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Dynamics of naming a track.
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
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Posted : Oct 17, 2007 16:46
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I was wondering, how and why do you guys name your tracks?
I always find that if some idea i have gets a good name i like early, then this idea usualy matures into a track i am happy with. I find it kinda puts the track into focus and gives it an identity, until i name it, its kinda like a john doe to me.
So for me naming is an important part of the process for a track...
Of the top of my head i usually come up with wordplay and funny sort of names, but then i usually don't use them and think harder until i find something that fits.
Sometimes for me the name might be of course related to or use words from some speach sample in the track, and the speach sample would be chosen to fit the vibes.
what are your guys ideas on this?
 
The Way Back
https://faxinadu.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-back |
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shamantrixx
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549
Posted : Oct 17, 2007 17:38
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I name tracks generically... like 144-008-5 (144bpm - arrangement No 8 since 4th backup of arrangements folder).
If track matures and evolves enough the name usually pops out by it self. I play my tracks to small number of friends who comment very critically and always from the perspective that things can always be better. So often I hear comments like "what's wrong with you... this lead sounds like a saxophone player wrapped in cellophane" 
However, I avoid naming tracks before they are fully grown because of one simple reason: Making up a nice track name is to make attachment to the name it self. Sometimes name is good but track isn't. Obviously we all tend to "save" the tracks we feel more attached to. So in a way I find it kind of counterproductive. I get distracted by "rescuing" good name instead of making good music. So I try to make music first and names appear of it self along the way.
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
Started Topics :
282
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Posted : Oct 17, 2007 17:41
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Quote:
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On 2007-10-17 17:38, shamantrixx wrote:
I name tracks generically... like 144-008-5 (144bpm - arrangement No 8 since 4th backup of arrangements folder).
If track matures and evolves enough the name usually pops out by it self. I play my tracks to small number of friends who comment very critically and always from the perspective that things can always be better. So often I hear comments like "what's wrong with you... this lead sounds like a saxophone player wrapped in cellophane"
However, I avoid naming tracks before they are fully grown because of one simple reason: Making up a nice track name is to make attachment to the name it self. Sometimes name is good but track isn't. Obviously we all tend to "save" the tracks we feel more attached to. So in a way I find it kind of counterproductive. I get distracted by "rescuing" good name instead of making good music. So I try to make music first and names appear of it self along the way.
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cool i get what you are saying, intresting point of view. i see what you mean by attatched to the name, though i don't see it as a negative thing, at least when working on my own stuff.
The Way Back
https://faxinadu.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-back |
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shamantrixx
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549
Posted : Oct 17, 2007 22:24
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I guess that it is very individual. I can imagine that someone can be objective enough to perceive that track with good name is basically a lousy track and simply use the same name for another track ; maybe even use that same sample in another arrangement and thus "save" the name and general idea. It would be quite reasonable thing to do...
But not all of us are equally reasonable when it comes to practice. So along the years I've discovered that such things can distract me more than I was ready to confess to my self. Once I name a track - that name stays with the track even if it will end in recycle bin. Samples and ideas also... I rescue nothing. From 20 started arrangements only 5 will develop into complete tracks. From those 5 only 1 or maybe 2 will reach the post-production and mixing phase.
For a long time I was under impression that I'm doing something wrong... that I should finish more tracks. But since I don't have any problems with "catching" new ideas from the "ether" finally I've accepted this way of working and now I even like it. But I find it much harder to abandon the arrangement if it has any "personal" meaning or if I develop sympathy for it's name.
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
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Posted : Oct 17, 2007 22:27
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"But I find it much harder to abandon the arrangement if it has any "personal" meaning or if I develop sympathy for it's name. "
ya but for me this is exactly what is good about it. not a matter of sympathy, but a matter of ok i am working on a random idea, now i give it a name, an identity and now i know where i am going, kinda keeps me focused on what i am trying to do with the idea.
The Way Back
https://faxinadu.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-back |
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Pinkadelic @ ciledakniP
IsraTrance Junior Member
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125
Posted : Oct 17, 2007 22:45
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i dont actually think the name matters at all really.
if you have a good track, you can name it anything you like, it wont change the fact that the track is either good or bad.
but i understand what you mean, by building a track around the dynamics of the name, but in my opinion, a name is just a way to recognize what track you're talking about.
-Soultech/Stampgevaar Records, Parampara Recs
-MSN: marcio_zimerman9@hotmail.com
-myspace: http://www.myspace.com/pinkadelica |
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shamantrixx
Started Topics :
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549
Posted : Oct 17, 2007 23:03
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For a long time I had a similar opinion like you Pinkadelic. To be precise, I changed my mind when I've abandoned the concept of gaining success as a music producer. Not that I think there's something wrong with good music becoming recognized and thus resulting in a success of producer in that way... No. I don't do it with that goal. If it happens of it self... cool. But if it never happens... just as cool also
As the time went by I slowly changed my viewpoint. Since I'm doing it for my self I don't have to think in the same way anymore... the whole thing become extremely personal and ritualistic for me. Little creations manifested from "ether" into my studio and eventually mostly forwarded to recycle bin. Now once in a while a "special" manifest takes place during a session and than I feel that it deserves a name. Now name is not just a way of recognizing that track from other tracks... that name is a piece of me carved into a piece of music that was already here when I stumbled upon it and helped in the process of translating it from mind to matter  As you may or may not know, giving a "piece" of you to some thing (like naming your favorite teddy bear) makes that thing into your "talisman". No magic, no new age... simply something that you care about not based upon the value of the thing but rather on the value of your emotions devoted to that "thing".
Will anyone ever hear that name or hear that track... will it mean anything to anyone except for me??? Well I'm not here to think about that. I'm not the one who's doing the work anyway. I just allow things to happen and develop. For me such rare moments deserve more than a name.
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
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Posted : Oct 17, 2007 23:13
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shamantrixx
Started Topics :
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549
Posted : Oct 18, 2007 00:32
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...the whole party becomes the offering, the music becomes the offering, the dance becomes the offering...
… and that’s when the seed is being planted into everyone’s subconscious that will hopefully grow and flower and make people more sensitive and aware of themselves, their surroundings, the crossroads of humanity, and the needs of the planet. 
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
Started Topics :
282
Posts :
3394
Posted : Oct 18, 2007 00:38
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Pinkadelic @ ciledakniP
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
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125
Posted : Oct 18, 2007 01:25
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i agree with u shamanixx.
i havent about it that way.
and anyway, i thought Faxiboy was talking about a song's quality etc (Dynamics of naming a track, sounds technical )
but now, as i thought about it, i think ur right, a name isnt just words.
but i dont think that a song is already created, and you're just a tool that transforms that song into matter.
the song is still you, every little sound in that song is you, you have spent alot of time making that stuff, you know everything, you are everything in that track.
you designed it, you designed the atmosphere, you designed the progressions, or (less technical) the spirit of the song.
i dont think that the only thing that is mine in a track is the name. your music is you, and everything in it signifies something about you.
now thats my opinion
-Soultech/Stampgevaar Records, Parampara Recs
-MSN: marcio_zimerman9@hotmail.com
-myspace: http://www.myspace.com/pinkadelica |
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shamantrixx
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Posted : Oct 18, 2007 02:55
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I think we generally agree on that part (my music being made of me as well as by me) but I'm looking at it from another direction.
I strongly believe that ideas are not ours. We can reach them on some level of creativity and once we pull them down to earth they often get a life of their own. I guess we all had some ideas that get out of our hands... almost by them self Of course, not all ideas have such tendency but i still think that we're masters of interpretation rather than of invention.
In the process of helping to translate ideas from my mind to sequencer I surely install a lot of "me" in that idea and the result is my personal and complex interpretation of primal idea together with all my technical and musical limitations, effort, emotions etc. So yes, I could call that "my work"... I agree with you. But I just feel better thinking about my self as of just a vehicle expressing the inexpressible and not identifying my self with what I do or with "person" doing it.
Please keep in mind that I'm just talking about my point of view and I don't suggest that anyone else should accept it. Such things can't be nether wrong nor right. By thinking about in this way I enjoy making music much more than I used to enjoy it before and, as counterintuitive as it can be, the more I disassociate from the "role" of "creator" the easier I seem to get new ideas to my mind. So I just practice that which serves me best. Nothing more than that
"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception"
Albert Einstein, speaking about his theory of relativity |
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Pinkadelic @ ciledakniP
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Oct 18, 2007 06:07
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I like your idea, and i think i might adopt it
but anyway, i get what you mean, and i think were all connected, whether the idea was already there or you have thought of it from scratch, it still runs on energy.
so even if the idea wasn't "yours", its still IS yours.
and even if it was yours, it aint.
i hope you get what i mean... i confused myself abit over here, but keeping it simple, everything is energy, so my ideas are and arent mine, because i thought of it through some "foreign" energy.
-Soultech/Stampgevaar Records, Parampara Recs
-MSN: marcio_zimerman9@hotmail.com
-myspace: http://www.myspace.com/pinkadelica |
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Pavel
Troll
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313
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8649
Posted : Oct 18, 2007 07:30
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I usually give my tracks names of deviant sexual acts.
Everyone in the world is doing something without me |
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MadScientist
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Oct 18, 2007 08:03
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 good one pavel!
sometimes I got a name in mind before I even start to work on a track...then I usually adapt the style a bit to the meaning of the name! (thats perspective of course)
but generally I got at least 2/3 of the track done before I pick up a name for it
https://soundcloud.com/hazak
"Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Hmm, yeah... All the time, man - it's called mescaline. The only way to fly!" |
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