How to get inspiration?

destroyifyer · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

Abreaktor, you're right...if someone is making music something must have at least slightly inspired them to in the frist place...I hope. So logically this thread would be more useful to someone who has been violated by a inspiration vampire (a Muse's evil counterpart).

Blue Hell wrote:

abreaktor · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:48 pm Post subject:

yes, i think that an artists view on the world has a lot to do with some de-filtering, i.e. the loss of aquired filter mechanisms. thats just one thing; i really think that given a certain age most people have made the same experiences when it comes to interhuman relations. its what they make of it what matters - be that a great comforting chair that makes life easier or some highly annoying piece of art no matter what genre that complicates life a bit more. there are so many things that simply go undetected... this morning, i went to a meeting, and decided to walk by foot for most of the way (~5 km). i have seen at least 3 stories on peoples faces and heard a lot of noises you rarely hear in the city (it was really early)... some outlandish industrial noises from woodcutters and heavy machinery. i bit my ass for not owning some mobile recording device. that woodcutter sound was so annihilating... anyway, it gave me the idea for a good layering of drones.

otoh, the only thing i managed to do today is an extremely funky beat with as few "notes" as possible. its all about slight displacement, i guess.

what bothers me though, is, that the really BIG things that happen to you in life have never given me any palpable inspiration at all; maybe one is just too occupied in these moments.

abreaktor · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:36 am Post subject:

on a related note,

i tried another approach: take something complicated, transform it into something melodic, and then just jam. i took a voice recording of some random tv show (i have a tv card, so its easy to record tv shows etc), put a grain delay on it -12, put a resonator on it and fiddled with the chords. then i just let it run for 3 minutes and re-played every melodic snippet on the keyboard (mind you, 25 keys suffice for that kind of thing) that i could make out there. put it together, added a really simple vb1- bassline and a wicked beat, and hell, it sounds great. just another snippet, but there is a lot of juice in it. the only complicated structures in it are the (further bastardized) voice recording and the beat (i dig glitch).

Electronomist · Joined: Oct 11, 2008 Posts: 2 Location: England

I often get mental block when wanting to write tunes.
The best way i find to get inspiration is to go to a decent club and get into the groove! The next day im always itching to jump on my computer and begin to create! Other than go out, i fire up my decks and mix some older tunes i know well, often get ideas that way.
Sometimes when i know what i want to do but cant think where to start i will mess around with a simple kick drum loop and my keyboard/synths, i always end up making something useful!

Octahedra · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject:

I'm fascinated by some of the answers here (e.g. previous post by Electronomist) - I'd forgotten how much I used to use some of the bottom-up techniques mentioned.

Ancient History of Octahedra:

I would often begin working on a track by building a loop of about 4 bars, including all the important parts needed to define the basic style and sound. Then I would make variations on this and see how far it got. By concentrating on sound and overall feel it's an excellent way to learn how to get the kind of sound world you want - that you've heard in other people's music.

Proto-modern and Modern Octahedra: study

I became pretty keen on structure (I still want people to be able to get lost in my music though). More or less all my ideas for pieces of music these days are abstract. You may have guessed the pattern by now that I never hear tunes in my head, and I no longer think of it as a disability! My initial ideas are usually structures and sets of techniques / rules for composing. So I start in top-down mode making a general plan for an entire piece and what kind of thing will happen when. This generally ends with me writing bits of melody and/or chord sequence for the most important moments. Then I go into bottom-up mode to write variations and add more instrument parts to fill the gaps. I enjoy when the 'up' and the 'down' methods meet perfectly in the middle! When they don't, it can take some work to make it all sound good together.

Examples? How about these. My new EP currently in mastering has a chord sequence that starts off with only 2 chords, but next time round 2 new ones get added, and so on until it becomes a 12-chord sequence. Then 2 chords get deleted out of the sequence each time until it's back down to 2 again, but now in a different key. Philip Glass started his career doing this kind of thing with melodies. Finally a synth sequence with constant changes of time sig is bent to fit over the chords as they pass by.

Other tracks on there are based on images from a harmonograph, distorted and used as a graph for how the volume of each note in a massive chord should vary over time. Converting geometric curves into notes or midi controllers has been one of my favourite techniques in algorithmic composition for slow music: that was my original lightbulb moment 10 years ago that led me to algorithms in the first place.

Anyone interested in geometric images, fractals etc. as a source of inspiration should check out prof. Paul Bourke's website as seen in the link above.

Gordon

seraph · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject:

Octahedra · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:42 pm Post subject:

abreaktor · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject:

heh. interesting. ive read that hofstaedter thingie (too lazy to stand up and check the title, something with goedel and escher) and really enjoyed it, but didnt understand half of it. also, a mandelbaum fractal on your wall makes you an insta-nerd. otoh, its fascinating, since i discovered a tool that varies your melodies according to the laws of music theory based solely on algrithmic and mathematical principles. this might come in handy if you work from an engineer angle, but i have no clue how to include those mprinciples in a live environment without losing the "live".

blue hell · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 6:54 pm Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:37 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:41 am Post subject:

Octahedra · Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:22 am Post subject:

Octahedra · Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:16 am Post subject:

Antimon · Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:42 am Post subject:

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

Stanley Pain · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

how to get inspiration - suffer.

i'm off to read some byron, get drunk on vinegar and stab my niece.

abreaktor · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:35 pm Post subject:

heh. i like you.

i created a second soundcloud account where i collect the really simple 4/4 dancy and noisy things. if im stuck on my main things, i create a "crowdpleaser" (i test them by inviting a few people, if they dance its good). and the other way round. perpetual inspiration! its like a neverending orgasm

nobody · Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here

seraph · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

apalomba · Joined: Nov 01, 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Austin, TX

Octahedra · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:29 am Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject:

Gordon, great explanation. Sounds like an interesting piece, and a fascinating way to compose.

Doni · Joined: Jul 11, 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Canada

smoke... hahaha just kidding... or am I???

but seriously, whenver I'm stuck on a project, I just shift gears and move to another one or do something else for a while.

honestly it sounds lame but getting outside and taking in the fresh air helps alot too... and eating your broccoli... lol