Composing with a DAW

[Phredderick]

I understand the basics of conventional composing for a single piano, but when I try to use synths and beats in a DAW, I find myself making a good sounding introduction, but have a lot of trouble making a transition into the next part of the song, or what do do there. If anyone has any tips or links to guides, the help would me appreciated.

[Lunatique]

I think the best thing to do is to analyze music that you love. Scrutinize it's progression and arrangement, usage of effects, the way it's mixed, and so on.

[Phredderick]

I've always been told to do this, but what does it mean, should I find and name every note and chord in a song, or is there a different way to analyze it?

[tibah]

It can be very hard sometimes to take your creativity and put it into a DAW.

Yes, analysing other tracks can help. You don't have to go that much into detail and analyse every single note in there, but rather focus on structure and parts, depending on the music you make. What happens and when. When there is new stuff coming in and out.

You need to have a good idea what effects will do to elements you put them on. Get a general feel for what each effect sounds like and then move on and learn the specific tools you work with. What does each parameter do? What settings you feel really improve the sound? What can be done within an instrument already and what should be rather done by effects you got available?

Always listen again and again and uhm again to what you got already. Do some exports sometimes and listen to them, without the DAW environment *surrounding* your track. This way I sometimes get better ideas to improve a song instead of really having the option to directly work on it. Put your stuff on a mp3-player and have a listen to it outside.

[Phredderick]

So, I should go back to square one, like I've first been introduced to the DAW, and take myself from there?

[tapper mike]

My advise.

How long is the song going to be? 2 minutes, 3 minutes 5 minutes.
How fast is the song going to be in beats per minute? 90, 120, 160?

A song that is three minutes long and is running @120 bmp will require 90 measures.

What is the form of your song?
AABA, ABCAB, AAA?
Will it have an intro and an outro?

If you do the match you will figure out how long each section will be.
Put Markers (prefferably on paper but if you must on your daw.

Build your progressions/motif to fill the form.
Stick to the form

[Lunatique]

It helps if you think of your song as a story. Stories in books and movies have a beginning, a catalyst, and then there's conflict and drama that's developed, and then there's the effort to resolve the conflict which then leads to the resolution/ending. Songs usually have established structures like Mike mentioned, although they are not set in stone. You can use them as a point of reference, but you can certainly not use them if you so choose. The important thing is to have a sense of development melodically, harmonically, rhythmically, texturally...etc. Typically, you want to reserve the most intense developments with the most drama for your choruses. That usually means your melodic contour typically stays more subtle during non-chorus parts, and then during choruses is when the melodic contour has the most prominent changes.

[bluedad]

Write the song before you even open your DAW.

[Cap'n Spanky]

Write the song before you even open your DAW.

Yes, this is what works for me. Or at least I have a good idea of what the basic parts of the song will be before I start developing it further in the DAW.

Now sometimes things will change after it gets there.

[Phredderick]

Write the song before you even open your DAW.

That's a good concept, how do you go about doing that when layering electronic music?

[bluedad]

That's a good concept, how do you go about doing that when layering electronic music?

When I say write the song before opening the DAW, I don't mean literally having every idea written down..However, it's more like having an idea about the way the song is going to go.
It's like a road-map. Once you've got the form, chord changes etc, then you can begin
working on the layers.

[ATW10C]

I understand the basics of conventional composing for a single piano, but when I try to use synths and beats in a DAW, I find myself making a good sounding introduction, but have a lot of trouble making a transition into the next part of the song, or what do do there. If anyone has any tips or links to guides, the help would me appreciated.

You wrote you understand. But have you composed on a piano? Or some other instruments. Because using a DAW makes it even SIMPLER to do so. You record what you played in midi and you can even edit bad playing if you don't feel like play that part again.

[pensaku]

DAW's timings are so strict, that's why it sound so bad when you play popular classical music in a DAW.

If you are using a DAW you need think about this.


Every music has some sense of polyrhythm in it but with DAW it's so hard to express that with strict timing.


Try to write it in more of a grand(macroscopic) form by writing it longer than it has to be.
Or write faster music like a contemporary electronic music.

And use repeat a lot, also use many harmonics.



If you prefer pop music or even a classical music try to listen to the Philip Glass. Minimalism works great with DAWs.
Little Philip Glass and a popular classical music rip off: https://southpolegame1.googlecode.com/s ... erkill.mp3



But if you are using DAW to just compose and play it later by hand with an instrument, you need little imagination. Don't listen directly to the piece if you are composing in a daw but imagine what it would sound like if you had actually played it but it's harder than you think if you are not an experienced composer.



I've gone a little off topic here but that's the point I guess.

My point:
If you can't write longer music then slow the music down and put some details.
If you have problem what to put next to your introduction, just repeat it with slight variation like classical music.

But,

with DAW it's hard to put a detail in it because of timing restriction so use macroscopic form, repeat, harmonics etc.
You are basically making sounding toooo gooood music. Try to make it less sounding good or put some random noise or copy other persons music.

As you go, your skill will increase and it gets easier and easier to slow down and write more of them. You can't pobbibly write longer music or detailed music without putting right amount of time.


And consider other people's comments. You first think about a length of a music and check which timing it is now when you put a note.

You first think about what a music is about, don't need to write it down just a vague idea is enough.

Music is like a story but it's not like a movie nor a novel but MUSICAL story. I'm not talking about musicals but music has its own logic you already heard lots of music so you only need to think about this for a minute or so. Don't think for an hour trying to understand what I mean, don't overlook it either. You claim to know about composing then you do I guess.



One more thing.... when you think about which timing it is at when you are putting a note, it's like an address.... We have something like 31234 Some Ave., Some City, Some County, Some Country. Note's place is like that too.

[Phredderick]

Thanks for your help everyone, but Pensaku, wow, your advice is very good, I think it's the summary of all the advice I was looking for.