home recording

[Mikaeru]

Well, I had this one written for Tuesday, but I didn't like how it sounded then. I'm a bit iffy about it now. Really not a fan of the vocals, but it'll have to do.

Little Butterfly / Mikaeru

My heart is calling you now
I only want to see you're fine
But if you decide to stay
I'll always let you know you're mine

Like a little butterfly on the wind
I hope you take your chance to fly
To a place you've never been

Little Butterfly, Little Butterfly
Flying on the wind, where you are destined
Little Butterfly, making my heart cry
Take me with you when you fly

Little Butterfly, Little Butterfly
Don't know what to say, I can only pray
Little Butterfly, leaving in your prime
Take me with you one last time

I see you try to escape
I see you try to hide the pain
I wish that before you fly
I wish you let me see your smile

--

Well, there it is. *shrugs* Heavy inspiration to the same titled manga by Hinako Takanaga. Really good read. Well, first volume so far, at least.

[UQ100]

Well, I had this one written for Tuesday, but I didn't like how it sounded then. I'm a bit iffy about it now. Really not a fan of the vocals, but it'll have to do.

Alright, you got the idea of the song title thing!

If I'm not mistaken your lead synth sound has improved, what did you use?

[Mikaeru]

A bunch of things... A couple presets on a MicroQ (to my memory at least Enough Power and a bell sound and octave higher), those just playing a single line. The lead "synth" with the chords is just a piano, oddly enough. So aside from the piano, the same sounds I usually use.

[Mikaeru]

Don't exactly want to double post, but it's a new song, so *shrugs*

Although technically, it's an older song. By a couple months, I would think. But the singer *finally* got her part in, not perfect, but if it took this long to record, I'm just gonna run with it.

Purikura / Piper

Well... *shrugs* I'm not sure what to make of this one.

[UQ100]

Although technically, it's an older song. By a couple months, I would think. But the singer *finally* got her part in, not perfect, but if it took this long to record, I'm just gonna run with it.

Purikura / Piper

Well... *shrugs* I'm not sure what to make of this one.

Wow, how do you manage to create so many tracks?

Hmm, well there are some interesting synth effects (?) in that one. Were the vocals supposed to be like that?

[Mikaeru]

Although technically, it's an older song. By a couple months, I would think. But the singer *finally* got her part in, not perfect, but if it took this long to record, I'm just gonna run with it.

Purikura / Piper

Well... *shrugs* I'm not sure what to make of this one.

Wow, how do you manage to create so many tracks?

Hmm, well there are some interesting synth effects (?) in that one. Were the vocals supposed to be like that?

And in how many songs? No clue. For the summer, I'm aiming for a new one each week (at least the melody demo). I just get ideas, write them out, hopefully they work.

The effects in that one are interesting. The drums I use have some odd presets, one is a video game kit, where most of them in the song came from. Another was writing a synth drum line with what would normally be the wrong drum sound, and an octave too high, which resulted in something cool I like. And the camera click *was* actually my cellphone's camera sound.

And the vocals are supposed to be pitched up that high. They're also supposed to be hitting the right notes and a lot more energetic sounding. "Supposed to be"... -_-;

[Dave]

Dave,depends what kind of trance.The poptrance I do is similar to eurobeat with 2 verses going into the chorus.Other kind of trance is more mood influenced,no rules.. just make it growing and use long fills before going into main parts,riff or chorus.

ok, i know it took some time but here's my first attempt to produce a trance song:

http://www.everfree.org/music/flywithme.mp3

since this is meant to be vocal trance when it's finished, i created that synth line starting at 0:50 which will be replaced by the vocals, once they're recorded...

would be helpful to get some opinions and advice on this!

[Mikaeru]

Dave,depends what kind of trance.The poptrance I do is similar to eurobeat with 2 verses going into the chorus.Other kind of trance is more mood influenced,no rules.. just make it growing and use long fills before going into main parts,riff or chorus.

ok, i know it took some time but here's my first attempt to produce a trance song:

http://www.everfree.org/music/flywithme.mp3

since this is meant to be vocal trance when it's finished, i created that synth line starting at 0:50 which will be replaced by the vocals, once they're recorded...

would be helpful to get some opinions and advice on this!

I'm not much of a trance fan/listener, so keep that in mind, as I could just be completely offbase. It seems a bit *too* minimalist for trance, especially at the start. There's not much variety to the sounds, especially with the drums. It might be nice if you added a subtle loop of high percussion (hi-hats, shakers, etc) above it, just to give that extra depth to it. Some of the samples seem a bit too "general midi", if you know what I mean. When you bring in the sounds for the climaxes of the song, those are nice, but the down areas seem too basic. It seems pretty good so far, though.

-------

And to get a *third* new song on one page (hopefully), here's:

Japanese Man / Mikaeru

Me on vocals again, although it's one of my better attempts (although that still isn't saying all that much). A lot of flute in there (yes, it's a *real* flute, and me playing it), which sounds rather nice. Really upbeat too. Now for the lyrics:

Walk around in Tokyo city
Looking out for something pretty
Cause I have a need to feel desire
Wanna feel some sexy action
Cause this time I wanna cash-in
On my week-long Japanese vacation

Hey, I hope in the club
Velfarre lights are shining brightly
Hey, what do I see
On the stage, dancing parapara

Japanese man, come on do it, I need it
Japanese man, hot for your love now
Japanese man, straight from Shibuya
Need a Japanese man, give it to me

Now he's dancing sexy, crazy
And the air is getting lazy
Making me start wanting some more passion
Now I'm leaving, back to his place
See the smile upon his face
And I know I won't be a pretender

[hao-bao]

Mikaeru, why do you make so many tunes instead of making one really good song?

[oresama-chan]

Japanese Man / Mikaeru

The lyrics stir up my interest.
I took it that this is a song about someone cruising a one-night-stand and
he caught a Japanese straight guy from Shibuya.

The flute featured through the song might intend that he's goint to
blow the Japanese skin flute, right?

Kidding apart, you're good at fluting.

[Mikaeru]

Japanese Man / Mikaeru

The lyrics stir up my interest.
I took it that this is a song about someone cruising a one-night-stand and
he caught a Japanese straight guy from Shibuya.

The flute featured through the song might intend that he's goint to
blow the Japanese skin flute, right?

Kidding apart, you're good at fluting.

You people read too much into my lyrics. Although, yeah, I suppose it *is* cruising for a one-night stand. The straight guy bit is unintended, but I can see where that comes in, I think I was just going for the alliteration there. And as for the type of flute, it's there because for the longest time I WANTED to play flute in one of the songs, and this is the first one where it was appropriate. And thanks, I studied flute for the longest time, but dropped it about two years ago.

hao - Because for the most part, I've deluded myself into believing I *do* put out reasonably good songs. It's a bit of a debate between quality and quantity, but right now I don't think I have the skills/knowledge to really produce a really high quality finished product, especially when I just don't have the vocals to make it really worth it. And I think being able to write this many songs of at least the quality I do is a talent unto itself. My songs probably do sound rather similar, but I've tried moving into different types of sound, like the calm eurobeat, girly, rock, trance, pseudo-Japanese, horror.

[UQ100]

hao - Because for the most part, I've deluded myself into believing I *do* put out reasonably good songs. It's a bit of a debate between quality and quantity, but right now I don't think I have the skills/knowledge to really produce a really high quality finished product, especially when I just don't have the vocals to make it really worth it. And I think being able to write this many songs of at least the quality I do is a talent unto itself. My songs probably do sound rather similar, but I've tried moving into different types of sound, like the calm eurobeat, girly, rock, trance, pseudo-Japanese, horror.

Yeah, I think it is a talent to do it this fast.

Apparently Diane Warren used to write a song a day as a kid, or so she claims, but I'd certainly believe she wrote heaps of songs here. (Just the song, not a full production.) So it would seem it's a good thing to write a lot of songs, if you learn from it.

[Mikaeru]

hao - Because for the most part, I've deluded myself into believing I *do* put out reasonably good songs. It's a bit of a debate between quality and quantity, but right now I don't think I have the skills/knowledge to really produce a really high quality finished product, especially when I just don't have the vocals to make it really worth it. And I think being able to write this many songs of at least the quality I do is a talent unto itself. My songs probably do sound rather similar, but I've tried moving into different types of sound, like the calm eurobeat, girly, rock, trance, pseudo-Japanese, horror.

Yeah, I think it is a talent to do it this fast.

Apparently Diane Warren used to write a song a day as a kid, or so she claims, but I'd certainly believe she wrote heaps of songs here. (Just the song, not a full production.) So it would seem it's a good thing to write a lot of songs, if you learn from it.

Exactly. I'd consider *NOTHING* I've done to be finished. A fair amount of production put into it, but I know I'm missing that final polish to it. I just keep putting stuff here to work on songwriting (and a little singing), and I think I'm improving. I keep taking advice from here into consideration, especially the stuff you've given. And especially in a genre like eurobeat, the ability to produce a lot of material is rather good to have.

[Dave]

thanks for the advice mikaeru... let's see what i can do about it

i think it's special that you can produce so many songs in such a short time... especially the lyric writing! in my case it's little bit different: i got like 20 melody folders but not a single lyric so far

anyway, i hope i can finish some lyrics soon... i really want to sing now cuz i got a good mic and i started working on my voice a while ago...

[UQ100]

Walk around in Tokyo city
Looking out for something pretty
Cause I have a need to feel desire
Wanna feel some sexy action
Cause this time I wanna cash-in
On my week-long Japanese vacation

OK, "mean critic" time. Continuing with lyrics...

Don't need so much detail as "week-long Japanese vacation", it might overwhelm the listener with information. (Plus, pop songs tend to be generalizable.)

Although, yeah, I suppose it *is* cruising for a one-night stand.

A good song in this vein is Mandy Smith - Positive Reaction. (I guess not strictly about a one night stand? but hardly a long-term relationship either.) Well worth working out why the lyrics (and the song otherwise) works. Well, if you don't like it I guess you'd hate to do that, but I might as well go ahead and post the lyrics and link anyway. (I've spent lots of time trying to work out how/why SAW songs work, the best ones are perfectly (or near-as-damnit perfectly) written.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEYrInqBjbE

(Of course the video itself is crap.)

===========================================
Got this feeling that I can't explain
Gotta show me that you feel the same way (main goal introduced)
Don't wanna let you make a fool of me (problem/barrier to goal introduced)

You're playing hide and seek with my emotions (suggests flirtation, no "give it to me harder" lines here!... movement towards goal develops)
But I'm afraid of being too outspoken (problem develops)

Just wanna sign, be mine! (throws song into chorus, reminds of main goal)

Chorus/payoff/bash the listener over the head with the main goal/point:

I'm looking for reaction
A positive reaction
Give me satisfaction (satisfaction is too cliched, but oh well)
A positive reaction
===========================================


I don't think your lyrics develop that badly, but maybe this shows how you write in general terms, keep strict focus, and tell a little story.