc at the same time.

    What I do is set up all my "lego blocks" of a song, use TouchAble and set up all the bits of the song i'd like to tweak live - these things might be effect sends for channels or the cutoff/res of a synth etc for build ups etc. Then I just sit down and literally record a jam for 15 mins, half an hour.

    I'll then save this as a wav which i'll listen on my ipod, in the car, at work, at home over and over to find the best parts of the jam then i'll go back into the ableton jam file (recorded as an arrangement view with all automation etc from touchable) and chop out the best bits and use them to structure a song.

    It's a good method to make sure that your songs dont all follow the "dj song rule" where it starts with a woosh, beat for a few bars then bassline kicks in and everything is a real predictable "dj friendly format".

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    • this makes total sense - ironically I avoided ableton and move to logic because i was used to its timeline / arrangement window - butfadein11
    • arrangement window and ableton demo i downloaded seemed like relearning a lot. this may be the problem - need a new way of arrangingfadein11
    • a new way of arranging. automation always seems painful as well,,,fadein11
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