Inspiration and Creativity
I've never thought of myself as a genius but I know that I definitely
have something. It's taken a lot of years to figure out exactly how to
get the best out of the creative force, and it is extremely powerful,
inside my head. When I was I kid it really just caused me pain, simply
because I didn't know what to do, I just knew I had to do something.
It's like someone is calling to you, trying to tell you something, but
you can't make out what they are saying. All you know is that you must
do something because your life depends on it. Figuring out what that
mission is, is what took me some time to work out.
It's like a volcano inside my head, and it needs to flow in a creative
direction, and when I first started to make music, it was like turning
a key in a lock and opening a door into my future.
At that time I had no control over what came out. When I sit down to
write a tune, even now, my mind is blank, I don't have idea after idea
to follow, there is nothing.
It's like there is someone or something else making it through me. I
can bend the boundaries much better now, but anytime I start to try and
do things by the numbers, it loses it's magic. My best music has always
been where I have just let go, stepped off the cliff, and let my
creative force go where it leads me to. Anytime it's allowed to do
that, it delivers.
So more and more I try to feel, rather than think, and let those
feelings guide what I do. I apply the same thing to making sounds. I
don't set out to make something deliberate, I just play around until my
instincts say ” yeah, keep that one, that's got the magic I'm after”.
You can hear this in other peoples tracks, it's the difference between
love for what you do and putting yourself in your music, and doing it
by the numbers for your “position”.
Your creative alter ego shines through if you just let it go, I don't
care what anyone says, it makes all the difference.
Passion makes art what it should be, inspiring, individual and unique.
If you do feel you need to set some sparks there are some easy ideas,
that aren't the numbers game.
Watch films or listen to tracks that inspire you, explore your
surroundings and try to appreciate them in a different way. I can walk
down the same street, no matter how dreary and grey to others, a
thousand times and my eyes still take in all the concrete, the cracks
in the pavement, the buildings, it's always wondrous.
Writing a story with characters and themes can help inspire to write
the soundtrack for that story. You can get story ideas with just a
dictionary and your imagination.
Flick through the pages and just poke your finger at random, and pick
that word it lands on.
From that word you must come up with an idea for a track for it,
whatever that word might be. Do not cheat! It does work, because it
makes you think laterally, and ideas can happen after several levels of
linked words.
You may have to try several times, but if you don't cheat you will
start to see it's value.
I'll write some more here later, but if you just try to put yourself
into what you do, you will shine above all those, even if they are
technically better than you. So there is no need to be intimidated, as
your creative force is a weapon that no one else has, with a unique
signature.
There is no defence against it, and it can win the battle for you, if
you just believe in it and nurture it.
More next time I think of some freaky thoughts…
The Ghost Walks With You …
Recording Tips
I'm not going to go into huge great step by step detail, but I will tell you some of the main things I do that seem to make a difference, or things that I've discovered work better for my own tastes.
It's all about passing knowledge on that could have helped me when I started, and you may find interesting or useful.
You are welcome to ask me any questions on what I use or how I do it.
Making Sounds, Construction & Composition
This is by far the most important part for me. If the sounds cut it and each one pleases my instincts, the tune will make itself. I like to be satisfied with each sound no matter how tiny, and I tend to make lots at once rather than a set for a specific tune.
So I have a library of sounds and not all will work together but some will.
The main thing is I never want to settle for a weak sound, or say “the mix will cover it”. I also try hard to make something different each time, and I will take as long as it takes to come up with something I like. If I feel it's too similar or just rehashing then it doesn't feel right.
When I first started, EVERY sound was new and different, so it was easy.
The more you make the harder it gets, so I thought loads of new kit would make discovering new sounds easier, it didn't.
I soon realised that is about you, your personality and creative force, imposing itself on the equipment and making the new sounds flow through that.
Then new sounds come alive from kit I've had for a long time, and being prepared to take as long as required until the right sounds surface, works.
I never settle for presets and I like to sample stuff again, like the 808 and 606, rather than going back to an old sample.
I prefer to have a little movement and colour in the synth sounds, as I don't really play with eq and effects, I let the sounds themselves do the talking.
I use a spectrum analyzer throughout to try and make each sound sit in a separate space in the eq, so there isn't too much conflict and they have room to breathe.
You can also compare other sounds and tracks to see where those sounds sit in the frequency range, then try and match or surpass them.
This makes mixing and mastering far easier, as there is far less work to do, it also means very little processing, if any is required before you prepare a master.
This is exactly how mastering engineers want it, unprocessed, unfinalized, uncompressed etc.
It makes their job much easier and they can bring the best out of your material much better than you or I can. This is exactly how Ron Murphy from NSC Sound Enterprises
and many other engineers want to receive the master.
I'll put each sound into Pro Tools, edit it's length (always 24 bit), normalize it , use Maxim on it if it will work to get as much power as possible. I've usually used the FX inside units to add reverb, chorus, multi fx to the actual samples.
I can now use the V Synth to fly new sounds in to take advantage of it's heavy FX and filter processing. The variphrase only works properly if you get the right encoding, but most of my sounds only need to work across a small range of keys.
Some sounds by nature will work well across a larger range, but I actually like the differences in speed that moving up and down the keys brings.
I now use the software sampler and drum machine inside Ableton Live 4 to play the samples.
I'll use the stretch and pitch and saturation settings to further seek out new sounds, and they work pretty well, and I can make different drum kits from the result. The synth sounds remain pretty much the same except for length and looping.
I'm going to start using Reason a lot more to make drum sounds, as it's a powerful compression and fx program. I think this will produce good drum sounds too, as they are the sounds I find the most difficult, as I don't like to use the same ones over and over.
The reason I use all samples and Live 4 software to compose is simply to make it faster, portable and to blur the line between playing live and recording at home. It's this that means I'm now able to go and play a live set that I literally compose on the fly, something which I wanted to do for years, but didn't think it was possible.
It's harder to separate sounds in Live, but with some Eq used to keep the sounds in their own little eq spaces and a turned down Fuzz plug in as a compressor on just Bass Drum and bass line, it works very well.
So rather than running live midi kit , they are all used as sound sources for samples.
I used to be very anti this, but again it's all about you imposing your own character on the sound and kit, rather than letting it dictate to you.
So it doesn't matter what kit you use, just make it your own, unique slant.
Now my sound and studio is portable worldwide without having to worry about racks of gear to take with me or look after.
All this means my mixes are very static, and you don't want to have to worry about mixing too much when constructing on the fly. Plus I do mix in mono for now, just to make sure you hear everything , no matter where it gets played, TV, PC, stereo etc.
I might start to use a little stereo spread on the samples and the fx when the valve gear is fully installed as I'll have 2 systems to compare the sound, and the valves will bring the best out of the width.
Final Recording & Mastering
If the sounds have been made right, this bit won't be too difficult. I use the spectrum to make sure that the high frequencies slope offquickly form 8 to 16K, otherwise this will really screw the sound and make it sound too harsh on things like hi hats. This is very important for vinyl. You can also see if you are over cooking the bass.
But since I've got the sounds right from the start, I just have to adjust levels, ususally only slightly, and the start and end of the tracks in Ableton.
In the arrangement view I'll edit the ending to make sure it's smooth, it leaves less things to do in Pro Tools, except things like fades and maybe a little level changes.
I used to render to disk, but after reading www.johnvestman.com I now will go straight out to the analogue reel to reel and then back into Pro Tools.
Adjust the spacing between tracks and fades etc, then back out onto the reel to reel.
I may even decide to stop doing that at all , and just record straight out from Live, it's just my Edirol Firewire interface is a little hissy, and the Pro Tools M Box isn't.
But I try to do the smallest amount of processing possible, to avoid degradation of the sound file, again check out johnvestman for his opinions on this.
So when it reaches the hands of the mastering engineer ( on analogue reel to reel at 15 inches per second), it has had very little done to it.
Then they can use the equipment they have and their experience and expertise to bring the best out of what you give them.
It also makes their job a lot quicker and easier.
Now this was a difficult and painful gig to organise.
Promotion was wrong, website was wrong. Result was a crowd who mostly
didn’t know what the f**k was going on.
That’s partly due to not building up the atmosphere or letting it down
in the right way.
Most people turned up for house or pop or whatever else happens there.
This made it immensely hard to get things moving, making the crowd as
cold as it gets.
But still, good quality music and a very careful Ghostly eye on the
crowd. meant it DID work, very, very well.
Yet again , I’m proved right when it comes to this stuff. Still don’t
want to listen do you?
The problems here are all about management and promoters panicking.
“You have to play this = instant dancefloor”. You can build a house
from stone or straw, which do you choose??
So I took the people on a journey of stuff they’d never heard as well
as camouflage for the more familiar.
The packed floor suggests I got it bang on, wouldn’t you say?
But when you do a night that means the WHOLE night , not just 2-3 hours.
Build up from the very first tune, then don’t just destroy what’s been
built with frigging house music.
An understanding of a real quality night is a long way off here….
I take my cue from the best nights come from the music, NOT from the DJ
who mixes with his dick on 4 decks and uses a drum machine with his
tongue. The DJ bit is over rated ( yeah I know I am one, but it doesn’t
make my head big, trust me).
If you love those tunes and you try to make the people love em, they
will, otherwise they have no f**kin’ soul…
Then they deserve all they’re going to get…..
Nevertheless congratulated by owner Benjamin on a really good job,
simply because it was unheard of music, the first time there, on making
it work….
Hmmm, and I could have just played James Brown all night couldn’t I????
Paul Bishop
The Ghost That Walks
Tags: creativity, electronic, inspiration, production 
Entries (RSS)