Music composition workflow questions

[dsw67]

I'm hoping to get some advice from folks who compose music in Logic. I'm relatively new at music composition despite the fact that I've been playing guitar for many years.

How do you organize different versions of the same piece? What do you name them? Version 1, 2, 3, etc? Last night I composed a nice electric bass ostinato and drum groove. However I couldn't find a melody I was completely happy with, so I simply wrote out 3 or 4 versions within the same file. I'm thinking now it might be better to separate them with a ver1, ver2, etc.

Do you create a master folder for each composition, and store different versions of the same piece within that folder?

Do you always use Logic to flesh out your ideas? Or do you sometimes use pencil and paper first?

Do you ever use Logic to capture quick ideas and melodies? If so, how do you organize them so you can quickly find them later?

Just trying to get some advice from the more experienced folks here with regards to work-flow. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Eli]

Do you create a master folder for each composition, and store different versions of the same piece within that folder?

This is an interesting topic; and interesting questions. Yes, I create a project folder and then do a "save as" with different version numbers for the song in progress as it is developing. I do a save as with a different version numbers whenever I want to take a significant detour, or go in a different direction. Being all contained in the same project folder, they share the same media files. So it's just the project files themselves, which are relatively small, that are created a new.

Do you always use Logic to flesh out your ideas? Or do you sometimes use pencil and paper first?

Personally I almost always use Logic. Although sometimes I am only using it to host a software instrument (usually piano) to "write" with.

Do you ever use Logic to capture quick ideas and melodies? If so, how do you organize them so you can quickly find them later?

I do use it for this. I usually store with the date in the title; although this doesn't necessarily make for the best retrieval method unfortunately.

One thing that I find that helps the creative flow is that I have a custom template stored with a piano loaded in and ready to go. It is set as the selected track instrument. And I set Logic's prefs to open this template by default. So, when the mood strikes, all I have to do is launch Logic (or hit Command N f logic is already open), and then hit escape as soon as it is launched so as not to save the template as a new project; and I begin playing my keyboard. The piano sound is ready to go.

If, after noodling around for a bit, I feel I have something I want to work with, I'll save it then. If not, I just close the project and don't have to deal with a saved project file that contains nothing useful or relevant.

Just trying to get some advice from the more experienced folks here with regards to work-flow. Thank you in advance for your help.

Another you can do is that save you template with the quantize value set to 16ths (or something else if desired) so that for laying down quick ideas, parts will be automatically quantized on input. It's easy enough to undo or change if your song takes you in a direction where this isn't necessary. But, to lay a quick little guide drum part or bass part down, I find this is useful - particularly at the initial stages.