Starting a new choon...how do you do it?

trancetheory

trancetheory

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Theres been allot of discussion recently (recently? lol itz probly been going on since cave men first banged stones together to make noise) about what makes a good Psy Track, and how its all going down hill and not like it used to be blah blah blah, well anyway, I had a thought...

Why do artists sit down and write a *instert genre* Choon? ..or maybe they dont? Why dont Artists sit down and write a peace of music?!

Ok, well obviously we all have our own prefrences about genres etc, but it does seem to me that the musical aspect of dance music is being left behind, many artists today learn to write dance music and then learn to write music (yes I know that allot of artists are excellent musicians, just my opinion)

So I'm wondering how you guys go about writing choons, but first this is what I do...

I spend quite a bit of time on the piano and keyboard, just playing, I've written allot of stuff like this, and spend allot of time combining and chaning things I've written....while I'm playing I will often hear diffrent things going on, maybe certain drum patterns, FX, pads, synth sounds etc that I think would work....thats when I go to the computer and start to work on it and experiment...

actually this is where I am getting stuck aswell, I dont know a huge amount about Synths, to get the sound I want takes me a very long time, as I'm still experimenting allot more than just creating the sound I hear in my head

I alwayz start off with the melody of a choon, then add a drum pattern (or not if I'm not gonna use one), then bass, then padz and fx and layers etc, then I experiment with the whole thing

I never sit down and think ok I'm gonna write a Trance track or a DnB track and get stuck into it, its alwayz the piano melodies (sumtimes the bassline, esp when I start a DnB trak) that lead me to the style, as my tastes are pretty varied I guess this makes sense

anywayz...how'du do it? :ibiggrin:

(ps. if anyone feels like giving me a crash course in Synths... :ibiggrin: )
 
i never try to pander to a genre.
Partly because i guess i'm not actually a good enough musician, but mainly because i want to make my own sound...

Me, i doodle around until something jumps out at me, then i just follow where it takes me.
Occasionally, it takes me somewhere interesting.
A good tune has a life of its own, so i try to let it grow without trying to make it go where i want...

As for understanding synths, here's a link you may find useful: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/toc.shtml
 
yeah - agree with Whitedog there ....

Music is music ..... its is the style of execution that determines its genre perception ....
 
I must confess that sections and transitions in the music I make tend to be mostly done in my head before I get near a guitar or a sequencer, so they're pretty genre-ised before I get them down.

On the other hand sometimes a lot of fun can be had by starting a tune in one genre and finishing up with it in a compeltely different one... :Smile3:

J.
 
o btw, I'm not saying that people who sit at an instrument and work out a tune are better @ making music than people who make stuff other wayz...apologies if I came accross like that!

My music is 'genreised' (lol) aswell by the time I get to the computer, just doesnt start like that @ the piano

Thankz for the link Whitedog, k maybe I do know a bit about synths, any places for more advanced stuff? I mean, I'd like to be able to just create any sound I want from scratch, but I just dont know how....well I do for some, but thats after allot of experminetation, is that how everyone does it? or maybe therez a Synth Lovers Bible or somthing?
 
Here's a tip for if you're really stuck for inspiration.

if you have that scary blank canvas, try extrapolating from an existing tune. Take an old track (I suggest not psy) or maybe a drum loop and record yourself jamming along with it, but only record your jamming.

It's a bit like using scaffolding.

It you jammed with percussion, then fill the holes with something different.

If you played a synth then try altering the harmonic modes by using a different root note.

Basically, use that as a spring-board to something new.

Perhaps remove your originally recorded jam so that you're a step removed from the original.

I tried this once and it worked quite well for me. You can always credit the original track or artist.
 
When ever I have tried a genra spescific tune, I get lost and give up 'cos that genra or whatever isn't me.
My mood dermines where a song is giong to go and the pace usually set by my stress level. Although I have taken keyboard lessons and get by, my roots are with the djembe, so most of the time everything evolves from rythems. My insparation comes from many genra's.
Rescently I tried a renown producers trick of loading a much liked tune into the sequencer and copying both araingment and mix levels. Needless to say I havn't finished this one partly I wasn't copying genra and partly the fact I got too caried away+concerned with the sounds I was using.
 
Purusha said:
Here's a tip for if you're really stuck for inspiration.

if you have that scary blank canvas, try extrapolating from an existing tune. Take an old track (I suggest not psy) or maybe a drum loop and record yourself jamming along with it, but only record your jamming.

It's a bit like using scaffolding.

It you jammed with percussion, then fill the holes with something different.

If you played a synth then try altering the harmonic modes by using a different root note.

Basically, use that as a spring-board to something new.

Perhaps remove your originally recorded jam so that you're a step removed from the original.

I tried this once and it worked quite well for me. You can always credit the original track or artist.
Click to expand...


lol.. the current tune i'm working on started out as a remix of no good [start the dance] by that liam howlett chappie. fortunatly those bits ceased to fit rahter rapidly and were put into the bin.. more cheesy psy remixes are not, imho, required..
 
Ah, but what I'm talking about here is *not* remixing.

It's extrapolating. Produducing say: harmonic counterpoint to the original track for example.

I'm not even talking about using dance music as the basis.

Not something I'd recommend doing on a regular basis, but if you're *really*, *really* stuck...
 
BTW - also not keen on cheesy trance remixes, whether it be Hall of the Mountain King or Blue Monday...
 
Some wiseass on Isratrance wrote this when answering the same question:
I start off by deciding how long I want the track to be, then I create an empty stereo 32-bit 44.1KHz .wav in Soundforge of that length. I zoom right in and select the pencil tool, and start drawing...
Click to expand...

They also said,
Obviously, the other way of doing it is by starting off with a large solid block of purest white noise, and start carving...
Click to expand...
 
Brilliant! I'm going to start using both those methods Colin!

:Grin:

BTW - several people I've worked with seem to use a method that's not too far removed from the theory of the second suggestion.

They slam loads of random stuff in there and start making order from the Chaos.
 
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