Wanna learn how to make songs?

In my earlier blog, biZZy asked me to write a blog about music mixing tutorial. So here it is. I am writing a tutorial. I use multiple DAW or digital audio workstation software for different purposes. I use one software for making songs, another software for making movie soundtracks blah blah blah. Mostly I use FL Studio since I am an expert in this software. Its easy to learn, hard to master. Most of the people, especially hobbyists use this software and its pretty cheap considering the fact it has lots of features built in compared to other industry standard DAWS. In this lesson, I will try to enlighten you all the basics of how music is made through FL Studio. These steps can also be applied in any other software, since the basics are nearly the same although the environment is different (you just need to figure that out). There are plugins which are pretty much have its own learning curve but if you can know the basic concepts of audio engineering than it wont be that big problem.

 

You can find the demo software from www.flstudio.com. I am using FL Studio 8 here in the tutorial. FL Studio is however is a very interesting software to make some cool video game sound effects.

 

FL Studio focuses mainly on loops and the loops are organized as a pattern to create a song. In FL Studio, a musician usually follows the same basic workflow (step by step procedure) to create a song. I would rather explain this in a work flow diagram:

 

CREATE EACH LOOP IN EACH PATTERN ------> ARRANGE THE PATTERN IN PLAYLIST EDITOR (Just like tracks in other software) ------> MIX THE LOOPS AND FINALIZE

 

The workflow can be applied in other software too.

 

So lets start.

 

We start from the pattern editor. Before that we should create a new file.

 

Select File --> New

 

You will start off with a Kick, Clap, HiHat and Snare. These are all drum sounds or drum channels. Ok here is the next step.

 

 

Click on the switch boxes as shown in the figure above. You will notice that I placed four switches in the kick section. This is the standard 4 by 4 beat pattern used in dance tracks. So you just now created a drumloop. When you get used to all these things, than you can create your own variations of drumloops. Next we are going to make a bass loop.

 

 

Drag one number up in the PAT box to 2.

 

A new pattern will be ready. We need to create a bass loop.  Bass is one of the dominant parts in dance-techno music. It gives a driving force to the dancers. Since there is no bass in the pattern, we are going to create one. So we have to find the Bass sound wave file from the browser window. There is a section, Packs, where you can find bass wave file.

 

 

Here we are in the Piano Roll. Since we transferred the switches to the piano roll, the arrangements are already created there in the form of C5 chords. We just need to change it.

 

 

Piano Roll is a very complex feature. In order to explain this, I need to write a new blog, which I will do later. Right now, our concern is to create the very first simple mix.

 

 

Since we don’t want a high pitched bass sound, we should move the chords to C4 and there we should changed some more chords to give a perfect musical tune. The arrangement is given below. Remember, the arrangement starts from A3 which is one white note step down of C4 chord, not C5.

 

 

 

If you have problems with arranging the blocks in perfect place (since the blocks are not quantized), then follow the figure below to solve your problem.

 

 

Quantize: It is a term and feature where the tunes are automatically arranged and organized along with beats.

 

Here you go, you created your bass loops. Similarly you can select any other tunes like guitar, piano, flute and make the loop in the same way.

 

We skip the mixer part since it is a complex thing and is not necessary for this simple mix.

 

Before we head to playlist editor, we make another kick drumloop in pattern 3 (PAT 3).
 

 

It is the standard 4 by 4 beat which  we going to use at the start.

 

Now we go to playlist editor where your patterns will be arranged into a song. In the playlist editor, click on the boxes as shown in the figure below.

 

 

There is a box in pattern 9, which is Main Automation. That is for advanced mixing. Automation records the filters, volumes and the settings of the generators changed when the song is played.

 

So here it is, your first song. Well it is just a simple song. Now you can create some more pattern loops and add to the playlist editor and complete the song. In the next music tutorial blog, I will go to some more details. I have not gone through the mixer part since it is complex and I need to write a seperate blog for it. Till then, happy mixing!!!

 

Btw!! If anyone thinks this is too complex to learn, no problem. There are easier software to learn like Garageband in Apple Mac, where there are premade loops to use. I can gladly help you guys learn these software. If you have any questions on specific topics like mastering, recording, composing or even need help in making some soundtracks or help your song get refined feel free to pm me.