For me, the approach differs depending on where the idea came from - e.g. if it was a musical idea (riff, chord prog etc..) then i'll get them down asap and just throw in a very basic set of drums to be replaced later. If it was more drum/bass inspiration then i'll just concentrate on that and pad out if required...
All of it is an organic process though, don't let your ideas get bogged down in detail too often - I usually find it much more productive to get a rough song idea and go back and polish/replace the pieces than to get an amazing 8 bar loop and try to build from there.. although sometimes the opposite.. lol
I'm partial to the odd smoke, but i always mix down when i'm totally sober. Arrangement differs, usually i'll be sober but interesting ideas can happen late at night (especially with progs like ableton where you can record a remix as you play around and go back edit in arrange window) ... I find my most interesting synth sounds are created when i've had a few
My 1 piece of wisdom is save often. If you think about saving, save immediately! ... doesn't happen much at all now, but i remember lots of work at college getting lost because of a crash when i thought "I'll just add one more riff/beat" :eek: .. I also tend to keep a progression of saves as different versions.
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