Making Radio Ready Songs with BIAB and Real BandGraham Cochrane at Recording Revolution has a great video busting lots of myths about home studios, and then giving a GREAT piece of advice about making a radio ready song that I have turned into a Real Band Template.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp1eEyWzcR0Here are the highlights:
1. The songs you make in YOUR home studio aren’t just DEMOS. They can be RADIO READY Productions. The only people who want to condescendingly call your home studio songs DEMOS are people with expensive recording studios who are mad that they are losing business and who want you to drop $2,000 at their place for something that sounds worse. So they insult you thinking that will make you come to their place and spend all of your savings. Don’t fall for it. Hallelujah and thank you Graham.
2. The song is not about your GEAR and Plug-Ins. You probably have enough gear and enough VSTs to last until Jesus comes back. It is about HOW WELL YOU KNOW HOW TO USE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE. You don’t need to get out your credit card every time there is a flash sale. You need to learn how to use your mic and you need to know how to mic your guitar.
3. Finally: YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO ARRANGE A SONG. He offers a really cool PDF on this if you give him your email, and his advice is rock solid.
Here is the simple version: The difference between a boring song and a radio ready song is that in a boring song nothing ever changes, but in a RADIO READY SONG, something new is being introduced or changed up all the time—like spices are constantly being added.
You can break this down into about 24-30 steps, which conveniently also line up as TRACKS.
So, for myself I created a template in Real Band that allows me to keep track of what I am doing so I don’t get lazy.
I have pasted screenshots and you can make one of your own and save as a template. If you use this the way I am with my BIAB tracks as the top 8 (this is a feature you can select in RB from EDIT>Track>make first 8 tracks BIAB Tracks) then you have to export your BIAB tracks and then past/import them into these slots in your template. If you simply open the BIAB song in Real Band the template will go away. But this minor loss of time is worth it to me to use the template, because the template is where the gold is—in terms of prompts and usability.
Anyway, here is the reason why you need to look out for 30 things:
1. Intro: Anything hooky or catchy going on there??? Any funky instrument or riff to make a bold entrance? Maybe a vocal riff? An ooh or an aah or an Oh yeah???
Here is where Real Band comes in really handy: with the click of a mouse you can select about 5,000 or more interesting snippets to add spice to this slot. You have more at your fingertips that anyone. So use it!!!
V1/1 and Verse 1/2 – The point here is to realize that a verse is long and to at least think if you want to add something in to the second half of Verse 1, no matter how slight or small, to add a building piece of interest.
Now, for the next 31 slots—KEEP BUILDING, KEEP ADDING, OR SUBTRACTING, AND CHANGING, AND PLAN IT OUT LIKE A BLUEPRINT.
ALSO: Almost every super famous song has one thing weird or unexpected in there somewhere. Think of the Beatles with their honking sounds, fire station bells, fog horns, etc. Is there one weird thing in your song somewhere people will go crazy for and remember forever? Make a "weird sound" track like I have in the template so you don't forget to add it.
Lost for Ideas?
YOU HAVE REAL BAND AND THE BLUE SPARKLY GENERATE BUTTON STARING YOU IN FACE. HIT THE BLUE SPARKLY BUTTON. SELECT.
RADIO READY.
Here are some screenshots.
Please tell me if this makes sense.
Comments or other tips welcome!!!!
I love you Real Band and Band-in-a-Box!!!!
P.S. I love Real Band for use as a track generator, a place to record audio, and an easy way to keep my blueprint straight.
But once I am done, I export all as individual files and mix it in Cakewalk/Sonar.
Dansk
Deutsch - Windows
Español
Français - Windows
Italiano - Windows
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Svenskt
русский
Japanese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Korean