My composing workflows

Sun, 06/01/2008 - 18:52 — Alan

I said in the previous article that I'd provide details of my most common composing workflows.

Sync to video Soundtrack

I'll get the video into a format ready for Logic Pro, mainly I'm looking for a QuickTime movie.
Import the movie into Logic, check the frame rate. Very important.
Set Logic to find the scene change markpoints. I'm having second thoughts about this process. I may revert to adding them manually. I like how some features are more obvious in Logic Studio 8, than in LP 7.2, so I'm going to play with these a bit more.
Read through the director's notes and play the movie. Start to get a feel of what I want to put in there while it's playing.
Set the tempo track up for the obvious places, hitting the markpoints at the right times.
Decide if it's an effect or musical soundtrack, then choose the correct instruments and play along. I'll probably want the clicktrack off when I'm not sure of what the timing should be. In that case, I'll figure out the time signature after I've played along to it a few times.
Tighten up the recording as I go along and improve the fit to the movie

Creating a library track

I'll usually start with a drum track
Add guitar riff and extend this
Add another guitar
Add bass
Add synth if necessary
Process the sounds, adding effects as appropriate
Mix
Create shorter edits and stings

Creating a bespoke track

Well, it depends what's been asked for. Difficult to say what I do until I agree the brief, but I may be more structured and layout a rough structure on drums, even if it's only marginally more interesting than just a click track. Usually there's a length of time to fill so that constrains it. Often I'll split it into three; the start, the theme and the end. I'll build up from there.

Creating a track in a new style

Get a reference track
Play the reference track and listen carefully.
Start to deconstruct what makes the reference track belong to its genre
Build up a track from that

In these cases, I'm more likely to have the idea in my head and then have to transcribe and/or record the sounds that I hear.

Extending a previous idea

If only a small extension is required, I'll try looping a few bars, missing out an instrument, introducing more percussion for a bigger ending, playing the main theme on another instrument. Quite typical tricks that work well for small extensions. For longer extensions and more complex pieces, I'm more likely to play it through on guitar (no matter what it was originally recorded/played in) and go from there. Sometimes I approach it logically, working out what notes should work next, other times, I'll just play and see what notes fit best. I discussed a few variations on this in an earlier article.

Challenge

Anybody's guess is good here. It really depends what the challenge is. Often I'll set a challenge for myself after hearing a piece of music and wondering if I could do that. The challenge is to create something similar but not the same. It's similar to creating a track in a new style, but the constraints of the challenge could be a lot more severe. Look at Jeff Yates' Norman Bates with a Briefcase. Fortunately he only had the title for his challenge, good job he wasn't told to do it Polka stye or something like that.

The usual

Throughout all of this, my standard route for composing is to have written most of what I want to play before I get to the recording stage. Sometimes I play with dice and figure it out as I record, aiming for a very live, spontaneous feel - something very similar to jamming. The difference is that I'll have played all the parts so far, so I've a good idea where the music's going. Often I'll have the majority created and just record the last few parts as spontaneous. I find that this way I end up with a mix of structured foundations and varied melody.

I can always re-record the added part if it needs to be more polished. Sometimes it works better that way, sometimes not.

I'm interested to hear if your workflow differs.