what eats up most of your time when producing?

[beat you down]

picking sounds? going through modules / crate diggin...
playing/programming stuff? midi, live etc...
sound design? like layering drums or creating patches etc...
trying to recreate songs on the radio?
composing?
arranging?
mixing? if diy
mastering? if diy
tracking?
rebooting your daw?
answering calls?
hanging out on gs?

[Sirocco]

mixing while producing

[macleodgrant]

editing for me, oh and getting into the mood

[phillysoulman]

I love perfecting a mix..Im always in update

[Switchcraft]

Taking the time to learn that mixing while producing was a waste of my time.

After finishing writing 15 tracks for an upcoming album, I basically got rid of all time based effect, compression and EQ I set up while writing. Starting form a clean slate at the mix stage makes things much quicker and organized.

Plus, since writing some new tracks, I found I write better when I do not start adding delays or special effects at all. If I keep everything as dry as possible, the ideas and writing are that much more direct.

it makes writing faster and moving to the mix stage faster as well.
To each there own though, thats just how I found myself working.

[terrytee]

composing, especially with sample work as more & more these days i find my self questioning if the sample i am using is that good.

It never takes to long to create the track, sometimes i do put in quite a bit of time on the drum programing if only just to hear the outcome of different techniques.

So in a kind of way i may say composing & digging takes up a lot of time, but often i will find what seems to be a good sample only to later decide that it's only so so.

Mixing & arranging is not so time consuming and if i have a major problem with a particular sound i just change it.

BTW I am starting to think i should say away from soul and find a more urgent sound to take the lead. (take this shit back to horror!)

[macleodgrant]

Originally Posted by Switchcraft

Taking the time to learn that mixing while producing was a waste of my time.

After finishing writing 15 tracks for an upcoming album, I basically got rid of all time based effect, compression and EQ I set up while writing. Starting form a clean slate at the mix stage makes things much quicker and organized.

Plus, since writing some new tracks, I found I write better when I do not start adding delays or special effects at all. If I keep everything as dry as possible, the ideas and writing are that much more direct.

it makes writing faster and moving to the mix stage faster as well.
To each there own though, thats just how I found myself working.

i kind of agree and disagree with this

sometimes i just sit and play around with a song even if it's just a rough version and all parts aren't recorded to get ideas about where to take it in the mix and many times those ideas stick. no pressure, just screwing around with it, not for any specific purpose but rather just for fun.

i agree that it keeps it more organised if you start mixing from clean but i find that there's a certain pressure one puts on themselves when in MIXING mode that the creativity doesn't necessarily flow as easily. if i left all that stuff for mixing then i'm not sure many of my mixes would be creative if you know what i mean.

i would however start fresh with EQ & Compression unless they were used creatively

[DAH]

Depends. Most of the time its mixing. Sometimes it`s drum programming/microtiming tweaking/drum samples ADSR tweaking. Sometimes when I already start mixing i realize that this or that line simply does not work along the others, so I re-compose it what the vibe dictates. Sometimes it`s sample chop arranging when the beat is made of a break.
Most of the time it`s still low end tweaking.

[Teo Macero]

editing/structuring material
For every day I spend generating material, I spend 2 days editing/structuring it.
Mixing-while-producing is just modern-day production imo and actually saves you time.

[Nahuel]

by far trying to mix my stuff by myself cause my pc is gettin old n my cpu aint powerfull enought for the amout of plugins I'm using so I have to export, listen, adjust, export... read or post on GS... listen, adjust... I have to buy a new computer. I wish I was rich enought to send my stuff to a real engineer evrytime I need to.

Beatmaking time is time well spent and I enjoy it so it does not count (but it's been a large amount of my life time so far).

[illacov]

with arrangement.

You guys seem to be more focused on what I'd consider tracking than production.

Production to me is a combo of actual arrangement/sequencing/theme/concept etc...

Production in its truest sense is not specifically a totally hands on approach to music making.

In hip hop producers are the everyman/everywoman for the song, right down to the vocals and how they should sound.

Traditionally, a producer doesn't have to touch an instrument and they still get paid (think about how Dre operates).

If you look at the Beatles, their producer didn't know a damn thing about pop music/rock n roll and yet he knew a hit when he heard it.

I think that the old school way of just tracking whatever sounds good in context or out of it, can make a huge difference in your final product.

What might be a great verse section could actually be the hook in waiting.

As far as tracking, hell yeah its tedious. If you go all out with mostly recorded instruments its time consuming.

I officially got 90 percent out of softsynths this year and went strictly keyboard into an amp and then mic'ed. HUGE DIFFERENCE. If I want a guitar I got my boy for that, if I want bass I got my boy for that, if I want drums I got my girl for that.

I do still use RMIV or Battery 3 for scratch composing when I dont have my drummer around to track but, best believe those scratch tracks take a back seat or become triggers that get blended when the time comes.

As far as production goes, its relatively quick. Because all you're doing is making sure people stay on task, in the pursuit of the vision.

I really like to think that we should stop calling ourselves producers and start referring to ourselves as composers. Being a producer in no way shape or form reflects any degree of musical talent. Alot of times it meant you were bankrolling the project. That could make you a rich man's son who produced a band, even though you couldn't find C sharp if it bit you in the ass.

But to me Tracking and Mixing are the longest most grueling aspect of any album or song.

That thread where Ken Lewis talks about 200 tracks is mind boggling. I've never broken 60. Maybe this year I will with all the triple tracked guitars, drum mics and busses, stacked harmonies and recorded keys but who knows. I still think less is more. But damn tracking is seriously involved.

On another note, one of the reasons why production of a song (the process) is so hard for up and coming folks like the guys that post here is because we never settle on gear.

Meaning we buy new sh*t every 3 months and then wonder why we have a problem coming up with something consistent.

The learning curve never pans out for you if you keep creating one.

Buy some gear and use it, get 3 mics that you can't live without or build some and get 2 pres that are worth your time EVERYDAY and use them to death. Learn your setup, master it. If somebody asked you how you would record vocals for X type of song, then know how to do exactly that in your sleep with your gear. You'll find that tracking while hard is the real meat and potatoes of (what we call in hip hop) production.

I wish I could sit around all day and tell somebody that aint it.

Peace
Illumination

[Charlie-O]

Inernet: Gesrslutz! lol....

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by illacov

...I really like to think that we should stop calling ourselves producers and start referring to ourselves as composers...

not the beat maker/composer vs producer debate all over

one day beat makers will feel offended if you call them producers.

[sd-cd]

...when beatmaking:

* reading Gearslutz,
* cutting > the main sample.

[Nate Will]

+sound selection and/or sound design+

. I know the sound I want in my head and my final vision but sometimes its difficult to find those sounds or make em so it takes alot of time.

[butterfly]

I really like to think that we should stop calling ourselves producers and start referring to ourselves as composers

...........hmm, not sure about that one, when I think of composers I'm thinking mozart......adams and stuff in between, unless you got the chops....don't call urself a composer.

[GloryisSilent]

bitches 'n hoes.

[MrMartinezBodega]

the hardest thing for me is finding the right drums and sound design. I usually know the exact sound I want so I spend a lot of time looking for patches/tweaking them and getting together good drum kits.

[.Powell.]

choosing sounds/programming for me

[sleeper1400]

for me, its getting inspired. that takes the most time.

[tonymission]

rolling up kush... it's a tough job but i manage...

[Alex Niedt]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

mixing while producing

Same. I must stop.

[Noritaka]

Finding the right patches and tweaking them until I'm satisfied, choosing the right drumsamples, layerin them, processin them via my fx box........

Trackin also takes something like one hour and half (mpc4k and hw synths...).I'm still lookin for a faster way to do it as it bores me to death.... makes me want to go total software sometimes......

[phillysoulman]

I never obsess or agonize over sounds, as I usually hear what I want in my head and get it right away.
Its a feel thing. Being anal is not part of the equation.

I always have about three vocal mikes set up and go with works right for a particular artist/song combination.

I do however like my mixes to shine and I am always in update.

[KevWest]

finding new inspiration

[Malki]

usually its not the beat itself that takes a long time its after i got the beat pretty much outlined out and im adding all the extra shit like transitions and breakdowns then listening to it over and over again making sure all the sounds are the right level then changing my mind about this and that etc. when i make a really good beat i spend hours on it after i actually make it. usualy making the beat itsself is only a 30 minute process tops because i get so juiced when i think im making that crack b. CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK

[goldenlotus]

Originally Posted by tonymission

rolling up kush... it's a tough job but i manage...

Finally someone tells it like it is!

[Big 3rd]

The skeleton is the quickest part. I'd have to say...the transitions and perfecting the little details are what takes up a good part of the time for me. "Customizing the track" so it doesn't sound like a repetitive predictive loop, of course unless that is what I'm looking for OR it's just one of those beats that is just that rhythmically hypnotic.

A lot of the time also goes into making the beat sound more musical....whether it's adding extra fingering details to piano parts and bass lines or adding more complexity to drum patterns. Sometimes these things can be as tedious as going down and editing steps in a sequence to assure a more live sounding timing. It gets pretty intense at times. I usually spend more time on these things rather than doing like some and spending a ton of time on trying to get a kick to shatter the earth.

I probably need to do a little more of that too though....but details have always been more of my thing.

[riecespieces]

For me its the bullishing an not making up my mind on whether a track is hot enuff to be worth finishing id have a million beats if i cut that out and finished everything serioously......

Oh and sequencing i like to make my ish complex so it takes forever to sequence the whole thing out from scratch.........

Rollin the cush takes minutes for me.....

[dan p]

For me its production and picking sounds.
Production in the sense of do i like what i just wrote?


DP