My ultimate question to you is this, do you first think of the sound you want to make? Or do you think of the pattern and then the sound? Or the song STRUCTURE and then the sound?
Sometimes I think of 'what kinda sound would sound WICKED right here' and i try to make it. Then when i do it just doesnt sound good enough.
Good question. Either i start with a bass/leadline i whistled into my handy while i got inspirated on the road (its hard to get inspirated exactly when u sit down to produce) or im fiddling around with synths and find a sound thats new and like somehow. Then to "test" this sound i try some keyboard lines or u can use in Reason the Arp , hold some chords on ur keyboard, vary gatelength speed and so on. Some setting of the arp or general ur midi notes will obviously only match with a certain ADSR/pitch of ur sound.
U can also think of an overall song struture, say u want to set to music jogging through ur town happening all things. If u have to set to music a film scene, there is not really a other way, because the tention of ur tune must follow the film scene action. Ennio Morricone is brilliant how he has done this in some western scenes.
From my pov thinking about sound in electronic music is really the key question, not only because famous artist put much time into synthesis. Just download some famous song MIDI files from the net. daft punk da funk for example. I played around with this and others. Its nearly impossible for me to make this songs sounding nearly as good with completely other instruments as original used. If u think on da funk in ur minds ear, u have this fat reese sound and line in ur head. Even if us whistle the midi notes u think of this fat reese sound. And for me thats why most of the remixes of any song shound ALWAYS SHIT. U know Dance Club versions of pop songs, played too fast with electronic club sounds, they ALWAYS sound SHIT, just my opinion. The only good remixes i ever heard is black gold of the sun 4hero and puff daddy ill be missing u, which doesnt differ much from police version, main reason why it works. How many instruments u use in combination with distinct midi lines isolate alot sounds that a really usable for the tune. U just cant switch them.
U need to busy ur ears, the less instruments in ur tune, the wider the single spectrum of the instrument, the more movement in the overtone spectrum. U wanna get the spectrum full in the mixdown. Just my rules of thumb at the moment, but it works for me to isolate sounds. electronic sounds u simply can tune fat or unisono in contrast to a acoustic piano where u have to use many octaves, complex chords and composition lines to busy ur ears despite the relative thin timbre of the piano. That why a simple boring midi bass line like in da funk or seven nations army work.
Finding the right sound u have to trial and error, make happy accidents, u cant think of a sound u never heard before
How do u think jarre, vangelis... made all these sounds. I did some research, and there is currently no theory tellin u how synth physical parameters/spectrum/waveform properties are linked to perception of timbre. There is not yet a scientific classification system how to categorize timbres in different classes like its done in massive (metallic, warm ...). Was the first i was searching when getting into synth programming, correlation timbre <-> spectrum, there r only some general rules from acoustic instruments.
So be rather happy then upset if u make a lot good accidents.