Ableton are giving away the digital edition of their 2015 book 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers for free.

This book is a collection of solutions to common roadblocks in the creative process, with a specific emphasis on solving musical problems, making progress, and (most importantly) finishing what you start.

The book is an excellent read for those interested in composing music and music production. You can find links to .pdf, .mobi and .epub editions on the Ableton site.

Download:

74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers

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Check out our new article about the best free music making music software:

Making music doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. There are many ways to produce music without having to spend a penny. The only prerequisite being that you have a computer, tablet or mobile device. Here’s a list of some of the best free music making software available today.

(READ MORE)

From Making Music For Free – The Ultimate Resource.

Be sure to look out for our other guides that will be released in the upcoming weeks!

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London-based sound design and production studio Mind Flux has released two free lessons on how to make ‘A Dark Techno Chord’ and ‘A Dark Techno Kick’.

Both lessons go into great detail and offer visual and auditory aids to help guide the learner. So if you are looking to write some Dark Techno tunes or want to learn some new techniques, be sure to check out the lessons via the links below.

How To Make A Dark Techno Chord

How To Make A Dark Techno Kick

Mind Flux also offer a great selection of sample packs which can be found HERE.

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We’ve complied together a list of some of our favorite music production tricks that help spark creativity. We are always looking to invent new processes and techniques that allow us to make interesting sounds and tracks. By no means is this a comprehensive list and we’re sure you might have already tried a few out, but nevertheless here are our favorite music production tricks.

Record Your Speakers

A neat trick that is very useful, the title speaks for itself. If you are looking for contrast in your track, have a bunch of microphones recording your song as it’s played through speakers (a two track recorder or even your phone will work well). Import the recorded sound back into your project and line it into place. The added room ambience can give a great contrast to the sleek production of most modern pieces and adds a lo-fi element. If you are feeling very avant-garde, try adding some reverb or delay to the recorded file and experiment with automation.

Original recording exported from DAW

Recording of speaker

Sidechained Inverted Track

This trick works well with rhythmic-melodic samples (think pianos and guitars).  Copy a track and reverse it. Lower the volume. Add a compressor sidechained to the original (non reversed) track. Experiment with the release time (a lower time works well). And there you have it. The resulting sound should be a creepy swell that creates unique rhythms under the original sound source.

No Sidechain

With Sidechain

Budget Granular Synthesis

Take you DAW’s sampler and import a sample (one-shots work well but other sound sources can do the trick). Then make a MIDI clip filled with 16^th (semiquaver) notes. Automate the sample start time (either randomly or in a linear fashion). This will create a glitchy sound effect and with further automation of envelopes, pan and pitch you can make some pretty unique sounds.

Original Sound

Granular Synthesis

Reverse Delay

Many of you will be familiar with the ‘Reverse Reverb’ trick. Reverse Delay is similar, the only difference being (you guessed it) you use a delay rather than a reverb. Load a sample into your DAW. Reverse it and add a delay VST (experimentation is key here). Record the reverse signal into a new track and reverse it again. This will give you an odd ‘pre-delay’ sound. By automating the delay you can get some really unique samples for your track.

Original

Reverse Delay

New Tech

Not exactly a ‘trick’, but If you are looking to get the creative juices going or if you’ve been stuck in a rut, buying a new piece of equipment can inspire you to create music. We’re not saying you have to spend a fortune. Even relatively cheap pieces of equipment such as the Korg Volca or a Pocket Operator can open up a whole new world of possibilities. If you are feeling very confident, why not step away from the digital realm altogether and try a new acoustic instrument such as a mandolin or a melodica. A new instrument can mean new ideas, new chord progressions and new songs!

So there you have it. A list of some of our favorite music production tricks to help spark creativity and create new sounds. If you have any further suggestions please comment below or tweet us @GowlerMusic. Thanks for reading!

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Reddit user whoislewys has made a very handy Compression cheatsheet, perfect for any music production beginner or person still confused by the baffling ins and outs of dynamic range compression.

If you are in the midst of mixing your latest tack and you are having trouble with lifeless vocals and ‘gray’ sounds then compression might be the answer to all your problems.

For the original Reddit thread check out here and for more music production tips and tricks check out this link!

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If you are looking to improve your songwriting skills or have a general interest in songcraft, be sure to check out our free Songwriting: The Concise Guide.

Over 3000 words of pure musical wisdom and full of useful hints and tips, the guide is split into easy chunks and doesn’t use terminology only a doctor of music would understand!

Best of all…It’s completely free! So if you want to learn how to write a song or are looking for some song ideas be sure to check out the article via the link below.

Songwriting: The Concise Guide

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Here is a handy info-graphic listing seven song arrangement techniques. A great resource for when you are writing a new song.

Check out more free resources HERE.

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“I’m An Adventurer, I Like Invention, I Like Discovery” – Karlheinz Stockhausen

 

Outside The Box – Songwriting Techniques

There may be times when you want to experiment with your songwriting and go beyond the standard means and practices of the time and genre. Here are a few outside the box songwriting techniques that may help your creative process and add some experimental aspects to your songwriting process and finished tracks:

Oblique Strategies

Created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in 1975, Oblique Strategies are a set of cards that offer challenging constraints to help the artist. They help break creative blocks and encourage lateral thinking. Some example includes “Use and old idea”, “Try Faking It” and “Only one element of each kind”. You can purchase the full set of cards from Amazon or there are websites that give an interactive version for free. Search “oblique strategies online”.

Xenochrony

A technique used by Frank Zappa, Xenochrony is a studio technique that can be applied to the songwriting process. Zappa would extract guitar solos or other musical parts from his work and place it out of context in a new piece of music. You can also try this technique in you song. For example, if you are writing a love song (Song A) and a protest song (Song B). Try taking the lyrics of the first verse in Song A and make that the middle 8 of Song B. Take the chord progression of the outro in Song B and make it the introduction to Song A. This process requires a lot of trial and error to get any noticeable results, but you will find that the possibilities are endless.

Aleatoric Music

This is music by chance. Many experimental composers of the 20th century would use a set of dice to compose their pieces. If you are stuck for a song structure, assign each section to a side of the dice (so verse = 1 chorus = 2 intro = 3 etc) and start rolling. You can take this even further by assigning a number to a chord or note duration. Online number generators are also available for this technique. For example, if you have a set of ten lyrics, you can label them 1-10 and then set the parameters on the generator as 1-10 and then let chance decide the order of lyrics.

Music Generators

The internet offers a host of great resources for any aspiring songwriter. With the right sites you can write a full song without using any of your own mental abilities. Searching “generator” after the terms lyric, chord, melody or structure will give you websites that can generate a full song for you. Certainly the resulting piece may be average at best, but it is better than nothing. Certainly, some purists may deem this as “cheating” but no one would know if you wrote your song using this method. For all we know a top ten hit could have been written using only music generators.

These are just some of the songwriting techniques that allow you to think outside the box. If you have anymore suggestions or have used one of these techniques when writing your own pieces of music then get in touch via the contact form below and be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with our latest posts.

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Here is a handy info-graphic listing ten essential Mixing Tips. A great resource for when you are mixing your latest project.

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Arrangement Basics

Whether it’s a romantic ballad or a club banger, every piece of music takes the listener on a journey through time. One of the challenges we face as musicians is turning initial ideas into a properly finished track that’ll keep listeners reaching for the replay button. An arrangement is the way we ‘map out’ our sonic journey, and in the world of pop, at least, it’s made from sections that most songwriters traditionally employ. This formula had proven to be successful time and time again for decades, but what makes each section tick?

Intro

Short for introduction, the intro is the first part of the song you hear, its purpose being to set up the song and lead into the verse section. It might be a build up starting with just one or two elements of the backing track, or maybe the chorus chords with vocal ad-libs over the top.

Verse

The verse where is the main back story of the lyric generally happens, filling in background information to set up the chorus lyric. Unlike the bridge and chorus sections of a song, verse lyrics are usually unique to each verse, like stanzas of a poem.

Bridge

The bridge (also known as the pre-chorus) is the section that forms a link between the verse and chorus. If the chords are the same in the verse and chorus, the bridge can have a new chord progression making the chords in the chorus sound fresher.

Chorus

The chorus is the most often repeated part of the song and it is where we hear the hook or standout moment in a song. Lyrically and musically it contains the main idea of what the song is about. Most choruses are 8 bars long but often they are doubled to 16 bars especially the second or third time around.

Middle Eight

Also known as the bridge in the U.S . The middle eight is the part of the song where there is a change of pace. Certain instruments drop out and new ideas might be introduced such as lyrical content or melody. The middle eight acts as a rest before we are reintroduced to the chorus again.

Outro

The outro is the final piece of a song (as you probably guessed). Usually it is the chorus repeated three or more times and faded out. Although in some instances the outro can be a whole new section.

A typical Pop arrangement:

Intro

Verse 1

Bridge

Chorus

Verse 2

Bridge

Chorus

Middle 8

Outro Chorus

5 Arrangement Tips and Ideas

Five essential pointers to help you get your track laid out and finished.

Master Manipulator

The next time you’re stuck for a new arrangement idea, try putting a filter or stutter plugin on your master channel. Both filters and stutter effects offer a great way to begin or even finish your track. These plugins might also inspire something interesting and unexpected that you can incorporate directly in the track.

Subtractive Arrangement

You can turn an 8 bar loop into a full track through subtractive arrangement. Copy and paste your loop until it is the length of a song. Now play through this song-length loop but as you go mute and unmute different tracks every 8 or 16 bars. If you have enough instruments in our initial loop this technique never fails.

Song Shortcuts

Learning your DAWs shortcuts (copy, paste and duplicate etc.) will save you time, build confidence, and make your arranging more efficient.

Structure Stealing

Import a song you like into your project. Most DAWs will allow you to make a temp track or to add markers. Add the markers at the different sections in your exported song verse chorus etc. Delete the song and you have a Road Map that you can use in your own song.

Listen as a Listener

Once you’re happy with your arrangement export your track and add it to a play list of your favorite songs. How does it compare? Is the verse too repetitive? Does the intro drag? Does the song flow? Listen to your song as you would any other commercial track in iTunes, VLC or windows media player as this removes the distractions of a DAW’s timeline and visual elements.

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