Members wwwjd Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 In summary: we could not. But we gave it a DARNED HARD TRY. I'm talking COMPLETE from coming up with the initial idea, through final mastering, ALL in two hours. Nothing written or even thought of ahead of time. You can hear it here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/599498-completed-song-2-hours.html Gotta send ya there cuz it's a 5meg MP3 and this place only allows like 30 bytes or something completely stupid and useless for anything It's ain't great or even good, but it was a totally fun experiment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 That's pretty entertaining, especially for 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crazyfoo Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 Maybe in 2 years, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 That's a crapload better than *I* can do in 2 hours! Nice, thanks for posting that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members droolmaster0 Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 What's a song? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 Hey thanks, guys! I definitely recommend trying 2 hour song creation, just to push yourself if you enjoy writing music. Our schedule was: 30 min write lyrics, melody, musical parts, and drum ideas, 60 min record all that and vocals, 30 min final mix and master. Of course it didn't really work out like that. And it went by SO FAST! No time to think, just DO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crazyfoo Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 2 hours! heh, you guys are crazy, heck, it takes me two hours to 'think' about getting out of bed in the morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tremens Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 in two hours you cannot even have proper sex session, I mean going through all kamasutra etc.The only thing you can do well in 2 hours is getting high... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crazyfoo Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 in two hours you cannot even have proper sex session, I mean going through all kamasutra etc. The only thing you can do well in 2 hours is getting high... LOL, then you need another 4 hours to come down, then a nap, and then the whoe day is shot, and repeat the next day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members piano39 Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 When the muse hits, some of the best things that i have done were in two hours. That would not include mastering, just song creation and recording. The song creation part is a left brain thing, the mastering is a right brain. On days when the left side is working, the right side doesn't do so well, and vice versa. The big test for me has always been the "next day listen". Some times, I impress myself. Other times, I wonder, "What the hell was I doing?" By the way, my muse has seemed to left the state. Hope it returns soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members frankthomson Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 Our schedule was: 30 min write lyrics, melody, musical parts, and drum ideas, 60 min record all that and vocals, 30 min final mix and master. Of course it didn't really work out like that. And it went by SO FAST! No time to think, just DO. yea....and maybe i'll climb the Matterhorn b/c i *need to get out a little*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 I can save myself 30 minutes by recognizing that I cannot sing (well I know that already) and writing an instrumental. More time would be saved during the recording and mastering process I suppose. There are a lot of people whose voice just does not sound good on vocals independent of staying in tune and I am one of those people, plus I am not sure about the "staying in tune" part. I would say that bad-sounding voice, in tune or not, is in general my number one reason for disliking any particular music produced by home studio recording. The process of playing out and trying to sing in front of people weeds out the bad vocals. It also helps to have a (brutally but lovingly) honest wife Oh, not saying these are bad vocals, sorry that was not my intent. It was a comment about me and the world in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 On days when the left side is working, the right side doesn't do so well, and vice versa. That's exactly what my brains does and I couldn't be happier about it. I prefer switching back and forth over trying to force them to mix.You can always invent your own NEW Muse.... go sit in a mall Food court, or bar, or restaurant and make up stories about people you see. Vocals.... yeah, not my best, but there was no time to really grow their feel or correct anything. hahahahah so it is what it is. Vocalsprobably took up 75% of the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundwave106 Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 By myself, there's no way I personally could complete a song in 2 hours. However, in the right band / jam type situation (with someone else manning the recording controls and whatnot), that would be pretty easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoundwaveLove Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 This is an interesting challenge. I think if I use a minimal amount of outboard gear, sticking with mostly presets, and just wrote a pop format song, I could finish it in two hours. Not counting the mix down and mastering. I'm am going to try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members orangefunk Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 Back in 2005 we had a similar idea here... but we only took 1 hr... From what I recall there was a cool track from Trillian using a MemoryMoog (church organ sound) and something from that SamTraxMoogy person that had a few personas... and generally was not much liked here but never did me any harm to be honest! I did a few tracks (a TD style one and some kind of Brazilian number if memory serves) though this simple 2 chord dittie seems to have stuck with me as it used a Yamaha VL-7 sax sound... Travels.mp3 Shame I got rid of that board but I never really got it to sound that good ever again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 This is an interesting challenge. I think if I use a minimal amount of outboard gear, sticking with mostly presets, and just wrote a pop format song, I could finish it in two hours.Not counting the mix down and mastering. I'm am going to try it. That's what we tried to do - except we included the mixing and mastering. Good luck! It was fun, and we learned a lot about ourselves.But use a NEW idea, not one you've already thought about and come up with words or chords or anything in advance. That is cheating. It's an exercise in forced speed creativity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChristianRock Posted April 7, 2011 Members Share Posted April 7, 2011 I can do it, but I don't think it will sound that great. It takes me at least 30 minutes just to program the drums properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Soundwave, you better do it and post up. I wanna hear some more speed productions. Our goal was pop radio ready song. Not just "any song" Thanks, CR, but we used an iDrum preset pattern because there was no time to do any drum programming. That's not cheating when the whole thing was just an experiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tony Scharf Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Its happened. I have done it. Now, if you ask if I could do a *good* song in that time.... Hell f*cking no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members plaid_emu Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 I remember one day almost ten years ago, my friend asked to me to do an opening set for his band that night. I had just recently sold my XP-50 for an XL-7 and I was in the process of making all new music with it so I maybe had one or two semi-complete tracks. Amazingly I sat there for about three hours and knocked out three more new tunes. Of course they were not huge productions with vocals or anything. Just some dark kind of industrial influenced dance/ambient tracks with some cool dialogue samples from movies, but I'm still amazed at how decent they were. I should really try that approach again because even in graphic design/art college most of my best work was done in a frenzy the night before it was due. Now I just need somebody to ask me to perform the night before d-day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Exactly. If you have a basic outline, what you want to accomplish, I think that helps alot... if you REALLY WANT TO ACCOMPLISH something. Many will talk the talk or even wish the wish, but then never progress. Without an idea, a target to shoot for, some defined scope or direction, you will never get "Something" done. That was the energy behind this experiment: a direction, a deadline, writers block NOT ALLOWED! hahahaha Maybe this will inspire others to try working outside their box. Not a pop radio song necessarily, just defining a goal to shoot for within two hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundwave106 Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Soundwave, you better do it and post up. I wanna hear some more speed productions. Our goal was pop radio ready song. Not just "any song" ... The timeline for a good song composed under a jam band conditions goes like this: (*) Finding bandmates with the right chemistry, all with excellent improv skills -- 1 month to ?? (*) Being together long enough so you know how to jam -- instantly to years?? (*) Book studio time (*) Record song -- maybe minutes if the inspiration is right. So the song may not necessarily be the hard part of the equation here. The band I'm in goofs off too much to even try a two hour song. Many older classics -- from Elvis Presley's "That's Alright" to Booker T and the MG's "Green Onions" to The Surfaris's "Wipe Out" -- were recorded on the spot, or at least created in very quick jams. Today's pop radio ready songs? Forget it. Today's dance-pop and Nashville is too slick to do in two hours. (It's also typically more forgettable then some of these on-the-spot jams mentioned above. Go figure.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted April 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 aw, I'm sure you have some gear and an Idea yourself... just punch something out to a preset drum pattern. Trust me it's fun. You don't need a whole band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Praxisaxis Posted April 10, 2011 Members Share Posted April 10, 2011 Putting well-defined limits on any sort of music composition is very important. Doing exercises like this is a great way of coming to understand how limitations enhance musical creativity. Especially these days, when what is possible seems* limitless. * actually I think it's often more limited than it appears, but these are frequently hidden or misunderstood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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