Ableton Forum

midi people are you making rhythms then transposing them to keys or making rhythms in keys?
in building a midi bank which way takes you longer?

generally its a bit of both for me. I tend to start with instrument design and then exploring that instrument's potential starts suggesting rhythms (from arps, delays and envelopes) and melodies/harmonies (determined by how polyphonic or inharmonic the patch is). Generally i don't think about keys untill i am unsure how to progress a track- when a bit of theory can often bring ideas i would not have hit upon using only my intuition.

yeah I was playing with the idea and too much theory could stop creativity dead in its tracks.