When MAKING BEATS, Whats the ORDER of your CREATIVE Process

[GoldenBoy]

Hey guys I thought it would be interesting to share the order that we make music in. For me, sometimes, I can get inspiration to start on drums first and get a beat going before I do the melody. But my main go to is creating music in this order:

1. Chords (rhythmic main)
This would be maybe a chord progression, or main melody lick that lays down the ground work for whats to come later. Still at this point I have usually no idea what the drums will sound like.

2. Main Melody.
At this point I start playing with the scale of the sound. I test out the relative minor/major key and I try to come up with something that fits the syle I'm hearing in my head. Almost like soloing over it for a while on piano until I find a cool lick.

3.Counter melodies.
Same thing as number 2 but I'm thinking about the beginning and ending of phrases, B sections of my beat, and or another texture over the top. Samples/melody loops can be great for this if they have the key of the song.

*Meanwhile, during each step I"m trying to find and or create the sounds I want for each track. Throw in some one shots, put half time on lol, And mixing the whole time.

4. 808's
This is the last part of melodies and I consider this part my favorite of the process. I think of 808's as the start of my beat with drums and the final piece to the melody. The 808 is my initial kick drum pattern.

5. Drums (in order)
kick, side snare, main snare or clap, hi hats, open hats, crash cymbals, percussion.

6. Arrangement
This part of the process I try to take the longest on because this is the second half of making the song or beat. All I have at this point is everything I created layered on top of each other and I have a lot to decide to figure out whats going where. i will usually at this point make what i have so far the hook/chorus of song. I then try to think about the structure the sections of the beat, based off of the style of music I want to portray. Example: intro-verse? intro-drop/hook- etc... Ill moves things around like such until I'm liking the arrangement.

7. Edit Each Section / Track
Next I will continue to enhance, chop out, and add too each section until I'm okay with how they sound. This part I pay close attention to the main melody, chords, and drums. I may not edit every track, but the ones I do help will help shape the song for the style of music I want. Sometimes, during this time Ill create duplicate track and customize the way they sound to fit each section, or change up the drums, add fills, sometimes another melody or sound is added to enhance whats being create. (New ideas might arise)

6,7 take the longest of course but that the order I usually operate in.

How do you guys do it usually???

 

[Fade]

Good question.

I used to start with the drums but I found over time that I got a better groove when focusing on the melody first. Drums come second or third. Sometimes I'll start with the bassline too, especially if I find a really good sample.

Once I have a good loop going, I'll dump it into my DAW and build it up from there by adding other sounds as needed until I'm ready for the all important mixing stage.

 

[2GooD Productions]

These days I start with the metronome, then play a melody and a counter melody. After that I will replace the metronome with drums. Then I add a bassline. After that I start polishing by changing things up a bit, dropping stuff in and out, adding some drum variation. When remixing I start with the vocal and get the tempo down, starting with drums, then Ill add melodies that are in the key of the acapella and go from there.
So basically just like you do it.

 

[Iron Keys]

It's whatever.

I used to be almost exclusively drums first.

Nowdays I'm usually melody/hook first. Then build around it. Sometimes drum first. Depends on what is tickling me.

Also thanks to Fade's "No Drum" theme to fuck with peeps it's changed the way i compose a little. Now I'll try and force myself to add more musical elements to the song before reaching for the drums.

 

[Crispifier]

drums first then chords or melody then another melody and another and another and another oh god what happened to my beat ?!?!?


in all seriousness though starting drums first is ideal if thats your weak point,i think starting with what you¨¨re worst at is a good approach atleast it is for me. Makes it easier to focus. honestly i think the first aspect you start with and build around is usally what turns out the best

so a typical one for me would be

kick and snare

hats

lay down chords or a melody add bass and make a hook,(often improv like you do to make them) add delay/reverb and shape sounds add extra melodies and instruments

work on making the hook as catchy as possible

arrange: typically i do verse hook verse hook bridge hook, depening on the genre the verse is sometimes just a simplified/alternative version or chord only version of the hook (different for instrumentals or if im trying to make it hip hop)

add sound effects cymbals risers filters ect

mix

 

[TonyCreepBeats]

Usually I start to play some melody. When I have that, I might add another melody and maybe some pads to add texture, and chords of course.
Then I create drums and bassline. But lately I have started to make drums first. It helps to see the bigger picture of the finalized beat more easily, when drums are in place first.

When I have like 4-8 bars ready, I'll copy paste that and change or add something and keeping that process going on.
And when I get the feeling that beat is ready, I leave it there and mix that piece next day.

 

[DJ Wax-Turtle]

1 Sample
2 Drums
3 Bassline
4 Synths

 

[Iron Keys]

1 Sample
2 Drums
3 Bassline
4 Synths

This be the BoomBap Blueprint!

 

[slimegreenbeats]

1. First I get the melody sound right. Anything goes but arp or bass.
2. Play chords, layer melody.
3. Layer melody another sound.
4. Add bass
5. Drums (any order goes)
6. Mix
7. Arrange

 

[BiggChev]

Good question.

I used to start with the drums but I found over time that I got a better groove when focusing on the melody first. Drums come second or third. Sometimes I'll start with the bassline too, especially if I find a really good sample.

Once I have a good loop going, I'll dump it into my DAW and build it up from there by adding other sounds as needed until I'm ready for the all important mixing stage.

Recently started experimenting with bass line first. Not sure if it's just exciting and new, but I've had great success with it so far!

 

[EsquireMusic111]

Great Question!
I usually run with a melody first and build from there as I feel the need. In my case, I usually push drums dead last to make up for open space.

 

[LiveLargeBeats]

1. First I get the melody sound right. Anything goes but arp or bass.
2. Play chords, layer melody.
3. Layer melody another sound.
4. Add bass
5. Drums (any order goes)
6. Mix
7. Arrange

This. Alltough i suck at arrangin. Also what i found out is not everybody uses the 4-16-4 system when it comes to chorus and verse. Sometimes the chorus in some songs come soon, its strange. and it sometimes feels the chorus is so delayed, i geuss workin without an artist/acapella is pretty difficult (atleast for me, lol)

 

[slimegreenbeats]

This. Alltough i suck at arrangin. Also what i found out is not everybody uses the 4-16-4 system when it comes to chorus and verse. Sometimes the chorus in some songs come soon, its strange. and it sometimes feels the chorus is so delayed, i geuss workin without an artist/acapella is pretty difficult (atleast for me, lol)

Word

 

[OGBama]

Drums as I'm new to producing.

 

[BiggChev]

Drums as I'm new to producing.

This may seem like a silly question, but I figure myself a bit of a music 'educator'

When starting with drums; what are you looking for? A head bob, or limitless groove?

The reason I ask is this...
...I used to always start with drums. In fact, I would spend HOURS - sometimes multiple hours stretched out over several days, working on the same drum loop. What I found was that I was tweaking ADSR, mixing, sub kicks, top kicks, snare verbs and alternate panning hi-hats all to end up with the most phenomenal Drum loop ever...


...ONLY to have to undo everything to make it fit properly in my mix, work appropriately with the tempo and/or end up having to peel away elements to make space for other elements of the beat.

Several years ago, I started working the concept of the drum loop "riff tape." Like many rock/metal bands do - I would lay down any and every drum I could conceive in a quick/rough loops/riffs. Load them up when I was working on a bassline/melody. This gives me a framework and backbone to get my melodic elements out and if needed I haven't invested too much in the drums to not fret scrapping them.

Just a thought.

 

[OGBama]

@BiggChev the head bob starts the moment I find sounds or a sound I like, and groove overall is the main thing I'm for.

 

[NatureRok]

i use to have a method.. but found that shit stunted me either way.. tried drums first.. stunted melodies.. tried melody first.. stunted drums at times.. so now i just do shit in whatever order my creativity dictates.. shit sometimes i even do the drums as im chopping.. it all depends

 

[massikrbeats]

I find myself following this process on the regular. Sometimes it depends on finding cool drums or samples first and I'll just start from there - but usually I'll start with..

DRUMS
I like to flip through drum breaks and loops first if I can't think of any patterns straight off. If the sample fits with the break/loop, I'll keep it. If not, I'll either layer the break for a different sound, try another drum loop for ideas or just create drums from scratch.

SAMPLE
I'll sample anything... I sampled a lot of vinyl back when I had my MPC1K, now I have a much smaller setup so I'm always looking into new sample packs and anything I can find on YouTube. Once I have the sample, I'll determine if it should be the main melody or just chop it up over the drums. I have a ton of breaks, my favorites are Beat Butcha's Dangerous Fireworks volumes. I can just listen to those breaks alone all day.

SYNTHS / VSTs
I'm starting to integrate more synths over samples and vice-versa nowadays. I'm still learning how to find good samples/sounds to put something together that sticks. I don't have any major VSTs yet but I'm finding cool "boom bap" elements from stock sounds, especially in FL so I've been practicing beefing those up.

BELLS & WHISTLES
After all is said and done I look back and see if there's anything unique I can bring to the mix. This can be anything from totally removing drum sounds or adding crazy sound effects but I try not to overthink - if a beat is done it's done, I don't stress I'll always make more lol But I am still learning so I experiment with sounds and just go crazy, can't wait to post some stuff!!