When an idea hits you, your main goal
is to capture that idea as fast as you can.
You want to have your music production
system up and running as fast as possible.
Losing time in this critical moment of the
music creation process will most certainly
lead to losing your idea.
It will be gone.
Forever.
Even if you are able to keep your musical
idea in the fore front of your head you will
be losing momentum, if you don’t have your
system up and running fast.
And if you have to create tracks within your
DAW, search for VST X and then have to
load sample A, B, C and D before you can
begin to nail your idea.
There’s a better, faster and easier way …
1. Create a Template
Simply create a project that contains your
favorite VSTs, plugins, and samples, so
you can start producing right away.
Save it as template file, if your DAW has
that feature.
You can change and refine sounds later.
Right now your only goal is to hammer
your idea into the computer as fast as
you can, so it doesn’t slip away.
2. Make a quick arrangement
It can be tempting to lose yourself in the
details of a single loop, trying to refine
that one loop to perfection.
And while there are wildly successful
producers out there who barely need
more than one perfect loop to create
huge hits (think of Dr. Dre), I don’t
recommend you focus on that much
detail at an early stage of the music
creation process.
Instead, I suggest a top down method.
The big picture first, then the details.
Which will lead to being much more
goal oriented and producing a lot faster.
In our case, top down method means
creating a quick arrangement at an early
stage.
A basic arrangement could look like this:
Intro – Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus – Chorus – Outro
Of course, there are many different ways
to arrange a song and you are totally free
to move elements around, skip some, or
entirely disrupt classic song structures.
But you’ll still want to have the big picture
first.
The quick arrangement will be your nav.
It will help you to reach your goal (a finished
song, beat, remix) as fast and hassle-free as
possible.
3. Polish, add details and refine your mix
Now that you have a basic arrangement in
place it will be a lot easier to know where
to add rhythmic, harmonic and melodic
variations and where to add special fx,
swooshes etc.
When your arrangement is complete leave
your song alone ideally until the next day
or, if you are in a rush, at least for half an
hour in order to reset your ears and mind.
Then, with fresh ears, mix your song.
The direction of the mix should be very clear
now and, depending on your mixing skills,
you should be able to finish your mix within
2 to 4 hours.
Time to implement
Now it’s time to put your new knowledge into
work. Create your first production template
right now. Because later never happens.
With your new template and music production
tactics you will be able to finish your next song,
beat, remix in half the time.
Try it today!
Enjoy and stay creative
P.S. Do you want to increase your music
production speed and joy even more?
Then this music production package will be
a good starting point.