Documenting the Process
Log tool, version, prompt, seed and edits so the result can be defended.
Related
The problem
Six weeks later a client asks how the track was made, or a rights holder asks whether a certain model was used. The chat log is gone, the tool has updated and memory is unreliable. Without a record the result cannot be defended or reproduced. Documentation is not for auditors; it is for your future self and whoever takes over.
What to log
One row per generation, date, operator, tool and exact version, model, prompt verbatim, negative prompt, seed, duration, tempo, key, reference audio and its licence, settings, number of candidates and why one was chosen. Log post work too, which note was replaced, by whom and why. Log samples, loops and voices with source and licence. Log the hash and location of each output. Log failures as well; they explain why a path was abandoned and stop the next person from repeating it.
How to log
Keep it in the project folder as plain text or CSV, one row per generation, written immediately rather than from memory. Screenshots of settings are acceptable, but text is searchable. Save the prompt as a txt file named after the render, not only in a web page. For teams add two columns, who changed it and when. The record need not be pretty, only searchable; fixed fields matter more than formatting. The test is simple, can another person follow the record and produce a defensible result, even if not an identical one.
What to listen for
In Bach's three-part invention, every edit is audible because three voices expose it, so every edit must be written down. In the 138 BPM funk loop, parameters decide the result directly, so tempo, metre and pattern belong in the record. In the Chopin nocturne, rubato and touch are decisions that vanish without notes. In the twenty-six minute Toccata, drift accumulates, so the log needs timecodes.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 制作日志与生成记录的最小字段集，依制作实务通识归纳，未抄原文
- 工具版本与参数的记录方式，依公开工具文档核对，未抄文本
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.