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Electric Guitar 101: Part One - Your first guitar lesson

Tue, 29 May 2012 08:19:00 GMT

Welcome to the first instalment of Electric Guitar 101 – a new series of beginner guitar lessons provided by our friends at online guitar lesson site JamPlay.com.

Lesson one is for brand new players that might be picking up a guitar for the first time, or for those of you who may have a little playing experience, but have a few holes in your knowledge when it comes to things like posture, setting up your amp and the anatomy of a guitar.

Check out the lessons below and if you like what you see, head over to JamPlay.com for more online guitar lessons.

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Parts of the guitar

1.3 Guitar strings explained

1.4 Guitar frets explained

1.5 Holding your pick

1.6 Guitar tuning methods

1.7 Posture and your amp

Want more online guitar lessons? Visit JamPlay.com!

How to play Red Hot Chili Peppers - Look Around riff

Sat, 26 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2012 single from the bands' 10th album I'm With You is in standard tuning (EADGBE) and features funky 16th note patterns from guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

The track kicks off with this explosive riff, which sets up a feel good vibe and an instantly infectious groove. The riff is based on a Gm7 chord played in 10th position, where the highest note moves up and down by a semitone to create a simple melody.

The hardest aspect of the guitar part is maintaining the timing of the melody while keeping a solid 16th note funk feel. The trick is to make sure that your strumming hand keeps a constant 16th note motion.

The melody is a simple movement of your fretting fingers, which you can practise independently of the strumming to begin with. Also, look ahead to the 15th fret before you move up the neck to maximise your chances of landing on the right note.

Get the sound

A bridge position singlecoil pickup is the obvious choice here. If your guitar has humbuckers, reduce the bass level on your amp and raise the treble. How you play will alter what is otherwise a basic guitar tone.

Adjust the position of your pick: strum by the bridge for a bright, percussive tone; or strum nearer the neck for a softer tone. You can coax more brightness and treble out of your guitar by focusing your pick attack on the higher strings, too.

For more guitar lessons, interviews and reviews pick up Total Guitar magazine. Now available on Apple Newsstand (US readers click here)

9 drum mixing tips

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:16:00 GMT

Mixing drums is one of the most challenging aspects of music production. With so many variables, you can't just fly at it willy-nilly and hope to get good results.

Here are nine tips that will help you to make your drums sit better in your tracks.

For a complete guide to drum mixing, check out the May 2012 issue of Computer Music magazine (CM177).

Reverb inserts

Although you can use a single bussed reverb, there's no reason not to use inserted reverbs on your separate channels. A short, dark 'verb on the kick; a longer, brighter one on the snare; etc. If you choose to do this, though, be careful not to make it sound like each of your drums is in a totally different space to the others - unless you're going for deliberate weirdness, that is.

Parallel compression

Parallel - or 'New York-style' - compression is simply the act of mixing compressed and uncompressed versions of the same signal in order to reduce the dynamic range but retain all those punchy attack transients. Either bus your drum group through an auxiliary track with a compressor plug-in inserted and mix it with the original; or use a compressor with a wet/dry mix control.

Sidechain the overheads

A range of cool effects can be created by putting a compressor/gate on the overheads channel and keying it from the kick, snare or hi-hats. Key a frequency-conscious gate from the snare to emphasise the airy overhead signal with each snare hit; or compress the overheads via the kick to draw the sides in with each kick hit.

Overhead processing

Applying a stereo widening plug-in to the overheads channel can work wonders for the sense of breadth. Two things to avoid with overheads, though, are overly heavy EQ boosts above 10kHz and compression (though a touch of compression can be effective for a vintage-style sound). And if your overheads sound unexpectedly weird in any sense alongside the close mic channels, don't forget to try flipping the phase.

Bring the noise

If the wires on your snare drum aren't making their presence felt strongly enough, white noise can be used to add a synthesized backup layer. Load up any analogue synth with just a white noise oscillator active and tune it quite high. Draw in a single MIDI note for the duration of your drum track and insert a sidechain-able gate plug-in onto the synth's mixer channel. Key the sidechain from your snare track and set the gate threshold and envelope parameters so that the synth only triggers when the snare hits, then fades out quickly and smoothly.

Keep the level of the fake 'wires' low in the mix and be aware that it might need muting during fills. The same trick can be used to add sheen to hi-hats and even - using a sine wave - sub-bass to kick drums.

Just a phase

Because a drum hit will take slightly longer to reach the overhead mics than it does the drum's own close mics, its timing will be slightly smeared across the channels. This is part of the sound of recorded drums, and it can help to create some cool tones as well as smoothen sharp transients. However, too much can sap punch, power and clarity.

You may be able to manually adjust the timing of the recordings to improve their combined sound. In some cases, a subtle increase in low-end solidity can be created by moving the snare bottom mic can back in time by about 4ms, so that the 'meat' of the waveforms is more neatly aligned with that of the snare top mic.

Remember that you can typically only align one drum (the snare is your best bet) as the timing offsets will vary due to each piece of the kit being at different distances from the mics. And don't get too obsessed with aligning your tracks - they might sound better messy!

Take the buss

You can process every mic channel separately, but combining related drums/cymbals in group busses can be both convenient and sonically beneficial. For example, grouping all your toms on one bus and inserting a compressor, an EQ and a reverb into that, rather than giving each separate tom its own treatment, can make them sound more cohesive, as well as placing them all on one handy level fader and saving on CPU cycles. Bargain!

Sample magic

While the idea when mixing a drum kit is to make it sound like the bringing together of a set of simultaneously played elements to create a cohesive single instrument, there's no point making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself in the name of keeping everything organic. If your drummer neglected to hit an essential crash cymbal at the end of a key fill, don't drive yourself mad trying to paste in a cymbal from elsewhere in the overheads track - just throw in a crash from your sample library (on a separate track, otherwise it'll sound like a dodgy punch-in).

Similarly, if your snare's just lacking a bit of top but is otherwise OK, double it up with a high-passed sample. Play with the mix settings, A/B with some well-chosen reference material and trust your ears more than your eyes.

Single hits

Further to the previous tip, be sure to capture your drummer hitting each piece of the kit on its own a few times at hard, medium and soft stroke strengths. Then, if you do need to layer in any 'overdubs' (or even replace any sounds completely), you have a set of perfectly matched sounds with which to do it.

Free music software round-up: Week 111

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:36:00 GMT

The names of some of this week's plug-ins reveal exactly what they're about: others need a little more explanation. What a good job we're here to provide it, then…

If you've got a new free music software release, make sure you let us know about it by emailing musicradar.pressreleases@futurenet.com with all the details.

Syncersoft Saw Landscapes

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

Based on the Bass Landscapes plug-in we covered a few months back, Saw Landscapes is a synth that can be used to create both musical sounds and FX. It has a stompbox-style interface that should appeal to those who want to keep their controls simple.

Xen-Arts Ivor

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

It may look like a pretty standard synth, but Ivor enables you to microtune any MIDI Note Number to any pitch across the MIDI range, enabling you to compose music with alternative intonation systems. The subtractive design features two oscillators, filters, an envelope generator and more.

Inear Display SicknDstroy

Platform/format: PC, Mac/VST, AU Download

A lo-fi effect plug-in that features bitcrushing and sample rate reduction processors. These can be used in four different ways, and there's some ring modulation thrown in as well.

Softrave Techno Snare

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

So called because it offers you 512 sounds for use in techno. These are supplied in four banks, and you can mix them together to create exactly the sound you want. Each bank has its own filter, while you can also adjust the level of analogue drift to make the sound less mechanical.

VIDEO: How to remove unwanted frequencies using filters

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:34:00 GMT

Even non music-makers are aware of filters and the effect they can have on the way music sounds. What you might not be so sure of, however, is what the different varieties of filter are and how they work.

If you fall into this camp - or if you simply want a quick refresher course - check out the video above.

You can download the audio files that the video refers to by clicking here.

Thomas Gold's 10 vocal production tips

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:10:00 GMT

His vocal remix of Adele's Set Fire To The Rain has been smashing mainroom dancefloors all over the world and has already gained over 13 million plays on YouTube. So, who better to give us some tips on treating vocals on club tracks than Thomas Gold?

From effects to edits and EQ, check out his ten suggestions for getting that shining club vocal.

1. Make sure the vocal recordings you use are of very good quality!

"The vocals should not be over-compressed or over-EQ'd. It's always more of a problem to fix these things later in the mix."

2. The 'drier' the vocal, the better

"When you receive vocal stems for production or for remixing, try to get them without the usual effects such as delay, reverb etc, as this makes it easier to fit them into your own track and you are not tempo-dependent as you might be when there are delays on the stem.

"Timestretching reverbs and delays does not always deliver good results and it just sounds better if these effects are applied at the final tempo."

3. Scan your material and pick only the really important parts

"Don't just use all the vocals you have. Sometimes a very tiny bit of a vocal does more to a track than a full verse/bridge/chorus approach.

"After your selection is final get rid of the parts you don't want to use (delete them in your arrangement but keep them on your hard drive) as it's less confusing to get them out of the screen."

4. Clean up where necessary

"Cut out or silence unwanted noises such as breathing, background music or other stuff. The cleaner the vocal the better it is to work with. It's also often more effective to completely silence parts of the audio rather than using a noise gate.

"Also check if you need any retuning before you apply other processing; it's much easier to have done those things before you start to get creative. Bring the vocals to a common volume level so they are easier to handle when it comes to processing/compressing/editing."

5. Pre-process the vocals

"It's always helpful to cut off low-end frequencies. You usually don't need them for vocals but they can eat up sonic energy and you can get rid of unwanted floor noises.

"Apply low cut filtering as much as possible - just up to the point when you feel the vocal loses some of its character. You can also check for any resonant frequencies and level them out or add some high end sparkle if the overall sound is too dull. This can also be done after processing [See tip 7]."

6. Effects and more

"Once the basic preparation is done you can go for some more musical treatment. I like to use some high-quality analogue style compressor plug-ins (like the Waves LA2A, UAD stuff, Softube Tube Tech CL 1B and so on) to warm up the vocal and tame it; this makes levelling much easier. In dance tracks compression can work even at very high levels to cut through the mix.

"I also like to add some character to the sound by applying one of those tape saturation plug-ins. This can add a lot! Delay and reverb effects can be used pre or post-compressor - when set to post, they can result in nice and punchy FX. It's a good way to get those 'big' vocals. Just make sure to not overdo those effects in context with the mix; very short reverb settings often add enough space when being compressed afterwards!

"Sometimes a nice dose of distortion (or even bit-crushing) can help to make a vocal more energetic and present, so try out different things. There are a lot of multiband distortion plug-ins that work well (eg, FabFilter's Saturn)"

7. The final EQ

"After all processing and effects I normally apply another high quality EQ to tweak the vocal (or the complete vocal bus with all leads, harmonies etc) to glue everything together and to make it sit right in the mix. You can work out the important frequencies and, if necessary, give them more space in the mix by cutting off those frequencies in the other instruments."

8. Have fun with the vocal in your track

"I try to make the vocal become really integrated with the track - a build-up at the end of a breakdown is a good example. Don't just fade out the vocal at the end of the phrase; you can make it part of the build-up. Cut and chop a tiny portion of the vocal, loop it, add increasing reverb or delay, filter it up or down or do other crazy stuff with it - it adds a lot to the build-up and people in the club love this!

"I use a lot of automation for this kind of thing, be it on the volume, wet mix of a reverb or the distortion level - everything is allowed!"

9. Give the vocal the space it deserves

"Nnless it's just an effect, don't bury the vocal in the mix. A vocal is one of the key elements in your mix and so all other stuff should be adapted to it. Try to support the vocal with sound effects (noises, snare build-ups etc). Make it 'shine' in the mix to give it full impact. Adjust the 'room' effects setting to make it sit right in the mix [see tip 6]. Roll back other stuff while the vocal is the focus."

10. Test drive in a real club situation

"Sometimes it all sounds good in the studio or on headphones, but test the track in a club whenever possible, You might find that the vocal is either too loud or too weak,or it needs some more EQ treatment etc."

Axtone Presents Thomas Gold is out 28 May 2012 on Axtone Reconrds.

8 fabulous filter plug-ins

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:14:00 GMT

The filter is one of the staples of the modern studio. At the most basic level, a filter allows some frequencies through but not others. Throw in resonance and you can add edge to filter cutoff points.

LFO, envelope and/or sequence control of the filter's frequency range and resonance takes things to yet another level, while different filter types can transform the character entirely.

Multiple filters stacked in parallel or placed in series can put dizzying degrees of complex sonic shaping at your control. Finally, clever controls and setup can aid performances and active modulation.

Of course, you don't need all of these features all of the time, and filters can vary greatly in sound, from warm and natural to edgy and digital.

To help you decide which is right for you, we've rounded-up some of the very best filter plug-ins on the market today.

NEXT: Tone2 BiFilter2

VIDEO: How to EQ your kick and snare

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:27:00 GMT

A kick drum sound has to have a balance of weight, hardness and attack. A snare, meanwhile, should be bright and open with a good crack and some body weight.

In the above video you'll find out how you can use EQ to help you get the drum sounds you're looking for.

Download the audio files that the video refers to by clicking here.

6 ways to get more out of Ableton Live's effects

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:20:00 GMT

Ableton Live has some of the best built-in effects of any DAW. They're straightforward to use, and most of them sound superb.

If you're a Live user, you probably already know this, but are you really getting the most out of Ableton's in-house processors? What follows is a collection of tips that might come as news even to seasoned Live users.

VIDEO: How to set up a parallel compression Effect Rack in Ableton Live

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:26:00 GMT

Ableton Live's Effect Racks are really powerful tools. They're great for carrying out parallel processing, one of the best examples of which is parallel (or 'New York-style') compression.

This technique is excellent because it combines the loudness of a compressed sound with the punch of an uncompressed one. Find out how it works in the video above.

Download the audio file that the video refers to by clicking here.

5 tips for guitarists in power-trios

Wed, 09 May 2012 08:37:00 GMT

The idea of fronting your very own power trio is appealing, isn't it? No dense wall of rhythm guitar to struggle to cut through, no competition for the limelight… yet being the sole guitarist in a three-piece can be a tough gig. After all, there's nowhere to hide.

Ahead of Guitarist magazine's Disraeli Gears 45th anniversary spectacular that features exclusive new interviews with Jack Bruce and Pete Brown and insights into Clapton's legendary gear, here are five ways to make sure that you are the cat that gets the cream and not a sourpuss when it comes to fronting your very own musical ménage à trois…

VIDEO: How to create a sidechaining effect manually in Logic

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:20:00 GMT

Sometimes simply automating the volume level of a track is the best way to give your ducking effect the exact timing and intensity you require.

You can do this in practically any DAW because you just need to automate the level of a gain stage. In the video above we'll show you how this can be done in Logic.

You can download the audio files that the video refers to by clicking here.

Free music software round-up: Week 110

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:57:00 GMT

A desktop conversion of an iPad synth; an effect that used to be chargeable but is now free; and a vinyl emulation that can crackle up your sound. That's how things are shaking up in the world of free music software this week.

If you've got a new free music software release, make sure you let us know about it by emailing musicradar.pressreleases@futurenet.com with all the details.

Plastaq Software Scythe

Platform/format: PC, Mac/VST Download

It's slightly unusual to see an iPad app being brought to the desktop, but that's pretty much what's happened here. Scythe is a synth that borrows its engine and interface from GrainBender. Its oscillators sport analogue and digital waveforms, while there are also modulation options and effects.

Sinevibes Oscillator

Platform/format: Mac/AU Download

This 'audio-controlled synth' (though strictly speaking it's an effect) is now free. The plug-in is based on a multi-waveform oscillator with up to six voices, with the parameters being modulated with the input signal's dynamics. There are effects, too, the end result being a device that can help you to produce all kinds of glitches and noises.

Tonebytes Vinyl

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

Give your music a bit of crackle with this vinyl record player emulation. You can adjust the dust count, colour and level, set how much you want to 'age' the recording and dial in a bit of gentle distortion.

10 classic channel strip plug-ins

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:55:00 GMT

Not so long ago, just about every bit of popular recorded music passed through a hardware mixer - even today, a fair few hits are mixed this way.

The mixers we're talking about are so enormous that they're more commonly referred to as desks or consoles. Each channel is represented by a collection of vertically oriented controls called a strip. As well as the bare basics like a level fader, pan knob and aux send knobs, a channel strip will also contain EQ features at the very least, and probably dynamics too (compression and perhaps gating).

Channel strip plug-ins are designed to bring all of that processing (and in some cases a specific sound) into our DAWs, offering EQ, dynamics and often more in one plug-in.

Here are some of the best examples of the channel strip currently available.

How to write a hit: structure

Tue, 01 May 2012 09:54:00 GMT

The most common and accessible pop song format to evolve over the last 50 years is made up of the holy trinity of verse, chorus and middle 8.

Referred to as ABABCBB, in practice, it goes like this: intro/verse1/chorus1/verse2/chorus2/middle 8/chorus 3/chorus out.

With modern production tricks, this classic skeleton is beginning to evaporate into a simpler framework containing just a verse and a chorus, with variety being created by the sounds of the parts rather than the parts themselves being different.

In other words, there's more sonic variety than musical variety. The use of filters, in particular, has encouraged repetition of parts that would otherwise become boring.

Under the bridge

There are many variants of this classic pop structure. Another is ABCABCBC, containing verse1/bridge1/chorus1/verse2/bridge2/chorus 2/instrumental (usually based on the bridge)/chorus 3.

Some other notable structures are completely different – Somewhere Over the Rainbow, for example, has the structure AABA: verse 1/verse 2/bridge/verse 1.

The AABA form has variants like AABABA, ABAB and ABABA, where some sections become instrumental. A rarer form is AAA, one example of which is Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. Here, the same verse is subtly varied over the course of three repetitions, each time growing in intensity.

Other interesting and more old-fashioned examples include ABAC (listen to Moon River, where the last section veers beautifully off into an emotive ending) and ABCD (as in Rodgers and Hammerstein's You'll Never Walk Alone).

Of course, what all this 'ABABC-ing' ought to tell you is that, like making cocktails, there are classic song structures, but there's always room for innovation. It's a good idea to stick to the tried and tested options if you're unsure, but follow your heart if you feel you can pack an extra emotional punch by adding a new ingredient.

It only takes a minute

Whatever structure your song features, if you want it to be played on the radio, without doubt the most important thing is to get to the chorus in less than a minute, and ideally in less than 30 seconds.

If you want to pitch your songs to the industry, you are completely wasting your time if you take longer than a minute to get to the chorus. Many of the people you have to impress to get your song recorded and released are not particularly open-minded or indeed culturally aware. They are listening only for the sound of mouse clicks on the download button and the purr of their new Porsche Cayenne.

If you really want to improve your chances, you can always try starting the song off with the chorus. It doesn't have to be the full-blown version as it might appear later in the song – it could be a cappella (vocal only) or just vocals and beats.

Bringing in the chorus right from the off opens up more options for an interesting arrangement later in the song, such as a middle 8 and an instrumental, or an ending that has a little more time to develop.

Having said that, very few artists will ever get a five-and-a-half-minute, modern-day Bohemian Rhapsody through the net. In fact, we might never have heard that phenomenal track if Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett hadn't actually physically barricaded himself in the studio while he broke all the BBC rules to play it. Thankfully, the listening public agreed with him.

Here's a pictorial guide to some common song structures (click to see it full-size).

VIDEO: How to make a classic trance gate in Cubase

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:37:00 GMT

Some plug-ins include stutter effects inspired by the sidechain gates used in classic '90s trance tracks - just think of The Age of Love's eponymous hit.

You can gain more control over the sound if you do it the old-fashioned way, though; in the video above, you'll see how it's done in Cubase.

You can download the audio files that the video refers to by clicking here.

Free music software round-up: Week 109

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:15:00 GMT

Don't forget that our sister magazine Computer Music has a cracking freebie this month in the shape of AudioRealism ADM CM, but if this doesn't quench your thirst for no-charge music software, read on.

If you've got a new free music software release, make sure you let us know about it by emailing musicradar.pressreleases@futurenet.com with all the details.

Bass Gnomes Clarity and Full Phase

Platform/format: PC/VST Download

A couple of phase-related effects: Clarity uses phase shifting and comb filtering to enhance the clarity of your audio signal; and its little brother Full Phase allows phase tuning via a process that involves inverting a stereo channel "phased against the opposite corresponding channel to isolate common stereo field characteristics".

Xenakios HourGlass

Platform/format: PC Download

Designed for radical sound processing, HourGlass takes fragments (grains) of audio and creates sound textures from them. It can be used for sound mangling/glitch purposes, and most of its tweakable parameters can be automated using envelopes. There's a demo video here and a Mac version is in development.

Hamburg Audio Nuklear for Studio One

Platform/format: PC, Mac/Studio One Download

Another fillip for PreSonus's Studio One DAW: users can now have a monophonic version of Hamburg Audio's ear-catching Nuklear synth for nothing. What's more, they can upgrade to the full version for the reduced price of €89.

Get the sound of Harold Faltermeyer's Axel F

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:37:00 GMT

Taken from 1984's Eddie Murphy-starring crime caper Beverly Hills Cop, Harold Faltermeyer's hit theme has become something of a cult classic, even being covered by the much-hated but hugely successful Crazy Frog.

On a more serious note, the Axel F theme is famous for a reason. Its simple melody line (originally played on a Jupiter-8) combined with the counterpoint/contrary motion Moog Modular bassline and Linndrum beat, make this one of '80s synth-driven instrumental music's fi nest hours. For this month's Get That Sound we're going to recreate the first section of the main theme – just using Logic's stock plug-ins. Let's take a closer look…

How to set up a MIDI controller over WiFi

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:17:00 GMT

This isn't strictly an Ableton thing, and it is Mac-only in this configuration, but it's still worth knowing, and the same kind of thing can be achieved with Windows.

You can use Mac OS X's Audio MIDI Setup to allow Live to access a MIDI controller connected to another computer on the same network.

How to play You Me At Six - Time Is Money

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:18:00 GMT

Learn how to play Time Is Money by You Me At Six with this video lesson from YMAS lead guitarist Chris Miller.

To play along with this lesson, your guitar will need to be in Drop D tuning, DADGBE. For the most authentic sound, try to use a guitar with humbuckers and select the bridge pickup.

To begin with, dial in a crunchy overdriven sound. If you have delay and reverb effects available you can use these in the guitar solo section.

Time Is Money features on Sinners Never Sleep, the Weybridge rockers' third full-length album, released in 2011. Visit You Me At Six for more information on the band.

How to write a hit: lyrics

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:53:00 GMT

So, what is your hit song going to be about? Who will sing it? If it's a story, which character is singing? Who are they singing to? What are they saying? And most importantly: is there a point? The mark of a bad song is that it leaves you wondering what it was about...

Song themes fall into several standard categories: love, sex, feelings, stories, messages, commands, questions, lists. And then there are surreal songs that aim just to create an atmosphere of some kind. Try sorting one of your playlists into these categories and see where the majority of your favourite songs belong. Whatever kind of song you want to write, though, there are some broad rules that will ensure a certain amount of accessibility.

Easy like Sunday morning?

One of your first considerations should be how easily the words roll off the tongue. "I tend to be / At my least depressed / When you and I are acting in a / Mutually supportive manner" would probably be better as "I feel alright / When we take on the world / Together".

If you're setting lyrics to an existing melody, try and follow the natural stresses of the tune. When Anita Dobson agreed to sing a song using the EastEnders theme, they used: "Anyone can fall in love" as the main seven-note hook, where the accented syllables "fall" and "love" sit well with the melody. "Falling in love is nice oooooh" would not be as singable.

Opposites attract

Contrast conversational against poetic, staccato against legato, positive against negative. If you keep saying "I wanna dance!" constantly for the whole song, the message loses its impact. Try changing your emotional tack for a moment: "Even though the music's crap / Even though I've got one leg / Even though this club smells of sick / Being with you makes me feel so groovy / I wanna dance!"

Straight to your heart

Be direct! Use the first and second person if possible; "I" and "you" as opposed to "he", "she" and "they". "He would do anything for her" is not as compelling as "I would do anything for you" – in fact, the first example may even have the negative effect of inciting some jealousy about another's good fortune!

F*** you I won't do what you tell me

Try not to preach, or tell people what to do; it can be really annoying. Look for a more oblique way of delivering the message. Chumbawumba delivered a message of defiance in a way people could empathise with when they wrote "I get knocked down / But I get up again / You're never gonna keep me down" instead of "If they knock you down / Get back up".

Tainted love

Is there a plot reversal? Sometimes a great song can have a dark side. Maybe you're saying you want to kiss that girl even though the doctor said you would possibly die from a heart attack, or even though her boyfriend in the SAS will have something to say about it, or even though you can't stand her most of the time... these kind of conflicts add meat to a song's bones.

Let's talk about sex, baby

Unsurprisingly, a recent study found that 92% of pop songs carry 'reproductive' messages. Your song will thus have a good chance of being accessible if it's about (a) wanting to 'love' someone you haven't 'loved' yet; (b) having 'loved' that person once, and now wanting to 'love' them repeatedly; (c) explaining the futility of trying to live without someone's 'love'; or possibly (d) inquiring whether you could 'love' them and perhaps some of their friends as well..

8 lyric-writing tips

Names

Names are a good source of inspiration, not only for love songs but for character-based story songs too (think Alison, Lola, Peggy Sue). Fictional/cultural characters (Prince Charming, Mona Lisa) are also fair game, and try acronyms (PYT, YMCA), numbers, and even spelling it out (L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N).

Eyes and ears open

Look for lyrical inspiration everywhere. The Beatles' A Day in the Life reveals its inspiration in the opening line "I read the news today, oh boy". Movies and TV are a rich seam of verbiage, some of it crafted by the sharpest writers on the planet. Bowie famously used random newspaper clips in his songs to help create surreal moods and original ideas.

Poor me

Avoid moaning. If you have to point out the world's ills, at least try and offer some contrast, hope or solutions. Lyrics that are self-pitying only really belong in blues and certain genres of country. Granted, many bands have successfully celebrated isolation and depression, and these are essential to the creative world, but most of these songs don't tend to cross over to the pop mainstream.

The word

It's a good idea to start with the lyric, as it's arguably easier to wrap a melody around a lyric than it is to set lyrics to an existing melody. If you have the lyric in place, you already know where the stresses need to be. The lyric can also help guide you to the right musical mode, scale or tempo.

Nonsense

If you're stuck for inspiration, try stealing words and phrases from another language (Livin' la Vida Loca, Voulez-Vous, Que Sera Sera). The Cocteau Twins made a career out of songs featuring made-up words, which were performed so beautifully that they still successfully communicated something. Try making something up out of whole cloth ("Zig-a-zig aaah", "Be bop a lula") or extending or playing with words ("Umbrella–ella–ella").

I love you

A huge slice of the pop lyric-writing pie is devoted to nothing other than finding ways to say "I love you" other than by saying "I love you". Having said that, sometimes only those three little words will do – but make sure there's a twist.

Rhyming Is good...

...but that doesn't mean you should! There's nothing worse than an obvious or forced rhyme – the glove of love from above is no good to anyone! While clever rhyming can pack a real wallop, freeing yourself from rhyme can provide great inspiration. Have a listen to some of Michael Stipe's wordsmithery to hear masterful examples of flowing lyrics that don't rhyme or are at best only assonant (with repetitive vowel sounds).

Internal rhyme, alliteration and consonance

A subtle way of building pace and structure into a lyric is to use internal rhymes. This is where vowels, consonants and combinations of both are repeated within each individual line – "I'm writing a lyric but I'm fighting with it / but I'll try to find the rhyme / to end the line in the nick of time".

For all the advice that the recording singer-songwriter needs in 2012, check out Computer Music Special 52 - the Singer-Songwriter Production Guide - which is on sale now.

How to write a hit: lyrics

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:53:00 GMT

Easy like Sunday morning?

Opposites attract

Straight to your heart

F*** you I won't do what you tell me

Tainted love

Let's talk about sex, baby

8 lyric-writing tips

Names

Eyes and ears open

Poor me

The word

Nonsense

I love you

Rhyming Is good...

Internal rhyme, alliteration and consonance

For all the advice that the recording singer-songwriter needs in 2012, check out Computer Music Special 52 - the Singer-Songwriter Production Guide - which is on sale now.

VIDEO: How to make an 808-style beat with D16 Nepheton

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:42:00 GMT

Hip-hop owes much of its DNA to Roland's classic TR-808 drum machine, and D16's Nepheton plug-in is a stunning emulation of said hardware.

In the video above, you'll learn how to use Nepheton in your DAW to a create a classic hip-hop groove.

10 tips to make your studio computer faster

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:40:00 GMT

Recording and playing back audio and using sampled instruments means your hard drives are constantly accessing big chunks of data. Here are ten points to make sure you're doing it with maximum efficiency.

Always use a dedicated audio drive with your DAW

Never put audio on your system drive. Most DAWs need to access the system drive while working and if the same drive is trying to access audio at the same time you'll soon get bottlenecks and 'disk too slow' messages. All that audio accessing can also wear out the drive faster, which is never good if it's also your system drive.

Have at least one drive dedicated to your sample libraries

If you have lots of samples and often run drums, strings and pianos at the same time, it might be worth splitting them over multiple drives. As is the same with audio, it prevents bottlenecks and means your drives will be safer for longer.

Use faster hard drives

As a rule use a disk with a minimum rotational speed of 7200rpm for both audio and samples.

The drive interface makes a big difference

Internal SATA 3.0 can run at 600MB/s as opposed to USB 2.0, which only gives you 47.6MB/s. If your interface isn't fast enough it will slow down your drive. Internal SATA drives, external FireWire 800 and eSATA work best.

Use sensible and logical file structures for your samples wherever possible

If you collect samples from lots of sources make sure you have a folder and subfolder structure that you stick to. It means you can find things easily when you want them and so can your computer.

Run a defrag program

Disk fragmentation (when files get split into bits because there is not enough contiguous space to store them as complete units) makes your disk run slower as the read head has to bounce back and forth looking for all the bits. Run a defrag program like Windows Disk Defragmenter. It allows you to analyse a disk, defrag it if necessary or set an automated schedule to do it. Work on a Mac? OS X does a great job of keeping itself in check.

Run 64-bit and get more RAM

Even with super-fast disks and bus speeds nothing makes life easier than having as much RAM as you can afford. Everything runs a bit better and you aren't forcing your disks to work overtime. And then...

Sort out your bloated sampler instruments

We know it sounds daft but we all do it. Everybody has favourite 'go to' patches but often we only want one or two elements. Take the time to make your own slimmed- down versions and just think of all that RAM and load time you'll save.

Consolidate your audio edits

If you have loads of edited audio tracks you can end up with thousands of audio regions, particularly when editing multi-tracked drums. This is a bit like fragmenting your disk as the DAW reads the file back and forth moving those edit sections around, not to mention computing all those crossfades. If you're happy with the edits, consolidate the tracks.

Back up, back up, back up

Make sure you regularly back up of all your drives.If you're using internal drives get yourself an external caddy that takes SATA drives. They connect either by USB 2.0 or eSATA (if you have a port fitted). Find incremental backup software that you like and run it regularly (a good professional standard is daily for audio drives and weekly for sample drives). Then, if one of those hard working drives does give up the ghost, just pop the backup in its place. Lovely.

VIDEO: How to make modern hip-hop chords in SynthMaster 2.5

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:36:00 GMT

KV331's SynthMaster 2.5 is one of the finest new synths of the year, being a phat, versatile beast that comes with some awesome presets.

In the video tutorial above you'll see us putting the instrument to good use as we concoct a contemporary hip-hop chord progression. Throw in a dash of reverb and you're done.