Work Method – What’s Yours?

[johnnyboy]

This is mine:

During breakfast, I form a concept for my day’s work. Often just a style & title, i.e., lounge piano with a title “Romance Café”). After breakfast, I sit at the piano trying different melodies, rhythms, and chords. When I connect to something new, that is appealing to me, I start composing. My primary objective at this time is to accomplish the first 8 measures. Once I’m satisfied with the first 8, the rest is basically developing the theme into a complete track.

Then it’s time for a break… After which, I fire-up my Logic Pro, Mac workstation and Yamaha ES8. Time to lay tracks. After being fairly satisfied with my takes, I let it rest until after supper.

After supper it’s mixing & editing time. Often this lasts longer than the actual recording time. So many considerations. When I’m satisfied at this point, I send an mp3 file out to my PC, for further listening the next day. Usually there’s at least one minor change at this time. Then I place this in a folder for one of my publishers.

The day I submit this track, I listen again, just to make sure it’s exactly what I wanted to accomplish. Usually make a change or two at this time. Then I submit it! And the process starts over again. I usually finish five tracks a week.

So, what’s your method?

Best, John

[Art Munson]

Mine has evolved over the years. My mornings are taken up with admin work on our catalog, MLR and various other chores. I’ve never been a fast writer and don’t like writing to deadlines so I start in the afternoon and write for about four hours.

I start 10 different cues and each day work on a different one. I find that when I come back around to each cue, in the loop of 10, I’m more inspired. With this approach I’m happier with the final result.

[johnnyboy]

Wow, 10 cues! I do one at a time, and can’t leave it till it’s finished. I like working with a deadline (though I don’t get a lot of that work), it pushes me to different places that I wouldn’t have gone if I had more time. Makes an interesting change in my schedule. Thanks for sharing your process Art.

Best, John

[cyberk91]

Great Question johnnyboy!…10 to 15 at a time……. gives my ears a chance to cool on the track.I get more inspiration when I walk away for a bit. if i can’t get it to work the way I want it to in a reasonable time or the compositions is just not happening… it gets deleted usually that only happens in the beginning phase…to many other melodies to pick from in the universe…but that’s just me ..I rotate like that and I have a hopper method I run it through Isotope and EXPOSE until I have that feeling you get when enough is enough and the track is good to go…..like Art I’m not fast so I don’t do deadlines….. my tracks are a representation of me and my work and I want people to feel an emotion from them and libraries to accept them so I take my time…I tend to do admin, check out plugins, tweak my templates, read MLR do any software upgrades in the morn and work on my tracks later in late afternoon into the evening along with a ice cold shot of good bourbon …..lol

[johnnyboy]

Interesting model Cyberk! !0-15 tracks… I’d lose track (no pun) of what I’m doing. On track at a time is all I can handle. Must be an old man’s thing – ha, ha.

Best, John

[Art Munson]

On track at a time is all I can handle. Must be an old man’s thing – ha, ha.

Nah, I’m with cyberk91 and I’ll venture to say I’m older than everyone here!

[johnnyboy]

Maybe Art… I’m 71 years young.

[BrianMcGravey]

I usually lay the foundation of a couple tracks per day, do rough mixes of them that same night, then over 1-2 more days gradually add instruments/tweak the mix until it feels right. I always prefer to do the “creative” stuff, aka writing, early in the day (while the creative juices are still fresh) and do the more technical stuff at night (mixing/midi editing etc). On a good week I finish 7-10 tracks.

[Art Munson]

Maybe Art… I’m 71 years young.

Still a kid to me johnnyboy. But, hey, we are still doin’ it!

[LAwriter]

If I’m working to a brief, I do one song at a time. And I TRY to write, mix, edit one to two a day.

If I’m working on a project for my production company, I’ll do fast sketches of 10+ ideas a day, get 20-30 ideas and flesh them out and then go into production on 20-30 songs. Production can take anywhere from one day to 6 months for a song. Depends on what musicians / vocalists I need, their availability, the overall size of a project, and money…. 🙂

Over the last couple of years – between the never ending briefs for shows I write for – I was working mostly on 5 different projects of 20-30 songs apiece – varying styles for each project. I finished all of them before I started mixing. Close to 150 songs. I’m NEVER doing that again. Ever. I’ve only got 35 more songs to mix and edit. And I can’t wait to be done!!

[cyberk91]

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

62 here ya all made my day

[Vlad]

I dig that quote. ^^^^

For me, it’s usually 2 tracks at a time. Specifically when I have started a mix for one track in the morning with fresh ears, I use the second half of the day to start or continue writing a second track. I will do that for a few days and try to get ‘fresh ears’ on the first mix a few days in a row. I might even give that first mix a day off, just to gain perspective. By the time the first track is done being mixed, the second is written and ready for mixing. Then the process starts all over again.

I’ve heard someone call mixing the ‘bronze medal’ in library writing, and totally don’t agree with that at all. The mix is likely to be the last moment you are going to spend with that track, so it had better be amazing.

Just my 2c

[johnnyboy]

Really interesting posts guys! It may be a good idea to alter the routine. Could have some interesting results. Some of my writer friends prefer to start with the chorus, and fill in the verses later. That’s an idea for songwriting, not sure about instrumentals. I always start in the beginning. Compose an interesting 8 measures, then a variation of the first 8, then part B, and back to the first 8 with variations, and end with a button coda.

[boinkeee2000]

hey johnnyboy, my main inst is guitar so maybe its a bit different from piano sketchingwise. how i start depends on the genre. if rock, metal, blues, or any gtr focused track i start with the main riff and build around that. for EDM i start with sound design as that will dictate my approach to the texture and melody of the track, with hiphop i start with the groove. with flamenco, jazz, or neoclassical piano pieces i approach it as a songwriter with an ABA format.

I have tried to muscle through finishing a track in a day but couldnt do it (unless its ambient drone or tension). not that i literally couldnt as ive done 3 in a day before, i just cant leave it alone the next day, especially if i have a few days left before deadline. nowadays if i hit a wall i just take a break and do something non music related and not force it. an hour or 2 is usually enough for me. im also comfortable now to take weeks off and come back and still hit my monthly quota (10-12/mnth)

[Dreamuse]

This has been a great discussion! I’ve been more of the one-track (at a time) mind, but have been thinking lately that I need to mix things up, as I’ve noticed the following arc: The initial ideas have usually been fairly easy, but the implementation–especially on larger productions–has almost always been laborious. Still, I soldier through, and by the time I’m mixing, I’m back to liking the concept again. I’ve been too compulsive to let things go, and thus it’s often been a wrestle-to-the-death thing, which hasn’t always felt great. I’ve spent the vast majority of my time scoring to picture, and never had quite this battle. Sounds like stepping away has worked well for others here, so great.

I’ve been usually included on projects that require the bigger sounding productions, and I’ve found the tracks are taking about a week each.

I’m wondering 2 things at this point: Have folks who’ve done both long-and shorter-gestated tracks, have you found in general that you can say the tracks that have taken longer to create have done better than the (most likely) simpler tracks you can crank out in a day? Also, for the guys who are cranking out a track a day, how complex are they? My larger tracks have a lot of layers, but mainly to make them sound rich, as opposed to necessarily complex. I’m not sure, though, that under all the VO, it’s worth the time, other than my pride.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Len

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