Making music with limited free time

[ganus]

I am working full time in IT, and I have a partner that I live with. It's difficult to get far writing a song, as my old process is pretty meticulous.

 

Anyone have techniques they use to get music sketched out quickly they could share?

 

Any good Android apps for getting ideas/composition basics down? Or even a good 4 track recorder?

One idea I had was writing music in MIDI on my smartphone, and then porting it to Caustic and writing the patches there,since the piano roll is so difficult to use. However, I haven't found anything for midi I like yet.

 

Unconventional PC or Android composition apps?

 

Writing music on paper tips/resources?

 

Thanks!

[ganus]

What I am really trying to ask here is: what do those of you here in similar situations do about creating music?

[modey]

Sunvox is a good app if you're into trackers. It's available for win/osx/android/ios/linux and a bunch of others, and the files are cross-compatible.

 

Other than that, nanoloop maybe? It's good for quick ideas. I used nanoloop on gameboy micro to sketch out ideas at work/on public transport, but I also incorporate it into my live sets by syncing it with monomachine.

 

I also don't have much time for music, but I usually manage to dedicate a few hours a night to my projects. Mondays and Tuesdays are usually for my collab projects, then I usually keep Wednesday/Friday/Saturday free to see my girlfriend/party/etc, with Thursday and Sunday evenings for my solo work. I dunno, it works for me!

[Guest cult fiction]

I feel ya on time crunch. My music time is limited to a half hour every other day or so now due to kids, so I've been working in two phases:

* Demo out 1/2 to a whole song using the cheesiest vsts possible... I mostly write straight in the piano roll but will occasionally hook up a midi keyboard. if it's still good/fun to listen to with a bunch of cheeseball sounds you know it has potential, and you don't get bogged down in sound design(yet) so you can focus on composition

* If a track has potential then I take it into the studio and start coming up with the actual patches and recording, the most time consuming part is if the arrangment starts taking the song in a different direction but it's worth it

 

If you're using any hardware having your studio set up so you can turn it all on as quickly as possible is important.

 

I also try to think about where a song should go during the day and try to save night time for implementation of ideas, I frequently save out mp3s and put them on google music so I can test them out in the car on the drive to work

[modey]

If you're using any hardware having your studio set up so you can turn it all on as quickly as possible is important.

 

I also try to think about where a song should go during the day and try to save night time for implementation of ideas, I frequently save out mp3s and put them on google music so I can test them out in the car on the drive to work

both of these, so much.

[Silent Member]

What I am really trying to ask here is: what do those of you here in similar situations do about creating music?

I sketch some decent loops that I never find time to develop any further. Sometimes I fire up my gear and listen to them while I fiddle with the eq. A single tear is formed.

[Entorwellian]

Caustic is a good iphone app for music making.

 

Sunvox is a lot more versatile and a really cool DAW but I found it hard to use on the phone. Might be better if you have a tablet or ipad. I never found composition workflow to be fast or efficient in sunvox on the phone or touchscreens, but I get amazing sounds and pads with the various ways you can chain up the modules.

I would recommend Caustic (http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic). It's more like a miniature version of propellerheads Reason in that you create a rack of units that come packaged with the program and you can add your own samples and soundfonts for the in-built sampler. Not as raw as sunvox but it will get you making good tunes really fast. I saw that you mentioned that you use caustic, though, but I think its still the best program to make tunes fast.

 

Both programs are free on desktop OS's so you can try both of them out without having to lose anything.

 

If you are looking at hardware I'd recommend getting a sampler/sequencer and filling half of the sound banks with various drum samples and the other half with bass and pad hits and work exclusively with that (maybe with one effect unit). If you are limited on time, limit yourself to one instrument and make sure its versatile enough to include everything you want to do. You can probably bang out a half-decent song within an hour or two.

 

I use a sampler/sequencer to make loops and weird sounds in and then transfer them over to cool edit when I am in a lethargic mood and have no energy to make tunes. So even if I am not making tunes I am continually adding to a library of stuff to use later. I consider it music production.

[peace 7]

I think this is all about time management. People generally have time. I'm also one to feel that "I don't have time", but then I just busted out a track for the WATMM comp in a couple days. So obviously, if I make time, it is there.

 

I have an artist friend on facebook who is a big inspiration to me, even though his art is kind of... not that good. But the point is, he posts pics regulalry of his drawings/paintings, with notes like, "Finishing this up before work", etc. He works full time, yet finds the time to finish up pieces, even if he doesn't have long-consecutive hours of time. So it is really a matter of putting in the time.

 

Even working 12 hours a day, then sleeping 6, that still leaves 6 hours of free time. Even taking out 2 hours for breakfast and dinner, that still leaves 4. 4 hours, 7 days a week-- that's 28 hours, yo. Over 110 hours a week of free time. That's a lot! Even if it takes 100 hours to finish a track, that's still a track a month-- a full album in a year.

 

I think the main point is to stop watching TV or doing other bullshit like watching YouTube for 10 hours straight (which I've done many times). Or like people who say they don't have time to work out-- one can do tons of calisthenics during commercial breaks!!! There really is no excuse to not get shit done. I haven't worked on music or artwork properly in many years, and I have no excuse but laziness and not really caring, I suppose. When I was in art school, my free time was mostly spent making music. I was passionate as fuck about it and found any time I could to work on tracks. Passion is required to get shit done. It's not about having more time-- it's about making more time!

[Verdant Hickies]

Just record your journey on the train/bus/motorway with your phone, piece it together, maybe paulstretch to 24 hours, release as ambient album, say it's art.

[ryancolecreate]

I think this is all about time management. People generally have time. I'm also one to feel that "I don't have time", but then I just busted out a track for the WATMM comp in a couple days. So obviously, if I make time, it is there.

 

I have an artist friend on facebook who is a big inspiration to me, even though his art is kind of... not that good. But the point is, he posts pics regulalry of his drawings/paintings, with notes like, "Finishing this up before work", etc. He works full time, yet finds the time to finish up pieces, even if he doesn't have long-consecutive hours of time. So it is really a matter of putting in the time.

 

Even working 12 hours a day, then sleeping 6, that still leaves 6 hours of free time. Even taking out 2 hours for breakfast and dinner, that still leaves 4. 4 hours, 7 days a week-- that's 28 hours, yo. Over 110 hours a week of free time. That's a lot! Even if it takes 100 hours to finish a track, that's still a track a month-- a full album in a year.

 

I think the main point is to stop watching TV or doing other bullshit like watching YouTube for 10 hours straight (which I've done many times). Or like people who say they don't have time to work out-- one can do tons of calisthenics during commercial breaks!!! There really is no excuse to not get shit done. I haven't worked on music or artwork properly in many years, and I have no excuse but laziness and not really caring, I suppose. When I was in art school, my free time was mostly spent making music. I was passionate as fuck about it and found any time I could to work on tracks. Passion is required to get shit done. It's not about having more time-- it's about making more time!

This is only true to a point. I work 9-6 everyday, then 630-9 is dedicated to kids, and then 9-11 is typically freelance work. Seeing as my kids wake up around 630 or 7 every morning, I tend to pay severely for staying up much later than that.

 

My way of dealing with it is to tend towards less fiddly ways of writing music. For instance w/ numerology. I can whip up some interesting sequences and get to something pretty complex really quickly, then just perform and record an arrangement in realtime. With this approach i can make a complete (but rough obviously) tune in about 3 hours end to end.

 

I actually really like this productive approach. You make lots of music, and so by doing so progress through things a lot faster than if I were to spend 2 months and dozens of hours fiddling with a single tune. Of course it's got its imperfections, but lets be honest. The music you and I make is likely quite ephemeral. At best a handful of people will listen to it a handful of times.

 

I'd rather have 4 dozen interesting and rough tracks in a catalog than some precious 4 track EP on bandcamp with 3 downloads. I find it actually really liberating to just forget about tweaking things to death, and get down to actually making music.

 

Just my 2c.

[mcbpete]

Check out this ace ebook, covers this issue completely along with all other musical blockages - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZJG398U

[granty]

I have the same issue. I tend to use GarageBand on my iPad, usually on the train into work - then when I've got something I want to expand on I sync it on my laptop and import it into Logic. The main problem for me is not being able to get something dow when the inspiration comes. When you're more prescriptive about sitting down at set times it's inherently more laborious to come up with anything good.

[o00o]

 

I think this is all about time management. People generally have time. I'm also one to feel that "I don't have time", but then I just busted out a track for the WATMM comp in a couple days. So obviously, if I make time, it is there.

 

I have an artist friend on facebook who is a big inspiration to me, even though his art is kind of... not that good. But the point is, he posts pics regulalry of his drawings/paintings, with notes like, "Finishing this up before work", etc. He works full time, yet finds the time to finish up pieces, even if he doesn't have long-consecutive hours of time. So it is really a matter of putting in the time.

 

Even working 12 hours a day, then sleeping 6, that still leaves 6 hours of free time. Even taking out 2 hours for breakfast and dinner, that still leaves 4. 4 hours, 7 days a week-- that's 28 hours, yo. Over 110 hours a week of free time. That's a lot! Even if it takes 100 hours to finish a track, that's still a track a month-- a full album in a year.

 

I think the main point is to stop watching TV or doing other bullshit like watching YouTube for 10 hours straight (which I've done many times). Or like people who say they don't have time to work out-- one can do tons of calisthenics during commercial breaks!!! There really is no excuse to not get shit done. I haven't worked on music or artwork properly in many years, and I have no excuse but laziness and not really caring, I suppose. When I was in art school, my free time was mostly spent making music. I was passionate as fuck about it and found any time I could to work on tracks. Passion is required to get shit done. It's not about having more time-- it's about making more time!

This is only true to a point. I work 9-6 everyday, then 630-9 is dedicated to kids, and then 9-11 is typically freelance work. Seeing as my kids wake up around 630 or 7 every morning, I tend to pay severely for staying up much later than that.

 

My way of dealing with it is to tend towards less fiddly ways of writing music. For instance w/ numerology. I can whip up some interesting sequences and get to something pretty complex really quickly, then just perform and record an arrangement in realtime. With this approach i can make a complete (but rough obviously) tune in about 3 hours end to end.

 

I actually really like this productive approach. You make lots of music, and so by doing so progress through things a lot faster than if I were to spend 2 months and dozens of hours fiddling with a single tune. Of course it's got its imperfections, but lets be honest. The music you and I make is likely quite ephemeral. At best a handful of people will listen to it a handful of times.

 

I'd rather have 4 dozen interesting and rough tracks in a catalog than some precious 4 track EP on bandcamp with 3 downloads. I find it actually really liberating to just forget about tweaking things to death, and get down to actually making music.

 

Just my 2c.

This.

 

 

On topic: Figure by propellerheads is my go to mobile app sadly it only supports 8 bars

[peace 7]

I suppose workflow hacks are beneficial, but I feel that the result has a taste of context in it; main context being, "I want to work as fast as possible!" Iii dunno. Cuz I've thought about it for music and animation, as well. For music, a tip to myself is: "work on the composition of the whole track, then work on mixing and beat changes, whatevz, at the end", but I don't generally follow that. And I've been writing some animated series for ages, and due to frame by frame animation taking FOREVER, I've explored many avenues to get the best bang-for-time, even considering no color, etc.

 

I think one of the main reasons that people cannot make time for art, is because there is this idea that it takes so many fucking hours to do, which it generally does. I don't think that's a bad thing, nor do I feel that that should be daunting, due to time-consumption being in the nature of art production. All I know is that art is sacred, and if it takes months to finish a track, so be it! But the time HAS to be put in. When there is a belief that "I don't have enough time", NO TIME tends to be put into projects. Some Renaissance art took many years to decades to complete... That is just the nature of the beast.

 

"Nobody will listen to this music" is not an attitude I work with. I am working with self-expression and creation with Zeus at my side-- all my best art and music- ideally- should be "produced for the gods". "We are all gonna die, so what is the point of anything? And in several hundred years, nobody will remember you, so what's the point?" For me- that IS the point. Given the assumption that nobody will remember me, how great a life can I live; how much great art can I produce. If nobody will care one day, I figure it is all about the now. And if it is only about the now, then I might as well do the most amazing job I can in the time allotted. When all is said and done, I will find peace in knowing that I gave it my all, just because I could.

 

No compromises-- full IDM Lazer 24/7. "I don't have time" is an illusion of the corporate world and fashion world, promoting ideas of time costing more than effort and older age being worthless. We have INFINITE TIME. Now is infinite, and we have all of it. We have SO MUCH TIME, and we can DO WHATEVER WE WANT WITH IT!!!!! We are truly blessed with Time. "Time is money" is a common sentiment, but that is not correct-- time is THE ONLY REAL CURRENCY. Time itself, is a THE currency of Life. And, we have infinite of it. We are all ultra rich. Let us never forget how blessed we are to have so much Time.

[Psychotronic]

Only use 2-3 synths and a basic set of processors that you really know in and out, that helps a lot. As for song structures. Don't program them. Just improvise them live and record your happy accidents. Much more fun and alot less time consuming. After some years of practice in that area your are perfectly able to improvise a song in under 4 hours.

 

Having thousands of plugs and producing tracks in a DAW soft is the madness of todays musicians.

[digman]

I'm in a pretty similar situation. My advice would be do as much "music making" as you can while your not making music. My commute is relatively short and crowded so apps don't really work for me - here are some things that work for me:

• Record Sounds when you're out and about
• Listen to lots of music, think about what you're hearing, break things down, get inspiration for things you might want to try
• Listen / Watch tutorials and gear demos
• Build up your sample libraries
• At the end of every session bounce out everything you have worked on and put it on your Phone so you can listen to it when you're out doing stuff and think about what you can do to make it better

Here are some things I try to do when I do get to sit down in my music making environment

• Have a clear idea of what you want to experiment with or make in that session
• Give yourself a time limit on your session, remember you have work tomorrow
• Take Breaks
• Focus your time and energy, with limited time its important that you use it effectively
• Feeling tired? Probably better to take a night off, I find I'm usually more happy with my results if I'm fresh and excited to sit down and make stuff. I probably do 2-3, 3-4 hour sessions a week and one big block at some point over the weekend.

Andy Stott talks a bit about some similar stuff in this interview he did a while back on RA. I found it quite helpful and I definitely took a bit away from it when I read it. He talks about working in an auto shop and eventually giving that up to give himself more time to produce music: http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1933

[granty]

As for song structures. Don't program them. Just improvise them live and record your happy accidents. Much more fun and alot less time consuming.

 

This is very good advice. I struggle with structure more than anything. The temptation with DAWs is to copy/paste blocks of chords and melodies which stifles the natural flow of things. When you play or improvise you're guided by intuition, which is always better than trying to think it through like a puzzle to be solved.

[Guest kymppinetti]

 

there is time

[joshuatxuk]

Helpful thread, been struggling with this myself.

[Leon Sumbitches]

 

there is time

 

Perfect lol, almost forgot about that thread.

[volterock]

If you want to use FL, the mobile version will alow a .flp export into the main program for later.

 

I also have a few friends who play guitar who use this and it works well for them: http://www.tabit.net/

 

Or, perhaps you can find a way to make music with your kids or partner in a fun and interesting way? Perhaps build midi triggers on chairs, drapery, neighbors and other objects that they are unaware of interacting with...

[b born droid]

I agree with Peace 7, so long as you are single. If you're not, then you probably don't have time. But yes I made a conscious effort to stop watching TV unless it was a regular series and then I would try to time it with eating dinner. Same with computer games; I use them as a way to treat yo self. Suddenly I found a had a whole heap of time free.

 

I save WATMM for my pillow reading

[weakmassive]

It's tough. Thankfully I've got a 25min train ride twice a day that I've sort of trained myself to use as my music production time.

 

I did Weeklybeats last year (where you make a track each week for the whole year) and that really helped me to not be so precious about my tracks and to learn to work quickly. And to adjust my expectations a bit.. not every track has to be some Druqks level masterpiece. Honestly, it only takes a few minutes to get a nice bassline and drum loop going and (at least for me) the melody/groove is the most important part.

 

I use Nanostudio on the iPad which helps too. It's pretty limited to desktops DAWS but I find that help me to be creative about how I use it. There's just one subtractive synth (which you can use multiple instances of), an MPC-style sampler and a few basic effects.

I've also used Caustic and like alot.... the modular synth is awesome. If I was on Android, that's what I would use. I've used Sunvox too, but agree that if you're looking to make stuff fast, it's not a good choice.

[peace 7]

If anyone feels they need long consecutive hours for working on tracks, here's a technique I developed when I was working full-time, about 8 years ago:

 

Sleep every other day. On my music days, I would come home from work around 6~7 PM, then I'd work on music or whatever projects until 6~7 AM, which would give me ~12 consecutive hours. The next day, I would come home and sleep for ~12 hours. Repeat.

 

From a health perspective, I do now feel that it's best to work a few hours here and there, but if you need dem long hours, this technique does work.

 

A few years prior I fasted for a couple weeks, and what I noticed from that is that I had a LOT more free time, due to not eating. In scheduling I tend to loosely pencil-in 1 hour for meals, but more realistically, it's about 3 hours (prep, eating, cooldown/digestion). That's 9 hours of time spent on food.

[Entorwellian]

If anyone feels they need long consecutive hours for working on tracks, here's a technique I developed when I was working full-time, about 8 years ago:

 

Sleep every other day. On my music days, I would come home from work around 6~7 PM, then I'd work on music or whatever projects until 6~7 AM, which would give me ~12 consecutive hours. The next day, I would come home and sleep for ~12 hours. Repeat.

 

From a health perspective, I do now feel that it's best to work a few hours here and there, but if you need dem long hours, this technique does work.

 

A few years prior I fasted for a couple weeks, and what I noticed from that is that I had a LOT more free time, due to not eating. In scheduling I tend to loosely pencil-in 1 hour for meals, but more realistically, it's about 3 hours (prep, eating, cooldown/digestion). That's 9 hours of time spent on food.

Do not do this if you are over 30