ezbot
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Talking about the song writing workflow.
🕑 Added 2023-11-14 05:56:22 +0000 UTCFor some reason, this stream turned out to be surprisingly popular, at least according to YouTube. I found myself somewhat scattered, trying to articulate my thoughts into something digestible. It was challenging, but I believe that in the end, my point was effectively conveyed. Essentially, I have grappled with the concept of writing a song in a specific genre, discovering its potential and extracting its resources. Now, having harvested this knowledge, I am utilizing it to construct something beneficial for my personal workflow, which is as follows:
- Select a Genre as a Foundation: Start by choosing a genre that resonates with the mood you want to convey. Treat this genre as a palette, selecting sounds that fit within its aesthetic but also align with your creative vision.
- Craft an Outstanding Pattern: Develop an initial pattern that's as strong as possible. Don't hesitate to use reference tracks for inspiration.
- Copy and paste to a new pattern: Take your initial pattern and modify it. Change leading notes, rearrange drum elements, particularly the kicks, and introduce something distinctive and relevant.
- Focus on the Narrative: Shift your attention from the genre to the story you're telling. Whether it's about a solitary snowy day, a romantic endeavor, or a high-energy dance, let this narrative guide your creative process, moving beyond genre constraints.
- Iterate and Innovate: Repeat the pattern modification process. Again, adjust leading notes, drum placements, and add another layer of unique elements.
- Refine Towards a Complete Song: As the song takes shape, infused with meaning and crafted thoughtfully within the grid's structure, it starts to resemble a poetic expression.
- Interactive Play and Modulation: Play the emerging song repeatedly, identifying parts that could be muted or where the energy dips. Incorporate subtle and random modulations to enhance your song as a whole.
- Think about frequency/mix: Use your Base/Width filters to carve out unwanted lows or highs (mostly the low end) so that your mix is clean coming out of the box. My rule of thumb is cut the bass until it sounds weak and then go back adjust it until it sounds full again and no further.
- Record your damn song.
These are just my thoughts, not facts by any means.
Best,
Matt
Comments
ezbot
Thanks, I like the color analogy a lot.
Endenium
Thats a great workflow though. It should help producers of new and old. One of my pieces of advice has been to create a pallet of sounds like a pallet of different colors of paint. Favorite samples, presets, and templates, etc. iterate on them, and look at recording songs like painting a picture.
Endenium
They way you put that - “extracting musical resources and harvesting knowledge” - just makes me laugh. Like the Borg from Star Trek is starting a band.
