what's the longest part of the process for you?

bachus · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:59 am Post subject:

The longest part of the process for me is recognizing that a passage that is pretty close cannot be tweaked, begged, threatened or abused into being exactly right and needs to be scrapped.

Stanley Pain · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:57 am Post subject:

kkissinger · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:17 pm Post subject:

As of late, the longest part of the process has been to decide on the hardware configuration that I will use when I play out live.

One of many issues is that when I use my own PA equipment I work in surround sound yet when the PA system is provided it has always (thus far) been stereo.

Fortunately, my RME800 allows me to produce surround and stereo mixes concurrently. However, in order to do this I have had to go back and tweak levels to and from any external hardware I am using.

This is the part of electronic music that is fun when one is "tinkering" but with deadlines this work becomes stressful at times.

An oft-heard statement from musicians is that they gave up the use of MIDI or computers for music because they felt that they were spending all their time to figure out the technicalities and little time for actual music-making.

I understand where such folks are coming from. For me such struggles are part of the craft. When a performance "clicks" and everything works it all looks easy.

The bulk of my compositional efforts comes pretty easily, I suppose. However, there is that 5% of the work that takes 95% of the time.

Another time-consuming aspect of electronic music-making is to troubleshoot ones equipment or setup.

(more later -- time to hit <send> )

arcticbeard

The most time consuming bit for me is the Mastering / Letting go part. I guess its because, its the last chance you have to make a difference.

The latest project I am working on was hanging around for ages, then I was discovering new ways of working - which I also wanted to include on the CD, then I started thinking maybe I should incorporate these ideas into the completed tunes. I was kinda going round in circles.
In the end I had to say "STOP ITS FINISHED". After that I got all the artwork sorted, & it was complete.
In all honesty I can listen to the CD & pick out tiny audio crackles, but I am still learning.
Mastering for me is quite tricky, but on this latest project I have set up a reasonable template that seems to work well with most tracks.

Acoustic Interloper · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:46 am Post subject:

kkissinger · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:57 am Post subject:

Acoustic Interloper · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:31 am Post subject:

Antimon · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject:

kkissinger · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject:

Ah, ok... it IS readable. I just had to click on the zoom icon after I click on the gif.

Smile

renevanderwouden · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:18 pm Post subject:

mixing and mastering takes most of the time, finding the right sounds responding at the right time to each other.

the (instant) composing is the opposite.

Stanley Pain · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:37 am Post subject:

Stanley Pain · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:38 am Post subject:

destroyifyer · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:17 pm Post subject: ah Subject description: yes

Stanley Pain wrote:

hackbox · Joined: Jul 27, 2007 Posts: 134 Location: Australia

Antimon · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject: Re: ah Subject description: yes

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

On my last album, I spent most of my time on the composition.

Next time, I want to spend more time on the sound and try to make my composition a little more sound-oriented than melody-oriented.

Of course, we will just have to see, won't we? Rolling Eyes

Sam_Zen · Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 251 Location: NL

As a matter of time, to make sure that the proper single files of the compo are saved to be able to reproduce another mix.

As composing : the preparation of the material of the 'instruments'.
I work quite default with samples, and they have to be finetuned up to the exact byte most of the time, to have any quality.

Veil · Joined: Mar 24, 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Taunton SW UK

Music is the fun bit, arranging and mixing is a bit of a chore - it was a new year's resolution for me this year to cut down the mixing period and it's going well - actually starting to enjoy the mixing a little.

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

Vocals are also probably the longest component for me, especially considering I'm my own worst critic. I have an instrumental album out, and the only reason it's an instrumental album is I was never satisfied with the vocals. I'm STILL working on vocals for that album.

abreaktor · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject:

arrangement. ive developed quite good maneouvers with 4-bar or 8-bar (micro)melodies, but everything above that: bad. it takes ages. i was glad when i switched from 4-bar-editing to 8-32 bar playing, but i dont know enough to actually modulate. may come, i see a development, but arranging takes ages compared to coming up with the main 4 or 8 bars.

Octahedra · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject: Mastering

Well, it's not the longest part in terms of hours spent working, or even in weeks/months of regular listening, trying to decide if I've made the right decisions, but the bit that feels most painfully slow to me is mastering.

If an old composition just isn't that good, it won't get listened to very often, and that's fair. And I'd probably sacrifice a toe or two to be able to reduce the excessive reverb on the lead synth part of my (now 5 years old) Nebulon 4. Well you get the idea...

But even when I'm happy with the mix, I've got so tired of spotting mastering problems in otherwise decent music, years after I thought I'd finished the job, that I've become almost paranoid about it. As I'm now doing it all in Sonar with the audio tracks still separate, I can tweak the mix at the same time (within limits due to multitimbral synths recorded as stereo) and undo/redo at any time, which is better in the long run if you put enough time into getting it right. You need ninja skill or ninja patience for this job. For the foreseeable future I'm forced to go for the patience option!

Compared to composing, recording & mixing though, this job is just so annoying because it's so hard even to notice your mistakes, let alone judge the relative merits of each thing you try in the name of fixing them. By the time my current project is finished, mastering will probably account for over 25% of time taken (that's total weeks from start to finish, not hours spent sitting at computer!)

Gordon

Doni · Joined: Jul 11, 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Canada

definitely waiting for my girlfriend to leave the house.... dam she cramps my style when I'm crankin out a track... but she lovely hahah

but seriously, I'd say mastering, because honestly, you've just got to let your ears regenerate after you've finished a track before you can get really critical with it.

abreaktor · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:55 am Post subject:

solved the arrangement issue (being the longest) by doing all things more or less simultaneously, inclunding premastering. now its really hard to say what takes longest since my workflow can go from microediting 3 drum tracks to effects automation recording to adding some notes in the breakdown to equing a subgroup. heh.

Rykhaard · Joined: Sep 02, 2007 Posts: 1290 Location: Canada