Lars Lentz Audio™

Adopting the concept of “Structured Music Creation” allows an artist to work on new material from both creative and technical aspects, depending on the artist’s mood and mindset at any given time. It can also move the artist toward creating more inspired music, spurring on the creative process and removing artist blocks.

This is done by giving structure to both the technical and creative steps of music production. Below, I show you one such interpretation.

Last updated: 26-May-2025

Principles

Keep moving forward. Speed is your friend.

Creativity follows a cycle. Because creativity for an artist can be stifled by technical processes of mixing and mastering, the mixing and mastering processes and those processes of highly technical natures must be separated from the creative processes so that forward progress can be made in either domain (creating (creativity) or mixing/mastering (technical)). This requires a well-defined process and some structure in place beforehand.

1. An artist should be able to freely create any type of music at any time, unencumbered by and separated from the “finishing processes” (mixing and mastering). This means freeing up the creativity of the artist to make music on a whim. Say you are studying Aphex Twin’s music and incorporating some of the style of that music into your own. You can make a track that has those elements or even that sounds very similar to the artist you are studying (Aphex Twin in this example) and afterward, but not now during the creative phase, be able to categorize that track or tracks. Technical tasks deplete creativity so anything too technical should be deferred or, ideally, completely removed during this process.
   • The important point here is to gain speed and to work quickly. By being free to create anything you want without regard to the finishing processes, you will make music quicker.
   • For a good example, study Prince’s work ethic: https://youtu.be/xn_hSeGr9bg?si=esxS9C9k7kwkDHw-
2. An artist should have a basic template for mixing and mastering in place while making any of their music. This is a freeing operation that removes the inherent distraction of the technical process of mixing and mastering tracks and speeds up the process. The artist should have an established routine of mixing and of mastering. This could be explicit steps written or a heuristic method.
   • The basic mixing and mastering chains and structures should be defined and available as templates to apply to any track after the initial creation of the track (without mixing or mastering chains in place).
   • A mixing template would be applied first to a track after the initial creative process of making the music. Then the mixing process would be followed. This would be balancing, gain staging, creative adjustments in the mixing, etc.
   • The same would be true for the next step, which would be the application of the mastering chain template.
     • For example, if the artist does not do their own mastering, there should be a template process for how they would proceed after having a suitable mix. This could be a stepwise process of rendering stems, exporting, and the whole delivery process of the music’s essence to a mastering house.
     • If they do their own mastering, there should be a defined master chain in place that can be pulled up and applied to any track to align the basic equipment or plugins and prepare them for the mastering process. The mastering process should also be defined so it can be done rapidly.
3. Sorting of the created music must be done after and separately from both the creation and finishing of the music. Sorting means categorization of the finished works into defined genres and sub-genres with the end goal being a cohesive album of material. To facilitate this there must be a method in place of physically binning the created music into file folders or physical structures (tapes, CDs, data storage).
   • Created works should be stored and categorized so that the artist can go back to them and finish them or further categorize them into albums.
   • Often, this means having a “vault” of unfinished works. Good artists have this (study Prince https://youtu.be/ECGcTM_gk4s?si=CQBuc_csQLt702KV and Deadmau5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwPFa0WRY1U) for good examples).
   • I use an “A B C…” method of folders for my “vault” which then also includes work in various stages of completion.
     • My folder structure looks like this:
       “A-Pieces
       B-Finished
       C-Released”
     • This one works for me but you can have whatever you want to separate your stages of completion. What you want is to be able to see movement from, in my case, folder A to B to C. Seeing the movement is important because it give you the rightful feeling that you are making progress and this, in turn, gives you hope and faith in your music-making endeavor.
4. Grouping and refining the sorted tracks into albums (or singles) should be done as the last creative process. This is to be done as an additional creative process but separate from making the music itself. The resulting albums (or singles) will then become integral to furthering the artist’s vision. Grouping and regrouping, mixing and matching, and structuring music into cohesive albums that can better satisfy listeners’ tastes can mean more sales and a grouped fan base of more listeners while simultaneously presenting the artist as “more professional.”
   • Some people can manage to create for an album at the beginning of their process and that is okay too. That is really opposite of what I am saying above, but this is perfectly okay and is just a different way of working.
5. Distribute the music. This is a purely technical portion of the process where music is rendered for distribution and then distributed through external vendors.

These were a lot of words, but the concept can be simplified with a diagram below.

Structure

The structure of music production varies from individual to individual, but some assumptions can be made about the steps involved and provide a structure such as the one below.

You’ll notice in this diagram above that there are no arrows although the process to completion would go from top to bottom. There are no arrows because it does not need to be done in order (except for the last step, distribution, which must be last). You could, for example, create some unfinished piece of music during a time of experimentation or inspiration, leave it, and go back to it at any time. Now multiply that with multiple unfinished pieces in various stages of completion and you have a playground of works that you can pick and choose to work on. Again a diagram helps.

This is what most artists have in process at any given time:

The Frustration That Naturally Occurs For Artists

Often, artists do not have these steps well-defined, or they are not defined at all. This leads to frustrations of the type, “Why can’t I think of new concepts for my music? Why am I so uninspired? Why can’t I concentrate on getting my mixing right?” These are frustrations with both creative and technical processes.

The Magic That Happens When The Processes Are Defined

However, if the processes described above are defined, then when feeling uninspired to create new music, the artist can focus on something more technical, like mixing or mastering. Frustration then fades, allowing room for healthy work that suits the current frame of mind. This, in turn, keeps the music production cycle going forward and, if followed regularly, creates an ever-advancing process of music production for the artist.

The goal is always to try and separate, as much as possible, the creative aspects from the technical aspects of making music so that they can be address separately by the artist depending on their state of mind at the time. This takes the pressure off of the artist to change their mind. No. They can just go to the action that best suits them. There are overlaps in some of the processes but this is not a bad thing because it can reignite creativity.

All artists will experience times of low creativity and lack of inspiration. During these times, the previously created but unfinished works must be available to the artist for application of technical processes such as mixing, mastering, organizing, and distribution. These now-defined processes are all outside of the purely creative and they are available to the artist to work with. However, there is some creativity required within some of these processes such as the mixing, mastering, and organization, and this bit of creativity required for them will help the artist migrate toward becoming more creative so they can get back to the purely creative process of making inspired music.

In the diagram below you can see how an artist can work with what they have in process based on their mindset of either feeling creative or not. This is an example and may vary from artist to artist, but the basic concept is the same.

Keep in mind that these items and these creative feeling assumptions may be different for different people. This is not a rigid framework but should be adapted to the individual.

The Creative Cycle and How It Can Be Moved

Ideally, there is a cycle within the artist of high creativity followed by a gradual reduction of creativity to a point of low inspiration and then back again toward the highly creative. This is healthy and natural. The problem is to move the cycle forward and to keep it moving. If the cycle doesn’t move from the point of low creativity in a timely manner, an artist will typically get discouraged and upset. They may even leave their art.

By having and recognizing that some technical processes of music production include some creativity within them, this bit of creativity can move the artist toward a more creative portion of the cycle (like toward creating tracks or art). This movement toward creativity occurs because creativity in any form or amount furthers additional creativity in other forms. In this case, we want it to push us toward creating new music tracks (the creative portion of the cycle).

In the diagram above, technical activities with some creativity are mixing, mastering, and sorting. These can spur creativity and move the cycle toward purely creative aspects, such as creating tracks and making artwork (and text) for releases.

The purely technical item of distribution does not fit in the creative process but is a necessary part. Handling this one as purely a task that must be done and clearly separating it from the artistic cycle is possibly the best way to handle it. Keep it separate. It is not likely to ever move the creative cycle forward and can actually move it in reverse, so do this task sparingly or outsource it.

The same can be true of other tasks. For example, some find mastering too technical and would rather outsource it. In that case, that is exactly what should be done to not risk damaging the creative cycle and moving it to uncreative drudgery.

Concluding Remarks

This framework and definition of structures and processes is fluid. It can change from individual to individual. Some will like mixing and find it more creative than most while others may find it more technical. Recognize these feelings in yourself and adapt accordingly. Be flexible too. You can change over time. Maybe you come to hate mastering and would rather outsource it. Maybe you learn mastering and feel more in control if you do it yourself. Either is acceptable. Just do what is needed to keep you in a creative cycle that is moving forward and not in the other direction.

It can be of great benefit to an artist to understand what makes them tick, so to speak, as far as the creative process. Understanding oneself can be a pathway to a better creative cycle and a more successful career in music production. (As an example, Taylor Swift used adversity to motivate her: https://youtu.be/POzR8gWIlrk?si=GXsJuI2jJS6regbU) Whatever motivates you, find it, understand it, and use it for your art.