5 Tips on How To Reference For Inspiration

It could be easy to assume that "real" producers can construct their music without any external influence from scratch. However, that's not the case. Most successful artists, musicians, or producers do the exact opposite. When it comes down to it, using other artists' work as a reference, you can develop and discover new ways to create your own art and sound. Originality is essential, of course, but only by learning from others to shape your vision can you attain it. That said, we will share five tips on how to "steal" properly from other artists.

Sample a Loop From a Reference Track

Many dancefloor tracks have a specific and formulaic arrangement structure. More often than not, this means that the tracks start and end with somewhat dry and isolated percussion, or an isolated kick drum, for instance. If you do not know how to create a way, take your reference, cut some of the intro or outro's isolated beat elements, and load that into your project. Next, try to mimic the sound with percussion samples from your library and strive to achieve a similar or related groove. Make it your own. 

Copy the Arrangement Structure

Getting stuck in an eight or sixteen-bar loop sucks, and it leads you to work on an endless pattern for endless hours. If you have doubts about following up after this happens, try loading a track you like into your project as a reference. Place it at the top of your arrangement window. You can then have a clear view of how the track is arranged. For example, you can check the exact duration of the main drop or where the bass, snare drum, and other elements kick in. Copy that.

Use a Mixdown as a Reference

Much like the approach above, you can use a track as a reference for your mixdown. It's pretty stunning how much you can learn from a good mix. Going back and forth between your mix and the reference, you will hear the differences in tone, levels, and depth. Then, you can match whichever things you like or feel work better on your reference mix. Furthermore, by carefully checking your loudness meter and spectrum analyzer, you can compare your LUFS/RMS value to the values of the reference track to ensure you're achieving standard loudness levels.

Take Ideas From the Chord Progression

It's common to find yourself astounded by a super-sounding chord progression you hear in another track and then wish you would've done something similar in one of your own. You can try to take the rhythm of one of those chord progressions for a start. Once you do it, swap and change the chords and the key, replace the melody, and use your sounds. It's yours now.

Try to Make a Second Version of Your Favourite Track

If you admire a track's arrangement, sounds, mixdown, etc., pretend that this track should have a sequel, and try to make it yourself! Referencing, imitating, developing, and allowing inspiration from such a source is a great learning opportunity, plus a chance to come up with something completely original!