How To Develop an Idea

I’m not sure if anyone else works in the same way that I do, first off.



I generally start a tune by making an eight bar loop, I do say ten tracks of drums, a sub bass a mid bass, some stabs, pads, keys and chords, maybe even some vocals. I make myself a nice solid rolling loop that I’m into.



It’s at this point I struggle to make my songs come alive, I can build a decent break and drop, but I just can’t seem to develop that eight bar loop so that it stays interesting the whole course of the song.



Maybe a set of videos on methods the guys at SA use to ‘get creative’ might be a nice little addition to the video archive. Anyone agree?



Danny.

Sounds like you having trouble structuring a track.



Listen to a few producers that you like and take notes about the structure. Thing such as how many bars they leave until they add/ take away an element. And how often they add fills, when they put in break downs, when they add efx ect.



That could help. If you’re still having trouble I got a book that has screen shots and explanations of song structure for most house related genres, PM me an I’ll scan em for ya.

I think that’s what I may have to do. Build a couple of tracks like my favourite artists then see where I get. Just use different instruments and stuff, I guess it’s the thing I most struggle with at the moment, it used to be making authentic beats. But I worked loads on my beat making and it’s now one of my stronger points, maybe I take the same approach to song structure. Is the book the loopmasters one?



Danny.

Its called the secrets of house music production, by the sample magic guys (shrooz)



http://www.samplemagic.com/products/prod_b1_secretshousemusic.html



You get half a gig of good samples with it too, well worth a buy.



Yeah I broke down the structures of a load of my fav producers. Helped no end. Also DJ I started to learn to DJ recently, thats help a load to.


I actually do very similar too what onetwoseven does and have a collection of templates to work too I also have all the lows mids and highs and FX in differnt colours on blank midi tracks as a refernce

I made these Sheets a while back… and they really helped me understand the structure of a track. It was a bit like homework really. Mightn’t be everyone’s cuppa, but if you cant get it into your head, theres really nothing like a practical excercises.

The Sheet you probably need is either the Track Analysis Sheet. I found them useful for breaking stuff right down.

[url]http://www.scribd.com/_ICN_[/url]

They print out onto a A4 sized sheet & the Excel file is there if you want to make your own.

Recently I’ve been making everything into 8bar sections.

Hats - One 8bar section, repeated. Kick - 8bar section, repeated. Synth, 8bar section, repeated… and so on.

Everything on the page is in 8bar blocks over the course of the whole track. I try to make some kind of change or introduce something new every 8 bars. V.Handy for visually keeping track.

Also - Bringing in a Ghost track really helps. Set your markers on the page @ breakdowns, little breaks & where major elements are introduced.

Final thing - Plan your sounds. Theres a Bottom, Middle & Top’s worth of layering to be had -  in between the beginning & end of your track.

Think of your track in terms of a Piano - All the different octaves can be used. Kick down @ the bottom, then bass next octave etc… Same with all your elements. Find out where they’re at in the Spectrum & go from there.

Choose a Key for your Tune & maybe have your perc or snare etc… in a different, but related note to your Kick Root.

Planning it that way lets you contol whats going on better and make musical decisions based on logical thought, rather than a kitchen sink type “hope for the best” sorta way. I’ve changed how I approach these things now & I think I can hear the difference. A lot of people do it by ear or dont want to be too scientific about it. but I always need to read, discover & find out why… so I can do it again. Everyones approach is different. :cool:

Again - Voxengo Span on Lo-Fi Mode is the Sh!t. Slap it on your master & find the Note of the main frequencies that you are working with when you hover the cursor. Make decisions accordingly. 

[url]Free Spectrum Analyzer Plugin, FFT, Real-Time [VST, AU, AAX] - SPAN - Voxengo

We’re getting there… :smiley:

[quote]onetwoseven (15/07/2010)[hr]Its called the secrets of house music production, by the sample magic guys (shrooz)

http://www.samplemagic.com/products/prod_b1_secretshousemusic.html

You get half a gig of good samples with it too, well worth a buy.

Yeah I broke down the structures of a load of my fav producers. Helped no end. Also DJ I started to learn to DJ recently, thats help a load to.

[/quote]

Great book. Well worth the cash. No-one would regret it.

[quote]Great book. Well worth the cash. No-one would regret it.[/quote]



But I am mean git :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote]slender (15/07/2010)[hr][quote]Great book. Well worth the cash. No-one would regret it.[/quote]

But I am mean git :P[/quote]

Its a fantastic Genre specific book… Like the bestest mostest wonderfullest FM/CM Tuts. But on crak.

Good crak… not bad crak.

Seriously - Get it Man - Its worth it, really & truely.

I wonder if they’'ll ever do an App? :wink:

[/quote]



Its a fantastic Genre specific book… Like the bestest mostest wonderfullest FM/CM Tuts. But on crak.



Good crak… not bad crak.



Seriously - Get it Man - Its worth it, really & truely.



I wonder if they’'ll ever do an App? ;)[/quote]



They should!!!