damn these instruments sound so good!<3 any insight on your production? You jam and see what sticks or write everything piece by piece

damn these instruments sound so good!<3 any insight on your production? You jam and see what sticks or write everything piece by piece

This one is special! Definitely don't need drums...

This one is special! Definitely don't need drums...

they're overrated anyway
- Ebrit

they're overrated anyway - Ebrit

Normally I would jam or at least play some solos and melody parts etc. However, due to various real life things I don't have too much time to do that recently, so I have taken to learning the piano roll in Ableton Live and basically working with only a laptop and a pair of headphones.

Various strategies I use:
* pick some nice notes-pitches that work well together, use the random arpeggiator to generate a rough melody of sorts
* use my Supreme Taste (tm) to adjust some notes, throw away others, add some to the correct place
* use the Velocity MIDI device to randomise note velocities or modulate crescendos-diminuendos (read: make things smoothly louder or quieter)
* just randomly chop up and add empty space in the project and see how that works
* just randomly cut out parts of the timeline and see how that works
* time stretch completely randomly some melody parts in the piano roll, manually adjust later the parts that sound out or place
* use the virtual midi keyboard to tap out some MIDI parts, keep the timing-rhythm but adjust pitches-velocities
* select many MIDI clips and use the multi-clip editing view to sync some parts-notes to each other to make things more "together" (or the opposite - make some parts more sparse and not on time ON PURPOSE)
* just go hog wild with, click on random stuff in the piano roll a lot of times and only listen to the result later on - its easier to fix rough things by removing parts that obviously sound out of place
* out of ideas? abuse the delay feedback, automate some other parameters or something
* still out of ideas? select a random short part of your long MIDI clip that you have already begun hating, delete the rest and then copy-timestretch-cut-mangle that small part again until you are happy(er)
* can't find the chords or intervals that work well together? base pitch + 7 or 19 semitones always works, go minimal and forget about melody stuff - focus on tempo, rhythm, velocity automation
* ok so you have some tracks that do a nice background tapestry, you need a solo or something more melodic to tell a story? copy one of the background tracks, strip the effects and move the notes where the other tracks are not playing, go up-down semitone at a time and see if the pitch makes you happy when hearing it together with other stuff
* still out of ideas? check out a random youtube tutorial for some artist-technique that you like, just follow that one to the letter until your creative mind kicks in and you do get an idea on what to (not) do

Hope this helps

Thanks all, glad you liked it.

[quote=Coldsushi]damn these instruments sound so good!<3 any insight on your production? You jam and see what sticks or write everything piece by piece [/quote] Normally I would jam or at least play some solos and melody parts etc. However, due to various real life things I don't have too much time to do that recently, so I have taken to learning the piano roll in Ableton Live and basically working with only a laptop and a pair of headphones. Various strategies I use: * pick some nice notes-pitches that work well together, use the random arpeggiator to generate a rough melody of sorts * use my Supreme Taste (tm) to adjust some notes, throw away others, add some to the correct place * use the Velocity MIDI device to randomise note velocities or modulate crescendos-diminuendos (read: make things smoothly louder or quieter) * just randomly chop up and add empty space in the project and see how that works * just randomly cut out parts of the timeline and see how that works * time stretch completely randomly some melody parts in the piano roll, manually adjust later the parts that sound out or place * use the virtual midi keyboard to tap out some MIDI parts, keep the timing-rhythm but adjust pitches-velocities * select many MIDI clips and use the multi-clip editing view to sync some parts-notes to each other to make things more "together" (or the opposite - make some parts more sparse and not on time ON PURPOSE) * just go hog wild with, click on random stuff in the piano roll a lot of times and only listen to the result later on - its easier to fix rough things by removing parts that obviously sound out of place * out of ideas? abuse the delay feedback, automate some other parameters or something * still out of ideas? select a random short part of your long MIDI clip that you have already begun hating, delete the rest and then copy-timestretch-cut-mangle that small part again until you are happy(er) * can't find the chords or intervals that work well together? base pitch + 7 or 19 semitones always works, go minimal and forget about melody stuff - focus on tempo, rhythm, velocity automation * ok so you have some tracks that do a nice background tapestry, you need a solo or something more melodic to tell a story? copy one of the background tracks, strip the effects and move the notes where the other tracks are not playing, go up-down semitone at a time and see if the pitch makes you happy when hearing it together with other stuff * still out of ideas? check out a random youtube tutorial for some artist-technique that you like, just follow that one to the letter until your creative mind kicks in and you do get an idea on what to (not) do Hope this helps :) [quote=PartiMellow]This one is special! Definitely don't need drums... [/quote] [quote=DESLRV]they're overrated anyway - Ebrit[/quote] Thanks all, glad you liked it.

Damn thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on it! Looks like you have nice ways to find solutions while keeping the creativity flowing which is awesome great work! The new multi midi editing in ableton is such an awesome feature for how you are approaching it, I should also keep in mind to just timestretch or delete parts when in doubt, thanks again!

[quote=thawkins][quote=Coldsushi]damn these instruments sound so good!<3 any insight on your production? You jam and see what sticks or write everything piece by piece [/quote] Normally I would jam or at least play some solos and melody parts etc. However, due to various real life things I don't have too much time to do that recently, so I have taken to learning the piano roll in Ableton Live and basically working with only a laptop and a pair of headphones. Various strategies I use: * pick some nice notes-pitches that work well together, use the random arpeggiator to generate a rough melody of sorts * use my Supreme Taste (tm) to adjust some notes, throw away others, add some to the correct place * use the Velocity MIDI device to randomise note velocities or modulate crescendos-diminuendos (read: make things smoothly louder or quieter) * just randomly chop up and add empty space in the project and see how that works * just randomly cut out parts of the timeline and see how that works * time stretch completely randomly some melody parts in the piano roll, manually adjust later the parts that sound out or place * use the virtual midi keyboard to tap out some MIDI parts, keep the timing-rhythm but adjust pitches-velocities * select many MIDI clips and use the multi-clip editing view to sync some parts-notes to each other to make things more "together" (or the opposite - make some parts more sparse and not on time ON PURPOSE) * just go hog wild with, click on random stuff in the piano roll a lot of times and only listen to the result later on - its easier to fix rough things by removing parts that obviously sound out of place * out of ideas? abuse the delay feedback, automate some other parameters or something * still out of ideas? select a random short part of your long MIDI clip that you have already begun hating, delete the rest and then copy-timestretch-cut-mangle that small part again until you are happy(er) * can't find the chords or intervals that work well together? base pitch + 7 or 19 semitones always works, go minimal and forget about melody stuff - focus on tempo, rhythm, velocity automation * ok so you have some tracks that do a nice background tapestry, you need a solo or something more melodic to tell a story? copy one of the background tracks, strip the effects and move the notes where the other tracks are not playing, go up-down semitone at a time and see if the pitch makes you happy when hearing it together with other stuff * still out of ideas? check out a random youtube tutorial for some artist-technique that you like, just follow that one to the letter until your creative mind kicks in and you do get an idea on what to (not) do Hope this helps :) [quote=PartiMellow]This one is special! Definitely don't need drums... [/quote] [quote=DESLRV]they're overrated anyway - Ebrit[/quote] Thanks all, glad you liked it. [/quote] Damn thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on it! Looks like you have nice ways to find solutions while keeping the creativity flowing which is awesome :) great work! <3 The new multi midi editing in ableton is such an awesome feature for how you are approaching it, I should also keep in mind to just timestretch or delete parts when in doubt, thanks again!