Ten ways to keep

the creative juices

flowing.
A guide for electronic producers

T O M C O S M
With exclusive quotes from
ill.GATES
Zen Mechanics
Grouch
Pitch Black
Hedflux
Mr. Bill
Kiwa

Opiuo
Perfect Stranger
Sensient
Organikismness
Antix / Fiord
K+Lab
Module

Introduction

Staying motivated to complete a track is an issue that all producers face at some time, whether youre an experienced artist,
bedroom producer, or just starting out. In this book, I have put
together ten fun and bullshit free strategies that will have you
busting out the tunes in no time.
The excitement that comes from creating your own blips and
bleeps is a wonderful feeling. Sometimes so much so that moving on to creating something new, rather than finishing the old,
often leads to a folder sitting on your computer full of unfinished
projects which dont have much in the way of progression
(yeah, you know what Im talking about!).
The methods and techniques I explore in this book always keep
in mind the joys of being creative, and embracing that buzz. I
believe any chore can be made into a fun game rather than forcing you to do something boring. Its the same philosophy I use
when I hire strippers to help me with my spring cleaning.
If youre at the stage where youre making good shit, and you
know its good shit, chances are the feeling of absolute awesomeness that comes with it is going to make the idea of knuckling down sound very unattractive. In the following 10 chapters,
Ill show you my tried and tested ways of keeping the fire burning, helping you become more productive, motivated and educated.

www.cosm.co.nz

About the Author

Tom Cosm is an electronic music producer, performer and teacher from New Zealand.

Giving all his music away for free yet maintaing a

full time living as a musician, Tom has built his image up using various other fun and interesting mediums of promotion, with the main being his passion for teaching and interacting with others as he
travels.
Keeping the whole project open source and using social media to heavily interact and include his
fans in future decisions, the COSM project is constantly evolving for the better, playing off all the
new and interesting opportunities that arise from an industry which is rapidly
changing.
As well as performing, Tom has a great passion for teaching as he moves around
the globe. He is New Zealands only Ableton Certified Trainer and works with
Ableton to promote, spread and give the gift of music production.
Nicknamed the Ableton Guru, he manages a 14 thousand member strong interactive social media website with over 30 hours of self produced tutorial videos, lessons and downloadable resources, as well as hosting a thriving community forum
where people can interact and collaborate
With 6 years of touring under his belt, Tom has performed and taught in over 30
countries at both festivals and nightclubs. Some highlights include Boom Festival
(Portugal - 2006 - 2012), Burning Man (USA), Brain Busters (Japan), Ultra
Groove (Brazil), Rainbow Serpent Festival (Australia - 2007 - 2012) and Trimurti
Festival (Russia).

Tension and
Release

Chapter 1

www.cosm.co.nz

Tension and
Release

Tension and Release is used throughout all musical styles,

and is a vital tool to help emphasize the feeling of progression/
moving forward. This feeling is very important to maintain because without it, things get stale and boring very quickly.
Whether its on the big scale of the entire tune structure:

Intro > Drop > Breakdown > Drop > Outro

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

... not giving up when you get stuck on something

or feel the track is not going anywhere anymore. If
youre having problems moving forward, or youre
having issues with something in particular, try working around the problem. Sometimes this will give
you ideas and trigger the next stage of inspiration.
Just keep working away and dont give up on
tracks you have already put so much time into.

- Grouch
www.soundcloud.com/grouchnz

Or on the micro scale:

Kick > Hat > Kick > Hat

Using Tension and Release can dramatically open up new ways
of listening to your ideas, ultimately making them interact with
each other more fluently.
When Im on a dance-floor rocking out to a tune Ive never
heard before, I like to watch the ways I am moving my body in
relation to what I am hearing. One thing I notice a lot is when a
good producer introduces a new idea or theme, its always announced ahead of time.
It sneaks in subtly before it fully hits, or there can be a little
drum fill, or even the good old white noise whoooooosh going
up and up - but if a new idea is introduced by something else in
the music, my body knows something is coming, and when it
does, Im ready. That makes me feel super cool and connected
with what is happening.
3

Chapter 1 - Tension and Release

www.cosm.co.nz

I get played a lot of music from producers who are just starting
out. Tension and Release often comes later after they have
started mastering the sound design aspect of producing. As
their tune moves forward, things just sort of get slopped down
on the plate in front of you, like food being served in a school
cafeteria.

Now you have my attention. Somethings happening,

somethings coming, and Im excited! Im so caught up with
connecting/syncing with this tension that when it drops I dont
even start being critical of the weak bass, in fact its magically
turned into a great bass! You just got me tense, and then released it. Im having fun, mother fucker!

Even though the substance they are giving to me is tasty, Id

get much more of a kick out of it if it was served to me like I was
at a 5 star restaurant. This is a subconscious effect. The whole
point of writing music is to make people feel something as
much as possible, so playing with the subconscious is a powerful tool if done correctly. No-one is going to get pissed off if they
find out you tricked them because they have already made the
decision to put down their guard and take what you are offering.
They want you to fuck with them.

If youve got something in front of you that has good ideas but
doesnt really sound too exciting because youve listened to it
so many times, focus on the small details of creating tension
and release (on the smaller scale). A few ways to do this are:

Lets say Im listening to a house track, and were only at the introduction with a kick, snare, high-hat and perhaps a little synth
stab. Its moving along, bar 30, bar 31, bar 32, bar 33, oh cool
the bass is there. Its not the best bass, its a bit weak sounding
and they just have one note doing a simple pattern, but its
there now.
Now take that same intro, but give it some character. At 16 bars
start bringing in some quiet white noise slowly opening up on a
low pass filter, start fading the kick drum away at 24 bars, throw
a reverb on that synth stab and bring the decay time out slowly.

Every four bars add an extra little snare or percussion hit, just a tiny one.
Every eight or sixteen bars throw in a little fill, add a new sound, make it stop
for two beats, then put a crash or white noise when the beat comes back.
Load up a hundred percussion hits into a sampler and randomly throw a couple in at the end of a phrase.
Take the bass or synth line on a small melodic journey for a few beats, different
to what its been doing already.
Take a tiny chunk of the element you are going to introduce and put it in four
bars before it is supposed to be there, but change those four bars so they are
muffled, or quiet, or sneaking in. Let people get a tiny taste and wanting more.
Create a new unique one (or whatever) bar loop that really compliments your
new idea, and have it play only once before the new idea comes in! Think of
someone announcing a speaker at a huge event, someone whos job is only to
make the next person look amazing.

www.cosm.co.nz

Chapter 1 - Tension and Release

You will be amazed at how spending just 10 minutes zipping
through your track and adding these little tension builds will
make it sound whole and complete. I really have to stress this.
Have a coffee, sit down and power them out as fast as you can.
It will turn a track that wasnt going anywhere into a new playground of excitement. When you hit that point of hearing your
track like it is an actual whole composition, it will start writing itself.

Bonus Tip - Less is More

When using words like fills and builds, the first thing that usually jumps to mind is to add something. Add a drum roll, add a
build up, these all work, however sometimes you can create the
same effect, or an even more powerful effect, but subtracting.
A simple way to imagine this is to take just the drums out for a
bar before the next phrase. Leave everything else - it still creates a feeling of anticipation. Even if you just took one kick out
on the fourth beat of the bar, youll still get an element of tension.
One cool trick I like to do when I am a bit stuck of ideas to create these little builds, is to load in a LOT of stuff, put lots of
snare hits, lots of sounds and crazy shit (again, all in the bar BEFORE the next phrase), then start subtracting until something
starts to get sculpted.

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated
when producing a track is...
...to keep the work moving. If youre getting stuck with something, put it aside, you can always go back to it later. If youre
moving forward you'll keep the creative juices flowing, it will be a
more enjoyable and fresher environment to work in, and youre
more likely to stumble across that 'hit'.
Fresh ears - we find that the first listen in the morning or first
session of the day is the closest youre gonna get to hearing
how the track really is. Anything after that and your ears and
mind slowly get de-sensitized to the music.
Its very important to develop your own style, which will evolve
over time, but take note that nothing is original. We are always
getting ideas and inspiration from other sources, so don't be
ashamed of this. Its how the creative world works. All the 'big
guys' have stolen that idea from something/someone else and
re-hashed it into their own version and unique style. If they deny
it they are telling you porkies!

- Antix / Fiord
www.antixfiord.com

Model a
Tune you Admire

Chapter 2

www.cosm.co.nz

Model a Tune
you Admire

You can do this in most Digital Audio Workstations quite easily.

Its usually a simple matter of:
1.Creating a new audio track within your sequencer and dragging your chosen tune
into it.
2.Warp/mark/beat match it up correctly so that the tune plays along in the right BPM
as to what you have your sequencer set to.
3.Follow along as the tune plays and add little marker points when things happen.

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

Its up to you how precise you want to be with this technique.

You can just throw in when the breakdowns or drops happen, or
you can label each little fill. When I do it, I note down:
When new rhythmical ideas comes in; for example a new drum loop, or a change
in the high-hat/snare drum sounds.

... to experiment. If I find I get stuck on a tune I'll

make a crazy sound or do a tutorial so I've got
something fresh to work with and keep the track
moving forward.

When a little tension fill happens (usually with a small description, e.g. Drum Roll
or Reversed Cymbal).
When a new synthesized idea comes in.

- K+Lab

w w w. s o u n d c l o u d . c o m / k l a b n z

When an effect starts getting tweaked (e.g. delay time starting to open up on short
delay).

One of the easiest ways to get a collection of ideas you have

developed down in a nice format that you absolutely know will

work, is to pick one of your favorite tracks, deconstruct it, and
shape your ideas around this newly discovered formula.

The Intro, Breakdowns, Buildups, Drops and Outros.

Now if youre worried about copying, dont stress, nobody is going to know. Youre taking the structure here, nothing else. If
someone has the attention span to listen to your tune and say,
hey this has the same progression as this other tune, then I
wouldnt really trust their criticism anyway (or leave them alone
in my house).
7

Minimizing Audio
Stagnation Setting Yourself
Limits

Chapter 3

www.cosm.co.nz

Minimizing Audio
Stagnation Setting Yourself
Limits

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

...keeping the process moving. When you start ant-fucking

you can really lose the plot and the whole process grinds to a
halt. Paint with broad strokes and make quick, dramatic alterations until you have the absolute best possible core for your
tune. If you are relying on details and fancy editing to make
the riffs and arrangement sound good, chances are it's actually rubbish and will cause problems later in the process.

- ill.Gates

Minimizing audio stagnation means reducing the loss of personal appreciation for what you're currently doing by putting systems in place to ensure your brain doesnt get worn out on
ideas that are actually great.
When you are working on part of a tune, especially when you
are learning (as you aren't fully as fast as you could be yet),
there's usually a point where you go fuck yeah this sounds
good. However, this quickly goes once you listen to it for another 20 minutes working on it. To put it simply, its audio fatigue
and its a sneaky dangerous asshole.
Theres also a type of second hand buzzkill. If you are working
on say, some high-hats over your bass-line, the bass-line that
you once enjoyed subconsciously gets stagnant and you'll
probably end up going back to change it again, even though
nothing was wrong with it.
If you did initially like how it sounded, try not changing it any
more. Chances are other people will like it when they hear it for
the first time also. They just didn't spend hours listening to a 4
bar loop at 2am on some rainy night.
Set yourself time limits. Use a countdown timer if you have to.

w w w. i l l g a t e s . c o m
9

Chapter 3 - Minimizing Stagnation - Setting Yourself Limits

Dont just move on when you start getting bored, move on
when its sounding great. You can channel that excitement into
something else, hopefully something that compliments what
youve already just done.
The line of when to move on is up to you, but it's good to practice making it a little stricter than you would like. I know it
sounds great, and you made it! Well done! But move on before
Mr. Stagnant Demon catches on and sucks it dry.

www.cosm.co.nz

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

... to keep making new sounds and variations! New musical

ideas give you energy, inspiration and ideas. A trap I have often
fallen into, is when I haven't got any ideas for where to go next, I
listen to it over and over, hoping that an idea will come to me.
This almost never works, as the loop just begins to sound stale
and boring. It's important to keep creating new material, keep doing something!
Even if you don't have a specific musical idea, just make a bunch
of crazy rhythmic and/or harmonic noise and put it through
effects/glitch/reverse/time-stretch etc - use extreme settings, let
the machines produce ideas for you. Mute your drums for a
while, you've probably heard them more than anything else make a bunch of sounds with just a bass-line and a high-hat going. Think of all the different 'types' of sounds and try to represent as many of them as you can. Create contrast, for example,
when you make a sound that's smooth and soft, make your next
one rough and gnarly.

By sending a drum loop to random channels every 4

bars, you can set up effect chains that constantly
change the pattern, keeping the rhymical elements
fresh when you focus on something else

It can be tempting to try and perfect each section of the track as

you make it, but this can also lead to dead ends. I've found it
works better to make each section just functionally good at first
(i.e. to have a beginning, middle and end) then perfect it later
once all sections of your track are laid out, and you have all the
sounds you need.

- Hedflux

www.hedflux.com
10

Minimizing Audio
Stagnation Keep Things
Moving

Chapter 4

www.cosm.co.nz

Minimizing Audio
Stagnation Keep Things
Moving

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

...not getting pigeon holed into trying to get it "right". Theres only
a right or wrong if you've preconceived what the track your making is going to end up like. You should have an idea, but it's only
that - an idea. Work with whats working, the path of least resistance. Sometimes the most random changes will make the most
profound sense. Get this method of work down youll find tracks
pretty much write themselves. You just have to keep up with it.

- Organikismness
w w w . o r g a n i k i s m n e s s . c o m

Another good way to minimize audio stagnation, apart from

training yourself to move on, is to use something in your software (e.g. Follow Actions in Ableton Live) to add an element of
randomness. I find this works best with drums.
You can have a bunch of loops with variations that randomly
play, or you can have a main loop that jumps to a little random
fill every 4/ 8/ 16/ whatever bars, then back again. This keeps
things moving a bit and lets me focus a lot more on a single element of a tune, rather than focus on how stagnant the other
stuff is getting.
If you are unsure as to how you could program something like
this to happen automatically in your DAW, try setting a time limit
again, but instead of moving on when your time is up, change
something unrelated to what youre currently working on. If
youre focused on the sound of your bass-line, change the percussion.
Everything works and compliments each other in different ways,
so by changing the drums you could get a different way of listening to the bass-line you're working on.
I made a video (Ableton Live) which covers one way to approach this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Debt54sbh3s
12

Chapter 4 - Minimizing Audio Stagnation - Keep Things Moving

Finally, just never forget youre the person who is going to listen
to your music the most, so youre the one who is most likely going to grow tired of it. If something sounded good at one stage,
it will to other people when they hear it first. They will get the
feeling you did when you first came up with it, so bite the bullet
and deal with it how it is.

Bonus Tip - Altering Perception

www.cosm.co.nz

Think of it like trying to focus on something in front of you with

just one eye open. Sure you can see it, but you dont get the
depth until you open the other eye. Same thing, slightly different
perspectives. Thats pretty cool.
Now Im not saying go out and do something extreme, you can
get this effect by simpley listening to your tunes first thing in the
morning, or after sex. It can be a very interesting experience listening to your creations with a set of fresh ears.

The other way to keep excited is by putting yourself in a situation or mindset where the way you perceive sound is different
than normal.

Anything to change the way you input information could potentially be used as a tool.

When you listen to music, the sound waves are pushing on

your eardrum, your eardrum vibrates bones and little hairs in a
particular way, and these hairs send electrical signals to your
brain which you then associate with a whole range of interesting ideas, emotions and memories.

Finally, I would personally say dont produce whilst high on

drugs (just based on past failures, the audio plugins they make
these days are so pretty and visually captivating I just end up
getting lost buzzing out looking at the pretty colors). Use it as a
tool to relax, listen to what you have already done, and take
notes (just er, remember to write them down - trust me).

I have found in the past, that if you carefully scatter the way that
this information is translated, you get a whole new perspective
of observing it. Combine this with the opinion you formed when
you were normal, and you have TWO ways of listening to what
youve done.

Disclaimer - Tom says drugs are bad and illegal.

13

Think Outside the

Square Weekly
Challenges

Chapter 5

Think Outside the

Square - Weekly
Challenges
A few months ago I began a series of short audio challenges
that I put out every week. These challenges are fun, childlike
ways to make you think about producing music from a whole
new perspective. Their purpose is to let you just enjoy yourself
doing something totally crazy, with the potential to spark an
idea that you may or may not evolve.
They are there to let you be wrong and laugh about it, to give
you an excuse to take what you are supposed to do and totally flip it all upside down. If you can be relaxed in these types
of environments, you tend to notice little things that you usually
dismiss as mistakes, and that's a dark crack creativity loves to
hide in.

www.cosm.co.nz

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important

factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is...

...to find your method (or gateway) for getting in 'the zone'. I've noticed
every producer has a slightly different method for this, some people smoke
pot, others just need to be in a certain environment etc. It's just a matter of
finding what works for you personally.
After writing music for up to 10 to 12 hours on most days for the past 4
years, I started to find the processes I needed to go through to create music
had become second nature, and in a way boring. I believe for this reason I
started splitting my focus between things like answering e-mails, checking
Facebook & Skype etc.
Although I'd still get a lot of music finished and have fun doing it, it certainly
wasn't as fun as when I began, when I didn't know what I was doing (and in
a way it feels less creative now). So, recently to stay focused I've started
screen casting the entire writing process, which puts the idea in my head
that I can't check e-mail or Facebook or Skype, and in not doing that, it
helps me get into 'the zone' much faster, because I generate ideas that inspire me very quickly when I'm not distracted by social networking, however, people can still call me or enter my studio and ask me questions, so
what I've started doing for that is putting a notepad next to myself, and
when someone asks me something or tells me something, I quickly jot it
down then keep writing music, that way, I don't forget that I have to attend to
other things, but it doesn't alleviate 'the zone' that I'm in.
So, yeah, to me the most important thing is just getting to that 'zone' that
you seem to get in so much when you first start writing music. I assume that
the methods to get there will vary from individual to individual, but once you
find what helps, stick with that, and I believe the process becomes much
more creative and fun.

- Mr. Bill

www.mrbillstunes.com
15

www.cosm.co.nz

Chapter 5 - Think Outside the Square - Weekly Challenges

There are three types of challenges:

Here is a list of the challenges that are currently available

(I add a new one each week).

1.Bizarre. Designed to make you think outside the square

Just a Kick - Write a tune with only one channel, with just a kick drum. Use send/
return tracks and clever manipulation of parameters to twist the kick into everything
from the bass-lines to the high-hats. It is possible.

and try something you've never done before. The purpose?

To get you thinking about your tools in ways you never
have, discovering new tricks to add to your usual production
toolkit.

Super Pad - Create a synthesizer pad patch that constantly evolves by itself without any automation on the timeline. Use LFOs and long Envelopes to make it move
and grow for at least 30 seconds.

2.Practical. Designed to both help you build your own archive

10 Minute Deadline - Create a tune as fast as you can. You only have 10 minutes
to write an entire song, so think carefully about how much time you are going to
dedicate to each element.

of original content, and (optionally) add to the pool of

patches, presets, samples, racks and processes of the community.
3.Shoe Swapping. Designed to put you in the mindset of

Use Your Eyes - Create a tune, but never listen to it once. Use whatever knowledge you have in your head to try to figure out what it would sound like. Then upload it for everyone to listen to; the end results are always hilarious.

someone else for a while, problem solving a task that you

probably wouldn't be used to.

Create a Drum Kit - Program 16 drum hits using only synthesis, then make a cool
sequence out of them.
Worst Tune ever - Write the absolute worst song you can, its harder that it
sounds.

Ive learnt SO much personally from just creating these challenges, as well as have a lot of fun. Usually the challenges
dont result in an actual outcome that sounds good, but after
stretching your brain in new weird ways, you should have some
interesting perspectives and techniques to use in your everyday
production.

Production Template - Think about what processes you use often in your production, then build yourself a production template so you can cut the corners you frequent most.
Write a Porno Loop - Put yourself in the shoes of a 1970s pornographic film
soundtrack guy. Write the sexiest, funkiest, cheesiest loop you can.

You can view the weekly challenges at www.cosm.co.nz/brains

Write Your Name - Use the piano roll to add notes in a pattern that spells out your
first name, then try to sculpt audio around what youve written to make it sound
good.

16

Eradicating
Too Much
Choice

Chapter 6

www.cosm.co.nz

Eradicating Too
Much Choice

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

... to know when to step away and have a break. When you get to
that point when you've heard the loop too many times and you
lose perspective, you need to stop and go and do something else
for a while. Personally I find some exercise or some nature exposure is perfect for this. I go for a run or a swim, and all the while
my brain is ticking over about what I want to do with the track, and
is coming up with fresh ideas. Then after an hour or so i'm just
stinging to get back in the studio and try out these new ideas, and
with fresh ears!!

- Sensient

w w w. z e n o n r e c o r d s . c o m

Too much choice is one of creativitys biggest burdens. Having

access to many options can easily flood the brain resulting in

frustration, and fuel the desire to keep on hunting for even more
crap.

Back when I was teaching one on one lessons, a new student

always fitted into one of two categories. The first was someone
who knew exactly what they wanted out of me, and had prepared a very precise system of sucking my brain out over the
small amount of time we had together. The other was the person who was in a rut and didnt know what direction to head in.
Nine times out of ten, their problem was blatantly obvious as
soon as they loaded up one of their tracks for me to look at. Too
Much Choice.
If youve got every external plugin, every sampler, every synthesizer, every effect and every sample pack, its going to drag you
down, especially in the initial learning stages.What ends up happening is people float around the edges of what they really want
to achieve, then moving on to something else when what
they're doing isnt working for them. The more options they
have to go to, the less time they're going to focus on trying to
make what they've already got work. Having this massive
amount of choice results in a lack of knowledge on how their
tools work deep down at ground level.
If you have a particular sound in your head, and you want to get
it down into the computer as fast as you possibly can, you need
to have a nice fluent and fluid relationship with the limited tools
and language that a computer can understand, and the most important part of this is knowing where the core of a sound starts.
18

www.cosm.co.nz

Chapter 6 - Eradicating Too Much Choice

If you want to synthesize a particular fat bass sound, or a
nice lush pad, but have a small understanding of how oscillators work, its going to be difficult to get it sounding full power
because everything stacks up on top of the oscillators. They
are the foundations, the fundamental pillars that all the other
tweaks you can mess with rely on for stability.
I highly suggest strip down your collection to just one, or two
synthesizers, one sampler and a small collection of samples
(unless youre doing sample heavy music of course!), especially if you are new to production. By learning one tool inside
out (or one collection of tools), and forcing yourself to figure
out how to make a sound, even if its not easy, its going to be
far more productive for you in the long run.
Its like toilet paper. It only has one purpose and I dont care
which brand I get, but when I go to the supermarket and Im
standing there in front of a giant wall of every damn type of
toilet paper you could imagine, I get frustrated. I just feel like
lighting the whole place on fire (if my shrink is reading this
please ignore that last sentence).

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important

factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is...

...emotion in = emotion out.

That's why this thing we do was once called recording - as in
making a record of the moment. Now its so often more building a simulation of the moment.
Don't get me wrong, there's room for both the capturing the
moment styles of music as well as the building a sculpture
styles of music, but the amount of emotion in. equals the
amount of emotion out.
If you take the sculptural approach, you have to make sure
that the initial inspiration doesn't get diluted, or forgotten, or
covered up with layers of subsequent mediocre shit. The
sculptural approach requires stamina. Trust your feelings, be
instinctive - as in use your instincts not your head/brain.
Above all, be honest with yourself about what you like and
don't like about what you're hearing back in the monitors.
Really good music isn't even music. it's something else entirely. It's a direct link from one person's psyche to anothers.

- Pitch Black
www.pitchblack.co.nz

19

Using Pressure to
Jumpstart a
Creative Rut

Chapter 7

www.cosm.co.nz

Using Pressure to
Jumpstart a
Creative Rut

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

...simply GIGS (or release deadlines). I always aim to get new

tracks done for gigs, so I can test them out.
Also, since I have limited studio time these days, I set boundaries
for myself. If the whole track isn't done within 2 weeks I get frustrated and start working on something else instead.

- Zen Mechanics

w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / z e n m e c h a n i c s

I make a lot of tutorial videos, and I find that when my screen is

being recorded, I feel very under pressure and end up working
a lot faster and more efficiently.

When I say work faster and more efficiently, I mean utilize my

tools better than I usually would. Fortunately the way I personally come up with new ideas is from toying and playing with my
tools, often using them how they weren't meant to be used,
leading to the discovery of new processes.
Often pressure is considered to be an enemy of creativity, but I
find with the right kind of pressure, you can jump start writers
block.
When I know people are watching me work, I tend to go into a
show off mode where I use all the tricks and techniques I have
come up with, that generate large results in a short amount of
time (often in this situation I remember things I usually forget as
well!). Because I do this so fast I find myself cutting corners or
trying to quickly streamline the boring stuff, either resulting in
getting the job done faster, or hitting some strange idea that I
can continue working on.
Screen recording is a really interesting concept, and quite new
to me. Ive discussed it with a bunch of other producers as well,
and most of them agree even though it goes against some of
the rules of enabling the creative process, it still seems to
have a magical power of beefing it up.
Quite often at the moment, I record myself producing when I
write, and it really does work!
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Chapter 7 - Using Pressure to Jumpstart a Creative Rut

The other added bonus is if youre like me, and still get easily
distracted by Facebook/ Twitter/ Email - theres no way youre
going to be checking up on it when you're making a screencast.
Ive set up a Facebook group specifically for posting these videos. Initially it was just going to be for me, but then I thought
why not make it a hub for other people to post their work.
Firstly, its going to give people that added pressure if they need
it, and secondly, it could be a really cool way for other people to
watch and learn how other artists produce.

www.cosm.co.nz
So if youre interested in checking it out, head over to the group
page here.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/339132399511003/
Or check out one of my personal videos here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFpoPFtS5L4

Of course there are producers out there that would much rather
keep their secrets locked away in a vault for nobody to see, but
Im not one of those and Im finding more and more sharing caring audio geeks out there every day.
I would suggest keeping away from people who like to keep secrets when it comes to creativity, or anyone who ever says a
creative idea is wrong, no matter how fucking stupid it sounds.
My personal theory is that no matter how intricate I get with my
tutorials and workshops, nobody is ever going to fully duplicate
me because things get so complex, by the time they are even
half way through copying what Im doing, they would have had
many opportunities to take their own path and do something
completely different, and that always happens.

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Set up the Perfect

Creative Space

Chapter 8

www.cosm.co.nz

Set up the
Perfect Creative
Space

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

Stay true to yourself and feel the song/track. Don't get caught in
what you think it "should" be sounding like. Ignore the trends that
are out there and write for yourself. Forget you are in the studio.
Imagine where you want this track to end up, and the whole time
writing it, imagine it is already there, being heard or played in the
perfect setting. That's what helps me.

- Opiuo

w w w. o p i u o . c o m

Having the right environment to be creative is absolutely essen-

This is your own little haven. A place away from anything that's
going to remind you of tasks or pressures that could potentially
distract you, away from the fear that something or someone
might come and interrupt you, or even worse, criticize you when
you're having your out of control fun time.

Setting yourself goals or deadlines in this type of environment

isnt a good idea as the mindset of potentially failing at being
creative is a monster that chases its own tail. You're there to
have fun in your own playground, if somethings going to pop up
and inspire you, it's going to happen when you are relaxed day
dreaming about humorous nothings.

For me, I like sitting in a quiet room, usually late at night when
everyone is off in sleepy land, listening to other music. It can be
any genre, but I always listen to the way people develop ideas,
try to analyze what they have done, why they have done it and
how they might have approached coming up with that particular
effect. Then I think about how I could combine what they are doing, with something unique that I have come up with.

tial. By environment I mean both a place where you can feel relaxed, and the amount of time required for ideas to flow.

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Chapter 8 - Set up the Perfect Creative Space

www.cosm.co.nz

Bonus Tip Never Give Up

I rarely throw something out and write it off as not being good. It
doesn't matter how awful it sounds, I'll keep changing something,
resampling it, give it heaps of reverb, distort it, cut it up into little
bits I just keep going and going. The longer you spend on an
idea, the more unique it is going to sound in the long run. Sure it
can be easy to load up a new synth preset, or drag in another
pre made drum loop, but that's just going to give you a temporary excuse to cure the uneasiness building up because nothing
creative is coming out.
Just harden up and stick to it. Nobody is rushing you, take your
time. If someone is rushing you, tell them to piss off.

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

...to know exactly why are you doing what you are
doing aka. your goal.

- Perfect Stranger
www.perfectlystrange.com

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Collaborate with
Someone Else

Chapter 9

www.cosm.co.nz

Collaborate with
Someone Else

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for
remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is...

...[when collaborating, start with] a small brainstorming session. Go through

the ideas and expectations you both have. Try to keep an open mind and pay
attention to each others ideas. No idea is too dumb to be said out loud. If
you can't agree on a particular style, just start working and see where it leads
you. I have noticed that setting your mind on a certain style or type of track
can also be restraining and you should not let it control what you do too
much. If the other one comes up with an idea that simply works better on a
different format, go for it. Don't be afraid to mess with the tempo or try a different key.
Take advantage of the strong points you both have as producers. If the other
one is a more technical guy, let him take care of the engineering. If the other
one has the groove and is musically more talented, let him concentrate on
the melodies. If it feels like you have problems performing your best while in
the company of others, prepare a little bit before the session. Create some
loops or melodies so you both have something to start out with.
Best ways to get the juices flowing is to jam together. If it feels like you are
running out of ideas, pick up the keyboard or give the other guy a mic. Have
breaks every few hours for fresh ideas. Go for a beer or hang out in the park.
Remember not to be too close minded with your vision - give space also for
other ideas than your own, otherwise things go stale. If it feels like you are
not able do that, you might as well be working by yourself.

- Kiwa

w w w. k i w a . f i

Bouncing ideas off other people has become easier than ever
with the online boom of people sharing both their art with the
world, and sharing resources to help people learn and discover
(just like this book).
There's never a lack of people around who are willing to team
up and collaborate, no matter what your audio fetish.
Having the opportunity to remix someone else's work can be a
very good way of jumping into the deep end and swimming your
way out. The ideas are there, the structure is there, your only
job is to take someone else's play toy and push/ pull/ throw it
around for a while until you figure out how to make it tick with
how you work.
We're in a funny game, not really understanding the whole story
of why music makes us feel as deeply as it does (well maybe
you do, but I sure as hell don't, and I love it that way!), so when
we find two things that work together, it's a pretty special occasion. When you listen to someone else's ideas, and hear something they've done that you know will fit well through your
twisted way of thinking about music, it can be very exciting.
Of course there's more to collaboration than just remixing. A
few months ago while I was browsing the forums on my website, I stumbled across a post that blew my mind. Members had
gathered together to form their own album called Cosmic Core.
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Chapter 9 - Collaborate with Someone Else

www.cosm.co.nz

I didn't have any input and they were already quite advanced in
the stages of the albums production.

and do our own thing for 20 minutes or so, meeting in between

to share the new ideas.

One of the members just went hey, we're all here learning from
the same dude, we must have something in common, lets team
up! And the first Cosmic Core was born.

Last time Jesse decided that we should try something new, and
I thought his suggestion was really unique. He suggested that
one of us listens to the initial idea and when the creative sparks
start flying, pass the information on to the next person on how
to make what they thought would sound good. So, we couldn't
MAKE the next sound or element, but instead explain it to the
next person who had to try and create it based our ability to
communicate with them, sort of like chinese whispers. It was a
lot of fun.

Reading the 70+ page long post was quite exciting. As soon as
people started raising their hands up to be involved, you could
feel the buzz. It was really cool to experience, and got me so excited I stopped my current projects to get a track on the album
just in time (album number 2 has already begun).
It's this kind of interaction that can keep you humming along.
Sometimes it can be a little bit tricky, especially if you are working with someone for the first time and need to figure out how
exactly you can work together most efficiently, but even that
process can be rewarding within itself.
When I work with the Circuit Bent boys, we have a regular way
of doing things. Because they are used to working with each
other, they have their own areas they tend to focus more energy on, so when I came along and caused a triangle, things
had to be temporarily shifted.
We eventually figured out that we just seem to work best when
an initial idea is agreed upon by the three of us, then we go off

Sometimes however, I work with people who aren't as technically minded and computer savvy as those boys. These people
have amazing creative ideas, but arent super fast at putting
them down on a computer. I find a lot of established Djs are like
this, they know exactly what sounds good, but haven't had the
training to put it down into a computer.
In this situation my job becomes that of a facilitator to the ideas
that they can throw at me. Because we know each other so well
(usually) we've developed our own little language of how things
should work, and they can communicate these ideas to me in a
short amount of time. I become a sort of robot, and some of the
ideas I end up laying down I would have never ever come up
with myself.
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Chapter 9 - Collaborate with Someone Else

www.cosm.co.nz

I highly recommend remixing and collaborating as the power-food

of becoming a better producer. If you can't find anyone close to
you who has the time/energy to invest, try checking out remix
competitions online. There's always several happening at any
given time, and often there's some tracks from quite established
artists. Here are a few resources to find remixes or people to collaborate with :
www.remixcomps.com - this website gathers together all the latest remix competitions daily.
www.reddit.com/r/wearethemusicmakers - area of the famous site
Reddit focusing on swapping tips, tricks and collaborating.
www.cosm.co.nz/forums - forums for my personal website where
hundreds of people get together and collaborate often.

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Utilizing the
Spur of the Moment

10

Chapter 10

www.cosm.co.nz

Utilizing the Spur

of the Moment

One of the things that separates creating music with a DAW from
playing an actual instrument is the ability to have a jam session, experiment wildly, and record it.
I personally split my play time into two separate modes. The first is
when I sit there listening to a tune and attempt to come up with

In my opinion, the most (or one of the most)

important factors for remaining focused and
motivated when producing a track is...

...being ruthless and going with your gut feeling. Getting a good
concept in your mind and following it through, not second guessing yourself is key. Just listening and reacting, try and make it like
taking photos, do it quick and keep it fun. Sometimes the devil is
in the details - if you find yourself spending way more than 1 hour
to get a kick drum to sound right then its more than likely the
wrong sound. Always listen to music with your creative ears off,
pretend youre not a music maker but just some dude listening to
it on the radio, that always helps. Keep shit simple, then it's not
hard. Have fun with it, love it and get it out the door. Don't be super fussy - if it feels right it usually is. Take people on journeys, explore sound, create the soundtrack to peoples moments in space
and time. Your mission if you should choose to accept it - get it finished so people can hear it and keep working towards creating the
best music you can. Always keep pushing forwards...done deal.

- Module

www,module.co.nz

something new to slot into a particular spot (this is what weve

mainly been focusing on in this book). The other is more of a jam
type session with a focus on using as little thought as I can, just rolling with the first ideas that come into my head.
Humans have an interesting ability to flow with spur of the moment
decisions; those split seconds before you consciously realize what
youve done. With the right tools and environment you can tap/ hack
into these, sparking new creative ideas.
Think of the person you know who is the joker, the one that always
manages to blurt out something hilariously relevant to the situation
with lightening fast reflexes. They have this technique down,
whether they realize what they are doing or not.
You can probably recollect a time when youve done this yourself,
when your subconscious lets something out suddenly and even you
need to think about what you just said before realizing how clever
and witty you were (arent you cool).
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Chapter 10 - Utilizing the Spur of the Moment

With the right practice, preparation and environment, its possible to
harness this spurt of instinctual audiogasmic genius. Fortunately for
us, we can record what we do over and over until we get it right, so
theres no fear of producing something lame in front of a bunch of
people.
In the previous chapter, I mentioned how amazed I was when effort
was put into facilitating or enabling people with fantastic ideas, but
not much computer knowledge. These thoughts and experiments
have taught me to set myself up in a similar environment when I
have a creative block.
Theres various ways you can do this for yourself, depending on
how you like to work, but here are a few that I have had the most
success with.
Firstly, the standard and most common one of assigning a few
knobs on a MIDI controller to some cool shit within your synthesizer/
effect chains followed by simply, just rocking out.
There are so many combinations to choose from when creating a
chain of effects! however my very simple rule of thumb goes
Synthesizer/Sampler > Rhythmical Chopping/Looping/Stuttering effect (gates, loopers, glitchers, repeaters etc), Sound Modulating effect (Flangers, Phasers, Distortions, Ring Modulators etc), Tail Producing Effects (Delays, Reverbs etc).

www.cosm.co.nz
Once I have this setup, I look at what parameters I have available to
me and choose a half a dozen that might work well together. I might
choose the amount of a pitch LFO on the synth, a cutoff filter, a beat
repeat amount, feedback on a flanger, and decay time on a reverb.
Im used to drawing lines and curves on my screen to modulate
these parameters, but when I shut my eyes and turn knobs, theres
so much more expression available. Now I can turn one knob and
lightly flick the other one to hear what sounds the different combinations produce.
Once you start recording all these movements and experiments,
youll be amazed at some of the crazy shit you come up with once
you play it back. Then its just a matter of chopping those good bits
out and dragging them into your tune!
I have also recently crumbled and bought an iPad so I can use multi
touch gestures to throw little balls around the screen instead of turning knobs, and Ive found a whole new world of manipulation open
up to me since.
Secondly, I love getting hold of a microphone and making stupid
noises. They dont have to be my straight voice, I can feed it
through a vocoder, or a pitch shifter with a reverb. You have to be
careful with this one, your flatmates might think youre having a bad
trip or a mental breakdown if they hear you through the wall.

Of course you dont have to stick to this, but this usually ensures
first the sound is chopped up a bit, then manipulated, then dragged
out.
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www.cosm.co.nz

Chapter 10 - Utilizing the Spur of the Moment

Try taking a mic into a room, open up a cupboard and just start recording
whatever you can get your hands on. Creaking doors, rough surfaces rubbing on each other, drop shit, break shit, have fun One of the coolest
sounds I ever made was stretching a metal slinky out across my room
and putting the mic in the middle. Instant future robot war.
Finally, if you have someone else to play with, try a game of Simon Says.
Each of you set up an identical track (same synths/settings/everything) in
your DAW, and a midi controller with the exact same mappings. Someone starts by making a blip or beep, and the other one has to try and replicate it the best they possibly can. Keep going and get more complicated
as you start learning the tools you have in front of you. The rate of learning and experimenting can go very fast when two people are playing a
fun game of competing.

Conclusion
I really enjoy openly sharing my knowledge, whether its something Ive
observed, or techniques Ive come up with myself. I invite you to come
and share anything you have to say about the topic of inspiring creativity
over at the buzzing forums on my personal website www.cosm.co.nz.
I wish you the best of luck and hope that some of the words I've written
down here today give you a little nudge in the direction you were already
heading in.
Cheers!
Tom Cosm
website : http://www.cosm.co.nz

I personally like to do this with two Wii remotes sending MIDI. The buttons trigger the synthesizer, and the angle of the remotes change the
sound. This way you can also watch how the person moves which helps
a lot, plus its heaps of fun when youre drunk (bonus points if you use
samples from a porno as the sound source - hours of beautiful immature
hilarity).

email : tom@cosm.co.nz
music : http://www.soundcloud.com/tomcosm
tutorials : http://www.youtube.com/cosmcosm
general bullshit : http://www.facebook.com/tomcosmnz

If you do manage to find other brain hacks to harness this spur of the moment magic, do let me know :)You can't be taught creativity, however everybody has the ability to build it up nice and strong themselves. The secret is finding the right environment, combined with the right balance of
remaining excited and keeping ideas developing.

buy me a beer :
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_i
d=8WB9DBCXMY5P6

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