If planning happens for me it normally comes after I have identified some sort of opportunity. That could be a track that I like where I think, “ok, I think I kind of want this track to progress in this way from here”. It could also be a collection of tracks that I think would fit nicely together thematically, In which case I might start planning out an album (what’s the progression going to be like? what’s the theme? what do I call these tracks? how long do I want it to be? etc…). Sometimes I think planning also emerges as rules or guidelines. For instance, I’m working on some tracks now for another album and I have set up some guidelines that go something like.
No more than 5 tracks.
At least one track should be quite long and evolving.
Traditional drum sounds aside from kicks should be either minimal or not present at all.
Any sense of “percussion” should come from granular texture and.
Tracks should have a sort of dark / droning tone and feel.
There are more, and this is the first time I have ever written any of them down as it’s mostly just mental notes, so I don’t know if you can really call it planning. I’ve also broken one or two of these already, but I think having them in the back of my mind was still important in shaping some of the tracks.
I do also try to give myself deadlines as well for parts of a project, otherwise I never get anything done, although I am terrible at actually meeting these deadlines 75% of the time.
Pretty much every release I have ever put out involved planning on some level, but it always comes after the initial experimentation has revealed something to me that seems significant. There has been plenty of throw away material over the years (more of that than anything else actually), so I think you kind of just have to be patient and not be too hasty.
TLDR: Planning for me only happens after I think I have something worth planning out, it never happens from the get-go. I always start with a blank slate with no intentions outside of making a patch or experimenting with sound or arrangement.
I have two notebooks now in which I write down thoughts. One is called an idea - the other is a diary. And there I write what I did and what I want to do, I plan.
if i were to take myself seriously…i would probably follow this method
1.schedule a few days to pure sound design sessions and build up a sound library
2. have a few days where i just compose some random loops
3. use sounds from steps 1 and 2 for jam sessions
4. mix and match results from previous steps to create something.
5. once ive established a feel for it from there ill either decided to build upon an idea or just to leave it as a standalone.
6. if the idea is worth building upon then i would describe the track i had in mind and repeat steps 1,2, and 3, and fine tune each track until i got the desired result.
that is my own answer.
but was curious and wanted to compare and contrast our creative processes.
This method is nice.
I used some form of it in all the bb’s … it is really time consuming but worth the effort. The usual bb samples are too … To invest such time sadly.
Ok this is not exactly a plan but more of an approach.
1.a few days to build up a sound library
2.arrange samples to tracks, do some sound design, fucking them up, effects, deleting crappy sounds, mixing.
3.Making some patterns that work with each sample separately. Then i ussualy keep some space in track to have all the patterns of samples together forming a “base”. Then i am copying the base for every new loop, composing/arranging those patterns experimentally/with idea together into some combinations, and repeat last sentence practically. That can also look like having 40 sounds, choosing 4 and next loop choosing other 4.
Having a base like this is great. It like jamming a bit and getting new sound combinations, pattern combinations fucking quick at the same time keeping any ideas at hand and not across all the track.
build upon best loops , erase some patterns or bad sections, duplicating loops and throwing samples into , arranging those loops that are sections now into grand composition.
Mixing.
End.
I had a jam session just once lol and i thought it was usefull and fun but it is not so controlable. The mix probably is not that good when jamming too. It could be also nice if the jam stuff would be used in step 1 2 or 3.
I planned lots of stuff from albums to tracks but the problem is i do not realise them.
I do not finish tracks…i have planned like 8 albums. Plenty tracks i never made. Hmm. Planned some heavy drum stuff but ending pop. Vice versa . It depends on the quality of the starting samppe material the most!
One can not plan everything and a part of creative process is to not have a plan and “invent” something.
Ah it depends on the daw too. A daw that is more for synth modulation needs a different approach than a tracker. An instrument or midi controller too and therefore one is better for certain ideas and at the same time kills some way the other ideas that it is not made for realising.
Bfk, i suspect you use renoise.
Well, yes and no. Depends on the genre really. Sometimes I’ll just lay a kick down and mess around till I get something I like, but if I’m going for a song, then I’ll start either with the lyrics or start the lyrics as soon as I’ve got a base loop down. Movie/Film score sort of thing I like to have something visual first, to give me a sense of timing, so I’ll cut and edit some scenes from a movie first as a rule, and work to that.