How I Make Music: Process, Constraints, and the Art of Deciding Before You Start
A look inside my production process — from the first decision before a single note is played, to the final polish session. With practical advice for beginners and advanced producers.
A lot of producers sit down, open their DAW, start loading plugins, audition sounds, scroll through presets. An hour later, nothing has happened. Not because they lack talent or ideas — but because they started in the wrong place.
I used to do the same thing. It took me a long time to understand what the actual problem was. This post is about the process I eventually developed and why I think it applies to ambient music in particular, but honestly to any music that values intention over accident.
Decide Before You Touch Anything
The single most important thing I do before a session is decide what I want. Not vaguely. Specifically.
Before I play a single note, I ask myself: what kind of piece do I want to make? What mood should it evoke? What emotional state am I aiming for at the end? This is not a creative exercise. It is a constraint. And constraints are the most powerful tools a producer has.
Once I know the answer to that question, I choose my instruments and machines. Not the other way around.
This is where most people get it backwards. They open their entire studio, look at everything available, and hope that something inspires them. Sometimes that works. More often, it leads to paralysis. Too much choice is not a luxury — it is a creativity killer. I have written about this in my post on the science of creativity, but the practical implication is simple: more options do not lead to better results. They lead to fewer results.
For Logic Moon, the starting point is almost always a tape loop with guitar, running through heavy reverb and resonators to create a drone. That is it. That is the foundation. Everything else grows from there.
Choose Your Key and Your Setup First
After deciding on the mood and the goal, I commit to a key and a minimal setup. For most Logic Moon sessions, that means two or three instruments maximum. I do not browse. I do not audition alternatives. I have made my choice and I work with it.
This might sound limiting. It is. That is the point.
When you restrict yourself to three machines, you stop looking for the perfect sound and start working with the sound you have. The constraints force you into territory you would not have explored if you had unlimited options. The results are almost always more interesting — and more personal — than anything you would have found by browsing.
Think about the producers who shaped modern electronic music working on a Pulsar-23 with five channels and a sampler running 16MB of RAM. They had no choice but to be resourceful. That resourcefulness was not a limitation — it was the engine of creativity. Today, most of us have access to virtually unlimited sounds, plugins, and processing. And paradoxically, that abundance is one of the biggest creative obstacles we face.
The Drone Comes First
For Logic Moon, the drone is almost always the first element. I work with it alone — sometimes for a long time — before anything else enters the picture.
This is deliberate. The drone defines the space. It sets the emotional temperature of the track. Everything that comes later has to live inside that space.
Only once the drone feels right do I bring in the synthesizers I selected at the start of the session. Not to decorate, but to develop the idea the drone already contains. I am extracting something that is already there, not adding things from the outside.
The One New Machine Rule
Sometimes the material I have does not get me to where I want to be. The drone is there, the synths are there, but something is missing. At that point — and only at that point — I allow myself to bring in one new instrument. Usually a modular synth.
But I want to be honest about what that means: the moment a new machine enters the setup, everything is likely to change. A modular synth does not just add a sound. It introduces new possibilities, new directions, new decisions. The track that comes out will probably sound different from what I originally imagined. That is fine — but I go into it with open eyes.
The rule is: one. Not three. Not “let me just see what else might work.” One new machine, and then I commit to working with what I have.
Play It Unquantized
Most of my sounds are played in via keyboard. And most of the time, I leave them unquantized.
This is one of the things that gives Logic Moon tracks their particular quality of life. Quantized sequences have a perfection that can feel sterile, especially in ambient music, where the human quality of a performance — the slight inconsistencies, the gentle imprecision — carries enormous emotional weight.
If something feels too mechanical, I do not reach for humanize functions or random timing tools. I replay it. The imperfection has to be real.
Session View First, Arrangement Later
I work in Ableton Live’s Session View until I have a foundation I am satisfied with. This is the space for experimentation — for building the core patterns, testing ideas, finding the right combinations. I stay here as long as it takes.
When the main pattern is solid, I move to the Arrangement View. And here too: I play most things live. I do not draw automation or build sequences step by step. I record passes, listen back, and then work with what I captured. After recording, I edit, trim, and rearrange — but the raw material almost always comes from a live performance.
This keeps things organic. It keeps them unpredictable. And it keeps the energy of the initial idea alive in the final track.
The Playlist Method
When a track reaches a point where I think it might be finished, it does not go to mastering. It goes into a playlist.
I listen to that playlist regularly — not in a studio context, not with headphones and critical focus, but the way a listener would hear it. In the background. On a walk. In the car. And I take notes. I note the moments where something pulls me out. Where the track loses me. Where something feels off.
This process reveals problems that you simply cannot hear when you are too close to the material. The distance is not optional — it is essential.
Every track gets at least one Polish Session based on what the playlist reveals. Many get several. I go back, fix what I noticed, put the track back in the playlist, and listen again. This cycle repeats until I can no longer find anything that bothers me.
Nothing on the Master Bus Until the Track Is Done
This is a point I want to make clearly, because it is one of the most common mistakes I see from beginners.
Do not put anything on the master bus until the track is finished.
No limiter. No EQ. No compressor. No tape saturation. Nothing.
The reason is simple: a limiter on the master bus will mask problems in the mix. You will think things are louder and more polished than they are. You will miss low-end buildup, frequency clashes, dynamic issues — because the limiter is handling them invisibly. By the time you remove it to work on the mix properly, you will find a very different picture than you expected.
Work on a clean master bus. Get the mix right first. Then — and only then — add your master chain.
The Polish Loop
Once the track is done and the master chain is in place, it goes back into the playlist. I listen with distance again. Does it still hold up? Does the mastering change anything about how I perceive the mix?
If something new appears, I fix it. If the mastering reveals a mix issue, I go back to the mix. This loop continues until the track is genuinely finished — not just finished-enough.
Some tracks need two passes. Some need ten. The number does not matter. What matters is that you do not release something before it is ready, and that you develop the patience and the listening skills to know the difference.
The Short Version
If I had to summarise everything above in a few lines:
- Decide what you want before you start. Mood, key, emotional goal.
- Choose your instruments in advance. Use as few as possible.
- Build from one core sound. Let the idea develop from the material.
- Play live. Leave it unquantized.
- Use the playlist method. Distance reveals everything.
- Nothing on the master bus until the mix is done.
- Polish is not optional. It is where the work actually happens.
The underlying principle in everything I do is: fewer choices, more depth. The constraints are not the enemy of creativity. They are its engine.