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How do you start your songs?
Just curious: what do you typically start your songs with? e.g. drums, chords, sound design, lyrics, samples, loops, cover etc.
What inspires you?
Do you keep going until you complete your song, come back to it or something else?
Comments
Any way I can. Whatever is the inspiration goes immediately into written or recorded voice notes or gets recorded in GarageBand.
Thank you for sharing!
I’m most inspired by chord progressions and sound design. Scaler 2 is such an inspiring tool. I love scouring the songs to grab chords and drop them in to the sequencer thing at the bottom then triggering them.
As far as sound design, I enjoy running chords through effects or creating funky sounds with various synths as layered patches then playing them as chords or pitching them in Koala or BM3.
I’m with you in regards to AUM and Scaler 2! It is so easy to get things going. Lately Scaler triggering chords and two arpeggiators (one for bass and for lead) has been my jam. Once I add drums and percussion it starts sounding like something special quickly.
BM3 is OG for me. I can always open it and get something going either with a chopped up sample or drum beat.
I love Loopy Pro because it’s make commit to audio and make vibe-y stuff.
Koala is perfect fun that turns into actually making stuff.
Drambo has become so much more amazing with 2.0! I really love the clip launcher.
MacOS side I’m also a Maschine guy. It’s a perfect workflow and really a joy to make stuff in. The pads are the best.
Standalone I have an MPC One. I love the form factor and I have found that the workflow is better than my initial impression. I’ve even gotten used to the stiff pads.
It’s very interesting and inspiring to see what others do to create music 🤩
Do you use your iPhone, iPad or both?
I usually start with a melody, then the track builds off of that. The melody may have gone by the time the track is finished, it may stay - it depends on where the track goes after that initial starting point.
I keep going until the track is complete - I don’t start something else as that will just distract me. I set a deadline too - I don’t necessarily hit it but it’s there to keep me focused. It’s important to me that I finish things & don’t get caught in an endless cycle of tweaking that only I will hear the results of.
And no - once it’s finished it’s finished - I never go back to a track. Keep moving forwards, never back!
👍😊
I use the built in apps "Notes" and "Voice Memos" and occasionally directly record into GarageBand on iPhone.
On iPad, usually straight into GarageBand.
Guilt, Regret, Fever and Anguish. Or their antonyms.
Usually I just get stoned and jam out on guitar and then it turns into something with structure. I guess the chord progression is what usually pushes the ideas forward for me
Open AUM. Pick a generator app at random. Pick a midi creator app at random. Set it running. Record a long loop. Half speed the loop. Dupe the loop. Pile effects on the loop. Record the midi into Atom. Use interrupters like Gatelab, Midi LFOS, Perforator. Use A2M on the loop. Use Atom and A2M to drive more synths. Record more loops. Rinse, repeat. Pile more FX on. Cut away everything that isn’t Dark Ambient. Mix and record live into AudioShare. Publish.
Yeah this is me.
If I am starting with iOS I will do some drums in Patterning 2 or Drambo and try and get them to be interesting enough on their own.
what do you mean by "dupe the loop"? Your method sounds very interesting...
@Nimgwen : just go to the bottom of the AUM channel containing the first File Player loop that you have recorded, hit the title and in the resulting pop up box hit Duplicate to dupe the whole channel. This will give you a fresh copy of the File Player Wav in your new channel. You can now swap out the first channels fx for others, change the playback speed of the new loop, offset it’s start against the first, hook up A2M to it to drive more synths, and so on… and remember, as the sainted Hainbach says: ‘half speed is the right speed’.
(drops it by a perfect octave).
After Dupe, a whole new channel to mess with:
Btw - the ‘DSP Max’ you can see in the second shot was a momentary glitch caused by me taking the snapshot with my current work in progress running - turning a DSP heavy channel into a perfect wav loop is actually a great way to lighten the load, as File Players take almost nothing in DSP. Like old school 4 track recording, it does mean you are baking in your effects for the channel, but hey - works for me!
One three four two…
I don't have any single way to start a song every time. To some extent, it depends on what type of song or track I want to achieve.
Sometimes I get a tune, riff or even title in my head and that is the starting point. I usually start that type of track in Cubasis, recording the melody, riff or naming the track (and imagining what type of instrumentation or genre would fit with that title).
)
I then work in sections of 4-16 bars, building the basic instrumentation of each section, usually adding chords/pads first then drums and then bass (but it can sometime be in any order). As the sections are built, I listen to them and experiment to see if anything else needs to be added. Sometimes a full song/track is the end result and sometimes it just stays as an idea over 1 or 2 sections - possibly to be worked on later (I tend to get a lot of those!
If a decide to do a loop based track, I tend to use Loopy Pro or Gadget but generally starting with a melody phrase, riff or chord progression and adding drums and bass later (though occasionally I start with drums). Sometimes, if I think it could evolve into a song that could have a guitar parts and solo or vocals, I export it from gadget and finish it in Cubasis.
If I want to do a generative/loop based track then AUM is my starting point and, like some other posters, randomly choose a generative app such as Riffer, or one of the 'Bud apps (or sometimes Atom 2 to record my own chords or melody) - and get it to control another randomly chosen piano or synth app, choosing a suitable preset and tweaking if necessary, Then I add a drum app such as Hammerhead, 909 or Digistix 2 (if I want to program my drums). But I do also use Lumbeats apps, Patterning and DrumJam occasionally. Then I add other apps to provide pads, bass, counter riffs. If the generated sounds a not too monotonous, that is it but usually, I like to solo over the top with a synth, Geoshred or my guitar.
I usually find that AUM or Loopy are the most instantly enjoyable musical experiences but when collaborating with others, as I often do, adding my parts can also be instantly enjoyable for me as I can often "hear" what I want to play in my head before i start playing. I tend to use Cubasis for collaborative work (but have used Gadget and Garageband as well).
So, generally, I swap and change as the mood or the music takes me
Usually a guitar riff or progression. Occasionally a lyric idea or section starts the process.
Ding, ding, ding.
Piano. Only thing that I need.
I'm still new at this, but the majority of the time I start with a generator like Riffler or Piano Motifs. If I like a riff or a melody, then I try to build on that.
My last attempt has me trying a melody I have on my head. It's been a trip trying to find accompanying chords and some drum pattern to fit it. I still use a lot of apps to help me with that like the above, and some music theory ones (Pensato, Tonaly, Tonality etc)
I usually find or program a synth sound I like and then play with it, ussually with SoundPrism, select a random scale and then start banging triads and sevens until I like something.
Now that I'm using drambo I just put it in overlay mode so I can record what I'm playing inmediatly.
I build from there, ussually from the chord progression up. But I also sometime start with the beat.
Haha.
Chaos followed by Kaøs
I think you forgot Qaos
How do I start my songs? I press play, mate. Old school!
😂
What do you use for beats?
(Note: I didn't read the above replies yet as I want to give my uninfluenced take.)
Ah, this question is often asked here, and each time it's asked, my answer changes. What worked for me even one year ago doesn't necessarily work for me in the present.
However, no matter how I start my song, it's always genre-specific. Here's what currently works for me.
If I'm producing in a melodic "mainstream" genre (whether it's instrumental or vocal, whether it's EDM, Pop, House, Trance, Rock, etc), it all begins with the chord structure and melody. So I tend to open up an app, use a piano sound (whether from an app's own internal instruments or Ivory Grand in Module AUv3), lay out basic chords and a melody, and then mold and shape and tweak the chords and melody until I have something more original than what I initially started with. I often just use Gadget with the Marseille gadget to quickly do this.
For Trance and other instrumental pieces, I usually lay out the chords and melody with the main Trance lead in mind, and then I work on a "killer beat".
For vocal Pop, EDM, House, etc, sometimes a lyrical idea hits first. Chords and melody are then laid out in relation to the lyrics. Or chord and melody come first, and words are written around that. It all depends on what comes into my head first.
THEN if using a vocalist, I discuss with the vocalist if the melody fits in their natural vocal range before any beats and other elements are laid out. If the melody veers outside of their vocal range, I can either transpose the piano (as easy as select, drag, and drop) or alter the melody further to fit within their vocal range. THEN come a killer beat, bass, backing arrangement, etc. Then comes recording vocals.
For Ambient/Experimental pieces, it all depends if I want it to be tonal, atonal, etc, and what mood/vibe I'm going for, so I usually surf freesound.org to find a recording that fits what I'm going for or has potential to fit (things can always be pitched up or down, stretched, etc). "Oh, this sound of a train passing on the tracks would fit the low end of the spectrum perfectly. The sound of this kitchen blender would help add some high end to the spectrum. What to use for the middle? Maybe this sound of someone unzipping a zipper can be pitched down an octave to fill that."
(Note, not all of the sonic spectrum has to be filled in an atonal Ambient piece. 
) Or if I want the piece to be tonal, I can use Gauss to record some notes here, other notes there, make the loops of uneven length, and have both loops play off of each other. All I need to do is figure out which instrument/timbre/aesthetic/mood/vibe I want.
Now, unlike "mainstream" genres where the selection of apps doesn't necessarily matter, one must heavily consider which effects AU apps they use to achieve Ambient/Experimental music. Not all reverbs were created equal. Not all bitcrushers and saturators were created equal. Not all delays and FSUs and tape machine emulators like Reelbus and Flytape were...well you get the idea that each app has its own ideosyncracies and sonic footprint. Again, it's all about what serves timbre, aesthetic, vibe, etc best.
My favourite environments for creating Ambient/Experimental are AUM, Loopy Pro, and Koala (although while Koala can't host AUv3s, it can be used as one in AUM/Loopy Pro).
My favourite plugins for Ambient/Experimental have to be Gauss, KoalaFX, Alteza, and Reelbus. Gauss is the tape loop emulator created by @brambos and @Hainbach , and I have no idea how they programmed it, but it has a certain magical sonic mojo to it that really does authentically recreate tape playback! @elf_audio 's Koala's internal effects are very quick and easy to adjust on the fly, although I usually set them with "hold" mode rather than tweak them. If I'm not using Koala to create Ambient in, I still use Koala FX somewhere in my master chain. @FredAntonCorvest 's Alteza is the king of Ambient reverbs for me since it's the most expressive for live performance. Slowly (or not-so-slowly) adjusting the two pitch knobs in the feedback section during live performance can really add some great sonic movement to a piece. Reelbus is simply my preferred taste for tape playback emulations.
And I'll cut myself off here as now I'm rambling to try to lull myself back to sleep after being woken up in the middle of the night by the call of nature.
I hope this helps in any capacity.
I use GR-16 mainly because of how quick I can select sounds between all my hats... kicks etc...
Here is a video of me using it:
Now I sequence it from Drambo, but the idea is the same, I also use it as a sampler for my melodyc one shots just because of how quick is to select a new sound.
For me it’s mostly browsing through sounds and then playing around until I get something I like and then looking which other instruments fit to it and that’s how a song forms mostly in my case
I always used to start with a drum foundation and never go beyond that until everything was solid and had a lot of the character I was after already but iOS has changed that somewhat.
At some stage I'll often add drums but I try to resist doing so in the hopes that I actually manage to produce so ambient recordings one of these years...
Presently the bulk of my tracks are built in Koala and tend to just use a single note of sound (literally anything at all) that I either resample as it is or reduce to a looper single cycle waveform and resample. Then I build up a palette of sounds by resampling that initial hit and subsequent versions of it through a wealth of Koala effects (both the performance ones and the ones for incoming audio).
Standard favourites are: little bits of bitcrush; lots of reverb; lots of filtering; around 30% of the dirt effect; the combination of tempo delay, dub delay and maybe 30% or so of compressor. Things get pitched up, flipped to mono, reversed, pitched down, mixed with other sounds, refiltered etc.
My workflow is that shockingly shit desktop calendar cartoon from the early 90s: "we've been doing so much for so long with so little that we can now do anything with nothing"
it depends on what im doing. I do a lot of different genres for different projects / sync catalogs etc. 90% of the time i start a song by using a reference track.
I find the tempo, then add markers in my daw based around the reference track. sometimes very loose markers like verse, pre, ch, post ch etc. other times very specific markers like kick in here, synth lead here, drums here etc.
I then just go about filling in the blanks!
When im creating for myself or for a project that im more inspired to create for, i generally start with a cool sound, wether its a sample, a drum loop, a synth preset or whatever, and just launch from there.