Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
Lesson 22 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
Lesson 22 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Lessons
Writing Drums and Bass Part Introduction
01:11 2Making Drums Beats with Ultrabeat
14:27 3Beats with Ultrabeat and Drummer
08:48 4Writing Bass Parts - Part 1
15:03 5Writing Bass Parts - Part 2
04:53 6Writing Drums and Bass Parts Assignment
00:44 7Writing Chords Introduction
00:56 8Writing Chords
19:38Experimental Chords
09:44 10Writing Chords Assignment
00:56 11Writing Melodies Introduction
00:58 12Writing Melodies - Part 1
19:28 13Writing Melodies - Part 2
05:12 14Writing Melodies - Part 3
10:38 15Arpeggiator
08:02 16Writing Melodies Assignment
00:59 17Arrangement Introduction
00:45 18Arrangement
18:14 19Arrangement Continued
16:16 20Adding Effects and Instruments
18:28 21Arranging into a New Song - Part 1
14:57 22Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
17:31 23Arranging into a New Song - Part 3
08:24 24Arrangement Assignment
00:38 25Mixing Introduction
01:02 26Cleaning up and Basic Mixing
15:52 27EQ
11:46 28Tuning Drums
05:58 29Compression
10:56 30Sidechain Compression
10:30 31Reverb and Delay Sends
07:58 32Automation
06:59 33Mixing Assignment
00:58 34Recording Audio Equipment
10:55 35Recording Audio
04:01 36Vocal Melodies Introduction
01:04 37Vocals Intro
00:26 38Verse A Section
06:56 39Chorus and Harmonies
05:12 40Verse B and Pre-Chorus
05:20 41Verse 2, Chorus and Middle 8
17:37 42Song Title
00:50 43Vocal Melodies Assignment
01:00 44Lyrics Introduction
01:02 45Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 1
15:25 46Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
14:37 47Lyrics Assignment
00:54 48Adaptive Songwriting with Peter Darling
12:13 49Thanks and Bye
00:09Lesson Info
Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to continue arranging a new song from the previous song. So as you recall, in the previous lectures, we created this song on the right here. And now we actually took some elements from this and rearranged the entire song into this part on the left, which is a lot more basic, but I do believe allows a lot more space. If we do want to add any lead instruments like a vocal or saxophone, there's a lot more space. It's not as busy we can hear everything going on. So let's just hear what we've actually done for this song so far and then we're gonna go through and try and finish off the arrangement. OK. So what I did there is I actually copied over the lower octave from the marimba onto a new piano part. And now I'm going to experiment with a higher piano part just to kind of add a bit more instrumentation, make it a bit more exciting. And here we're going to actually just have it kind of kick in with all the parts including the higher piano...
parts and the marimba just to add layers. So we've got a new instrument as well. It's basically, it's copying exactly the same. It's Marimba. So it's kind of a house Latin piano vibe now. So Sam's quite different from before. So let's just hear what we've actually got going on towards the end. There's a lot more stuff we could add here. I'm thinking about actually adding a pad. I think a pad part will bulk out some of the lower harmonies and of course, we will need a base part as well. So let's have a look at the previous arrangement and let's try and find either a pad or a base. So I actually like this bamboo airs strings. So I'm gonna copy this over. I completely forgot about this so we can have this coming in this section here. So I think this as a new element. That's a nice rich sound as well. Of course, we will need a bass part. So we can't really have a dance song without strong bass part. So let's try and find the bass part we used before. It's a good idea to label everything. That's something I haven't done too well in this project. OK. Let's try this one. So start off, I'm just gonna copy this over and then we're gonna go through it and arrange it. So it's really just about adding new elements, trying new ideas and let's just uh what this sounds like it kind of works. But in Latin music, a lot of the time it goes from the root to the fifth. If you hear a lot of Latin jazz, Latin music. So I'm an experiment with that. So it's this kind of thing, let's put the octave down a bit, that kind of vibe. So I might change it slightly. So we get more of a octave and th kind of vibe. So let's go in the moment. We've just got the, the third, really the minor third. Let's have a look at the piano chords. So the first one is ac minor. You have to see the E flat in the Jeep base is really just going in between the third and the roots. So we could experiment with this rhythm but have it going from just hear what this sounds like and we could have a passing note here maybe just the first bit. I prefer this rhythm. I think it suits the music better. Also, I do think the SIM sounds pretty bad. So I'm gonna change this. This one just really goes around, it's F minor. So what we can do is just find the first one, drag it over and then just change the cord. So it fits more around F minor. Can it just drag it all up 1/4? Let's see what this sounds like recur this. So I thought I'd show you this in real time just so you can see exactly how I write songs and this is kind of my process. Of course, if you're working with another instrumentalist, if you're working with a singer, you will have different processes. But when working solo, this is kind of what I do. It's about building ideas, arrange, arrange, arrange, come up new stuff, delete, change and edit and always be fluid. Always be up for trying new ideas, always be up for adapting what you've already done. Ok. I think that fits better also, like I said, previously, not a fan of this bass part. Well, the, the bass sound, the bass part's fine, but the sound just sounds a bit too wooden to me. I want something a bit more fluid and let's go into the synth and let's just change some stuff around just going through some of the presets. Now, if you're new to synthesis, if you're new to sound design, I do recommend just going through some of the presets, finding one that you like and then kind of going into the synth, changing some stuff around changing the waves, changing the filter cut off. You can also go down here where we have the macros that just easily allows you to change stuff and always be looking at what it actually changes really big sound of. It's a really big thicker sounding bass. I'm still not too sure of it, but let's give an example just how you can go through. I changed the attack so it doesn't come in so punchy, we also changed the waves around to a square wave and also to a sort of wave kept this one, this oscillator is a sine wave, adjusted some of the filter cut offs to make it a bit brighter. Adjusted the drive, added the chorus to make it that big shining chorus sound. And I put one of the oscillators up an octave. I think that's better for now. Obviously, when I'm mixing this track, I can improve this a lot more, but just for now, it just sounds a lot more fluid to me, it sounds like it fits in the track better. Now, I need to go through and actually change the second part here. So I'm gonna go through and just edit these. Let's have a look at the second cord. So that goes to a B flat. So the easiest way to do this is to drag this over. The first one, the second one, drag it down to a B flat, which is the town below and let's check the fits. We've got ad C# we want ad really? Then we have the F Yeah. So I'm gonna Recolor this B flat midi section to just a different color. So I know it's not the same. The third one is the same as here, which is this blue one. So I drag this over and then this green one starts on a B flat as well. Let's have a look at the cord. I'm not sure if that is a B flat or not, this E flat. So it's an E flat. So I'm gonna change this to an E flat. So I'm gonna drag the one before over and then just drag it down to an E flat. Check the notes fit, change this half shot to a G because of E flat. The scale is a G. OK. So we've got this sorted, Recolor. This, what I'm basically doing here is just changing this base part to fit with the chords that change when the piano come in because now we have more chords. We're gonna make the bass a bit more busy. I'm gonna change the bass part. So it fits this really and that's about it. OK. Let's have a listen from here. Remember to save and hopefully as base part fits, it gives more of a Latin feel of using the fifths rather than the thirds. And let's hear what it sounds like with this section. And hopefully this sounds a lot more professional. Sounds a lot slicker can hear what's going on compared to the previous arrangement. Of course, we can take snippets out here, put it back into this new arrangement and then change it around and just build. That's what ranging is. It's about building, building, building. I would say arrangement is the most important thing when creating the song, creating a decent arrangement that allows your music to take your lesser on a journey. OK. And here we're gonna have it all kick in driving bass, the drums, the piano part, the Marimba with this new pad added, we kind of introducing new elements, dropping stuff out and then bringing it back in. Of course, we don't want too much stuff going on. And now what we could do is we could actually try adding that riff. If you remember previously, not the Alpa Gator. This record, we can see if this will work. It might not, it might do. Let's have a listen, gonna play it against the pad here. We can just introduce it in, let's say, well, it, you can hear there that when it's just with the pad fits fine. But as soon as those piano chords come in, it's just too messy. That's what it's about. It's about creating something that allows space for every instrument to be heard. And we've got that busy riff and you've got the piano chords. It's just a little bit too much really. And I really do want to add a vocal melody or an instrumental melody that allows each instrument to be heard. So it's just too busy really. So it's about adding simple elements and just building slowly. So I'm gonna leave that here for now. Hopefully, I've given you a few more ideas about arranging and just keeping it simple, really building layers, building elements and will continue looking at this track. And I really do want to finish this into a complete song so I can show you from start to finish in real time, the process that it takes to create a song. It does take a while. It takes a long time. I could just rush through and show you really quickly. But that wouldn't be a positive representation of what actually is involved when songwriting. So thank you for watching this lecture and we're gonna continue building this song, arranging this song or writing this song in Logic Pro 10.
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