Hi everyone,

Hello there,

That's a very interesting approach here! I'll surely give it a try on my next idea!

Thanks a lot.

Very good thread - writing fast is a great skill. Part of it, in my own experience, comes from several things:

1) Know your set up well.

This includes both hardware and all software items. Spend time learning your FX chains and how they best work to achieve various textures and feels. Know your sample libraries well. For example, I know that combining two patches in a certain way creates a very useful texture to fill in orchestral sounds, be it long or short notes. On a very much related point, I also know that for certain instruments I'm going to have to pull the level or EQ out certain frequencies right off the bat to achieve the sound I'm after.

2) Have a template set up.

The less time you have to do the technical set up means you get to start creating that much faster. Writing to only piano and orchestrating later is useful for sure! But sometimes you need to compose and arrange (and mix!) all at the same time. Having a ready-to-go template for various kinds of genres can really help speed things along and help you focus on creative decisions instead of technical ones.

3) Keep your scope in check.

From what I've heard in both of your quick pieces, you guys are already doing this. Good job! When writing super fast, you may not be able to get a fully fleshed out orchestral piece so strive for what is vital and quick. Sometimes simple flourishes can be easily created and help give your piece that extra bit of polish.

4) Do it often.

This is what I love about this thread. You guys are already doing this! I once had a work situation come up where I was put on a game late Friday afternoon - about 3PM. The game was due on Tuesday. Normally these games would take about 2 weeks to do all of the audio. I basically had the weekend. So I jumped into hyper drive and wrote as quickly as I could. Thankfully, this kind of stress motivates me and I've been in this kind of situation many times before. But if it's your first time in a quick crunch, it can become a blocking instead of a propelling situation. So it's great that you guys are already imposing a time limit on yourself now.

5) Don't question yourself.

I don't mean just write crap. Be critical of your work and push for excellence! But the less time you have to work on something the more precious your decisions are! It may not be the best time to debate over a melody's note or two. Instead go with what works. It sounds bad to say but part of writing really fast is going into somewhat of an automatic mode. Again, not saying write poor music but you go back to your bag of tricks which you've already tested and proven (like you guys are doing now!) which you know will produce the right results.

One more thing - imposing external deadlines is great but putting yourself in true crunch situations is even better. So I'd recommend those game jams and 48 hour film festivals where the entire team is crunching and you're writing music/producing audio as quickly as you can. I just did one two weekends ago and, due to the nature of post audio, was writing much of the music on the last day. And because the shoot went different then expected the film's vibe and direction changed somewhat. So not only was I down to hours to produce the music, I was doing rewrites! That kind of stress isn't always fun but MAN is it a good test and barometer with how you can handle time sensitive situations.

At these kind of events, you're often you're working with a team of friends (who are also rushed), so it's not like you're gonna get fired. Put yourself in situations like this often and you get better and better at handling that kind of stress. I remember the fastest I've ever had to produce audio was for a MechWarrior game where I produced 18.30 worth of in-game music, produced 9 minutes of music and sound design for cut scenes and did all of the in-game sound design as well as implemented it all into FMOD in 8 days. I was working from 6AM-2AM every day during that chunk. It paid REALLY well but... pretty sure I took a few years off my life on that one!

Hello nsmdsen,

some pretty good advice here! Thanks a lot for your response!

Excellent point! I completely agree. Much of how I compose is basically improvising and then building up on those core ideas, adding polish and editing.