Hey guys, I have been making music for about a year, and i use fl studio. I just wanted to ask what daw u guys use and how it suits your workflow and why? I also would like some advice because im spending like 10 hours on a track but only finishing 40 seconds and its really bad, but then i spend like 2 hours on another one and finish 1.5 minutes and its actually good in my ears. Do i have to change my DAW or my workflow? been researching a lot i cant see how to work faster. I also spend too much time renaming shit and colouring shit (ehh), because i hate disorganization near the end of a project, hate clutter. Also my templates make fl studio crash so i waste a shitload of time.

i use audacity cause im broke and its free and cause daw's dont make your music.
u can make faster beats by doing a lot of cocaine, thats what i do. cocaine.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts.

word 2 that ^



word 2 that 2^

but really
dude you just gotta accept that sometimes your gonna work for 3 weeks on a track and its gonna suck but then maybe one day you just make the best shit ever in like 2 hours. idk maybe thats just me but i think most people have similar feelings/frustrations

folder for each.

microwave

slow cook


just create. we all have tons of work that may never see the light of day. but still we created them.

microwave - slowcook

I digg that. WIll add those folders

That is too freakin funny !!!!!

latley ,

i usually start a riff and once i got an idea, I hit record on my sony recorder because it's always there, now I have my idea captured but a janky little guitar performance isnt cool, so i tap the tempo to it, and it's usually to fast so I make a drum pattern at 85 to 93 whatevers swinging.

then i remember how my guitar song went and play it again,

so im listening to the 606 with headphones, and then hit record on the sony when my riff is ready, it's not recording the beat just the room and guitar.

so now i can move that guitar to the sampler and look for parts that sound on beat and put them in the sampler to the beat.

fiddle with shit for a long time, and find some harmonic notes that fit. never a solo, would be to insulting to good guitar players and my friends who could do it way better.

after listening to the beat for a while you start to hear a ringing in the guitar that sounds like female backup singers, but really vibey and creepy, you cant actually hear them but if you can detect the counter melody they manifest themself as you can try to re create it b detuning your guitar a bit and trying to match it. ok so a week or months have passed, and there is some vocals on it, now just remix it ten zillion times till you can get one that sounds decent.
then grab the master into the 606 as stereo, maybe vinyl sim :evil:

then back to sony where it's ready and humanized for consumption .

i dont know about you guys but if yoiu record to a recorder and dump that file it can be better than recording to a computer , messing with it and then saving, something about the encoding ,
this is only one of my workflows, and it's kinda scattered and incompletly described.


have a good day.

Well my workflo is difficult to say the least. For one I am a single father and I run my own glass business. But my workflo is like this , On the DAW(flstudio) I have about 43 different projects going on, I spend 5 to 30 minutes on each one when ever I get a chance but I like to always work on a different one say every once in awhile. Kinda let sit and simmer awhile while I work on another project.

Now for awhile all I had was a midi controller and flstudio, but I always knew I needed to get back into sampling as my music without it was just to blahh. So in came the sp808 and sp606 and the fire really started to heat up again.

So I am kinda in the thought process of what is the best work flow, my main concern is getting everything in sync and operational order. I will be upgrading to windows 7 so I am busy researching drivers and ways to make what i wanna do work.

I am also gathering ideas from YouTube and any other sources I can find for samples and loops. That flow goes like this ,watch YouTube, hear something I like , sample into sp606, play with it, combine different stuff with it or maybe resample over from the sp606 into the sp808, experiment.

Ideally I want to have my music so I can play a live set with the sp's. At first I was thinking 3 samplers playing different stuff but now I am thinking just 2 would be enough with one sampler playing the main parts of the songs and the other sampler for one shot samples such drum rolls, bleeps, vocal effects and such.

I like Bonkers Beats approach too except I don't play guitar but I would like to get a handheld recorder and just hum and beatbox ideas into it when they come about.

i advise you to release yourself from time limits (and any limit you have on creation). nothing good is going to come from a beat made in 5 mins. You seem to sound like many of us in early stages of learning.

If I had to start over again with my memories of learning FL (which I still use primarily) I would've shifted my focus to learning the ins and outs of the program first before I would worry/stress about how long it takes to finish a song. (i have more then 300+ unfinished projects just sitting because of your current mindset and I am just now learning a different flow myself after 5+ years of on and off production.)

There's nothing you an research that's going to help you with patience and your personal creative energy.

I suggest attempting to remake your favorite songs starting with the basic rhythms building up into a full beat/song

I also suggest meditation, since you "think too much" it helps in many others ways as well, but that is another story..hope this is of some help to you or someone.

YOU SURE ABOUT THAT CUH?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4EYI0Xc8xI

But really though. Good advice overall everyone.

I use Reason. I just recently got the newest version and the addition of midi out and the way that it works with one button live sampling is pretty unreal...what i often do is find sounds i like, sample into the sampletrak, make some loops there and dub loops and one shots over to reason. I use reason to arrange which is pretty slick using their blocks system (similar to mpc pattern chain) After i have a good arrangement, i refine it, add breakdowns fills etc to keep things interesting.

The best thing i can suggest is look at what has worked well for you and also to look for what has slowed you down. i.e. is it a problem of not knowing the gear, working without a vision, or needing to build some technical knowledge, or for that matter trying to force something to happen when a sample etc isnt working. if you'd like, send me a pm and we can consult on this.

you know it's time for a break when,


1)your beats sound like polka music

2) 80 bpm is to fast

3) you start writing bad rhymes that dont flow

4) you start making lists about why you need a break.

microwave vs crockpot beats

Just keep at it. The more you experiment the more you craft a signature sound. The more you stay making beats the more comfortable you get at it. With familiarity and techniqe cones style and efficiency. After awhile it will come naturally and you can churn out bangers in no time.
As its been said sometimes you can take forever on a track and its stale. Other times you mucrowave and its hot.

Dont get frustrated. Have fun and keep at it.
The world needs more music.