[pedlund]

HI! I'm really curious about how you all start when you are beginning the music process!
Are you starting with the drums, or maybe the melody or the bassline? Maybe you mix it up and have different start ideas?

What's your best tip on starting on a new track?

[stranger_sounds]

I always lay the kick and snare down first, then a little more percussion around that. Then usually go for a lead synth or whatever. Definitely helps to have a beat first even if that beat ends up being completely different by the end.

[Mctoast]

Record shit with my camera, then sample it into completely different sounds...

After the samples are done, I'll do all sort of weird stuff, mostly "melodies" before the glitchy drums, and often the drums are just part of the melody.

[Outsider]

I often get melody ideas when I'm not at the keyboards (usually when I'm trying to go to sleep, grr), so in cases where I have a melody first, I start with that and add bass and drums to it. So I don't lose the melody when it hits, if I don't have a keyboard around, I'll voice-record the tune into my phone, and that will be the first thing I program when it's time to put the song together.

If I don't already have a melody or groove in mind, I just whip up a quick beat (Maschine has proven quite fun and useful for these quick scratch rhythms), then a matching bass riff, and the song grows from there.

[cat_rancher]

Drums usually come first followed by bass, but it really depends on what sort of song I'm (trying) to do. If it's more psy in nature, then definately a strong drum and percussion phrase, followed with bass. EBM and 'Lectdust style songs almsot always start with a bassline, followed quickly by a drum phrase.

As for mixing and sounshaping, I'll start as soon as I get a fair idea of what direction the song is heading and the nature of the sounds being used.

[pedlund]

Thanks for all your answers! I also try first to get the melody right, sitting on my keyboard and trying to get a nice melody with great chord progressions. Fun to here that people are having very different methods when starting a new track

[Northtribe]

I usually with a melody played on my keyboard. In rare situation I start with a drum beat.

[Vlantis]

In order:

Main melody
Bassline
Chorus melody
Chorus Bassline
Drums
Counter melodies for everything
Vocals

[Automageddon]

Kick
Snare
hi hat
(drum variations)
Background noise
bassline

[mischjok]

Depends. Formulas don´t really get me anywhere.

[essenthy]

drums>bass ~ a sample ~ synths

[Muonos]

Meditation.

[Gloom Prophet]

i usually start out building my drum kit sampling shit and what not then playing a beat and getting a groove. Then i keep that looping and jam ontop of it usually with a bass sound i make. then i jam instruments or synths over it and manipulate them how i want.

[Sicc]

No definable starting point, it always changes. I seem to start off by developing a texture, then little hits, playing with verbs and delays...the rest just happens when im in the flow.

[Winnaz]

No real set rules on this one, sometimes a melody comes to me sitting out on the patio watching flies mating, sometimes I play around with chord tonics (root notes) to create a bassline progression, sometimes I play with chord inversions without thinking of tonics or modes until something sounds 'just right'.

For me, I like to try to know a few of the rules but love breaking them without thinking about what rules I've actually broken.

[IamOthello]

I start all of my songs in my head. After that, I take my ideas to a piece of paper and I map out the form and harmony of the piece, as the form and harmony define the direction and momentum. I am a very harmonic composer and I feel my melodies are strongly designed for my harmony as opposed to my melodies define my harmonies.

[ghyt wembpang]

I start by making a sound, and then I continue by making another sound, and then I try to make the sounds fit together, and then I just keep doing that until I have a whole lot of sounds that fit together.

[EricXL]

Almost every track I have created from scratch has been concepted differently. That is the great thing about making music these days. YOu have a lot of options. I think what I do the most is that I take about 8 bars and create the intense part of my tack. Extend that to 16 bars and add to it. I tusually ends up to be about 32 bars and then I go to the intro and sculpt that. then I do all the points in between.

[Vogait]

i like to play piano and make the arrangement kkk but my tracks tend to be melodics

[Numbskulls]

I do the same thing