Workflow...

[TechMouse]

So If I spend ages designing a synth sound and automating all the variables it goes through and writing the midi part for it, how much attention to I need to pay to its sound? Because I have the choice to engineer the synth so that it fits into my mix, but am I supposed to just make it sound lush, then fit it into the mix later?

That's the eternal question isn't it.

From my point of view, with electronic music, I don't think that the various stages are as discrete as if you were recording a band.

My rule of thumb is do always do as little as possible to get what you want, which I immediately throw out of the window and go crazy with DSP.

I wouldn't listen to me though, I never finish anything. I've got a HD full of loops crying out to be made into tunes and I can't make any progress with any of them.

[p_brane]

I've got a HD full of loops crying out to be made into tunes and I can't make any progress with any of them.

thats me all over. find it real hard to finish anything, think my main problem is i spend a lot of time eqing/mixing as i go so pretty soon things start to sound repetitive and i loose the vibe that pushes me along when structuring a track.

as far as designing sounds go, sometimes i'll need a sound to fit in with a certain track so will lean towards making it right for that particular mix, more often though i'll make sounds separately and then make them right when they are used in a tune. or build a track around them.

[Jay Pace]

From my point of view, with electronic music, I don't think that the various stages are as discrete as if you were recording a band.

My rule of thumb is do always do as little as possible to get what you want, which I immediately throw out of the window and go crazy with DSP.

Yeah, definitely not as discrete.

But I think there's a danger to doing everything at once, I usually get distracted by synth design or DSP, then start trying to change the design or the DSP to fit the sound into the mix.

I'm fairly certain my mixes would be a lot tighter if I exported parts and mixed them together, instead of trying to do everything at once.

Seem to have developed a phobia of exporting parts and mixing them. Something about it seems too final....

[rhythmtech]

Yeah, definitely not as discrete.

But I think there's a danger to doing everything at once, I usually get distracted by synth design or DSP, then start trying to change the design or the DSP to fit the sound into the mix.

I'm fairly certain my mixes would be a lot tighter if I exported parts and mixed them together, instead of trying to do everything at once.

Seem to have developed a phobia of exporting parts and mixing them. Something about it seems too final....

you could always render them back into the track and make the original midi parts disabled (i find putting them in a folder group keeps them nicely out of the way)