Korg Forums

Dee · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:17 am Post subject:

Busy putting some finishing touches to my song, so will have it up by tomorrow.

Good luck to all who are as yet still in the un-ticked-off category!!

Dee

JonSolo · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:24 am Post subject:

GLAD TO HEAR IT DEE!!!!

It is always exciting when new music gets posted.

It is even more exciting to me if the product is incomplete or rough and I get to write a book of feedback to you. Laughing

DrWho · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:04 am Post subject:

Yes - time is running out ... come on you late posters - umm ... I guess that includes me Confused

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Troy · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:47 am Post subject:

For whatever it's worth, I'm not a member of OSAM, but I enjoy and am learning lots from following what you all are doing.

Troy

Stephen · Platinum Member Joined: 28 Aug 2002 Posts: 4709

Troy · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject:

Well, as a newbie to songwriting and arranging, I'd like to know the thought processes behind putting the song together. How you evoke certain moods. What sounds you like to stack together and why. How you treat the sounds when recording and mixing them. You know, all that stuff. Since I'm new, I'm interested in the whole process, that some of you might take for granted by now.

ellll · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:23 pm Post subject:

Hi Troy,

Got ya in place now...Sorry I couldn't remember you earlier
Shocked

Regards!! John Rolling Eyes

Troy · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject:

Thanks John. I appreciate the input, but my situation is that I'm new to digital music making. Recording on computers, MIDI, mixing, mastering, effects, synthesis and all the other stuff that we can now do. Folks before us would have had to pay a specialist in all those areas.

ellll · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

Troy and Others, Sorry again I did not recognize you, Troy...Dumb of me..

I am still a bit out on the suggestions on recording...I do not care for the recording to the comp. system instead of the sequencer, and since the people like movie and game composers go with the workstation alone...(Try the score for Vagrant Story, composer: Hitashi Sakimoto (Also some of the FF games) sometime), I will continue...

And, by the way...a site to download game scores...LIKE Vagrant Story, on the orig workstation, and some arranged for sym. orchestra is GALBADIA HOTEL..try it if you haven't..There is also Mime, Anime and more...

So anyway..I will continue as I have until I make a decision on a new sound card, and maybe a keyboard....I did have a few messages saying clearly that there should be no problem getting good sound directly from my O1Wfd...so I will continue. I do hope that is O.K. with everyone Question

John

ellll · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject:

Hi Everyone!,

Watchin' for those great songs!! I know they will be fun....

John ellll Rolling Eyes

georgeinar · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:01 am Post subject:

Troy, to answer you on the songwriting process: Here goes. Right now what I do is either start with a lyric idea, some funny line, or a poetic catchy phrase that seems to have some zing to it, or I start with a musical challenge, my current being I want to create an electronic rock and roll in the vein of Back in the USSR or that type of rock and roll beat and chords. Now I have to go to the sequencer and play around with drum sets and listen to various drum sounds that will give me the right edge and especially have the kick and snare that I want to use for the soundscape that may work with this genre. Then I hit the bass for second track and play around with some progressions and runs that have the right movement and hit some interesting chord changes. I do usually 8 or 16 meters and go over and over, I will start adding either a piano or a synth pad that will be the second most important voice to carry the rhythmic part. I keep going back to the bass and drums, tweaking the beats and runs. It's very repetitive at this point but usually after a couple days of these 16 measures I'll hit gold and have either a great verse section or chorus, or it sometimes ends up being the bridge. But after I've done what I can there I use the same bass and synth and/or piano pads and write another section to contrast, so one will be chorus one verse etc. I often do five or six of these loopy sections then on the TS you can cue them up into different orders so I can do song 1 twice then song 2 then song 4 then 3. And I keep switching them around until it feels like verses and chorus and instrumental sections. I keep going back to the 8 or 16 measure song sections tweaking and adding. My ear is most important here to listen to 'do these sections hold together and flow well from one to the other.' Once I have something that seems to build and progress with a beginning middle and end I then make a long song out of this chain of sections. Now I add other parts that may carry thru, which I tend to play "live" or make it seem that way. I now add drum fills because you can't just keep repeating those. I strip out certain sections to allow room for my voice and build up an organ solo or whatever I think the song will need. Once I get my 16 tracks fairly full I begin dumping the tracks to my pc and doing a rough master thru my ozone 3 and get it on my ipod. once there i carry it around and listen to it different times of the day, this usually has the first version of my lyrics which i write just before going to the computer, the lyrics usually take me about 3 days the first time and I re-write them about 3 separate times usually. Once I figure out what I can't stand about the first version of the song I go back to the sequencer and fix the stuff that is not working. I listen for places where I've cut corners and have not taken full advantage of the opportunities the song is suggesting. I want each song to imply that I gave it everything I could both in the introduction the different voices, the arrangement the ending, so that it seems that I have lovingly labored over every single note and moment. I remix for about 5 or 6 days until I hear no problems to my own ear. After that I have others listen and I take what they say seriously. Then I remaster or rework the words if people aren't hearing them properly or relating to the meaning. This all happens before I put it up in soundclick. Once I do upload it I ask for comments thru Kforums or soundclick friends.

I hope that helps. It's very basic and you may already know about this type of process. And this only works for certain kinds of songs. Some experimental styles are a whole different ball game when it comes to development and experimentation. But this is what I do.
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JonSolo · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:19 am Post subject:

Obviously there are many approaches to writing music and no ONE way is correct. But it is good, once you have found a method that works for you, to continue with it...like a formula if you will. As with any process exercising it only makes it stronger and better.

George touched on some nice arrangement methods as well, because once a song is written it deserves some decoration. One thing of interest is that George actually uses this as part of his writing process. If you are not working with loops and samples then this requires some forward thinking. This is an involved process but probably one of the most rewarding in the end, as many times you end up in a different place than where you started AND you have many new ideas to work with that got saved along the way for future songs.

Some artists use the sounds they work with for song inspiration, while others play with chord progressions and develop melody around that.

I tend to be real old school in that I usually have a hook line or melody that pops into my head, and before I can get home I have created the song and arrangement by humming various parts into my portable MP3 recorder. Then using Georges method above, I find myself auditioning various things to get the final product, though my first inclination in my head is what I tend to stick with.

Jon
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ellll · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:46 am Post subject:

Hi George!!,

What a great process! It's what I would like to learn, but seem unable to think that way...

I do slightly more like Jon...except mine is classical...it just comes to me as melody. I record it by humming if I am down town or somewhere away... and I use it in a complete improv...and then add strings, horns, woodwinds...etc.

I have been as you know doing it all on the workstation...I just feel more the creative process it seems...anyway, I will do it that way, and try a new keyboard when I get a bit caught up...

Best Regards, John Rolling Eyes

Stephen · Platinum Member Joined: 28 Aug 2002 Posts: 4709

My recording process usually starts with a drum track, based on something that's popped into my head or an inspiration from another artist, or group.
Once the drum track is in place I just construct, or build, the song around it.
Tempo, is important in creating a mood, at least it is for me.
Once I have a drum track, at the tempo I want, I play a rhythm instrument, either guitar, or piano, in most cases, and that's where the chord progression gets determined, usually based on a hook, or line, I have in my head, then a scratch melody on guitar, and a bass line.
Then...the time consuming task of choosing the remaining instrumentation.
For MIDI musicians this is not so difficult, but I'm a Midiot, so everything is recorded in audio, I audition instruments in 8 bar sections, so if I have to change it, at least I didn't take the time to play the whole song.
Since I really blow at writing lyrics, most all my songs are instrumental, and admittedly easier to write.
Smile

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JonSolo · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:59 pm Post subject:

Stephen, I am not so sure that an instrumental is easier to write than a song with lyrics. Instrumentals have to spark the imagination of the listener without ever giving them a clue as to what you were thinking when you wrote the song. If you can pull that off, it is magical.

And ellll, based on your last several posts, maybe we ought to start a Workstation vs. DAW topic. Hmmmm. I might just do that later today. Very Happy