What's your best music making tip ?

[alphatonez]

Share your best, shortest tip for music making.

I'll start off with mine, which made me happy often since i used it and made me cry often before i used it:

Save your new, still empty project with a filename, learn your sequencers "Save project" shortcut and use it often, while you're working on your project.
Crashes, lockups, reboots and blackouts will just make you smile from now on

[dope]

great tip alpha! you can also look in your programs settings and some dawś have the ability to auto save every 5, 10, 15 minutes etc....
i have a few tips to add, these are mostly to save time.

1. in most daws i have used you can set up a template to get your project started quickly. for expample, i all ways record with drums, bass, guitar, so i can set up a template with 8 tracks of drums . i like all my drums routed to a drum bus except the kick. i usually have an eq on each seperate drums track. i then set up a mono bass track with a compressor and i route that compressor to side chain from the kick drum to duck that sound. i usually then will have 2 mono tracks panned right and left for my first guitar part. i will need 4 or 5 midi tracks to start of with that will eventually route to drums or possibly a synth/organ. this is just how a session will allways start for me... but usually not end... now if i set that up and save that as a template... i can cut out all that work very quickly by just loading that template to start each project.
realize this may help you on A LOT of your songs... but some songs you want to start with a different approach... possibly a completely different configuration.. so dont let a template ¨trap¨ you into making the same songs over and over.... but in general those 3 elements are in all my songs so having that template ready can get me started quickly.

2. if your planning to record live. before you even turn on the computer it would be a good idea to get your signal chain ready... having the mics and preś and hardware set up and tuned in the best you possibly can will prevent you from trying to ¨correct¨ sounds in the box that you could achieve without the aid of software. this will give you better results in the final recording.

3. if you record live.. anything... record dry. do not put any effects on it... even if you have a 2000 dollar hardware box or a bad ass distortion pedal... learning to record dry and then re-amp or add effects later is the best idea. even if this requires some complicated bussing... if you record a track with reverb on it and later decide you want a different verb or none at all.. your stuck.. you will have to retrack. working as non destructive as possible is the goal that way you can all ways go back a few steps and start again.

4. i know cash can be an issue.. but never skimp on cabling... every part of your signal chain is important... from the most expensive device to the audio interface.. but also.. EVERY THING in between.. a slight buzz or hum from a cable will wreck a performance quickly...

[theBadger]

Good tips there Alpha and Dope.

Here's mine: If at all possible, make music with other people.

A piece of music will almost always sound much better if it has had at least two people working on it.

There you go. Short and to the point.

[r00n]

Get to know one piece of gear well. Dont fall into trap of having 100 of each type of pluggin. This is especially true of dynamics plugs. When someone mixes a good song and masters it well, and its sound super i am tempted to ask what kind of gear they used and then go out and get one so that i can get that sound to. What a mistake! Just get to learn the effects you have and know them well . Youtube for tutes and knowledge about them.
If an author writes a good book, do we ask what kind of typewriter is used? I am not saying that all dynamics plugs are created equal, only get to know the good ones well. Dont chop and change your dynamics mastering plugs all the time.

[r00n]

If you are writing a movie , then story line is king.
When composing a tune, melody is queen. If the tune doesnt hook ... Start again.
Melody comes before beat, bass, chords, anything. Im not suggesting this is the place to start. Of course start anywhere. But as soon as anything else is imposing on the melody, put them in the back seat.