Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
Starting January 1st 2024 GMT each participant will have one week to upload one finished composition. Any style of music or selection of instruments are welcomed and encouraged.
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I thought it might be interesting for people to post their thoughts or interesting things they run into while they're working on something.
Today, I heard a little beat in my head, and just got it down in Ableton Live (Impulse instrument, because I can just get started on patterns without a lot of sound design work). Apparently I'm hearing a lot of 5/4 right now-it doesn't sound like 5/4 to me...but that's how it's plotting out in the timeline.
What do you have going on?
Today, I heard a little beat in my head,
This, I typically follow a process but it normally begins like that.
-Hear it in my head
-Express on double bass (fingering/bowing patterns)
-Analyze and understand the theory of it. (Trying to boost practical theory knowledge/application)
-Develop material by improvising, composition processes or just hearing the next part in my head.
-Work Ableton (reverb, minor EQ, tidy clips, arranging or repeating a loop though I try to keep it as organic as possible)
Yeah same, lately I've been getting an idea for what I want to do before I get a chance to put it into a pattern on a machine or software.
Usually once I've got it down it evolves quite heavily, especially with my current setup which caters pretty well to evolving structures. As a result, most of my recent tracks have been edited down from a longer session dedicated to building the patterns and the natural progress that comes from happy accidents. I'm hoping that through practice, I can get these sessions down to short enough durations to allow me to basically take my machines out to a gig and play a set with minimal pre-programmed material. Currently I'm averaging 40–60 minutes of raw material per track, so I've clearly got a long way to go before I can crank out decent tracks on the fly!
usually I just sit down at my computer and start messing around and eventually something evolves out of it. whether it's finding a good sample, developing a cool sounding synth patch, or just noodling around on the keyboard and finding a suitable melody or chord progression. then it's just a matter of building and building and building, then arranging, and then mixing.
i've been trying to use notation more (or really, at all). writing tab or score down instead of recording it. i used to do that with chord progressions, just writing down chord names, but i want to move towards a mix of lute tablature and staff notation.
My process is patch till i find something i feel like i can work with. See where it leads. If after an hour it feel like its boring or just plain sucks... I move on.
If i continue with it i try to make a few variations of the pattern including an attempt at an inverse version. Then i *try* to fill in tue gaps but that seems to be where im currently struggling. Well that and sometimes my variations arent varied enough to be discernible sometimes... So there's that too 
I typically start by coming up with a chord progression, either with a synth or a guitar, and then record that. Then I loop it ad nauseam until I come up with a vocal melody I like and some nonsense temporary lyrics that have a cool rhythm. It's worked for me, but writing chords first sometimes results in less than memorable (or very same-y) melodies, so this year I'm gonna try working on vocal melodies/lyrics first, and have the chords follow that.
I usually start with a quick drum loop if I don't have a melody in my head or anything. From there I add melodies or scrap it. I generally keep up that process until I have a nice loop going or an idea for what I want to do. Once I have an idea or loop going I'll start to focus on structuring things a bit. If I like how things sound I'll usually start doing more meticulous shit like playing with my levels, swapping sounds, messing with compression, etc. I'll either end up saving the track for later or finishing the arrangement. Mixing and mastering comes last and usually are a day or two apart unless I'm in a hurry.
I scrap projects a lot, not when its too far in but usually just in the loop phase, helps me come at things fresh. I usually always fuck with faders, I don't know if that's a good or or bad habit at this point. I drink too much coffee, skip too many meals, and don't drink enough water, but that usually means it's gonna be a banger.
I typically start by coming up with a chord progression, either with a synth or a guitar, and then record that. Then I loop it ad nauseam until I come up with a vocal melody I like and some nonsense temporary lyrics that have a cool rhythm. It's worked for me, but writing chords first sometimes results in less than memorable (or very same-y) melodies, so this year I'm gonna try working on vocal melodies/lyrics first, and have the chords follow that.
Interesting. I usually work out chord progressions first and instrument/vocal melodies after. I guess when I do it that way, I'm likely to at least make an effort to choose somewhat unique chord progressions. I find that when I write the melody first, I often discover that the best matching chords turn out to be something either really basic like d-g-a or something overused like the Pachalbel Canon progression.
In the last day or so I was listening to all those 5/4 patterns and thinking "you know, I'm really counting this in 4/4," so I've converted them to 4/4 at 80% tempo. Sounds exactly the same, but it's also kind of interesting when I bring in some still-in-5/4 percussion.
These days I mostly start with a basic (often technical) idea on the modular and start building a patch around it. This can take hours, days or weeks. If (big if) the patch is good I record a performance of that patch. Often takes several takes (aka practice) and revision of the controls.
I added a KP3 to the mix for real time effects/sampling while performing (anything coming out of the modular or via mic).
For me its less about sonic composition at this point and more on ideas from emotions and matters that affect me in world. Ill chart out some ideas ie. the way the wind blows sticks and leaves on the ground, think about how to translate it sonically and take it from there.
Start with anything (sound clip, song I recently heard, something somebody said, etc.). Drop it into a track in Ableton. Add stuff (chord progression, drums, effects); take stuff out. Bake at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. Stir and serve.
Random process from week to week.
Last edited by BOULDER D4SH (January 15, 2016 9:17 pm)
Open python, press F5.
That's the composing part, I still change some parameters and the instruments after that.
Right now it's doing notes first, then the bass notes from the first note of every bar, then the progression from the bass notes.
