Those are really good songs Floyd! I am not familiar enough with current country to know how they would fit into today's charts with the likes of groups like Florida Georgia Line but they are top notch!
A question about your process...do you start with a style and then add additional tracks or do you start from scratch and build with just tracks?
Wondering if you have anything more mainstream? Maybe more on the pop side of things?
Thanks!!
Most often I am building the sound I want by simply picking the RealTracks that will create what I am looking for. At times I will start with a Style. If most of what gets created comes from a Style, I will list the Style in the instrument list that I post with each song.
Creating songs that have "that modern sound" requires that you be able WRITE songs that work for that sound. Most of the people posting song in the Showcase write in the style that they grew up with. For example, most of the Country songs posted are written like 70's Country - because that is what the writer was listening to when they became writers. So you get "old Country".... "Hey, man, that sounds like Willie Nelson!" Of course it does. All of my very early stuff sounds like John Prine - or other singer songwriters I grew up with. I did a lot of writing for the market during 90's Country (into the early 2000's) so much of my stuff has that style and feel - it is more "commercial" (pop-y) than most of the Country writers here - because they did not learn to write that style... And most people are totally happy with their style of writing - as they should be...
Today's sound requires a totally different style of writing - which 98% of those here don't care to even consider. It is a different animal than what it was even 15 years ago. There is a flow and cadence to the lyric and melody that is different. You have to learn that type of writing. Without that, it isn't possible to get a "modern (current) sound" - even if you use the right instruments. In order to create the 2 songs that I posted as examples, I had to "think differently" about the writing than my normal style of writing. I prefer the old style, so I will continue that for the most part as time goes on. I get easily bored with the new stuff. Listening to the radio I find it all sounds the same - song after song after song. But I do continually listen to new releases - and find a lot of things I like....
Along with the different style of lyric writing and melody writing, there is a slightly different style of production, but it is still made up of playing styles that are familar. You can find RealTracks that will recreate a lot of how songs are produced these days - as long as you "have the ears" to hear how they are done.
You can use the breakdown of tracks at karaoke-version to see how to build songs
http://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/charlie-puth/attention.htmlmute everything then pick one track at a time. Find a RealTrack that does that sound...
Most of "the sound" comes from the BEAT tracks in songs these days. You can find many in the BIAB loops library. It is good to learn to build them yourself in your DAW. You only need to build a single measure. Then copy that through your whole song.
I don't do "pop" (to answer your question), but that should be quite easy to do - AS LONG AS YOU WRITE THE RIGHT KIND OF SONG - the style of song being written today. Not the pop of 20 years ago. It is a differnt feel.
Much of today's pop is very minimalistic. A Beat, a bass and a single guitar (or piano or synth or mandolin, etc.)
As an example, I have stripped out all but those instruments in one of the songs I posted. The acoustic is a little too busy - it would sound more "popish" with a more sparse guitar - but this is just for a quick example - and keep in mind - I wrote this to be "current Country" not to be pop...
http://floydjane.com/Songs/LittleBit.htmPlay the top one...
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