PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Songwriting The Nuts and Bolts of It All: How do I....?

A METHOD OF BUILDING A SONG. PART 3.

1. lets summarise. at this point we have a bunch of potential styles, our vocs / lyric guides done and lined up with the stereo guide bed trak in the daw. ie lots of "ruff guides".
maybe have futzed around with some simple pg echo chorus plug in with lots of dry vs wet ? or some other reverb plug in on vocs.
a trick is to copy a vocal to a new track and insert a geetar amp plug on the new voc track ! << if you cant afford a "vintage" 2k mic pre try that.
BUT reduce the volume of the copied vocal track under the main vocal track. the idea is to give the trak an added dimension or personality.
another trick is to offset the copy from the original vocal track. for example in reaper i copy a clean voc track to a new trak then invoke one of reaps js amp plug ins on the copied trak and experiment with it together with eq volume level and offsets.
(note you tube computer music mag has lots of free fx and instrument plug ins if you want to add to your lib of plug ins. but try and stay away from cpu hogs. the pg plug ins are good this way. also i stay away from dongle security schemes. they drive me nuts.
for further info google free plug ins on the net and/or go to your main user forum for the daw you are useing where youll see topics pinned like "best free plug ins" and "best low latency sound devices". or simply ask on your user forum for your daw.)

2. now would be a good point to review your daw markers that segment the song. MAKE SURE DAW VERTICAL MARKERS MATCH BB SONG SEGMENTS.
ie match the bars. so daw and bb are in sync.
eg intro/verses/bridges/choruses/leads/outtro etc etc.
make sure your marker names make sense.
(read up in bb manual re "layers" etc. i use layers to type in the song segment name eg "chorus 2".)
before proceeding further i play back the song with vocs in the daw thinking bout such things as....
.how should i really start this song ?
maybe a simple bass line ? maybe a lonely geetar before the whole band crashes in whats needed to start song ?
.how should i end this song ? what instruments ? fade out or sudden ?
i suggest a listen to lots of old song hits and learn from the masters of song arrangement from the past.
at this point i also start thinking about any little fill ins //melody enhancements and i ask such questions as what soloist do i need ? or several soloists ? what about back up singers ?
can i use any added bb RT's ? like vocals or or or other RT's ?
WHAT DO I HEAR IN MY HEAD ?
WHAT IS MY SONG VISION ?
i often go "this song is driving me nuts" lol.
"i need a cuppa tea."
3. after the above steps its time to nail down the final vision of the song. take a rest maybe now and come back fresh to the song cos sometimes i get new ideas thinking bout a song after a day or so while working on another song idea.
(remember to save your work often and do back ups.)
finally if someone says (from my experience ) this piece of gear hardware or software will make your song an instant hit. be very sceptical. in my experience songs are a load of work. also ask yourself how hits were made in days of yore with a few traks and way less tech and no plug ins.
i would argue because of brilliant inventiveness both in the songs themselves and their hooks, the musicianship and the amazeing level of audio engineering.
frankly ive used loads of high end gear. its not a panacea
imho.
imho pg has provided all the tools to create great songs. just listen to the pg showcase sometime.
people on there way more talented than i am.
but i just gotta put in the work.
so dont think about magic gear. we have plenty of gear today.
if i fail and people hate a song of mine i just take my lumps and try and do better next time.
last bit of advice. do your best and thats all you can do.
and never beat yourself up. this is supposed to be FUN !
peace out.

time for a break. more to come.

best
oldmuso