Song Making

[MrBretowsky]

Aug 11, 2011 15:12:31 GMT -6 vengeance said:

melody > bass & drums > another melody deducted from the original > brain fart > song turns into crap

Best method ever.

[tommy73]

Usually when I start an MPC I start with measure by measure, through the new part of a song. I do this so I can see how it sounds like (as early as possible) and I can see if it's satifactory enough. Going through layers from so early can lead to a bad mpc, therefore you wasted time and it won't go all to steady. (Well... for me that is)

once I get that part as good I want it to be, I can re-use that file and use it for reference for composing the song, and so it all flows. By that I mean you can do layering (bass then drums etc..) during the songs, since you now know how it'll sound like later on. I dont layer through the whole song though, and if a certain part repeats but with a different melody/part that changes, then I re-use those files and modify them. (If it's low tempo, then I just grab the part I want to re-use and copy and paste to where I want.) So that's how I arrange mario paints.

[TheBatdorTrogman]

When I'm arranging an existing song, I go layer by layer, from the bottom up: first percussion, then bass, etc., and melody comes last.

When I write my own music, though, it always stems from one musical idea, which I expand upon until it forms a layer of instrumentation, and then I build the rest around it. If that idea becomes the melody, I make the rest as it comes to mind, but if I start with the harmony, I make the melody second. More of a top-down approach, I guess.

And yes, I've written original music. :b

[satoriga]

i compose pretty much the same way bally does, with the same reason as bally.

Drums->Bass->Melody+Harmony->SFX

in my experience, starting with the melody rarely allows me to copy/paste song parts.