[[Notes]] - Topics: [[Creativity]] - People: [[Devin Townsend]] - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LrTB9JFBME --- ## Summary - [[Productivity is built upon a foundation of good defaults]]. - [[Sweat the details, not the distractions.]] - [[How things fit together as a whole is more important than the individual thing itself]]. - [[Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.]] ## Notes ### Preface - In this video, [[Devin Townsend]] explains how he produces and mixes his songs to create his signature "wall of sound" sound; something that sounds incredibly "full", "rich", and "wide". - This is demonstrated from breaking down the mix of his recording of the song "Truth", from the album Transcendence (2016). - These notes will focus on the creative process of song production and composition, rather than the technical details of working with music production software. ### Defaults + details > "[[I'm not a fan of options]]. Because this stuff is so dense, and because the way I write is so rooted in being guided towards a vision... I don't want to have to spend a lot of time with the minutiae of these plugins." - Recognize the consequences and side-effects when resources/materials start to compound. Have solutions to efficiently handle the unwanted side-effects. - Work with good defaults. - [[Set good defaults, and let them guide your work.]] [[Reliability above all]]. - [[Productivity is built upon a foundation of good defaults]]. - [[Sweat the details, not the distractions.]] ### Sketching > "How I start mixing is that I make really broad strokes". - You have to have a strong technical foundation to know what tools to reach for. - [[The technique is just your tool]]. [[Techniques aren’t limited to one discipline; they’re universal methods for solving problems. Understand them, and you can apply them anywhere.]] ### The whole (Vision) > "Work within the parameters of the sub-mix." - Continuously zoom in and out of working parts to see how it feels and feels with the working whole. - [[Focus on the details without forgetting the whole]]. - [[How things fit together as a whole is more important than the individual thing itself]]. - Focus on how the materials of your context/zoom level contribute to the next (higher) context/zoom level. [[Don't get distracted by the details on your sub-mixes]]. - Ultimately, all parts are connected. They feed towards a single product that should represent a realized vision. - [[Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.]] ## See also - [[Prince's work ethic]]