Has anyone else tried this? Collecting sounds before starting a project.

[TritoneAddiction]

So I'm embarking on a new project. I've decided it's gonna have some "analogy" type of influences, meaning I'll explore synths like Ivoks, Red70, Viking-1, Legend, perhaps even Complex-1. I'm after sounds that doesn't feel too modern/perfect/sterile/digital etc.

But instead of just diving in and making music like I usually do, I've started going through all the synths patches and saving all patches that has the right "vibe" in a special folder.
This way once I start writing I won't have to scroll through a bunch of patches that I don't even like or will never fit the project.
It'll hopefully lead to a faster and more inspiring writing process as well.
It's a bit of work preparing but I think it'll be worth it.

Has anyone else done this? Preparing/collecting sounds before you start writing?

[Loque]

Well, yea, somehow. I mostly design sounds and make experiments. Than there is some point reached, i NEED to make a song and collect the stuff together. I make my glorious 8 bar loop, use a lots of the sounds i created in the past (and somehow they fit perfectly), add more and more stuff, than i quickly build a song structure, before i start hating my 8 bar loop because i heard it the 10000th time

[MrFigg]

Yeah. Often I get an idea for a song just because I find a great sound while browsing refills. Then it’s a case of funding other stuff which goes with it. Or not .

[Spaceship]

Yes. I’ve done preproduction for songs by choosing a tempo and scale weeks ahead of time, and creating as many samples and loops that work with those parameters as I could. Once I finally start writing the song it can be very helpful to have these readymade elements to experiment with.

[Auryn]

Hell yeah, that's more or less how the whole sound design business got started!

[Jackjackdaw]

I spend days crafting sounds and days aiming for a composition. On composition days I'm still crafting , trying for the backbone sound, when I have that, I rifle through my pre crafted library for the sounds that will flesh it out. Some of these sounds I will use variations of the same ones in different compositioms as it gives a consistency to the overall sound of my project.

[Oquasec]

A couple hours practicing.