Ableton Forum

Apologies for the double post (more traffic here...)

another thread (in tips n tricks) similarly titled grabbed my attention because I misread what it would be about and I thought what a cool idea for a thread - how people get 'into the space' required to get down to working on their music

I'm sure many remember the glass of water and wank suggestion - but what other 'tips and tricks' and ways of 'zoning in' do people have to get started?

I'm trying to get away from smoking weed which seems to be my lazy way at the moment, but a detrimental to health option, so I'd love to hear other peoples ways...

ive also put a dent in the worlds weed market trough an ever lingering cloud that hovers around my head and any ideas r welcome

usualy in those moments i back up files .sitting in front of a pc backing up files is so boring that i always regain the will to work.

what I've found is that ableton is an exceptional sketch pad - I can be doing other things, and when I come up with an idea; just launch ableton and within 10 minutes I have worked out what I want to do, done it, saved it, and back to whatever it was I was doing before.

that means I don't have to do the endless 'getting in the mood'; I just wait for it to come to me, and I don't have to worry about the sequencer crashing, not working, etc etc....

bensuthers wrote:what I've found is that ableton is an exceptional sketch pad - I can be doing other things, and when I come up with an idea; just launch ableton and within 10 minutes I have worked out what I want to do, done it, saved it, and back to whatever it was I was doing before.

that means I don't have to do the endless 'getting in the mood'; I just wait for it to come to me, and I don't have to worry about the sequencer crashing, not working, etc etc....

same here!

Cigarette ... cup of fresh brewed coffee.
No weed ,alcohol or substances bar the caffiene / nicotine hit to get my heart started every morning (boring aren't I).
That said I will just spend say a week programming patches.
Assembling kits for impulse / NNXT sample banks etc...
The best starting point for me is an App like Plogue or AudioMulch.
It's modular ,patchable and can yield some bizarre and excitingly unexpected audio results.
Then I'll just jam ,sometimes for days on the keyboard until something comes to me.
IT can be a melody that sparks the flow.
A sonic scape programmed in plogue that sets a mood or mindset that I feel I can build a framework from.
A really fun one is get a single chord (at least 8 to ten notes) and work an entire track around counterpoint mono lines of notes within the chord structure ,using triadic variants of those notes and work with minor and major 7th and 5th inversions and build a tune up that way.
Grab a classical midi file - there's a tonne of them on the net.
Decontruct it ,edit it , use the Abelton Midi pitch , random and chord effects etc etc and build up something from there etc etc ...
Many ways to work really.
My favourite is sleep deprivation - it's when I'm atmy most creative is say if i get up early and force myself to stay up all night by 3 am and particularly between 3 and 5 am when I'd normally be dreaming I come up with the best ideas that can be refined later.
Don't take your work too seriously .
Have FUN.

Over here its more prayer than drugs involved in it

Rythm is the starting point for me
Drop a bunch of cool kicks and stuff at Impulse
"Spray" some on the stepedit
add FX at will
Do some variations
then yore on it

amen

C

I think creation is of almost religious significance and therefore it involves lots of rituals, like a cigarette while ur computer is bouncing a file, a coffee to start your day, etc. it's all a very fragile balance, and when you lose these little actions you feel smtg's missin... for a while at least...
I quit smoking weed few years ago and smoking cigarettes few months ago. First it felt very strange not to have my cigarette breaks, I could not get in the mood, but after a while I realized none of these rituals are actually essential. They should not end up ruling the "work", they're all "swappable"...
Now I drink loads of (caffeine-free) rooibos tea. First it felt very "boring hippie" but now it's ok...

Interesting subject! Personally I find it really hard to get into something when there are "real world" duties hanging over me, so i try to get external commitments out of the way and then get stuck in hardcore. It's good to have everything just right first, but the downside of this attitude is that the mundane things end up getting first priority. I don't always work so good in short bursts, and I find it a lot easier to avoid distractions late at night, so nothing much creative seems to happen before about 10pm. Which is totally impractical I know.

As far as substances go, i prefer to be on the hyper side rather than the laxed out stoned side, so a nice strong coffee does me fine (preferably out of a huge mug so it lasts me ages ).

forge wrote:Apologies for the double post (more traffic here...)



I'm sure many remember the glass of water and wank suggestion - but what other 'tips and tricks' and ways of 'zoning in' do people have to get started?
.

actualy the wank comes before the glass of water . there is some good movies around to get you started . i have tryed to replace the water with something else but water seems to be the most eficient.

"What hashish gives with one hand it takes away with the other: that is to say, it gives the power of imagination and takes away the ability to profit by it."
-- Baudelaire (1860)

Sometimes a bit of smoke is nice before composing, but these days, I'm finding it to be a lot more productive to write sober. I usually try to pin down the "main sound" I want to capture in my song, either in the form of a beat or an instrument. From there, gradually add more tracks and fill out the shape of the sound until it's complete.

Once I start sequencing, I don't stop until you have a good "concrete" idea laid down. Then, take a break for a few hours or a day, and come back to the slate with a clean mind to finish cleaning up with a few final touches, and then remaster.

GUITAR - Just Play It!

-Paws

sqook wrote:"What hashish gives with one hand it takes away with the other: that is to say, it gives the power of imagination and takes away the ability to profit by it."
-- Baudelaire (1860)

.

now that;s a quote I'll be remembering - makes ALOT of sense!

Usually, I plug in some sort of guitar and play to the metronome. then i program some beats that usually are as complex as a metronome. then i think of all the things that i could add and get dizzy or tired and then fall asleep. after waking up, i repeat the process.
I now have a ton of Live Sets that are full of half-ideas that I'll come back to when I "have more time."

ultrasource wrote:Usually, I plug in some sort of guitar and play to the metronome. then i program some beats that usually are as complex as a metronome. then i think of all the things that i could add and get dizzy or tired and then fall asleep. after waking up, i repeat the process.
I now have a ton of Live Sets that are full of half-ideas that I'll come back to when I "have more time."

thanks for the advice!