Hey All,
A couple weeks ago I was riding what seemed like a creative peak. Making beats every night, sampling in unique ways and using a variety of my musical skills, techniques, and resources to make music that was fun for me. This was quickly followed by a couple weeks of next to no inspiration. After chatting with a couple musician friends and spending lots of time on this and several other forums in an attempt to get back into that inspired creative mode - I've come across, and curated, a few tips that have helped in the past. Hopefully, it helps somebody here who may be stuck in the musical equivalent of a rut.
Make Kits/Templates:
Instead of focusing on making a song - zero in, a try to put together a kit. Main things I focus on are:
Riff-Tape/Custom Loops:
This is a concept I borrowed from metal bands, particularly Metallica. Just having a repository of melodic ideas in one place. In some cases, this is quite simply a folder or a single project of guitar riffs. In other cases, it's a sound from a pre-made 'palette' with short-simple melodies. By no means are they fleshed out ideas, but merely a collection of "riffs."
In terms of beats/electronic music - it's really handy to export the MIDI of these ideas and add them to your libraries (more on that later). The key here is to get ideas out a quickly as possible. Additionally, don't prescribe any desired objectives or goals. Sometimes, I'll just make drum loops and Percussion toppers - squeeze out 4-5 similar ideas, maybe throw on a slow moving filter - export and add them to my loop library. Again, when coupled with a Pre-Made Kit and Pre-made mix template, you can get close to near finished loops that you can in turn use for later productions. You can also RE-USE loops! Audition them in songs you're working on, or save yourself 5-10 minutes by having a groove ready to load into a project while you flesh out chord progressions/melodies and vice versa.
Organize Library:
As alluded to in "Riff Tape." Organizing your library not only scratches the OCD itch, but can save you time, headache, and ultimately preserve the song writing spark. I won't go into my preferred organizational methods or naming conventions, but having your samples/loops organized, tagged, and easily accessible pays dividends in the song writing process. Yes you can have a "Kick" folder, but if they're all named Kick001, 002, 003 etc. that's not doing you any favours! Don't be afraid to use character tags in your naming convention. Additionally, samples don't need to be organized by sound type. Put samples together in folders similar to the way you'd build a kit. This can be handy when moving between different platforms, DAWs, and samplers too!
Similarly, if your DAW or software has built in library organization - ensure your custom samples are loaded in, tagged and favourited. This is something I slept on forever with Maschine and made for a lot of regret as I stacked up on expansions and VSTs over the years. I've also recently discovered the "My Loops" section of Apple Loops. I can not emphasize enough how useful it is to easily find what it is you're looking for. Be it stock or custom made.
On a macro scale, having your projects somewhat organized helps as well. I name all my project by Date and Genre (Jan 13 2024 - Grimey Boom Bap). I try to make a habit of once a month going back and listening to the previous months projects and loosely sorting them. "Dead," "Revisit," "Keep," "Album," "Future Project."
Listen:
This can a few different things. Whether you're actively listening, or passively, there is a deep sense of immersion that can later inform and influence your musical decisions. For me, I like to separate Active and Passive listening.
Feature Diving:
This is probably what I do the most when not in song-writing mode. I find it quite fun when using hardware but it can be equally satisfying with software. Usually a youtube tutorial of some-sort will start this process. Alternatively, I find i get into feature diving when I'm trying to solve a particular problem I'm facing. For example, I'm trying to build out a live "DJ" set in Maschine Plus. This calls for the use of Macros to control DJ-esque FX. I spent an entire night 1) learning how to create macros then 2) exploring the order in which to stack the FX 3) How to use the FX macros in a practical application. The process served to solve my problem and provided a sense of gratification by figuring it out. Indirectly, I'm now more fluent with the Maschine Plus.
The key is to zero in on a specific feature or function of your tool (Maschine, Logic, Roland Boutiques...) and through the act of play, figure out everything you can about it. When I was first put onto "sidechain compression" I had no idea how to actually use a compressor. By following a few simple steps from a YT tutorial, then turning every possible knob, I figured out how to get the sound I wanted. Can I articulately explain what a compressor does? Fuck no! Can I get a decent sidechain pump? Yup! It's also handy to think in terms of "Feature -> Benefit -> Application." The ability to do something is great, but what do you gain by using it? Ultimately - how and why would you use it??
Gear and modern DAWs can seem like impossible puzzles, but by chipping away one feature/application at a time you can quickly and confidently build the knowledge base and muscle memory. A lot of the fun with music production is the learning - this helps keeps things fun especially when you're in a creative rut.
Sound Design:
This has almost become a hobby of mine now. Load up a VST, switch on a hardware synth and just start tweaking knobs. Similar to Feature Diving, this is a great way to indulge the creative itch while taking the sometimes daunting stakes of music-making off the table. Pick a preset and tweak it. Use an Init patch and see where you end up. Without stakes, nothing is wrong. The absolute worst thing that happens is you turn the synth off lol. Best case scenario, you end up with a cool patch that you can then save, name, tag, and add to your aforementioned organized library.
You can also build some stakes into the process and aim to get a particular sound. Follow a tutorial, experiment with your base-line understanding of the synth to create the sound you're looking for. Again, the worst thing that can happen is you learn your synth/VST more intimately.
Revisit Old Gear:
This can be couple with "Sound Design" and "Feature Diving." As you start to collect gear, some pieces don't get used as often, and you have to periodically re-familiarize yourself with it. By doing so, you can also re-discover some cool sounds or features that you want to later apply/incorporate into latter productions.
Other times, it simply forces you to change the way you're approaching music making and be the "lightbulb" moment you needed to 1) finally finish that song or 2) Get back into a creative mode.
Sampling in Maschine and Logic is as easy as sampling has ever been - which can make it the most predictable and devoid of any joy as it's ever been. Conversely, Trying to sample the same thing on the MPC 1000, and it's archaic screen, means you're more deliberate. You're listening more intently. It's not a paint by numbers process with the safety rails of advance algorithms for stretching and perfectly even quantized chops. Hell, even simple things like the 12 bit grit and unique MPC swing can provide that creative spark.
Lastly, I can't understate how helpful forums/blogs/YouTube videos can be as well. I often times will stop a Ricky Tinez or Malo Beats video to go fire up the home studio and get to working on something. Forums are great too, because I find answering other questions, or contemplating the solution to other questions can spark inspiration. These are all tips/tricks I've used in the past. If one/any of them work for you I'd love to know. If none of them work - consider writing an incredibly long-winded, pretentious, and possibly condescending forum post lol.
Cheers,
A couple weeks ago I was riding what seemed like a creative peak. Making beats every night, sampling in unique ways and using a variety of my musical skills, techniques, and resources to make music that was fun for me. This was quickly followed by a couple weeks of next to no inspiration. After chatting with a couple musician friends and spending lots of time on this and several other forums in an attempt to get back into that inspired creative mode - I've come across, and curated, a few tips that have helped in the past. Hopefully, it helps somebody here who may be stuck in the musical equivalent of a rut.
Make Kits/Templates:
Instead of focusing on making a song - zero in, a try to put together a kit. Main things I focus on are:
- Sound cohesion
- Do all the elements fit together? Do they sound like they come from one drum-kit?
- Do they sound like they're in the same space? Reverbs, timbres, echoes match
- Mix. Not just levels, but also panning. Where does that cymbal or hi-hat sit in a room?
- Flow
- Moving away from drums/percs, it can be fun putting together "soundpacks."
- A group of like sounds/samples that flow together and can be used in concert towards making a full song
- If there's a patch or VST plug-in you like, maybe just sample several different chords (again, not with focus on writing a song, but just a variety of chords that you like and are in the same key. Helps to have them ready to go for when you are in the mood to work on a song)
- Moving away from drums/percs, it can be fun putting together "soundpacks."
- Chopping
- If there's a cool sample you've come across but not in the headspace to write, just go through and pull out small chops that are interesting. I find when mindlessly chopping a sample you can find cool bits that you wouldn't typically go for in song making mode.
- Having them pre-chopped in a program/group gives you a great launch point when you come back to make a tune
- Templates/Palettes
- This is great way to spend time in order to speed up the beat making process later on. Setting up MIDI channels and Audio routing for external gear.
- Pre-set drums bus, or FX/Send buses etc.
- Palettes - loading up VSTs and Instruments that fit together in a nice palette. Again coupled with a template for bussing/routing you can hit the ground running pretty quickly. Here's an example of what I mean by "palette" in terms of a jazz quintet:
- E-Piano
- Acoustic Drumkit (possibly one you created earlier?)
- Upright bass
- Horns
Riff-Tape/Custom Loops:
This is a concept I borrowed from metal bands, particularly Metallica. Just having a repository of melodic ideas in one place. In some cases, this is quite simply a folder or a single project of guitar riffs. In other cases, it's a sound from a pre-made 'palette' with short-simple melodies. By no means are they fleshed out ideas, but merely a collection of "riffs."
In terms of beats/electronic music - it's really handy to export the MIDI of these ideas and add them to your libraries (more on that later). The key here is to get ideas out a quickly as possible. Additionally, don't prescribe any desired objectives or goals. Sometimes, I'll just make drum loops and Percussion toppers - squeeze out 4-5 similar ideas, maybe throw on a slow moving filter - export and add them to my loop library. Again, when coupled with a Pre-Made Kit and Pre-made mix template, you can get close to near finished loops that you can in turn use for later productions. You can also RE-USE loops! Audition them in songs you're working on, or save yourself 5-10 minutes by having a groove ready to load into a project while you flesh out chord progressions/melodies and vice versa.
Organize Library:
As alluded to in "Riff Tape." Organizing your library not only scratches the OCD itch, but can save you time, headache, and ultimately preserve the song writing spark. I won't go into my preferred organizational methods or naming conventions, but having your samples/loops organized, tagged, and easily accessible pays dividends in the song writing process. Yes you can have a "Kick" folder, but if they're all named Kick001, 002, 003 etc. that's not doing you any favours! Don't be afraid to use character tags in your naming convention. Additionally, samples don't need to be organized by sound type. Put samples together in folders similar to the way you'd build a kit. This can be handy when moving between different platforms, DAWs, and samplers too!
Similarly, if your DAW or software has built in library organization - ensure your custom samples are loaded in, tagged and favourited. This is something I slept on forever with Maschine and made for a lot of regret as I stacked up on expansions and VSTs over the years. I've also recently discovered the "My Loops" section of Apple Loops. I can not emphasize enough how useful it is to easily find what it is you're looking for. Be it stock or custom made.
On a macro scale, having your projects somewhat organized helps as well. I name all my project by Date and Genre (Jan 13 2024 - Grimey Boom Bap). I try to make a habit of once a month going back and listening to the previous months projects and loosely sorting them. "Dead," "Revisit," "Keep," "Album," "Future Project."
Listen:
This can a few different things. Whether you're actively listening, or passively, there is a deep sense of immersion that can later inform and influence your musical decisions. For me, I like to separate Active and Passive listening.
- Active Listening
- Listening with intent and objective. This could be listening to the projects you've worked on in the past week or more and listening for mistakes, necessary revisions, mix, sound selection. Essentially, you're looking for something or looking to change something. It could mean you're listening for songs you're going to re-work, put on your EP, or just listening to find the spark or shell of an idea that you want to explore further. It can also mean listening for deletions. If it's shit, and you genuinely don't like it, fucking delete it! Several years ago I adopted a VERY minimalist lifestyle (across all aspects of my life) and trust me, I haven't lost or want for much. The same is true with music. Get rid of the shit!
- Genre specific listening can be both active and passive. The case for active is if you're objective is to become familiar with the genre to then do something with it . If you're working on a minimal house album, go listen to a bunch of minimal house. Soak it in and develop an intimate understanding of the genre, it's instrumentation, song structure and what-not.
- Passive Listening
- This for me is listening for enjoyment and is not coupled with an objective. Its Daft Punk while cleaning the house. Metallica when at the gym. Motown playlist while I go through my morning routine. Go for your tried and trues. Your favourites that match your mood in the moment.
- It's also discovery. I periodically will pull up a personal favourite, scroll down and click on "related artists." Put on your Top Songs playlist and just let it run. It'll play on the drive to work or in the background while I do other things. If something catches my ear. I'll favourite it, add it to a playlist. Explore playlists on your favourite streaming service.
- Vinyls - It's really hard for producers to genuinely listen to their vinyl. We're always treating them like Pokemon booster packs looking and hoping for some gems. Why not just actually listen to enjoy it? Read the liner notes. Look up the artist and learn a bit about their history. Not everything needs to have a purpose.
Feature Diving:
This is probably what I do the most when not in song-writing mode. I find it quite fun when using hardware but it can be equally satisfying with software. Usually a youtube tutorial of some-sort will start this process. Alternatively, I find i get into feature diving when I'm trying to solve a particular problem I'm facing. For example, I'm trying to build out a live "DJ" set in Maschine Plus. This calls for the use of Macros to control DJ-esque FX. I spent an entire night 1) learning how to create macros then 2) exploring the order in which to stack the FX 3) How to use the FX macros in a practical application. The process served to solve my problem and provided a sense of gratification by figuring it out. Indirectly, I'm now more fluent with the Maschine Plus.
The key is to zero in on a specific feature or function of your tool (Maschine, Logic, Roland Boutiques...) and through the act of play, figure out everything you can about it. When I was first put onto "sidechain compression" I had no idea how to actually use a compressor. By following a few simple steps from a YT tutorial, then turning every possible knob, I figured out how to get the sound I wanted. Can I articulately explain what a compressor does? Fuck no! Can I get a decent sidechain pump? Yup! It's also handy to think in terms of "Feature -> Benefit -> Application." The ability to do something is great, but what do you gain by using it? Ultimately - how and why would you use it??
Gear and modern DAWs can seem like impossible puzzles, but by chipping away one feature/application at a time you can quickly and confidently build the knowledge base and muscle memory. A lot of the fun with music production is the learning - this helps keeps things fun especially when you're in a creative rut.
Sound Design:
This has almost become a hobby of mine now. Load up a VST, switch on a hardware synth and just start tweaking knobs. Similar to Feature Diving, this is a great way to indulge the creative itch while taking the sometimes daunting stakes of music-making off the table. Pick a preset and tweak it. Use an Init patch and see where you end up. Without stakes, nothing is wrong. The absolute worst thing that happens is you turn the synth off lol. Best case scenario, you end up with a cool patch that you can then save, name, tag, and add to your aforementioned organized library.
You can also build some stakes into the process and aim to get a particular sound. Follow a tutorial, experiment with your base-line understanding of the synth to create the sound you're looking for. Again, the worst thing that can happen is you learn your synth/VST more intimately.
Revisit Old Gear:
This can be couple with "Sound Design" and "Feature Diving." As you start to collect gear, some pieces don't get used as often, and you have to periodically re-familiarize yourself with it. By doing so, you can also re-discover some cool sounds or features that you want to later apply/incorporate into latter productions.
Other times, it simply forces you to change the way you're approaching music making and be the "lightbulb" moment you needed to 1) finally finish that song or 2) Get back into a creative mode.
Sampling in Maschine and Logic is as easy as sampling has ever been - which can make it the most predictable and devoid of any joy as it's ever been. Conversely, Trying to sample the same thing on the MPC 1000, and it's archaic screen, means you're more deliberate. You're listening more intently. It's not a paint by numbers process with the safety rails of advance algorithms for stretching and perfectly even quantized chops. Hell, even simple things like the 12 bit grit and unique MPC swing can provide that creative spark.
Lastly, I can't understate how helpful forums/blogs/YouTube videos can be as well. I often times will stop a Ricky Tinez or Malo Beats video to go fire up the home studio and get to working on something. Forums are great too, because I find answering other questions, or contemplating the solution to other questions can spark inspiration. These are all tips/tricks I've used in the past. If one/any of them work for you I'd love to know. If none of them work - consider writing an incredibly long-winded, pretentious, and possibly condescending forum post lol.
Cheers,
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