How do songs evolve?
For context,
I mean how many forms does an idea take before it becomes its final form?
I started working on a song the other day. I'm putting together a 3-track thing that absolutely has to sound a specific way, but at the same time it's hard for me to define.
Typing that out makes me realize that I need to define what that something is or I might be spinning my wheels (gears?) for a bit.
It started off this way:
The detuned saw melody on this one felt weird after a while, it was somehow harsh and dull at the same time. Obviously I could've just swapped it out for something different, but instead I went another route:
This one was cool, but lyrically it drives things in a certain direction for me that probably won't suit the entire project.
A healthy middle ground for me though:
This one sounds like "yeah I'm sad but at least I can bounce my shoulders" or something lol. It was great to wake up in the middle of the night and head to the studio for this. It kinda felt like an idea that wouldn't let me rest until I at least got the base of it down.
I don't save presets of the synth patches I make, so if I've made something on my Hydra, Mother 32, or Digitone I'd have to recreate it from scratch. The Digitone is kind of an exception though because I'll save the song which includes the patch, but I'll have to go song diving for it. I intentionally work this way so that I don't repeat sounds too frequently across songs, and it also forces me to work with what I have.
One saving grace here though is the drum generator I made in Cardinal:
This is based on the Bastl Pizza Crust (which is available in VCV Rack but not Cardinal) and I regret not doing this sooner for making drums. I used to just design them on hardware and pray I could make them work properly without having to go back and remake them.
Off to work on more stuff.