How do you build a song?

  On 1/18/2012 at 9:48 PM, pafr said:

I used to do it like that, but I found it to be a bit "harder" (more time consuming) to find the right things to work off of. Basically you can just use one or two tracks to serve as the foundation and just build on top of that. Also jamming tends to lean toward things you are more familliar with, not really effective if you are trying out something completely new (like switching from classical-ish to jazz-ish) simply because you don't know what to jam as you don't have the natural tendency with the more familliar style.

 

  On 1/18/2012 at 2:41 PM, soundwave said:

its often good to just jam out on hardware or a control surface, record the session, pick out the best bits and mix n match to see what works together and what sounds unusual

 

often you wont 'see' something unless you sit back and listen afterwards when you have a different mindset

 

ive often jammed thought it was shite then found nuggets when listening back

this is true to some extent when playing keys but a totally different ball game when manipulating realtime sequencers especially elektrons, there are just so many variables

  On 1/20/2012 at 9:52 PM, ZoeB said:

Blast Off!

I really like this. It has a lot of personality to it.

But yeah, my demoing process (which changes regularly) is currently quite similar to yours - limiting myself to nothing but basic synth/drum sounds & no effects (specifically, a 808 emulator & http://www.blokmodular.com/ ). My thinking is that if I can get them sounding good like that then they'll probably sound real good when I do them with nice sounding equipment & atmospherics. Also, it's forcing me to expand the range of synth tones I use in songs. In the past, I tended to go "how can I make this patch better?...I KNOW, MORE DELAYS & LFO FILTERS!". But now with those taken away I've opened up to sounds I never would have used before - multi-osc percussive square waves, saw basslines, etc.

As far as the actual songwriting process goes, lately I've had a dozen or so tracks on the go at once, initial versions knocked together in 15 minutes or so with placeholder loops (IE, I want a steady drumbeat so BOOMTISHBOOMTISH, I want a sad pad here so dooo dooo dooo minah chowd dooooo), then I go back later, refine something so it has a bit more character or conveys a more specific feeling, leave it, repeat for however many weeks until done.

Also I find most of my songs running well under three minutes these days. I've never been a fan of writing stuff that sticks around on one groove any longer than necessary.

Ironically the two demos I've put up since my last album sound nothing like any of the other tracks I'm currently writing & did not follow this process at all.

  On 1/21/2012 at 3:59 PM, Cryptowen said:

I really like this. It has a lot of personality to it.

Thanks!

  On 1/21/2012 at 3:59 PM, Cryptowen said:

My thinking is that if I can get them sounding good like that then they'll probably sound real good when I do them with nice sounding equipment & atmospherics.

Exactly! When you can hear the melodies naked like that, it forces you to make them sound good in their own right, without relying on fancy patches to mask their flaws. Then once the melodies themselves are good enough that you start humming them all the time, you're ready to drape them in the finest threads. I guess I'm trying to not have one weaker area that's being masked by other stronger areas, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to make it all good, each aspect.

For the longest time, I thought I liked The Downward Spiral for its interesting, collage-like collection of timbres, but I then realised it's also full of catchy, hummable melodies. They're not easily identifiable as such because of the timbres they're played on. I think a large part of Reznor's cunning is to play catchy melodies on harsh timbres, finding a middle ground between pop and noise sensibilities.

I thought this segregation of composing and patching only occurred to me recently after rediscovering Melodies From Mars and guessing the composer's mindset at the time (I'm guessing he was forcing himself to focus on melodies and structure, and for instance the subsequent Richard D. James album certainly beats Analogue Bubblebath 3 in these departments), but then two of these Doggie Dogster tracks are refinements of tracks I wrote back in 2002, so I guess the same idea occurred to me before and then I forgot about it again... hence I'm currently writing a short guide for my own benefit, about music making from first principles, so I don't forget all the things I've worked out again...

  On 1/21/2012 at 3:59 PM, Cryptowen said:

lately I've had a dozen or so tracks on the go at once

Ha... I've got close to a dozen projects on the go right now: two programming jobs, about