When writing a song what's the first thing YOU go to?

[Rhett]

I'm really trying to get some new creative ways to begin writing my songs.

For example: Do you write all the notes/midi out in 1 piano channel and then when you're done break the notes up and begin sound design? Or do you jump straight to sound design and build from there?

[Huts]

I'm really trying to get some new creative ways to begin writing my songs.

For example: Do you write all the notes/midi out in 1 piano channel and then when you're done break the notes up and begin sound design? Or do you jump straight to sound design and build from there?

Recently its been load a piano and make a chord progression, make a lead, make the first drop then go from there. Through out finishing the rest of the song the everything usually changes a bit, but that's usually where I start.

[mthrfnk]

I'm really trying to get some new creative ways to begin writing my songs.

For example: Do you write all the notes/midi out in 1 piano channel and then when you're done break the notes up and begin sound design? Or do you jump straight to sound design and build from there?

Recently its been load a piano and make a chord progression, make a lead, make the first drop then go from there. Through out finishing the rest of the song the everything usually changes a bit, but that's usually where I start.

Exactly this.

[Triphosphate]

Sometimes I start with saw waves and make a chord progression and lead and go from there and sometimes I start from some sound or rhythm I've designed.

If you have FL studio here's a fun one: make a chord progression and melody, and run them through gross beat, change gross beat to the momentary patches and pick slow triplet. Puts a whole new perspective on the melody.

[claudedefaren]

SSit at my piano and freestyle chord progressions and melodies, get something i really like, transcribe it to a pad or something, go from there

[OfficialDAPT]

A catchy chord progression and melody!

[Rhett]

A catchy chord progression and melody!

Yeah that's the way to go. The only problem I have his when I start transferring all the midi to instruments, sound design tends to make me lose my creativity

[OfficialDAPT]

A catchy chord progression and melody!

Yeah that's the way to go. The only problem I have his when I start transferring all the midi to instruments, sound design tends to make me lose my creativity

I usually start with a couple piano tracks so I don't have to worry too much about sound design. Once I get the chords and melody down with the piano, I make the drums. Next I'll usually just lay out the general structure of how I want the song to go so that I don't have to do that while I'm working on sound design. After that I start making risers and incidental hits to make the track interesting. Once all that's done, I work on synth and pad sound design. Sometimes I use presets for the synth and pads to just get the idea of how I want the track to sound, then I go back later and remake them once I'm to the sound design portion.

[titchbit]

it's different for every song. it's accidental for me. I spend time in my DAW going through different ideas - that could be sound design, MIDI (chords, melodies, basslines, drum loops, etc), or downloading samples/loops and picking them apart. And then when I come to something that I think is worthy enough to build a song around, then I go from there.

My most recent song started with a cool Absynth pad patch. The one before that was a bassline. Before that was a melody. Before that was a drum loop. Before that was another drum loop. Before that was ANOTHER drum loop. Before that was a chord progression. Before that was.... I could go on.

My advice is if you're starting with a melody or chord progression, don't worry about the patches at the beginning. Write the song first with just a piano patch or a basic synth and then when you're out of musical ideas, then get to work on the sound design.

[overture]

I pretty much always start with drums, I'm trying to stop this for a while though because it's definitely slowing things down. I always end up trying to perfect a 16 bar drum loop and by the time I get around to messing around with chord progressions and melodies I'm sick of the drums I've made and scrap the whole thing, so I'm thinking of trying something different next time.

[OfficialDAPT]

I pretty much always start with drums, I'm trying to stop this for a while though because it's definitely slowing things down. I always end up trying to perfect a 16 bar drum loop and by the time I get around to messing around with chord progressions and melodies I'm sick of the drums I've made and scrap the whole thing, so I'm thinking of trying something different next time.

I used to do this all the time! I'd catch myself listening to my drum loops extensively instead of trying to make it into a track. So unless your song is really heavily percussion-driven, I'd suggest not starting with drums.

[bouncingfish]

-make sick drum beat
-make mediocre basses in massive
-sounds uninspired, unorignial and Shit
-delete the basses, feeling experimental, make wierd flute lead in Sculpture with shitloads of reverb
-add strings, guitar and lots of stuff in a chaotic 8 bar loop
-all the melodies are shit, actually all of it is pretty shit
-I delete everything
-"i'm worthless"

[wub]

This thread has been done many times so I'll cut & paste my standard response;

Another thread on this = another cut & paste;

I've ranted on this enough, so am going to be lazy and do a copy paste of a previous rant;

This is copied from a previous thread we've had re; workflow...

Ok, I'm going to be lazy and just quote myself from a previous topic on this subject so bear with me...

Got my main template already set up with several different buses, routing etc etc. I'll usually start with messing around with something. Whatever that something is changes every time I start. Sometimes a vocal sample, a crazy ass effect I've been working on, some synth patterning with modulation, instrument loop from a dusty old 50s record I've sampled, whatever.

I'll play around with that for a bit, loop different bits, chop it up, add effects, bounce & reimport, create some basic patterns etc, find out what works and what doesn't. Once I've got a nice little pattern looping for about 16 bars or so that won't drive me crazy on listening to it hour after hour, I'll start to construct the tune around it. Place the drums where the sample dictates they should be placed, or apply the bassline so that it evolves organically around the sound.

Generally once I've got that done, will work on tidying up the drum programming a bit more, making a few variations of the patterns, spread them out over the course of the tune. Same with the bassline, add some variations, plenty of automation to give it some movement. The tune programming should be evolving organically at this point, as it becomes apparent when listening where the necessary elements should change or drop in/out of proceedings.

I'll usually add a few bells & whistles at this point, incidental sounds, echoey bits, heavily reverbed hi passed sirens, vocal snippets (nb; I mean spoken word samples in this case, not actual vocals), maybe some white noise sweeps etc etc, extra layer of ambience, stretched our snare sample over 64bars to give some background grit, working it into the arrangement to keep things interesting.

Once I've got a rough arrangement of how the overall tune is going to be, I'll bounce out a rough copy, burn onto CD then go whack it on the main system in my lounge. Get myself a cup of tea, sit down on the sofa with a notebook and listen to the track on repeat. I'll make notes as to what I like/don't like, what needs working on etc, then I'll go back to my studio machine and make the necessary changes.

Then it'll just be a case of doing a basic mastering job (not too fussed about mixdowns, these generally get done as I'm working through the tune), and jobs a good 'un.

Basically, starting with the drums is IMO boring as hell. If I start a tune with drums, the tune will be dictated by those drums and anything I add to it after the fact will be added to and around the drums. FUCK. THAT. I'd much rather get some fun stuff going on, samples/pads/synth loops/melodic bits etc, get them looping the way I like then construct the drums around them.

I never listen to a track for the drums. If I'm trying to tell someone what a tune is like, I won't bang my desk to give an idea of the drum programming. Course not, I'll hum the melody, sing a poor version of the vocal, whatever. The fun bits of the tune, basically. And it's for this reason that I'll start with those bits, as those are the bits I want my tunes to be identified for.

That way I'm changing the emphasis of the track from the drums to the more interesting bit. Like thinking of a tune as a sandwich. The drums are the bread and hey, you can't have a sandwich without bread (this isn't an excuse to correct me on sandwich preparation techniques nor is it an excuse to give examples of great sandwiches that don't involve bread so don't bother), but at the end of the day I'm not eating a sandwich for the bread, I'm eating it for the filling.

Taken from here - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=252959

[fragments]

I rarely sit down with any very specific idea with a song (maybe later on if I decide I'm going to try to put an EP together or something I will). So looking through samples, loading up a patch and noodling around with a melody. Banging some chords. I dunno.

Basically I do what Wub does TBH. I work out about 64 bars of progressive elements (melodies, chords, bass, drums) in Maschine. Then, I bounce the audio from Maschine and load those up in FL studio and chop them up and work out more of a song.

[dublerium]

Changing it up all the time is the best way for me. Starting from a similar point can end in similar results. Where as by maybe spending a session creating samples, and then if something from that session inspires you and you build a track from there that can end in better track ideas for me rather than sitting down to make a tune.

I think it's quite common to start with percussion, and if this is your usual port of call then switch things up by starting a track with other elements and get them working together to create a groove, then when you add percussion this will compliment the groove or switch it up.

[ThisIsSovereign]

I build a drum rack and then make a bunch of drum loops.

[test_recordings]

Drums, make something to dance to

[Efrafa11]

Try and find some sort of vocals to chop up, or some source to sample.

[Shadow Spark]

Drums to fit the vibe Im trying to set

[Bournio]

I normally am messing around with something, sound design, sample digging and chopping. Or sadly some DAW function or anothe£

I don't like starting with drums, but I will have a simple beat that I use instead of a metronome.