Week 4 of 52: "powder blue skies"
A song made solely from my own samples!
Why setting limits can actually BOOST your creativity and motivation!
This was the first song that I created entirely from my own sample creation. ALL of the sounds in this piece are created by me, using my own field recordings, synthesis, and editing most of which was done in FL Studio (my default DAW for production) but some editing was done in Pro Tools (my go-to for mixing).
It all started with a small, 4-track cassette recorder, a reverb pedal, and a Korg Minilogue in my tiny apartment on Avenue D in Manhattan.
My roommate had a 4-track cassette recorder and a looped tape (a cassette tape that has been cut and reconnected in order to create a section that repeats over and over) for creating, you guessed it, TAPE LOOPS! I sat down and, for some reason, I was obsessed with the infinite reverb setting of the unit I was using (Strymon BlueSky). Soooooo I would play a chord on the Minilogue (my favorite, a Cm7 chord), the BlueSky would create a beautiful reverb tail, and only after the Minilogue sound had faded away and there was only reverb tail left would I record it onto the tape loop.
After recording all of these layers into my DAW, I panned them to either side, added tremolo and other FX. After this I went through the samples I had created and decided that I would only use sounds that I created from scratch, either from field recordings or synthesis.
A synth stab that I had created with my Prophet Rev2 soon became the main synth while various percussion loops/sounds brought extra layers of dimension to the track. Once I started working, I just kept following my instincts. Creativity tends to wane when you stop doing and start thinking.
By limiting myself to only the samples I had created, I opened up my mind to creative solutions while simultaneously completely subverting option paralysis. Through this process I also ended up making even more samples because I would use old samples in new ways that I would have never done if I was just sound designing.
A few thoughts on creation/inspiration:
People tend to believe that creativity starts with inspiration which is turned into action and then music/words/etc. just flow out, BUT it’s actually quite the opposite. Inspiration follows action! So many songs of mine were created just because I started playing with sounds, trying FX out, chopping up samples, playing an instrument because the more you DO the more likely inspiration will strike!
Limiting your resources will force you to find new ways to work that you may not have thought of otherwise. We have so many samples, VSTs, effects, etc. at our disposal that it can actually be paralyzing. We may find ourselves just sifting through presets or looking through loops FOREVER, but the key is to commit. Stop looking for inspiration and just start using what’s in front of you! You may be surprised at how much sounds can be transformed by simply playing around with resampling, chopping, adding FX, adding automation, tweaking settings, etc.!
The more you know your tools, the more creative avenues you open up. The first thing I always suggest to people having trouble with production is to just play around and have fun with the DAW. For beginners, it’s hard to have any direction when you don’t know how to achieve that direction. Just playing with FX, synths, etc. gives you hands on experience of how something effects the sound you’re working with which you can pull on as you get more understanding of why it does what it does. This isn’t just for beginners though; I’ve been producing for 10 years and I’m still amazed what I find by just playing with sounds and FX!
A sample/stem pack for this song will be COMING SOON! Sign up for the mailing list to be one of the first to get the samples!