When making tunes - What percentage stays v scrape heap?

[dominicw78]

I'm interested in knowing what people's success v failure rate is when they're making the numerous parts in their tunes and how much time they spend on them. As in, considering all the parts you make for one track, some of them you create and they work and they stay in the final track, others you create, rec and or put time into making etc, only to scrape immediately after or maybe a little further down the line.

I feel I have a low success rate and waste a lot of time of parts never to be used. I feel I spend at least 50% (many times much more) of my time on unsuccessful or unused parts. So in that case if I spend two days on a track, one day was for nothing. Over time my production skills are always improving and I am also slowing getting faster overall. However I still find myself spending so much time on fruitless ventures when making a track. I guess it is experimentation to some degree but I feel this area could definitely be improved.

Anyone have this issue and or have any good tips for having a higher rate of success.

[Rave]

I throw very little away as I may use it for another track.

[dominicw78]

I throw very little away as I may use it for another track.

The stuff I scrape I usually don't like so assume I never will. I can see the benefit of keeping stuff but think it also could bog you clutter and the become wasted time sifting through it.

[dominicw78]

I throw very little away as I may use it for another track.

Does that mean your content with virtually everything you do?

[Rave]

I have tracks which have been in the back burner for years. They have potential. I just wait until the idea hits me to take it up a notch. When I am working on a sound or a riff it may go through various iterations of course and may not even resemble the original idea. My last release was conceived two years ago. The rhythm track I used for a remix which I ended up shelving is being recycled for my next release.

[dominicw78]

I have tracks which have been in the back burner for years. They have potential I just wait until the idea hits me to take it up a notch. When I am working on a sound or a riff it may go through various iterations of course and may not even resemble the original idea. My last release was conceived two years ago. The rhythm track I used for a remix which I ended up shelving was used for my next release.

I'm not referring to whole tracks or the whole drum parts, or rhythm section etc. I'm mean every single part within one track. I have tracks I do a bit of or get half through etc, then leave them with the intention of coming back also. Thats not what I mean. I mean within one track I'll make say a bassine, bounce it to audio, have it in the song for a moment, decide then that I don't like the musical line or the sound of it, then bin it change the sound or the line a new one. Thus the first bassline went on the scrap heap and the time I spent on it was not utilised for the final song. I may have spent 20mins on it and then done a new one in 10mins, which mean I spent 2/3's of my time on something I don't even use.

[Rabalder]

I use maybe 5% of everything I create. Everything else goes into my "library" for later use. My current library is about 200GB of everything imaginable, which is great since I hate sample-packs etc..! I could probably make music for the rest of my life using nothing but my own library. Which is exactly my plan

[dominicw78]

I use maybe 5% of everything I create. Everything else goes into my "library" for later use. My current library is about 200GB of everything imaginable, which is great since I hate sample-packs etc..! I could probably make music for the rest of my life using nothing but my own library. Which is exactly my plan

So does this production for latter use slow you down reaching the completion of the current track you're working on?

[Rabalder]

I use maybe 5% of everything I create. Everything else goes into my "library" for later use. My current library is about 200GB of everything imaginable, which is great since I hate sample-packs etc..! I could probably make music for the rest of my life using nothing but my own library. Which is exactly my plan

So does this production for latter use slow you down reaching the completion of the current track you're working on?

Im not really working on single tracks. Ive been trying to find my sound, which Ive been doing for several years. Nothing I make is intended to go directly into my "library".. Its all just a big search for something I dont know what is. Yet!
When I have my "recipe", the percentage gets flipped around.. It always does.

[DangerousDave]

I like to live on the edge and dump about 90% of the stuff I don't use, and keep some riffs for later. But if I am working on a track and something isnt quite right, I have found it best to dump it immediately, and move on. I've learned not to tinker with random little shit that isn't going anywhere and it has not only sped up the production process but also made me better at achieving the sound/melody/rhythm I am looking for.

[alex.the.forge]

...waste a lot of time....

this is your mistake. NONE of it is a waste of time...... it is all a learning curve

would anyone care how much marble Michelangelo wasted when he carved david?

And he was also quoted as saying 'The figure is already in the stone, I just have to free it...' or words to that effect

Picasso made an even more poignant quote: "inspiration exists, but it has to find you working"

You can edit shit, you can't edit nothing.

Just get on with it, the good ideas will stick.

IN fact, while I'm in the groove of one liner self help quotes, Paul McCartney was asked once in an interview if it worries him that he will have forgotten some great tune, and he said, "no not at all, the good ones tend to stick"

[alex.the.forge]

oh yeah, and one of the cool features of Live is you can drag a clip or a track or a selection of tracks to the browser and it will save them as a separate ALS file, meaning you can save the one good idea in a track and load it into a better one later.

[yleh8k]

...waste a lot of time....

this is your mistake. NONE of it is a waste of time...... it is all a learning curve

Yes. Yes.

I've started dozens of sets/tracks by now, with hundreds of different rhythms, melodies, and ideas that are just shelved on my hd. And for every mp3 i've printed, there are at least as many minutes of stuff i cut out. But it's all part of the foundation upon which whatever music i do eventually release is built.

[timothyallan]

I throw maybe 1% away.

[luddy]

I feel I have a low success rate and waste a lot of time of parts never to be used. I feel I spend at least 50% (many times much more) of my time on unsuccessful or unused parts.

I'm the same. I throw away half or more of the songs I write, and about the same for arrangement parts. Sometimes I've managed to sell discarded songs, but arrangement parts are just lost time. I just shrug it off mostly; if you want to reach a certain standard that you have in mind then you have to throw out things that don't reach that standard. (I wish I'd thrown away a bit more sometimes. )

-Luddy