Computer Music Song Writing

If you struggle to write anything more than a four-bar loop, help is here at last. We'll have you cruising over the finishing line in no time!

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So, you've got yourself that klller hook or four-bar loop that you just know 15 golng to Ignlte the dancefloor. There's only one problem: that fragment is the only thing you've got. You need to turn a promising idea into a well-rounded whole, but it feels like it would be easier to abandon the whole thing and just start on a new idea altogether..• And so the cyele goes, the end result being a mass of ideas but no finished tracks. It's a rut that many musicians have wallowed in particularly those of us using computers, where software makes it a doddle to create effective loops and snippets of music but doesn't offer nearly as much assistance when it comes to fleshing them out into a full track.

You might have perfected a few loops but not yet got them to play nicely together. You may be dealing with a melodic riff, but you don't know how to turn it into anything more than a repetitive figure. Or perhaps you can't figure out what chords would complement your tune. No problem! It may reassure you to know that most producers will find themselves at this point on a regular basis. It can be hard to break through songwriter's block, but don't get discouraged - if you have a loop where one or more of the key elements Cdrums, synths, bass, lead, etc) are working nicely together then what you are doing likely has what it takes to work so me magic. It also means that you 've already made at least some

of the fundamental decisions about your track w ithout even knowing it, from tempo to key signature, sound palette to chord structures. Equally, if it doesn't sound right at this early stage, go back to the drawing board. There's no point in trying to turn a mediocre idea into a great track - it just won't work! With the right mind-set and knowledge, you can break out of the 'four-bar loop rut' and actually complete your tracks. Once you have a clear grasp of the parts needed to get a track moving, it will be a lot easier to tackle it bit by bit. Now it's time to expand upon your ideas, stitching them together into a whole that's more than merely the sum of its parts. With no more ado, then,let's start to finish those tracks!

March 2012 / COMPUTER MUSIC / SS

> make music now start to finisr

The anatomy of a track

The first step to transmuting your few bars of gold into a fully realised gem of a track is to understand how songs are constructed. lt's easier to get started when you can see what you need to make next! That way, you're not heading off into the mysterious unknown, but travelling along a road to a defined destination. The construction of a song is genre-dependent to some degree, but there are some broad general rules that can be applied to all kinds of tracks, be they rock, dance, pop, jazz or classical. We can broadly categorise the elements of an arrangement as either a songwriting or production/performance construct. 50ngwriting arrangement concerns things like the verse and chorus, with the latter intended to be the more memorable, catchy part. There may also be a shorter bridge section that joins the verse and chorus, and perhaps a middle-eight after the second chorus, for variety. The diagram aboveright shows a typical song structure for a song, complete with intro and outro sections. Production/performance techniques are devices that present the songwriting ideas in different ways in order to hold the listener's attention and excite them further. Without this extra layer of arrangement dynamics, your song may sound like nothing more than a bunch of sections pasted in order. What are we talking about? The stalwarts of dance production, of course: breakdowns, build-ups, drops, and fills. AII of these occur in many forms of music, but dance genres often take them to the extreme, sometimes relying more on them than traditional verse/chorusstyle songwriting. Think about the energy explosion that goes off on the dancefloor after a particularly filthy bassline slams back into a tune, and you get the idea. These devices do not replace the songwriting parts we explained earlier, but rather augment them. So, your middle-eight might work as the

"Make life easy by kicking off with a few stripped-down repetitions of the loop" 56 / COMPUTER MUSIC / March 2012

breakdown of your song, followed by a build-up based on the bridge, and on into a final bombastic chorus that functions as the drop. You can see this in the song structure above. But what use is a knowledge of song arrangement if you're still stuck with just a fourbar loop? That's where the following pages come in. We're overflowing with ways to coa x inspiration into striking, and our first is to use the goods that you've already got! You might have only come up with one idea for your current project, but we'll bet you've got loads of halHinished tunes Iying around. Load those old projects up and render each idea out as a WAV, then throw themall into your current project on an audio track and see if any of them go nicely with what you already came up with. If you find a winner, try incorporating the idea into your current project - the chorus to your verse might already be lurking on your hard drive!

The intr%utro While it can be cool to come up with a specially written intro or outro for your song, you can make life easy by kicking off with a few strippeddown repetitions of the main loop of your song, (or indeed, any part of the song). For non-dance styles, anything goes, really so for rock, you could begin without a bassline and have the drums keeping time mainly on cymbals. Or do the opposite: bass and drums without cymbals. Experiment by muting tracks till you find something that works, then once you've got it, tweak the parts to make it sound like you wrote it that way to begin with. Another technique is to play the song's main riffs on

"A period of restraintthe breakdown - really makes the more full-on sections seem wild!" different instruments/processing. Beginning with a 'boxy' guitar sound will make the main guitar sound huge when it bursts in, for example. If you 're making dance music, you need to keep the DJ on your side. It's rare to hear a track played from the very start in a club, and that's beca use this segment is typically used for mixing. Most tracks feature alead-in (and -out) of either 16 or 32 bars. These should be stripped down to the strongest rhythmic elements such as the kick, hats and snare befo re bringing in a few more subtle percussive elements halfway through. An intro should definitely maintain a sense of forward movement. too, so you 'lI usually hear more than just raw percussion - try snatches of the riffs to come or recognisable FX used in the track. 510w sweep sounds are good for keeping the introductory bars pushing forth.

Breakdown Whilst it can be tempting to throw everything you ha ve at your audience in the hope of pummelling them into delirious submission, a period of restraint often makes your track seem more complete and song-like - plus it really makes the

more full-on sections seem wild! The breakdown is a section in the song where you strip away some of the power and weight of the track, removing layers of sound as you see fit to bring the track back to its core elements. The breakdown could be based on an existing part, or it can have an entirely new melodythink of the famous 'middle eight' used in so many pop compositions. One thing many dance music breakdowns have in common is the removal of that central, driving kick drum. A breakdown provides many functions: as a space for the track (and your audienceD to breathe; to emphasise the harmonic and melodic elements of your track; and to give your audience something to look forward to (je, the inevitable reintroduction of that killer groove).

The build-up The ultimate aim of the breakdown, of course, is to build it all back up again. Dance music tracks in particular string the process out as long as they can get away with. The 'verses' will often develop in such a way as to lead up to the drop, with swells of sound, filter sweeps and repeated sounds that become ever more frequent. all to bring the audience to fever pitch. This is the build-up. From the minimal breakdown, we have to bring the main groove back in a way that makes it totally irresistible. How you go about achieving the build-up depends greatly on the genre. Rock willlikely favour increasing dynamics and complexity (of playing or the sound in generaD. Modern pop may borrow heavily from the lexicon of dance, where build-ups rule. Progressive or minimal

"We have to bring the main groove back in a way that ma kes it totally irresistible"

this is where the initialloop that you created really kicks in with full force - up till this point. you may have held some elements of it back. It's essentially the launch of your no-holds-barred chorus in which you 're pushing as many sounds and frequencies as you reasonably can. When a drop hits, it can be handy to mirror the reversed crash of the preceding build-up with a highpitched, ringing crash that will give the start of your drop an explosive feeling of release.

house tracks might favour a slow burning lead up with a lot of gradual filtering. With deep Richie Hawtin-style techno, you'lI want to introduce elements by fading them in or beginning them smoothly with little fanfare. The elements often stack together until the finallooping section (which may resemble the initial idea you came up with) is revealed in full. If you're writing an electro house or DnB trae k, build-ups often progress over the entire verse befo re hitting hard into the next part. Another trie k is to use high-pass filtering to roll off the lowest bass frequencies, so that the build-up never quite hits with the track's fu 11 weight. Reversed crashes or filters opening on certain elements builds it towards its logical conclusion, which is the explosive force oL

The fill

The drop This is the ultimate payoff. functioning as the centrepiece of the entire track in many highenergy genres. As the moment when everything comes to a head, there is an inevitability to the drop that gets the listeners excited - but that doesn't mean you can't surprise them! Perhaps

A fill usually occurs at the tail end of a section like the verse or bridge, and may occupy as little as a beat or two. Its less grand than a breakdown,less structurally integral than the intro, but invaluable in adding flavour and for letting your audience know that something big is mere milliseconds away. A fill can be crucial in making sections flow smoothly into another - without them, transitions can feel awkward or unsatisfying. If you like your riffs and arrangement, but the changes seem to come and go without incidence, it could be down to the fills or lack thereof. Traditional fills consist of a short rhythmic variation or addition, typically coming from the drums - but as ever, anything is possible. Once you have a cool rhythmic fill, try adjusting the timing/phrasing of melodic instruments to emphasise it. Consider an unexpected 'twist' in the melody/chords to carry the change, too. If you're feeling daring, try using a beat or even a bar of silence as your fill. These silent fills aren't all that common, but they can be used to great effect. such as when you want your drop to hit with maximum impact!

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Maintaining flow and developing ideas

Cubase's Arranger Track In actlon! We define our baslc song sectlons In the maln area, then try out dlfferent sequences of them before commlttlng uslng the panel on the left

Now you 're aware of the elements of a typical composition, you need to think about arranging them with the aim of creating a flowing and cohesive songo What works for one track doesn't necessarily work for another, but it's something you can develop an ear foro One of the great advantages of composing song structures with DAWs is that you can take the whole song in at once visually. Many DAWs also offer

"If you listen to a song tha you know works on the dancefloor, you will find tha it's never static for very long" ways to try out arrangement ideas without committing, such as Cubase's Arranger Tracks feature or Ableton Live's on·the-fly Session View. A well -built track should look neat, logical and uncluttered, and the progression forwards should be obvious at a glance. The example structure on the previous page shows the historically popular AABA structure,

and this can be a useful place to kick things off if you're not sure.

Tried and tested In addition to the specific arrangement devices we discussed (breakdown, build-up, drop, filD, you can control the mood and energy within sections by adding or removing elements at key intervals, by building tension and atmosphere (eg, through filters and modulation via your DAW's automation) and, of course, through the mix itself. When listening, we quickly grow tired of static repetition, and 50 the lack of detailing can negate an otherwise high value production. If you listen to a song that you know works on the dancefloor, you will find that even if it seems highly repetitive, it's never actually static for very long. To make sure that no one gets bored, you need to bring in (or take out!) elements on a regular basis.lt could be something obvious like a brash lead line, or something more subtle, like a simple percussive element. There are even clichéd 'drivers' within particular genres - for instance, DnB might usher in a snakin' shaker pattern to keep things moving along, whereas hard dance styles often employ a zingin' ride

Get fresh Even when you have a clear grasp of how trackbuilding works, you still might struggle to write the necessary parts. This is a creative problem, so formulaic solutions don't work so well, but there are some ways to encourage fresh ideas. Varying the melody by making a new pattern with different notes in the same rhythm is a quick and effective way to view your idea in a new light. Likewise, transposing some or all of the notes to different scales might give you an ear· catching twist on a familiar riff.

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If you are struggling to compose a chord sequence to back up your melody, write a few chord sequences in the same key and see how they sound underneath the lead. Even if you don't come up with a complete working sequence, you may get an idea of which chords work nicely under which bits of the melody. Finally, if you have a melody that's starting to sound tired, you don't have to change it to make it sound fresh! Instead, swap the chords playing underneath to put the melody in a new context.

cymbal placed on quarter-notes, accenting the kick. Typically, new elements come in on 8- to 16 -bar intervals. Occasionally it will be as many as 32, but this can be risky unless one of your track's elements is so varied that it makes the loop sound like it is evolving anyway. It's important to remember that while a degree of originality and innovation is desirable, a track simply has to provide certain cues to the listener in order to succeed. Within most mainstream genres, being too clever just doesn't work. If you catch a so-far appreciative audience unawares by dropping a new element in too soon after another, then at best you're going to lose some impact; at worst, you are going to lose the flow of your track and, by extension, your audience. Stick to what works!

Use your ears When arranging, being able to take a step back and listen to it as a musiclover rather than a music-maker can help enormously. If you're making a banging club choon, ask yourself: as a dance music fan, how would you react to each development while getting down on the dancefloor? Try rendering your track out and listening to it in a more casual setting, such as in your living room or in the caro Make note of sections that seem too long or short, or transitions that don't flow smoothly, then try to fix them when you get back to base. Even turning your monitor off can help - it's a very different listening experience when you can't see the DAW's playback cursor creeping towards the next section! Understanding the purpose of song structure is crucial. When you 're arranging your song, you 're essentially making decisions as to how an audience (be they listening at home or giving it six-nowt on the dancefloor) is going to react to the development of your track.

Good in theory?

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This is a basic technique to segue one section into the next, plus it can also be used over the course of a breakdown. We're going to automate a filter with some white noise to create excitement before a drop in the form of a sweeping build up. Load up any synthesiser with a white noise generator and configure a single white noise oscillator only.

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Open up a low-pass filter such as Vengeance-Sound Philta CM, which can be found in the CM Studlo folder on the cm OVO. Put the filter on either the master channel (so that it sweeps the whole mixl or a mixer bus that contains just the sounds you want to fade back in during the buildup. lf you go for the lalter, you must run the white noise synth through this bus too.

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Tonespace is a free VST plug-in (www.mucoder.netl that can be really useful when firing out a quick chord sequence to support your ideas. Load up Tonespace and pick a preset using the preset field at the topoWe're using ClASSloHI2 open in C.

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If you're not confident when it comes to music theory, you may have a hard time fitting chords and melodies together - and when you do, they may be rather obvious-sounding. Whlle a solid knowledge of theory is the ideal tonic, you can also use software to dig yourself out of this hole. Many DAWs have MIDI effects that enable you to map the notes onto a chosen scale, instantly transforming the mood and feel of parts you've already made up. These plug-ins can also be good while jamming on a keyboard beca use any notes outside of that scale will be automatically transposed to fit. So, you can get as creative as you like on the ivories and not worry about hitting abad key! Try Ableton Live's Chord effect, followed by the Sea le one, for example. Vou can also call on V5T tools like Tonespace 2 Chorder (which we use in the tutorial below), Chord5pace Playa (www.chordspace.com)or 5ynleor Harmony Improvisator (www.synleor.com/ improvisator.html) to help you to create chord sequences if you don't have a deep musical knowledget to call upon. (If you happen to be a theory nut, they can also help you to break old compositional habits!l

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Oraw in a single note with duration as long as you want the build up to las!. (You pretty much always want the note to end just befo re the drop or breakdown kicks in.)lf your white noise generator responds to pitch, make sure it's a fairly high note - around C6 should be fine. Make sure this note is playing alongside the song's loops!riff during your build-up.

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Next, draw an automation curve for the filter plug-in's Cutoff that goes from Oto 100%, spanning the time you want the build-up to las!. This will slowly bring in the frequencies of the loops and white noise moving from low to high, creating a sweep effect that builds anticipation for your drop. Boom!

To the right 01 the plug-in , you can select Key and Scale - so if you know your key and sea le, enter i!. If not, your OAW might have a way 01 telling you - for instance, FL Studio has a Detect scale option under the Helpers menu in the piano rol!. Our riff is in A minor, so we enter this inlormation.

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Play some chords by clicking on the squares. You should be able to hear that you're getting chords that sound right together! Route the output 01 the VST to a MIOI channel atthe bottom right to record your sequence to a channel in your OAW, then route that MIOI through your favou rite synths. Job done! cm

March 2012 / COMPUTER MUSIC / S9