Sup Allen ! You just built a studio? I wanna see !

I made a song for the remix contest that cymatics is hosting called "Signal" have a listen ill post the link aswell to the contest

https://cymatics.fm/remix/cymatics-signal-red-x-remix/


https://cymatics.fm/contest/signal-remix-contest/

pretty nice work, deserves better mastering tho

thanks my mixing skills i say are getting better after I started to finish tracks ive been able to focus on the mix

Thanks for the post! Those are all good ideas. To riff on your idea of a bigger screen, I think all laptop producers should invest in a monitor that they can use so that they aren't always staring down at their laptop. Craning your neck down like that for hours on hours is gonna lead to a lot of pain and potentially injury. You wanna make your production environment as healthy as possible so you can make as much music as possible.

The single biggest creative boost I've gotten has been turning my phone's airplane mode on before going to bed, and turning off the wi-fi on my laptop. It eliminates distractions, and since I forbid myself from turning them back on until I finish my responsibilities for the day, I always put making music at the top of my daily agenda. My mind is only aware of the work I have to do, rather than the millions of things competing for my attention span when i'm "plugged in".

I supplement that by creating something new every single day via a method called Pretotyping (a totally made up word). My Ableton instructor introduced me to the concept - you create the skeleton of an idea in a short amount of time, investing a minimal amount of energy. If a Prototype is a proof of concept, a Pretotype is a proof of a proof of concept, as confusing as that sounds. Applied to music, you could say a Prototype is a demo of a finished song and a Pretotype is a skeleton arrangement.

If you're working on a typical EDM or Pop song, you could say a skeleton of a completed song could be demonstrated in a 4x4 format: A Chorus, a Verse, a Break, and a Bridge; all containing Drums, Harmony, Bass, and Melody. Depending upon your genre this can be modified and tweaked (chorus for Drop, etc) but for getting out a musical idea quick and easy it's perfect. The idea could totally be applied to other DAWs, but it can be particularly effective in Ableton thanks to the Session View.

I've attached an ableton template file that should go in your Ableton->User Library->Templates folder that shows how the Pretotyping works in Ableton. You have a simple drum rack, an Analog for chords, an Operator for bass, and Electric for a lead melody. There's a basic reverb and delay on two return tracks, and you have scenes for each of the sections, as well as one to stop all your clips. I've also included an audio track for reference tracks, so you can use one as a guide if you're feeling lost. You just start filling out the sections, copying and editing as needed, until you've filled in all four sections in all four tracks. You don't need to even think about the arrangement view.

If you're in another DAW, the same principle applies - sketch out a basic skeletal structure for your song, without paying attention to arranging them or working on the fine details. Don't worry about mixing or processing or specific automation - you just want to be able to get the fundamental idea across when you play it back, and you want to be able to just bang it out as fast as possible. Ideally, you can complete the whole thing within 30 minutes.

Do this every single morning, and at the end of the month look over all the pretotypes you've designed. Some aren't gonna be worth continuing, and that's a good thing - you didn't waste any extra time on them, but you still got the experience of working on it. Just look for the things that are worthwhile inside of those projects and save them for later - like for another pretotype where you can just pull a drum loop or a chord progression that you never did anything with and give it a new life, or to help finish another song that you've put a lot more time into. All the ones you have left should be pretty good ideas, and you can just arrange them out, start making things unique, adding more fills and putting in all the bells and whistles - again, with no time wasted.

Be my friend!
I kind of know what you have to do but don't do it ;lakjd;flkjad;fjkl I'm going to try out the airplane mode plus no internet I get distracted so easily

one of my goals is improving at music production! so if you have any tips or methods pls share!

My goal right now is to finish 2 tracks every saturday

but without focus I don't improve as fast as I would like

so I guess my goal this year is to get focused, disciplined.

how can i get the sound of this metallic lead bass on sylenth1

https://youtu.be/if2nORcI6ac?t=44s

Both fills that say this is my house sounded kinda low in the mix the second one you can hear the snare more and at 1:00 idk what's going on with that fill idk if thats a big deal

I also wasn't feeling the detuned layers at like 1:10 but that might just be me

I love the song tho you need to definitely keep it up

The first drop, I honestly had no idea it was a drop until if finished, it sounded like that was supposed to be the buildup to something better that never came, and the second drop kind of repeats with a leads that establishes that it is indeed the drop.

yea i should've had a build up for the drop it did drop kind of random