My Creative Process (Explained) (Patreon)

Yesterday morning, one of our patrons (who is visually impaired) asked me to "write out" my process since it would be helpful to them. Discord limits posts to 2000 characters (this is 2X the length) so instead of tucking it away in a forum post, I thought it would be helpful if I posted it here instead! Hopefully you guys enjoy this one (reposted by permission) -S1gns

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Writing out a creative process is often a very beneficial thing to do, as I’ve mentioned in a recent tutorial and on several of my blog posts on Patreon. I applaud your ability to create music without the gift of sight. I know of another ambient artist, Scott Lawlor, who also composes music visually impaired. I find that his music has a depth to it that I really enjoy and again, I have compassion for your situation.

So for me, my creative process always starts with a feeling. It it is the most personal part of my process. That feeling is something that’s hard to describe in words and articulate. It’s something that I discovered the ability to translate into sound when I started creating ambient music in 2012, but I’m sure it goes much deeper and further back. It has a very primal and inward nature to it, like attempting to draw energy from the cosmos, or elaborate on the heavens. Something like that. I deep into a wellspring of creation that is both satisfying yet chaotic, part orchestral and the other part pandemonium. It's from this place I attempt to extract the feeling that I’d like to recreate or begin from. That’s where all of my creativity and greatest inspiration stems from. From this place.

From there, I begin to reach for a tool - usually a synthesizer of random choice, and I begin to sculpt out those initial feelings in sound. Again, I’m not trying to get too specific here, but this is where the “work” part of the process begins. I use the techniques that I know how to do and start to experiment and try to tweak parts of my process to reach a desired result. As I’ve mentioned in several tutorial videos, I used to use presets and I still do on occasion, but nowadays I tend to lean on my sound design skills as the alpha and omega. From there, I find that more of my own personal signature tends to imprint itself in every aspect of my sound.

I then continue and allow the track to take shape, part by part, until I’m satisfied with the progression. I tend to work in “stages” - meaning - I start a track and work on it for about 45 minutes, leave the track and start a new one, and then perhaps come back to the initial track at a later time. Some people don’t like to work like this, but I feel that as long as I get the initial “spark” translated I’ll be okay when it comes to finishing it. If the track is left too undone, it will probably be scrapped or rolled into another project so if I’m really serious I’ll lay down MIDI right away in arrangement view and make sure I’m on the right track.

Technically, these “MIDI Clips” are hand drawn. I sometimes record them and use either my Push 2 or Hydrasynth keybed and record live. Either way, it’s right click and “create new MIDI clip” and use set it to my desired length. Longer clips are for pads, shorter clips are usually sequenced material or percussion. After all of the “Clips” are created, and I’ve done all of my “gain staging” which I describe in my videos using the “Utility” template, I then begin the process of the mixing stage.

At this stage, I like to do the following in Ableton Live - select all tracks and “duplicate” all of them. I take the original clips and group them, using control+G, and then “deactivate” all of them. By doing this, I’m “saving” the MIDI in a state where I can come back to it if I need to. This is my personal preference, and your mileage may vary at this point. Some people just like to save new versions, but I find that if I have the MIDI available in the project I’m working on, if I need to make a change it’s there for me.

With the new MIDI, I then “Freeze and Flatten” all the tracks so I’m only working with audio. From there, the mixing process begins and I can start to make adjustments. In my most recent tutorial I explain how I do this so there’s not much need to reiterate here, but I tend to use simple tools (Utility plugin, Pro-Q 3, Pro-C 2) as inserts on each track and since my tracks are duplicates, all of my original send levels are already applied.

Anyway, I hope this helps you in some way! We all have our chosen methods of working and I hope that this has helped you understand mine. If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know.

Cheers and all the best!

-S1gns