What production techniques do you  use?

Just curious what production techniques you all you use for your music.  For example do you start with the drums or a bass line?  or maybe even some sample and build around it?  do you start with 2 bars and and more bars as you go?  Are you guys using the note-repeat button a lot?  :)[/color]

it varies. i keep the thinking minimal.
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well my whole style is having the beat always change up never a loop...i think i put too much work into a beat thats why it takes me so long...my intros are different from my hooks and my hooks are different from verses and the change part is different from the verse. but me i start off iworking on my hook first cause if i get a someting real catchy as a hook i can always mute tracks and then add something different for the verse. i start off with 4 bars ,just because the hook is 8 bars and if the first 4 bars is gona only repeat again for the next 4bars i can just copy that istead of trying to get it perfect when playing it.......when i use the note repeat button its for to laydown my hi hat with out having to keep taping the pads or at the end of a verse i might want to make the whole beat start repeating it self so ill set my drums up to do the same...[/color]

thanks keyzfame anyone else.  ???[/color]

I like to start with a loop be it sampled or played myself, or the basic "theme" of the song (the part that you keep coming back to) if I'm gonna make a track w/o lyrics for it, maybe scratching or just vocal samples.
then I play the drums, bass and snare/rim/clap only, then I go into step edit and play with the drums, change stuff up etc.
then I add other stuff, instruments, samples, fill out the drums etc. I always start buidling the song with a seq. that is the drums (kick, snare/rim/clap) and the bass/guitar this is a basic seq, so i can copy it and work from it to make more parts. then I build the song in song mode, I add my hats last. I used to do hats around the middle but often found that at the end the hat pattern i began with sounded not cool with the other song parts.  I think that the hi-hat is the key to a dope sounding cut so I spend alot of time and program the hats from step edit mode alot of the time.[/color]

Mines pretty much the same as Keysfame and Ed......Come up with like a 4 bar loop and then you can change seq and do track mutes.But like Ed said, a good way to start is to build one sequence that sounds fresh, the just start to break it down and add on from there.
peace[/color]

thanks for your reply guys, very helpful.  So do most of you use 4 bars then?[/color]

4 bars is a cool way to start 'cause it gives you more room to work with, 2 bars are fine also, but the 4 bar gives you more space.  For the note repeat function, it depends how you want your sound.  You can use it on the hi hat if you want a more consistant level and hits on the hi hat or you can use it to add rolls and make some of your drums or percussion sound more realistic.  It's all about experimenting to see which style and sound works for you.  

With production I start with the drums (usually, not all the time) and just find things to match.  I try not to get too crazy with just one sound 'cause I prefer more layers.  Sometimes I use only one note of many different sounds instead of trying to play it, but that's just the type of sound I like.  But it seems like if I program some hard drums then usually I can find things to match easier, as opposed to programming weak drums - it just don't sound right, y'know?  There's isn't really a formula, only just using your ears!

peace[/color]