tips....008..songwriting.
before i get into oodles of tek tips on powertracks (ptw).
i would like to discuss in general songwriting.
just from things ive picked up over the years.
gleaning triks from Audio Engineering shows, in big studios,
writing my own songs..lost count..etc etc..lol.
and on some occasions ive had the privelige of meeting some big names.
who were kind enough to give me insights.
let me preface by saying .
ITS WORK...tons of work.
and i dont have all the answers.
but ive come to form certain opinions.
as follows...
1. what makes a great song ??
well its doubly difficult these days to come up with
something original cos so many great songs have been done in the past
by so many gifted people.
and there are only so many notes in the scale.
but if u have the passion burning inside you.
what ive learnt is some basic key things.
some basic words.
MEMORABLE HOOKS AND SOUND PICTURE.
a senior producer for example..said to me once u MUST try n capture the listener
in the first ten seconds with a memorable music hook,
and again in the song middle and at the end of the song again.
the idea at the end being to make the listener want to play the song again.
sound picture relates to how the song is "painted" n presented.
many many times i fail frankly. and so do many people.
one hears how it sounds in ones mind...but often one has difficulty achieving it in reality.
i dont have to list all the great artists cos i think u know what i'm getting at.
but if u want to be successfull think sound picture and hooks.
a hook basically is a set of notes the listener has trouble getting out of
his or her mind. ie...memorable.
2. gear alone wont rescue you.
ive recorded on everything from junk cassette decks to small home set ups and large
home set ups right thru useing major studios.
and on really really expensive gear.
and ive concluded gear alone wont rescue you.
as an example, once, as an experiment i took some songs i had recorded on not the best gear, and my wife had a booth selling crafts.
(for extra pin money.)
so i sold cassettes of my little songs in her booth.
not to make money, but to get feedback from real people objectively on my crazy songs..lol.
what they hated n liked etc.
i was amazed to find that i sold many thousand cassettes of the songs.
any top audio engineer would have called me/criticised me on some of the production
flaws in the songs..which i knew very well.
but the general public were more interested in whether the songs
did anything for them.
let me say i dont consider myself an ace audio engineer.
ive just picked up lots of things to do with the black art of audio engineering over the years.
my first love is writing new songs. then the problem begins..
how to engineer them properly.
all i can say is u try n try n fail n fail.
but sometimes the recording gods reward your hard work.
what is interesting is sometimes i compare songs ive done on the
most expensive gear to songs i did on junk gear,
and sometimes the ruff songs have a certain charm.
ive also found in my travels that ..and ive done this more than once...
ive taken a demo ive done on ruff gear and had trouble reproducing the sound /improveing the song
on expensive gear. (and also vice versa.)
so..whats the solution ??
well my personal take is 10k buys you a pretty decent studio set up
today. my personal opinion is that all one needs is powertracks,
some decent mics and mic pre's etc etc and of coursea decent sound card convertors.
and if u cant do a decent song with that then somethings wrong.
ive had all sorts of arguments with people over the years who have very fancy set ups.
then i show them what powertracks will do for the ridiculous low price, and they are amazed.
some people ive come across have spent thousands on recording software,
because they believe by buying such software it will automatically
mean a hit for them.
sorry , but life isnt like that.
in reality all they needed to buy was ptw and from money saved buy decent ADA convertors n mics n preamps.
to get a hit song or a great song is just tons of work.
particularly experimenting with different sound pictures n hooks.

in summary to all the above, instead, what i do when i get gear lust is
i stop myself and focus my energies instead on writing another song.
i firmly believe gear alone wont guarantee anything.
if your starting out recording songs, ptw alone has way more facilities than were available years ago.
its all u need.
just my opinion.

retired puter engr....powertracks on amd......NICE !
"what is the black art of audio engineering ?"
my silly songs...motagator.com/bmanning
see my tips in the tips section.