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Messages - Lost Coast

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Composition/Arrangement/Theory / Re: Empty Space
« on: March 03, 2016, 05:21:31 pm »
When I feel like a drop isn't hitting hard enough usually the first thing I do is add a bar of silence/end the build earlier so there's a bigger contrast.  Almost always helps.  Like Bryan said, contrast is key.

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I like to get something basic down before writing vocals, so I can have some idea of where the track is going and what kind of vocals will fit.  I generally let the vibe of the production dictate the vibe of the vocals, but you also don't want to overproduce the song to the point where you can't fit them in.  If you're going to to do that, you have to stay conscious of leaving sonic space and not writing melodies over every part of the song.

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It's probably catchy, you've probably worked on it too much, and it could be good but it definitely could be crap.

I have this happen to me all the time, I'll have the chorus to a song I've been working on playing on repeat in my head as I'm trying to sleep. Drives me insane.

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Inspiration/Creativity/Motivation / Re: Admit your bad habits
« on: February 12, 2016, 07:04:27 am »
- Adding effects to a channel, not being sure whether they really make it sound better, leaving them on anyway
- Wanting to keep things because I've put a lot of work into them, not because they make my track better
- Defaulting to 'add something' when I feel a track needs to be better

These are so real, I definitely struggle with these.  Learning to be honest with yourself about whether you like whatever you've just added to your track is incredibly difficult.  Coupled with a tendency to add stuff, things can get out of hand fast.

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Inspiration/Creativity/Motivation / Re: Finding a vocalist
« on: February 12, 2016, 06:52:08 am »
You could always try writing something on your Facebook asking if any singers are looking to collab. I managed to find some people this way recently, both friends I had who I didn't know sang and friends of friends who got tagged.

You should try doing some vocals yourself too!  Even if you don't think of yourself as a great singer or songwriter you can get it sounding pretty good by layering takes and lathering on the autotune.  I think producers often think of singing as this totally alien talent, but anyone can do it.

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Composition/Arrangement/Theory / Re: How do you define overproducing?
« on: February 09, 2016, 07:27:50 pm »
With music that is based on some kind of instrumental or vocal performance, it's quite simple. It's overproduced when the performance is not the main thing anymore.
But the same question is much more interesting in electronic music world. That reference point is gone, so everyone has to invent their own. What's yours? :) How do you find out that you're trying too much?

I'm actually not sure that it's so different in electronic music.  In vocal or instrumental music, that performance is the core of the song, and I think generally there's a similar "core" to any electronic production, be it the melody, the bass line, the groove, etc.  You're starting to overproduce in the same way when the things you add start to obfuscate the core of your song.  When there's so many details that your attention is dragged away from the core sound and it no longer stands out, you've done too much.

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Composition/Arrangement/Theory / Re: Production Process Thread
« on: February 09, 2016, 02:26:01 am »
its the baseline and melody that make the track, so these are the most important, you need a baseline and melody catchy enough that people want to listen to it over and over again..

This seems incredibly subjective, varying depending on your taste and what kind of music you're making.  This could totally be true for you and the type of music you're making, but I don't think it's going to apply to everyone.  In many cases the percussion and groove is actually far more important than the melody or the bass line, particularly in more underground genres like techno or tech house.  I tend to write music with vocals, so I'm usually starting with a chord progression and the vocal lines before introducing other melodies or the bass line. 

I like to start with whatever I'm going to think of as the "core" of the song.  If that's a vocal track, that's going to be the chorus.  Usually for those I start with a chord progression, and then write a vocal melody and words to that, and then build everything else around those.  If I'm making an instrumental track, I also tend to like to start with the chord progression I'm going to use on the drop, but from there I tend to move to percussion and from there to any melodies.  I like to try and build up a few parts from there, the chorus or the drop, and then a verse section, and start to try to build a rough outline of the structure of the song.  Once I have a structure I think flows well (Side note, I think this an incredibly important step that a lot of people overlook, designing a cohesive structure that makes sense is one of the most important things to making a song sound good) I work on more of the detail elements - drum fills, risers, fx, etc.  I tend to mix as I go along, which is maybe a bit unorthodox and/or lazy but it seems to work for me.

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