More efficient music-making
Hopefully you’re coming around to the benefits of working faster and more efficiently. We’ll dish up production-specific tips and tricks shortly, but first let’s check out some practical workflow-enhancing principles and approaches.
First up, if you see each session as one unbroken stint that only finishes when you fall asleep at the keyboard, then you should reconsider your approach. While it’s good to be ‘in the zone’, being glued to that studio chair for hours on end just isn’t healthy – see our sidebar for more on that. It’s impossible to stay fully focused for long stretches, and beyond a certain point, you’ll be more prone to getting distracted and sidetracked and making poor mix decisions. You’ll experience hearing fatigue too, where decreased sensitivity to treble causes us to overcompensate by boosting high frequencies. If you’ve ever stayed up late working on a mix, then been shocked the following day at how incredibly bright it is, now you know why!
Break it down
While it might seem counter-intuitive, you can make the most of limited production time by taking scheduled breaks. Try a ten-minute break every hour, staying 100% fully focused the other 50 minutes – you can catch up on social media during the break! Make a note of what you did in each 50-minute chunk so you have a record of how you spent your time. After three hours, take a longer break of 30-60 minutes. Have lunch. Get some air. There are smartphone timer apps dedicated to this approach – search ‘focus timer’ on your app store.
So you’ve come up with a schedule and you’ve got your latest project loaded up. Now what? Are you making a synth sound, arranging the intro, dialling in the master bus, or…? Give structure to your sessions by dividing the process into defined tasks: sound design, composing, arranging, mixing, mastering, etc. There’s naturally going to be some cross-over, and you may well be able to handle more overlap as your skills improve.
Production with a purpose
Specific goals and deadlines can thwart procrastination and give purpose to sessions. Set a one-hour time limit to come up with a basic track outline (see our QuickFire TrackBuilder on p41 for our guide to doing just this!); give yourself a solid evening to finish that mixdown you’ve been fiddling around with for months; or aim to have three new tracks to play at your DJ gig next month. Set goals that support your overall aims as a producer.
To keep your sessions flowing, treat the process like painting. Take care of the big picture by bringing sounds and basic musical ideas together first – these are your ‘colours’. Throw down broad brushstrokes quickly, then work on the finer details once a song emerges.
Instant inspiration
If you’re not feeling creative, let your computer inspire you. Use randomisation functions, unpredictable sound generators and manglers, or fire up a chain of arpeggiators, sequencers, chord generators, and other MIDI plugins. Use the computer to spit creative ideas out quickly.
Still short on inspiration? Get someone else in the room! Collaboration is a great way to be productive – you’ll really feel the pressure to achieve something worthwhile. Find collaborators who complement your skill-set. If you’re good at writing tunes but find mixing a drag, hook up with someone who loves the technical side. You’ll learn from each other and get more done. Don’t limit yourself to producers, either – get involved with DJs, vocalists, keyboardists and other musicians, as they’ll come up with amazing ideas that you can adapt and run with.