Tis’ the season to make a Banger!

With the big day out of the way, many of us find ourselves in that weird twilight zone that has become known as Twixmas! While it’s oh-so-easy to just lounge about grazing on pickled onions and Quality Street why not take full advantage of this time to make some beats? And if you’re struggling for inspiration we’ve come up with a list of 7 inspirational music-making ideas that should see you through to the new year.

1: Collaborate

With so many people off work, Twixmas is the ideal time to call up someone you know to work with on a project. It could be a singer, rapper, producer or maybe a friend who’s particularly skilled at playing an instrument. With modern connectivity, you could collaborate on something remotely or if local why not get together in the physical? After all, Christmas is a time to be social.

2: Take a Genre Holiday

Most of us will work within a specific genre, maybe encompassing a few associated sub-genres for good measure. Why not unshackle yourself from your self-imposed restrictions and try your hand at something completely different? Are you a Trap producer? How about trying your hand at some UK Garage? Techno your thing? Why not slow it down and Dubstep it out? You get the gist. Get out of your comfort zone and see what you can offer to another musical style. It can often be rather interesting as you won’t be approaching the music with your usual music-making habits and conformities.

3: Make a Sample Pack

If you make 100% original music or sounds, then sample-making is a fantastic way to expand on your musical offering. Creating full songs or beats often carries a certain amount of pressure. Sample creation on the other hand can be a liberating experience. Many producers find the initial ideas stage of music creation the most satisfying part. Well, sample-making allows you to indulge in this fun song starter stage without having the pressure to craft a full composition. And it could potentially generate a passive income. Talking of which, if you do have samples you would like to sell why not apply to be a contributor with RouteNote Create?

4: Get your Foley on

Getting out of your comfort zone can be a great exercise. And what better than setting yourself a challenge? Why not attempt to make a track that predominantly features self-captured foley samples? We all have mobile recording devices these days in the form of a mobile phone. Use them to record interesting percussive sounds, musical tones or textures. Get out in the wild or maybe just your kitchen and see if you can turn some found sounds into sample gold.

5: The 10-minute radio sampling challenge

Here’s another found sound challenge that can be really fun! Get a radio, preferably digital and stick the output into your DAW’s recording input. Now set a timer for 10 minutes. (5 if you’re feeling brave) Arm your DAW to record, start the timer and surf the dial attempting to find interesting sample material. You then have to create a track ONLY using samples found in your 10-minute radio trawl. You could also apply this to YouTube but it would be a lot easier.
(IMPORTANT – This is just a fun exercise and you would not be able to release the track commercially due to copyright infringement)

6: Re Re Remix

There’s nothing like a good remix to get your creative juices flowing. Having a vocal or musical stem to guide your production can alleviate writer’s block and set you off down interesting musical avenues. As with tip number 2 a remix may force you into a slightly different musical style. And to make things even more fun why not search for a remix competition to take part in? There are plenty online and some offer great prizes although it’s more about taking part than winning. This site is a good place to start. https://unison.audio/remix-contest/

7: Attempt the RouteNote Create Great Sample Throwdown

And for the ULTIMATE challenge why not take part in RouteNote Creates very own Great Sample Throwdown? Pit your production skills against members of RouteNote’s very own elite workforce. Sign up to RouteNote Create and download the same 3 samples that were used in the challenge. you MUST use all 3 of these samples in your musical composition and once you are done tag us and we will share the result. Check out the video below to get the idea.

Summary

So there you have it! No excuses. Hopefully, these ideas will inspire you to get creative over the Twixmas period and beyond. So with that on behalf of everyone at RouteNote and RouteNote Create let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let’s make 2024 a particularly funky one!

Remember – RouteNote Create subscriptions start from as little as $2.99. You also get 10 FREE credits to spend on samples along with access to our FREE sample pack bundle when you sign-up!