Prime Loops has a weekly music-related blog, and this week’s post is on Audio Resolutions! for 2012.  There are several good tips for making better music in 2012, but the one which really jumps out most to me is #4: Keep It Simple. 

While Prime Loops’ offerings are really intended for those who create music entirely in a DAW, Keep It Simple is also quite useful for composing in any format/medium.  I personally compose entirely in PrintMusic, and I find that to some extent, it forces me to keep things relatively simple.  The 24-staff limitation of PrintMusic requires that if I have a really complex piece in mind, then I need to seriously consider how I am using each staff in order to get everything to fit properly!  Since PrintMusic is inherently driven by notation, it is much more difficult (although not at all impossible) to add a lot of fillers such as sweeps and risers and even just a few quick sound effects – again, the program itself practically forces me to keep things rather simple in the composing stage.  The limit of 8 MIDI banks (of 16 channels each) can also force me to keep things simple, especially if I am using a VST plug-in which only supports a single channel, such as AAS Player to drive Angelicals.

This does not mean that PrintMusic cannot produce complex music.  “Global Expectations (Extended Mix)” is a very good example of this:  I very nearly hit the 24-staff limit, and I absolutely had to use some rather creative notation in order to get the sonic output I desired prior to mixing.

The mixing stage is where things can become truly complex: multiple reverbs, insane amounts of automation, adding sound effects and stutters and risers, etc.  I find, however, that keeping things relatively simple in PrintMusic allows the introduction of complexity during the mixing stage to have more of a purpose.  A good example is my current project, “Digital Goddess:”  While the project sounded rather good in PrintMusic, it was only as I was beginning the mixing process that I realized that it needed a little extra oomph at one point, and I was able to add (directly in the DAW) a subtle riser thanks to a sustained note in Steamworx combined with an automated pitch shifter which comes with Reaper.  Adding this in the mixing stage gave the riser a true purpose, instead of the riser being superfluous fluff.

Even when keeping things relatively simple as today’s Prime Loops blog post suggests, a lot can still be musically done which can keep the listener’s attention, but if nothing else, the simplicity early in the process can better determine how to make things more complex without overloading the listener’s mind and ears.

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