Destructive composing, ...

[avasopht]

So I've started a new production process recently that I like to call destructive composing. In short destructive composing involves a focus on bouncing throughout composition and arranging, which tends to lead to a much different final result.

It doesn't sound like there's a difference but you will find that the change in attention and perception of project structure causes you to make different decisions during creation. Also it allows and encourages more interesting manipulations of your audio.

Has anyone seen this when they've tried to compose destructively?

[Kategra]

I've found it much more inspiring to bounce and manipulate the resulting audio clips than just to manipulate the original midi

[ionly]

I call it constrained composing - my laptop stutters into oblivion otherwise. NOT having to bounce would overcome the necessity for foul language.

[Last Alternative]

I never bounce my midi stuff (maybe I should but then I can't make sample changes). The audio files are guitars, bass, vocals, and samples which I sometimes play with reverses. Need to play with time stretching more though.

[selig]

I love threads like this!

My circle of musician friends would just say "commit, commit, commit!". Print the FX with the guitar. Put all the drums on two tracks if that's all you got. Try to get things in one take, or even record two musicians at once to a single track (or use a single microphone for both). This probably comes from the days of working with a 4-8 track machine with no "undo". It's amazing what you can do when you have no other choice.

Now obviously you can't do this all of the time, but IMO it's an especially great thing to try if you are getting at all creatively "stuck" in any way. It does seem odd, but limitations really can inspire creativity (not that you would always want to live with all limitations).

[Jagwah]

I usually never bounce same as someone said above, always saw it as keeping all my options open. Just yesterday I bounced my percussion track then started playing around with it chopping it up and reversing parts and that was excellent, then I realized I forgot to pan the individual parts first. That's fine just part of a learning process so I shouldn't make that mistake again, but yes, very pleased with the results of bouncing percussion.
Synths on the other hand, I can't see the benefit in bouncing to audio as I can automate everything however I please throughout the production process, there's just the lack of reversing sections I wouldn't normally think of or playing slices on pads or keys for instance.

To bounce or not to bounce, that is the question :comp:

[gullum]

I remember in the late 80's or early 90's when I had a roland sound card that came with some 2 track recording software, I made the drums and keys with Midisoft session then exported it to audio, imported to the Roland recorded the bass exported imported recorded guitar it was amaizing that I could to that. But boy am I happy that computer have evolved since then.
I do not bounce at all if I need to revers a synth or something I rather resample it and then revers the sample

[Yonatan]

Well, one step that I will try (using best of both worlds) would be to save a backup copy of the song at that stage when wanting to free up some space and experiment. If doing something that you would regret too much or face the end of a road, just "save as(s)" and be as brave as you want!

[selig]

I usually never bounce same as someone said above, always saw it as keeping all my options open. Just yesterday I bounced my percussion track then started playing around with it chopping it up and reversing parts and that was excellent, then I realized I forgot to pan the individual parts first. That's fine just part of a learning process so I shouldn't make that mistake again, but yes, very pleased with the results of bouncing percussion.
Synths on the other hand, I can't see the benefit in bouncing to audio as I can automate everything however I please throughout the production process, there's just the lack of reversing sections I wouldn't normally think of or playing slices on pads or keys for instance.

To bounce or not to bounce, that is the question :comp:

I believe the whole point is that you don't NEED to bounce, but when you leave all possibilities on the table until the end you tend to work differently than when you commit early on. It's a creative process, a form of imposing limitations on your workflow in order to provoke some creative ideas that wouldn't normally happen. 

It's very interesting what happens when you REMOVE possibilities, but you have to actually do it to discover these possibilities. And of course, there are always trade offs, but that's part of the fun IMO!

And it's being called "destructive" because it's opposed to working "non-destructively" (leaving all tweaks to the end).

[frog974new]

I usually never bounce same as someone said above, always saw it as keeping all my options open. Just yesterday I bounced my percussion track then started playing around with it chopping it up and reversing parts and that was excellent, then I realized I forgot to pan the individual parts first. That's fine just part of a learning process so I shouldn't make that mistake again, but yes, very pleased with the results of bouncing percussion.
Synths on the other hand, I can't see the benefit in bouncing to audio as I can automate everything however I please throughout the production process, there's just the lack of reversing sections I wouldn't normally think of or playing slices on pads or keys for instance.

To bounce or not to bounce, that is the question :comp:

with bounce we can manipulate/tweak the sound on an other way
i remember some vids. made by the Props. showing somes tricks with audio and can do lony this the bounce audio clip .

personnaly , for my project i use both method , midi clip + bounce audio clip and for mix i always working on audio files