ILM music making thread for techno and other Ableton/Reason/Reaktor/whatever based questions and chat

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Thanks. I'll dig out something that auto-warps with a gazillion markers. I can't remember one offhand, but it was a funk track.

― Jamie T Smith, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

this is gonna sound like a really stupid question, but how do i record eg. a vocal in ableton without it also recording the backing track onto the vocal track? thx.

― rio natsume, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 01:24 (nineteen years ago)

create a new audio track. CTRL+T

arm that track and record into it. You can have as many as your computer can handle.

xpost rio nat

― Display Name, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:00 (nineteen years ago)

sorry is that to me? i know how to record, but i wanna be able to record the vocal track while hearing the backing track without it recording into the vocal track. so i have 2 seperate tracks. this must be possible right? or is it just a case of recording the vocal along to the metronome and then lining it up with the backing track?

― rio natsume, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:28 (nineteen years ago)

I used to try to produce trance music...frankly

its very hard to do T_T

― wesley useche, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:01 (nineteen years ago)

this is gonna sound like a really stupid question, but how do i record eg. a vocal in ableton without it also recording the backing track onto the vocal track?

Umm ... is the input on the vocal track set to "resampling?" It should just be set to whatever device/input you're using for your mic.

― nabisco, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

How do I use Reaktor inside Ableton?

I am not sure where to tell Ableton that Reaktor is, or if that's how it works....any tips?

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

OK help:

for some reason when running from my mixer to ableton on the comp to speakers, there is a delay. a notable delay that makes blending between records impossible, bcuz the headphones are several steps ahead of whats coming out of the PA. Is ableton whats slowing this down? Or is it just because i'm running it into the mic input? Is there a way to uh undelay it? help help help

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 20:31 (nineteen years ago)

(headphones being plugged into the mixer, obv)

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

It's probably latency w/Ableton, maybe see if there are latency settings you can adjust to compensate?

― Jordan, Monday, 9 April 2007 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

i'm @ work right now so i can't check but if anyone else knows they can help out too

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 20:55 (nineteen years ago)

rio natsume: try wearing headphones while recording the vocals. also be sure that ableton's input routing is correct. the microphone should be on it's own audio channel, it should be armed and should not be sending or receiving audio from other audio channels.

deej: are you using asio drivers? they will drop your latency to like under 30ms. also: plug your headphones into the pa if that's possible.

ronan: you have to set up ableton to rewire reaktor so you can treat it sort of like a vst. i've never done this so i can't really explain how.

there are some really good tutorials for ableton on youtube, but also some very shitty ones as well. see if you can spot which is which!

― The Macallan 18 Year, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not sure what asio drivers are. i can't plug the headphones into the pa, tho, at least not in the current home setup

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

Ok, this isn't a "for some reason" problem, it's just latency -- it's always there, and your goal is to minimize it.

What sort of audio interface are you using? (Like the physical input that's plugging in to the computer.) This is usually where the latency comes in -- the time it takes the interface to convert the sound to digital and actually feed it in to the software you're using. Better interface = less latency, for the most part.

The audio preferences for Ableton have latency settings, and you want to get them as low as you can without the sound breaking up; it'll play a test tone, and you can nudge the latency down until that breaks. (One tip here = set up the sample rate each step is using so that they're all the same, and no unnecessary conversions are going on between mixer / interface / drivers / software). There's also a whole tutorial in Ableton that walks you through checking your latency time and having the software compensate for it when recording.

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

cool thanks

right now its an audio cable to 1/8th going into the mic/line in on my laptop. If thats what you mean by interface? whats a better interface there? i'll go through the tutorial when i get home

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

You can definitely reduce your latency to negligible amounts with ASIO. Just takes installing a driver package and then doing some minor tweaking. You can select the audio drivers using a pulldown menu in Ableton's preferences menu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output

SIO offers a relatively simple way of accessing multiple audio inputs and outputs independently. It also provides for the synchronization of input with output in a way that is not possible with DirectSound, allowing recording studios to process their audio via software on the computer instead of using thousands of dollars worth of separate equipment. Its main strength lies in its method of bypassing the inherently high latency of operating system audio mixing kernels (KMixer), allowing direct, high speed communication with audio hardware.

I use ASIOx, it's abandonware but they work the best for me. http://asiox.exovii.fr/

― The Macallan 18 Year, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, you don't have any kind of preamp, Deej?

― Jordan, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, deej, so you're just using the factory soundcard? Do you know if it's a decent one or not? Obviously most laptops are going to come standard with a fairly cut-rate soundcard, so unless you customized with something decent, that's probably your main problem.

If this is something you spend much time on at all, I'd recommend looking for a decent-quality audio interface. Plenty of workable ones are in the $99-$250 range -- for that price, you can get a Firewire or USB input box; and for a little more, you can get a full mixer that plugs in via USB or Firewire. There are also PC-card interfaces that are marketed at DJs -- usually less features, but faster. If you feel like investing a little, any of these things will cut down your latency, probably clean up your sound (with better pre-amps and gain staging), give you more direct control over input levels and types, and ... well, someone sells one for nearly every purpose, so you can find something with features that suit you. Just drop by a music store, browse around, and ask someone.

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

cool thnx very much everyone
this shit is an expensive hobby

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

Is a preamp something I will need in addition? or is that overlapping with what nabisco's talking about

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, the interface/external soundcard will do it, mine is that + a preamp for mic input (I guess).

― Jordan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

ronan: you have to set up ableton to rewire reaktor so you can treat it sort of like a vst. i've never done this so i can't really explain how.

if anyone knows how to do this, that'd be cool.

will check youtube for some tutorials.

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:05 (nineteen years ago)

And if you're mostly just mixing records, you really don't have to drop a ton on an interface -- just something small and simple that'll cut out the latency. (Though be aware that they're making more and more DJ mixers that have direct Firewire links for your computer, so you might even be able to find something affordable and just sell off the old mixer to get it.)

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

Ronan, I've never done this with Reaktor, but for the most part Rewire just auto-connects this stuff: if you open Ableton first, then Reaktor next, does Reaktor not appear as an input source in Ableton?

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

(Though be aware that they're making more and more DJ mixers that have direct Firewire links for your computer, so you might even be able to find something affordable and just sell off the old mixer to get it.)

this sounds like a wiser idea to me ...

― deej, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

The Pioneer DJM800 will do the trick but oh good lord the $$$

― The Macallan 18 Year, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

Well just note that the DJ mixers (amazingly enough) don't seem to have come down quite as cheap as the line and guitar-focused inputs, so a lot of those are still on the high end -- big nice expensive $500 suckers. But I'll bet if you look around, there'll be something that suits you.

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:25 (nineteen years ago)

it's sort of weird, because I am not an expert in either Ableton or Reaktor, but basically when I go to set up my plug-ins by pressing the plug-in icon, I'm not sure how to make it recognise Reaktor so it comes up there, or to make Ableton recognise it as a VST. I'm not sure how to set up a place for Ableton to look for plugins, or how to just tell it that Reaktor is one!

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

Oh! Huh: I've never known Rewire to make anything show up as a VST before -- usually the other source would just appear in the drop-down input list on your Ableton tracks. (That's how I use Ableton and Reason, for instance.) But I'm not working with the latest versions of these things, and I've never had Reaktor, so ... never mind what I said above, I guess.

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:34 (nineteen years ago)

Oh ok, maybe I'm asking stupid questions, do you mean it would appear with instruments or something? Or somewhere else? it doesn't have to appear as a VST, sorry I'm possibly punching above my weight here.

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

What do you want to do with it? Maybe you could just export shit as wav files and import into Ableton?

― Jordan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wait -- a bit of googling suggests that Rewire should not be involved in this process at all. According to a couple forum threads, you should just be able to use Reaktor as a VSTi in Live, straight up, no Rewire involved.

(But just to clarify what I meant about Rewire: say you're using Ableton as your master program and, say, Reason as the slave. On each Ableton track, there's the little drop-down for "input" -- it would have options like "no input," your sound card, "resampling," and then it'd show "Reason." And then you could specify any of those 1-60 output lines on the Reason bus thing. So not on the left under instruments / plug-ins / etc., but the actual track input thing.)

― nabisco, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

thing is, I know I can play Reaktor as a VST in Ableton, and this seems the easiest way to do it. I know from talking to others that this works but can't seem to calibrate it myself...so I guess I just need someone who has a PC and has done this to say "YES this is how".

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

what I want to do at the moment is basically "screw around", I wish there was a more linear way to get into production, but I guess I am just kind of learning as slowly as I can, trying not to be overwhelmed.

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

that's the best way to do it ronan, go slow and don't expect immediate gratification.

not to complicate things more but i use native instruments' massive as a soft synth and it's great. it comes with tons of presets: huge analog saws, sci fi pads, sub bass. every preset can be heavily modded using the same 8 macro rotary controls which is handy when you don't know jack shit about fm synthesis (like me).

the demo's worth trying:
http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=massive_us

― The Macallan 18 Year, Monday, 9 April 2007 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

ronan,

You need to figure out where abelton is looking for vst plug ins. Most likely, you will look in one of the abelton folders and you will see a folder that says "vst" or something to that effect. The next step is to move a copy of reaktor into this folder. you will be looking for a .dll file, which is the actual code for the plug in.

Once you have the .dll file in the correct folder(the folder where Live looks for plug ins) you need to refresh the plug in list on the left hand side. If you did it right, you should see reaktor in directory of third party vst plug ins.

Once you figure out where to put reaktor, you might want to delete the old instance from your HD and just reinstall Reaktor into the proper folder. You will also want to put it in it's own folder(within the vst folder) so that you can organize all your patches and sub folders in one place.

― Display Name, Monday, 9 April 2007 23:00 (nineteen years ago)

bingo, thanks a lot Mike.

And The Macallan 18 Year, that sounds good, I must try and check out Massive.

― Ronan, Monday, 9 April 2007 23:06 (nineteen years ago)

"what I want to do at the moment is basically "screw around", I wish there was a more linear way to get into production, but I guess I am just kind of learning as slowly as I can, trying not to be overwhelmed."

That is why I recommend starting with a single piece of hardware and spending a few months really getting to know how it works. By the time you have saved up for the next piece you should know your old one pretty well. I would recommend picking up a second hand Roland R8mkII or R70 and just spend a few month learning how to write drums. You could buy a synth instead and spend a few months learning synthesis and how to write and play parts.

Computers with cracked vst's and hardware instruments are like the difference between getting an acoustic guitar for Christmas and getting an entire 5 player band set up and a full 24 track recording studio on Christmas morning. It is cool to have all that sonic potential all at once, but it kind of fucks you up as a musician because it requires a lot more dicipline to concentrate on the fundamentals that actualy make your music worth listening to.

― Display Name, Monday, 9 April 2007 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

Why has my computer suddenly decided it doesn't have the drivers for my Edirol UA-20 soundcard? I only unplugged it and back in again. Is it cos I plugged it into a different USB port or what?

― the next grozart, Monday, 9 April 2007 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

All good points Mike, I guess it's too tempting to try and just make a track, rather than try and understand what I'm doing! It is quite expensive to go down the hardware route though.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

Grozart -- yes, try the original port. I have zero idea why, but some devices install in that weird port-specific way.

Ronan -- don't necessarily shy away from trying to make tracks, too! I mean, one of the main ways you'll learn about the software is by running into roadblocks in that process ("this synth pad doesn't sound the way I want!"), and being forced to learn the right techniques to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish ("aha, this fixes it!"). It's more a matter of remembering that you're only trying to make the track, and you're not actually expecting to get there yet. A good blend of track-making and going back to the manual when you get stuck ... that tends to do it.

Macallan -- learning about synthesis is seriously not as complicated as some people make it sound! Just go to a page that explains all the different paramaters, sit down in front of the computer, and play with each value as you read about what it does. Doing either one of those things in isolation isn't so helpful, but when you can read what the thing is doing and hear it happening at the same time, it all comes clear very quickly.

― nabisco, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

P.S. I know I'm always all about Reason, but the Reason Subtractor is really good for sorting out how synthesis works -- just read through the manual's explanations of what each thing does and futz with it at the same time. Things like ASDR envelopes sound really complicated when someone tries to explain them in words, but they're incredibly simple and straightforward.

― nabisco, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

Ronan -- don't necessarily shy away from trying to make tracks, too! I mean, one of the main ways you'll learn about the software is by running into roadblocks in that process ("this synth pad doesn't sound the way I want!"), and being forced to learn the right techniques to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish ("aha, this fixes it!"). It's more a matter of remembering that you're only trying to make the track, and you're not actually expecting to get there yet. A good blend of track-making and going back to the manual when you get stuck ... that tends to do it.

Absolutely OTM. So many would-be producers fall into the trap of constantly messing around with gear/software and techniques, but never producing any finished music. It's well worth getting into the habit of trying to write finished stuff now, instead of just tinkering and learning.

Mike's advice is spot on too, but there's no reason you can't adopt that approach using a computer rather than a hardware synth or drum-machine. I'd recommend that you forget about Reaktor for now, and just concentrate on working with what you have available to you in Ableton. Assuming you're using the (ahem) 'demo' version, you'll already have a decent synth (Operator) and sampler (Sampler) available to you. Run through the built-in Ableton tutorials, and you should know enough to start writing a basic track. Once you start feeling limited by the instruments and effects provided by Ableton, you can start thinking about Reaktor. Until then, you're just complicating the whole process for yourself.

― jng, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 02:06 (nineteen years ago)

Nabisco is right. Basic subtractive synthesis isn't that hard to get your head around.

osc-->filter-->EG--> psychedelic drug noise coming out of your speakers...

Pretty much the only x-factor that makes things more complicated are the different modulators and the effects they produce on different parts of the signal chain. The main thing with the EG is to remember that a synth can really only produce four catagories of sound and that they are all basically produced by one of four EG settings.

When you start getting into FM, Wavetable, and Additive, that is when things start getting a little more difficult.

― Display Name, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 02:11 (nineteen years ago)

Mike's advice is spot on too, but there's no reason you can't adopt that approach using a computer rather than a hardware synth or drum-machine. I'd recommend that you forget about Reaktor for now, and just concentrate on working with what you have available to you in Ableton. Assuming you're using the (ahem) 'demo' version, you'll already have a decent synth (Operator) and sampler (Sampler) available to you. Run through the built-in Ableton tutorials, and you should know enough to start writing a basic track. Once you start feeling limited by the instruments and effects provided by Ableton, you can start thinking about Reaktor. Until then, you're just complicating the whole process for yourself.

The beauty of Ableton is that there is no reason why you cannot make complete tracks using nothing but the stock instruments and effects. Everything in that program can be used and is high quality. I would recommend getting a basic subtractive vst and using that instead of operator, but that is just me. I use Ableton and a few third party VST's and that is about it.

The big thing is to hold off on Reaktor *or* Ableton because you are biting off way more than you can chew. I have been doing this since 95 and I would not consider myself minimally competent in reaktor in less than three months of daily work. You could spend three months learning Reaktor but you aren't going to have much music to show for it. The thing to work on is music itself, and Ableton is going to offer the least resistance in term of the interface. You can start working immediately in Ableton.

Another thing you might want to start off with is a copy of Soundforge and Ableton. You might want to start off doing a few edits before you write your own material. It will give you a better idea of the workflow in ableton and it will give you a better understanding of how to structure a song. You might want to take a track that you really like, hack it up into sections, and then arrange those sections in the different song styles. You will get passable results much quicker that way, and it will not be so immediately discouraging.
Unless you are a godlike genius, you're going to suck for a long time and it is going to be 95% hate and 5% love.

― Display Name, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 02:37 (nineteen years ago)

You might want to start off doing a few edits before you write your own material.

Super good advice that I am currently following.

― The Macallan 18 Year, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 02:53 (nineteen years ago)

Awesome timing finding this thread. I'm just now trying to feel my way into this kind of music making. All I know is straight piano playing, so this is all a bit overwhelming for me right now. I have Reason and a laptop, and thats about it. I need a usb controller kbd i think. I found Reason very convoluted and confusing, because I couldnt work out how to easily just doodle melodies after laying down a rhythm. So I've fallen back to Fruityloops just to get my head round the basics, is that a wise move?

Should I buy an external soundcard/controller box dealie?

― Trayce, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 03:59 (nineteen years ago)

a lot of ableton peoples swear by the notavion remote 25SL. if it's keys, knobs, sliders and a touchpad that you want this is probably going to do it for you.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--NOVREMOTE25SL

― The Macallan 18 Year, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 04:22 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I figured Ableton is the one to learn, being easier and all. I guess the reason I started veering towards Reaktor is I spent a long time making a decent drumbeat in Ableton and tweaking it around, and then when I wanted to put synths in all the Ableton ones sounded kinda shit. But maybe this can be changed with fx and stuff in Ableton...or just by downloading better samples for a start.

So maybe if someone had some good suggestions on a simpler way to use synths, even some good vsts that will work nicely with Ableton and aren't too hard to use.

Thanks again for the advice. I figure it's a bit like going through the pain barrier everyday, just forcing myself to learn something!

― Ronan, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 08:43 (nineteen years ago)

i'd stick with ableton primarily for now if i were you ronan, particularly because you can use it for mixes as well as tracks. its a pretty good way of setting up and building tracks, getting the discipline of how a track should be constructed....and it doesnt really matter if it doesnt sound very interesting, its good discipline because its *structure*

reaktor is just like a sea of endlessness. it might be worth playing with reaktor by itself and as a vst in ableton *for now*

that way you can separate out the making tracks and discipline and structure, when you do ableton

and the figuring out how things work with reaktor

and gradually bring the two ends together later on

― 600, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 08:54 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Ableton 12 is coming, looks pretty nice. They are finally putting big faders in the arrangement view and making some other nice workflow improvements. Very excited!

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 14:47 (two years ago)

Have you heard the Good News about our Lord and Savior, Bespoke Synth? It's not just a synth, it's a whole-ass modular DAWstrument and it is all I want to play with anymore

https://www.bespokesynth.com/

― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 15:19 (two years ago)

(the fact that it's free doesn't hurt)

― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 15:19 (two years ago)

Interesting, will check it out :)

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 15:23 (two years ago)

This looks neat, I'll have to give it a try. Reminds me a bit of a free version of the grid in Bitwig.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 15:28 (two years ago)

one month passes...

So is Meld the Ableton answer to Mutable Instruments Plaits and the Arturia Microfreak?

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 23 December 2023 16:49 (two years ago)

Just reading about it, it sounds a lot like Pigments?

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Saturday, 23 December 2023 17:43 (two years ago)

The thing that reminds me of plaits is that you have a list of synth engines to choose from and then each one has 2 macro knobs. The knobs control tone in different ways based in the engine you select. Then there's a big modulation matrix, though not a huge amount of individual modulators, not unlike the microfreak (which is based off the plaits architecture).

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 23 December 2023 19:57 (two years ago)

They call it a macro oscillator synth, that was Mutable’s description of Braids (and probably Plaits) IIRC.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 23 December 2023 21:25 (two years ago)

Holy crap! That bespokesynth looks amazing, thanks for the tip zchyrs...
Reminds me a bit of the old Jeskola Buzz... still might be the most fun I've had making music on a computer...
Looking forward to diving in...

― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Sunday, 24 December 2023 05:28 (two years ago)

I adored Buzz. Wrote so many crazy tunes with it been 99 and 2004

― octobeard, Sunday, 24 December 2023 13:14 (two years ago)

Gonna have to check out that bespokesynth now too

― octobeard, Sunday, 24 December 2023 13:15 (two years ago)

two years pass...

Although I was happy with the quality of tracks I made this year, I was less happy with my low output overall. Lately I've been falling into the trap of laying down some cool sounding parts and then trying to mix as I go, before I have a proper arrangement. Inevitably, I dump a bunch of plugins on everything and my computer then grinds to a halt. I'll have a half-finished track, but everything runs so poorly that I get frustrated and move on to the next one.

Anyway, as I have some time off and I'll have the house to myself for a couple weeks, I've decided to challenge myself to doing a track per day. I'm splitting the days into 2 sessions. First, I work on building the base parts on the Digitakt II. My goal is to fill all 16 tracks of a pattern. I really love working with the Digitakt, it feels like endless possibilities at by fingertips and is so quick and so easy to fine-tune everything.

In the 2nd session, I record all the Digitakt parts into Ableton and shape them into a full arrangement, also adding any extra parts from other instruments if needed. Any mixing and polishing I'm going to leave until I have enough arrangements ready, then I'll mix them all together, maybe in a week or so. Forcing myself to do the arrangement first is very important because it's the part I struggle with the most. I can always add or swap out sounds or move things around later, but as long as I have a fairly fleshed out track, I'm ok, as that's the place I keep getting stuck.

I've already finished 2 arrangements and have a 3rd ready to work on tonight. Forcing myself to shift to this workflow has made the whole process much easier for me even though it forces me to focus on the less fun parts first.

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Thursday, 1 January 2026 05:42 (five months ago)

Also, for anyone interested, here's a couple tracks I made earlier this year.

Back To Back

Secrets In The Dark

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Thursday, 1 January 2026 05:54 (five months ago)

focus on the less fun parts first.

I absolutely hate hate hate writing lyrics so today I'm forcing myself to write lyrics first. It's a real 'eat your sprouts' approach but the alternative is that I procrastinate by doing everything else first and then can't finish anything because I still haven't written the lyrics.

― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Thursday, 1 January 2026 11:17 (five months ago)

Do you have the melody first?

I don't have a problem structuring tracks, but I am trying to find the balance between "mix as you go" vs getting out of creative idea mode because I've gotten bogged down in mixing or sound design. Honestly it kinda helps me to go back and forth, because it's more inspiring to keep working on the track once the sounds are great.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 2 January 2026 17:41 (five months ago)

I totally agree with it being more inspiring to work on a track when it sound great, unfortunately my computer does not also agree

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Friday, 2 January 2026 17:48 (five months ago)

I've been loving life ever since getting a new music-only (desktop) computer two years ago, highly recommended

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 2 January 2026 17:49 (five months ago)

Am I the only dork who still uses Reason Compact on my phone? I love it to death but I am worried about it having been unsupported for a number of years and bugs becoming more of an issue as iOS versions and hardware continue to evolve.

― trm (tombotomod), Friday, 2 January 2026 18:00 (five months ago)

Do you have the melody first?

Usually I have bits of the melody but I try and avoid having the entire backing track done before writing the words. I've only once been able to complete the lyrics to a song where the rest of it's already been done.

― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Friday, 2 January 2026 19:01 (five months ago)

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