Describe your Start-to-Finish

JoshuaRex

If you produce your music solely on iOS, I’d be interested in hearing what your process is like.

oat_phipps

Kick-snare hi-hat basic pattern.
Scratch guitar track for basic chord changes.
Nail down the bass/synth bass.
If the synth is melody-dominant, then synth part(s).
If not, guitars come first and scratch track is deleted.
Synth pads/chords.
Touch up the leads and/or add solos.
Program final, more interesting drum track with fills.
Vocal.

ruggedsmooth

Start in gadget or cubasis mostly. Or AUM with Xequence.
Create 4 or 8 bar loops. Either start with drums or main sample/melody
If I’m doing straight sampling I usually use BM3 or similar
Arrange full track or into sections/parts. Sometimes I arrange live in AUM muting tracks etc while recording to AudioShare
Bounce tracks to wav, upload to Dropbox
Open tracks in Auria Pro for finishing with PSP and fabfilters
... most of the time I never make it to auria lol

AudioGus

Sketch it in BM3, throw in tons of samples from... err nevermind.

u0421793

• Do a bass line
• Create a catchy hooky melody
• admire that for several months
• delete the now ill-fitting bass line
• record a new bass line
• record another one that fits together with it
• admire that for several months
• put some chords in here and there because I suppose there has to be chords
• try different chords, because there’s this music theory thing that prevents free choice of which notes together constitute an actual “chord” and also which chords fit the melody and bass lines.
• become dissatisfied with the idea of chords at a conceptual level
• put some hits and jolts and bangs in, as a percussion track
• decide where words might go
• forget about it for several months
• if I ever come back to it, balance it out on the mixer and call that mastering
• remember that I forgot to do drums, hastily put what must be a unique drum track on (because I just thought of it, although it probably equates to a basic disco drum track, like I always use at the last minute because I don’t think in terms of drums and would much rather someone else solve that problem for me)
• call it finished.

gusgranite

Kids to bed.
Clean up.
Headphones on.
Fall asleep until wife comes home from the late shift.

robosardine

@u0421793 said:

• Do a bass line
• Create a catchy hooky melody
• admire that for several months
• delete the now ill-fitting bass line
• record a new bass line
• record another one that fits together with it
• admire that for several months
• put some chords in here and there because I suppose there has to be chords
• try different chords, because there’s this music theory thing that prevents free choice of which notes together constitute an actual “chord” and also which chords fit the melody and bass lines.
• become dissatisfied with the idea of chords at a conceptual level
• put some hits and jolts and bangs in, as a percussion track
• decide where words might go
• forget about it for several months
• if I ever come back to it, balance it out on the mixer and call that mastering
• remember that I forgot to do drums, hastily put what must be a unique drum track on (because I just thought of it, although it probably equates to a basic disco drum track, like I always use at the last minute because I don’t think in terms of drums and would much rather someone else solve that problem for me)
• call it finished.

brilliant- very funny

supadom

@gusgranite said:
Kids to bed.
Clean up.
Headphones on.
Fall asleep until wife comes home from the late shift.

Hahaha

Ribbon

I usually start with something I've heard that I like, either from me doodling around with an instrument, or from a record or something on tv or the street I recorded earlier, or how my house keys sound when they fall on the floor or whatnot.
Sample it, work on it.
Make some chords and rhythm section around it. Doodle around some more, adding more elements, fx etc. Some of it maybe with external instruments.
Write a song structure, maybe some lyrics. Practice playing (maybe singing) it.
Record it front to back, hopefully in one take, but most likely not. Audioshare it to Dropbox. Backup.
Cook some noodles and listen to the final result while eating. If it grabs me I'm happy, if not I leave it, go and do something else, then come back to it later.
Maybe work on it some more in Ableton Live if it needs kinks ironed out. Grab better headphones and use Final Touch or LANDR for quick final mastering.
Backup everything.
Consider asking someone else to listen to it. Shudder at that thought and decide against it.
Rinse, repeat.

SpookyZoo

@u0421793 said:

• Do a bass line
• Create a catchy hooky melody
• admire that for several months
• delete the now ill-fitting bass line
• record a new bass line
• record another one that fits together with it
• admire that for several months
• put some chords in here and there because I suppose there has to be chords
• try different chords, because there’s this music theory thing that prevents free choice of which notes together constitute an actual “chord” and also which chords fit the melody and bass lines.
• become dissatisfied with the idea of chords at a conceptual level
• put some hits and jolts and bangs in, as a percussion track
• decide where words might go
• forget about it for several months
• if I ever come back to it, balance it out on the mixer and call that mastering
• remember that I forgot to do drums, hastily put what must be a unique drum track on (because I just thought of it, although it probably equates to a basic disco drum track, like I always use at the last minute because I don’t think in terms of drums and would much rather someone else solve that problem for me)
• call it finished.

Haha. Nice!

[Deleted User]

• Open BlocsWave
• Hit random for a bass line or Melody
• Hit random for drums and percussion too
• Build a song structure with scenes
• Search for specific loops for bridge and chorus or build them slicing from the other samples. If I haven’t any other solution wonder if I should play something for myself since people will call me gluelooper...
• Play a bit and export to Launchpad for mess and fx. If it doesn’t crackle, record a 2track instrumental with realtime performance to feel a bit better about using library samples.
• Plug keytar and Garageband and with AUM level booth. Play for hours and forget about using my music for any other objective.
• Wonder if I should export the Blocswave bits directly into Garageband and take more control and record some lirycs or not.
• Unplug all and open Boom Beach
• Post something to Instagram. Sometimes related to music, mostly my two cats.
• Come here and chat about nerdy things that I never end.
• Search for improvements in sidechain compression and djing in iOS.
• Wonder about make some funny remixes with old cheesy Spanish music and house/techno.
• Goto 10 and loop until error freeze me and force my restart.

supadom

Get the groove going with whatever (Guitar, bass synth, Samplr)

Loop it

Layer some vocals, whatever comes first, usually chorus kind of 3 part harmony with random or non distinct lyrics. Keep different vocal, guitar riff ideas on different loops and eventually choose ones that work best.

Add effects, get some rhythmical stuff with Turnado loop effect, decimate etc.

Once all is in place I hit record on my tascam recorder

Filter/mute/unmute different elements (circuit, Samplr and loops in Loopy) in and out to suit dynamics of the track.

Get the finished track to Logic, eq and beef up.

Listen to death while doing other things.

Get bored with it for a good while, work on other tracks etc.

Slowly fill a folder on my phone with other tracks like this and play them with random on.

Weed out weaker tracks and slowly get ideas for lyrics if not there yet.

Learn parts of chosen tracks and jam them out for hours.

Get a gig.

[Deleted User]

Throw some sounds into BM3 or (for now) iMPC Pro2.
Keep finding or making sounds that seem to have some relationship with the others so far.
Go onto a sound. Either a Kit or bass or melodic synth - whatever hits my mood.
Make something - a drum beat, melodic line, bass line - again whatever hits my mood.
Make something to go with the first.
Keep adding shit til I’m bored or the feeling goes.
Move on and start the process all over again.

Have an experimental app interlude.

Open up BM3 and start again until bored.

Occasionally if I have a decent beat and bass line going, just play along searching for ideas.

Never finish anything.

Make some new sounds.

Winge about life on AB forums.

Start again.

Buy something new.

Go fishing.

Make love to wife.

Open BM3......

Mayo

spend an hour max on some iPad ideas,
get them promptly onto my Mac,

have a sigh of relief that I'm off IOS, and able to properly multitrack, edit with ease, stop using my finger on a piece of glass, use incredible VST's, mix through external hardware, master with professional mastering software and analog compression and EQ.

I reckon I will never finish a track on IOS - and have zero desire to do so