Trouble Finishing Songs? - Live's Song-Building Process

[mr.ergonomics]

I have banish session view out of my composing workflow, every time I use it I stuck in a loop. I like the time line much more for composing. of cause... session view is great for live stuff.

[hurlingdervish]

i used to get stuck in a loop in session view

not anymore

i use both screens about equally now

session view is amazing for "pooling" sounds, making resamples, and arrangement for molding them

[Martyn]

I use session view to get parts working together, then start to flesh out and consolidate bits that work, all the while continuing to add stuff in session. After a while the Arrange view is sole focus and all parts have gone from session view. The tune is then off on it's own path until possible completion a year or two in the future.

[nebulae]

The tune is then off on it's own path until possible completion a year or two in the future.

LOLOLOLzzz! But what a tune it is when it's finally done!

hahahahah *hugs*

[Martyn]

Heh, it's kind of true tho, the rhythm parts of that pale stone mix came from a totally different tune (called wax box) that I started a couple of years ago. I just threw stuff together to see what would mash, and those ones wanted to get married.

[nebulae]

^ Song cannibalism is good thing.

[hurlingdervish]

^ Song cannibalism is good thing.

true
i started making loops from older songs and making new ones out of them

thats fun too

just drag the old song into ableton and start chopping

[Martyn]

I prefer to think of it as cross breeding.

[polyslax]

I like Live's workflow. I don't ever bounce back and forth between Session and Arrange. I do all my recording in Session, then it's over to Arrange to, well, arrange.

In any given song, how much time (%) would you say you spend on Session, and then Arrange?

About 70/30 I'd say.

[nebulae]

I like Live's workflow. I don't ever bounce back and forth between Session and Arrange. I do all my recording in Session, then it's over to Arrange to, well, arrange.

In any given song, how much time (%) would you say you spend on Session, and then Arrange?

About 70/30 I'd say.

Interesting, I'd say it's the other way for me. 30% creative, 70% arrange and polish. Maybe that's why Heavensdaw things I have no balls in my music.

[4.33]

In any given song, how much time (%) would you say you spend on Session, and then Arrange?

About 70/30 I'd say.[/quote]

Interesting, I'd say it's the other way for me. 30% creative, 70% arrange and polish. Maybe that's why Heavensdaw things I have no balls in my music. [/quote]



i'm far more creative in arrange than in session
the thing is that i'm both audial and visual person, like many
so i just feel lost in session view when clips start to stack up

[H20nly]

I was just going to post on this sort of thing....

In the past I've often gotten stuck on a 4-bar loop in session. After hearing it a million times I get so burned out I just can't work on it anymore. Here's what I do once I have the basic loop :

1. Take the main MIDI drum loop and Duplicate it within itself so the 4-bar loop is turned into a 16-bar loop.

2. Go into this 16-bar loop and add a turnaround (fill) in bar 16. Depending on the genre this could be anything....tom fill...stutter...silence...drop elements...whatever it takes to make the 16-bars into a full cycle.

3. Add a mini-fill at bar 8.

4. Do the same with other elements, as appropriate for each. This could be a 16-bar filter tweak on a synth, bassline fills, reverse cymbals, whatever.

I find that this gives me a much more musical loop that builds and falls and is much more inspiring for further creation. It's a simple idea but it always takes me to the next level in session view.

Hey you been peeking??
Thats my drum beats only difference is I stop at 8 bars before 16 and I use live audio for step 4.

I do almost everything in Arrange view. I know that I'm missing another aspect of Live but then again lets face it I'm working almost exclusively with a mic, bass and guitar. No loops to speak of other than what I make for drum beats and from the live audio bit. I record a quick idea in Arrange and then clean it up by hand (what's does quantize do again?) I probably miss out on easily half of Live's features without counting effects or EQ of any kind - and I still love it!

[whalebox]

It's fabulous! I've hardly gone about 50%, and I don't freeze tracks at all anymore. It's making me much more productive in the same amount of time. It's really pretty quiet too....the ceiling fan easily drowns out the fan noise.

Upgrading to a faster DAW was one of the best things that ever happened to my production... no time wasted freezing, no having to really watch the CPU unless I'm doing something ridiculous, it really made it easier for me to just make music without constantly having to worry about my machine handling it.

My second DAW (the one that I upgraded to before) just fried itself and it was four years old, so when I pick up a new computer later this month I'm going to be blown away I think.

[Bagatell]

I wish they incorporated the Mouse Scroll Wheel zooming that is standard in every other DAW, but on PCs, there's a workaround.

Tell me more, please

[UKRuss]

I don't use any other DAW so I work with what I have in Live.

I find I'm going straight to arrange view more often than not now to get my track down and then use Session view to chop it back up for live play.

BUT, I do still find session view brings a structure to the table in terms fo trying out different elements together so I can record into clips, then fire clips off and ocne I have a set that sound good, then save that as a new scene and start to label them, intro, verse, chorus etc.

then i can fire the scenes off in an order I like to get a basic arrangement down and then go to arrange view and tinker.

I try not to keep it them same each time, it depends on the track I guess.