Here is a video created by David Love which i really like the way he approaches his song writing techniques. Dave is is originally into multimedia and i still is.
Dave can be reached at his website here.http://truefd.com/

This particular interface works with the Apple Mac computers, but I am quite sure the market will provide PC computers with a similar interface in the near future. The whole emphasis now is to write songs when u are in the mood, as we all know, inspiration is a very hard animal to tame.

The microphone in the Apogee ONE is high class as we see in the video of Tommy Emmanuel playing on his guitar. Have a listen below. This gadget is brilliant.

Have a look at the video.

Audacity is a recording program whereas it’s very simple, and is free from the Internet. You can make a recording with several tracks in this program. Audacity can work quite effectively on the present Windows platform. Of course, the more powerful your computer or laptop is, the better the program perform, and the more ram you got, the more effects you use.

The simplicity of audacity lies in its simple platform, it’s got a great interface, with the usual file, edit, project, generate, effect, analyze, and help section. But the main window we are concerned, is the effect drop-down window which houses all the effects that will make your song sound better. Some of these effects are enough, to make your song, sound professional.

You might need a guitar, a recording microphone, and maybe a MIDI keyboard to help with your recording. A pre-amp can help in connecting your instruments to the computer. The preamp can bring your level of sound from your instrument or microphone to a more effective level of recording. But it doesn’t really matter if you have got a preamp because you can use the the preamp in the laptop or computer. But I must warn you it’s not as professional.

With the new version of audacity, version 1.2.6, to start recording straightaway, you just press the record button, and a track will appear and start recording at the same time. When you need to stop the recording you just press the stop button and it stops. We need to play back the recorded track, you just press the play button, which is green, and it plays back what you recorded in the track. We need to record a new track, press the red button which is the record, and it will play the last track you have recorded, and record your current track. So therefore, you might record the guitar first, and then on the next track, record the keyboards, may be a bass line. Then on the next track, which is track three, you might record the piano, and of course on track four, you can record your guide vocals. That’s it.

Once you finish recording the instruments, and vocals, you can remix the tracks and add effects. With the mixing of the tracks, make sure every instrument comes out nice and clear, including the vocals. Then at this point, you either save it as an MP3, to load to the Internet either on YouTube or your favorite MP3 site, or export it to a CD and take it to a mastering studio.

The audacity recording program, is not only good for recording songs, but it’s good for recording podcasts, editing songs, editing speech, editing music and improving your speech.I have personally use Audacity to edit some of my music to be inserted into my You Tube videos and it always does the job amicably.So especially in the internet marketing, its a very good piece of software to help with your audio side.

We write the songs with instruments like

• guitar
• piano
• computer software and
• part of the song can be song can be sung as acapella which adds an usual hook to the structure of the composition.

Different styles of writing have evolved over the centuries of how a song can be produced and played.

The writing styles don’t change much with verse ,verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, finish format being common for contemporary music and popular songs. The chord progression enhances a sometimes boring lyrics but some of the worlds singers are more commonly using programs and instruments to help their voice transpire a message.So writing a song has evolved considerably.

There are so many styles of writing songs now simply because of other cultures are coming to the fore than ever before. Don’t get me wrong the old rocking style of writing songs is still there but not as popular as before in the fifties and sixties.The American Country and Western are becoming more modernize than ever and its more or less taking the place of popular songs in the sixties and seventies.

Home Recording

When i started this project of song recording, i never knew i will come across one of the hidden satisfaction of human potential. It gives you an unseen confidence, in your attitude, it catches like a fire.

You just tell your self, that did you create this from nothing except from the ideas in your mind. So in effect it gives a very high motivation of, you can do anything.

Thats why kids in the streets came from nothing to big stars simply they already have that dream in their minds and, they do it once and get that confidence, all they do is to rinse and repeat, perfecting the technique as time goes .

One example is Curtis Jackson also known as 50 Cents.

Anything goes in the content or words of the song, as well in the keys  they use to to lay the foundational part of the whole song. But it still come out good in the ears of most punters.

There are songs that included colorful English language, some into fast paced rap or hip hop, or slow slum twang r. n. b. but that is the beauty of song writing.

I have heard a fair amount of songs in my time especially around the Pacific Islands, some have beautiful rythms, nice lead guitars, ukuleles with the high note nylon strings, drums sounding like thunders out of heaven, these are the beauties of these sounds.

That was then…………..

Now everything is in digital. That little zero and one, sure it makes it easy to edit but the the ears are not stupid.

Now its very hard to capture those type of analogue sounds unless you have the old analogue equipment used by bands in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

The songs that recorded today are made in home garages, bedrooms and home studios. They are made on home computers that being sold in K Marts. Sound interfaces that used to cost thousands of dollars now cost under $800.00 and does not cost you that much more to produce.

The sounds that are recorded are samples that are used over and over that sometimes that thing called the ear says i heard that sound on last weeks top hit somewhere  in the States.

All in all songs are still coming out everyday, inspiration is the driving force and that is the only thing that we got, if we do not have inspiration it will be a boring and lonely world. Some times i live on inspiration, it gives me hope, and put in a song……….. Thats it

So irrespect of the equipment we record on, the place, the time as long we got inspiration nothing else matters but the songs of today.

Home Recording Studio

Guide to Recording a New Song.

Introduction.

Technology has helped musicians to write and produce songs. There are different ways people write and record songs. Some use programs like Pro tools, Cakewalk, Cubase straight away and go with their inspiration. Others start with beats program such as Fruity Loops and Ableton Live and start their songs with a beat as most young producers of today’s music. Others write on the piano, keyboards and guitar with either chord progressions and or beats.

So the possibilities of writing songs are endless.

What I am going to discuss is one way of writing and recording new songs in a couple of music programs but before we dive into it we have to lay down a plan so we can follow thru to the completion of the project ( as we called it now.) and know where we are, at each point of the song.

Band in a Box is a program i have followed since its early introduction but as time goes on this particular program has evolved into song creation tool, with patterns that will help you output some tunes to the chords that you key in. Its got nice drums, some of them live sets, piano and keyboard patterns, everything needed to write songs in this format.

1. First of all put any ideas of the song, theme, what beat is it, what chord and chord progression down on paper, sometimes humming or playing the tune on a instrument will solidify the tune in your mind. Remember what you are creating is your own ideas, to put those ideas into a song and actually listening to the end result brings a personal satisfaction. I usually get high on that.  Obtain a Band in a box program even the cheapest version will get you going, type in your chords of the song. Apply the patterns in the band in the box to your song.
2. Do not be afraid to experiment with patterns as sometimes you get different feels for the song. Remember make the song into a format such as Start, 8 bars, first verse, 16 bars, second verse, 16 bars, chorus 8 bars last verse 16 bars and ending, 2 bars.
3. Band in the box got endings programmed in as well. Mind you this is only an example. At the same time you can apply fill in for the first verse, second verse, chorus and ending.                                                                                                                              
4. Just play around with different patterns, maybe changing a few chords here and there. The point is being different to other writers and producers. That is how your song is going to be noticed. When you are satisfied with your arrangement we can record them in separate tracks in wave format and exported it to Pro Tools or Ableton Live.

The next article we will concentrate on the technical side of Band in a Box.

More on this topic later