Are more choices better when making music? A counterintuitive idea I learned from Claude

How do I approach music production with Claude? In this note, where I introduce my trial-and-error process, today I will introduce the 11th track.

About this track: Transient

The tempo is fast, yet the atmosphere is relaxed. Can you imagine such a combination?

It has a relaxed texture close to ambient, yet the tempo is 130 BPM.
This is the fastest tempo yet.
The track consists of only three elements: electric piano, ambient rhythm, and synth bass. No chords either.
It has become the song with the fewest number of sounds so far.

Having made 11 songs, I have gradually become accustomed to this production environment.
Because I've gotten used to it, this is a song where I wanted to try adding constraints to see what kind of ideas would emerge.

Are more choices better?

When there are too many choices, it can actually make you stop in your tracks.
This time, instead of increasing the degree of freedom, I tried moving in the direction of reducing it.

Another thing I changed was the order of production.
Previously, I would create phrases and then try effects and automation at the end, but this time it was the opposite.
From the stage of creating phrases, I decided, 'I will apply this kind of automation here,' and built the melody and rhythm based on that premise.

Specifically, I am moving the delay's Dry/Wet quite drastically.
Instead of changing it gradually, it goes up sharply and down sharply.
I used an odd-meter phrase for the synth bass and moved the filter automation in the same way.
Since there are fewer sounds, the changes reach the ears directly.
I proceeded with the feeling of placing movement in the empty spaces through subtraction, rather than filling them up with addition.

The trigger before starting to create

Before starting the 11th track, I consulted with Claude about the direction.
When I mentioned that 'thinking too much doesn't help me move forward,' it gave me some advice.

The idea of narrowing down the number of tracks resonated with me, which led to this '3 tracks, no chords' approach.
Thanks to having a drawer opened that I hadn't opened myself, I was able to create a song I like.

You can listen to the song I created this time here.
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