ChipMusic.org - How you make your tunes?

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T07:50:48Z

Whistling tunes and putting them in programs.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T05:43:25Z

caffeine is your friend when writing music

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T04:43:17Z

i think with sounds more than i do with words. often when i get sad (which happens a lot) a melody or chord progression pops into my head. i put that into whatever medium (lsdj works the best with me) and hopefully i'll be able to flesh it out into a song.

woo

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T01:56:51Z

aaroneow wrote:

Bit wish wrote:
I will also mess around on a piano making melodies.
In the bathroom?

Yes he does, I can vouch for him.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T01:08:03Z

All my songs start with some sort of wav kick, then I add noi instruments.
Add pu1/pu2 if even necessary.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T00:48:24Z

about 99% of my songs start off as an initial loop and I just build on it, my main melodies being pretty much written up on the spot in one sitting

if you listen to any of my tracks you can kinda tell since they all start with a repeating line heh

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-16T00:19:09Z

My preferred method is to have written something already on another instrument, either guitar or keys, and then just transcribe the notes into the tracker. Once that's done, it's just a matter of adding drums and other accompaniment, and tweaking the effects column to achieve the desired... effect.

I'm not very prolific with fully written instrumentals though, so sometimes I recall one of my many gay pop songs that I never finished, and I'll try to transcribe it into the tracker, turning the vocal melody into the main instrumental melody. That can be a problem because some melodies that work as vocals don't translate very well into pure instrumentals. It's easier to get away with repeating the same note when there are words attached to it than it is when it's just an instrumental tone.

So usually I end up just fucking around with a 4 or 8 bar loop, just kind of improvising and adding a bunch of stuff, and then building the song out of that loop, for the most part. It's either completely melodic and in a single key, or I deliberately make it math-y and move all the notes around according to certain intervals, like minor thirds or something, and then try to somehow find a melody that traverses several keys within 8 bars.

I find it difficult to really develop these kinds of loop-songs beyond just muting and un-muting the original patterns, but on the other hand, they are always spontaneous and fun to make. Also, on a good day, I can crap out a whole bunch of these things and at least feel productive, even when they all suck.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-15T22:03:05Z

Well when using LSDJ, I use a drum kit to make the first initial loop
I then use both that loop in the WAV channel and the 2nd Pulse channel because the 1st glitches it more than I'd like it to
I then use the first Pulse channel to fill in the spots I feel are empty
Then I go to the noise channel to make various kicks, snares, and high hats to fill in spots that are either empty or to enhance the kicks in the WAV channel

When using FamiTracker, I just fool around on my keyboard to get a melody then I use my laptops keyboard to add a different thing that complements the melody
I usually leave the triangle and noise channels alone in
There's one thing I do to the instruments that I feel just sounds amazing so I've been re-doing some of my earlier FamiTracker songs by changing the old instrument to the new one [it's a small change but it sounds great to me ]

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-13T19:35:13Z

Thank you all for answer

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-13T02:09:00Z

somewhat_damaged wrote:

I then proceed to get stuck, hopelessly frustrated, depressed, intoxicated, then depressed. LOL

That basically sums up the outcome of a lot of projects I've started in the past.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-12T19:39:55Z

I normally started with a good riff or melody to set the mood of the song for me. Then I'm able to imagine a beat around that and move from there. Sometimes I change the melody based on how the beat fills out which can totally go a different direction from how the song started originally. It's like drawing for me I guess, I always start with the eyes and nose then work my way out.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-12T18:28:53Z

This also.

bryface wrote:

either way, before all that happens i start by imagining the emotional effect i want to achieve, and then just sit there for a couple of minutes and imagine ways to make it happen. if i'm lucky, my mind can formulate the various elements to achieve the desired effect - not entire melodies mind you, but pieces of hooks and chunks of rhythmic features. the harder part is to string it all together into something more cohesive.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-12T16:18:51Z

DMGer wrote:

For about 25% of my songs I just put random stuff into LSDJ and worked from there.

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-12T15:38:44Z

well, it really depends, sometimes a bass riff that makes the primal spin, sometimes just the idea of an ''atmosphere'' or style... sometimes (and very often) everything comes out of a single sentence sampled out of an anime or movie, that leads beat, bass and chords

just realised while writing that in 99.9% of cases, chords structure came after Beats&Bass... which does certainly explain the harmonic poorness of my productions^^

Re: How you make your tunes?

2013-12-12T06:15:22Z

A random melody pops up in my head and then I'd record my voice on my phone asap.

from there I just compose it on LSDJ. Instrument adjustments after settling 2-4 lines of intro

Next, I continue on adding transitions that could go well with the type of melody that I'm doing and also making sure some parts like the chorus does not repeat too much (unless it is very very catchy)

If I am out of ideas, I'd listen to some old chiptune songs and figure out what to add from there.

Not forgetting some solo leads~!