In this week’s Audio Premium content, West Latta completes his excellent series on songwriting.
To learn more about what you get as part of Audio Premium, read this. To take a peek inside this tutorial, hit the jump!
As mentioned in Parts 1 and 2, the importance of scratch tracks can’t be underestimated. In my production work, the scratch tracks form the framework or spine of the song. Everything else must be built around the scratch tracks, because those are the elements that really need to stand out.
For this particular tune, there are two primary scratch tracks – vocals and piano. Since I can’t easily track the vocals without reference, I’ve started by sketching out the complete piano line for the tune, broken into sections.
I spent a good while listening for the right piano sample, and in the end I settled on a simple Yamaha Pop Piano setting from Logic’s EXS24 sampler. By most standards it isn’t a particularly great instrument sample, but it had the exact right feel for the type of tune I was writing, and it underscored an important point: Do the best with what you have.
Get the Full Tutorial!
Didn’t hear about Audio Premium? It’s an additional, in-depth tutorial, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)
Tuts+ Premium gives you access to your very own library of courses, tutorials and eBooks, available whenever you need them. Join a community of over 15,000 members and start getting better at the skills you care about.
View the tutorial on the Tuts+ Premium site.
Non-members see a generous preview.
Join Premium and Expand Your Audio Knowledge!
For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+,Activetuts+, Phototuts+, Aetuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.
Become a Premium member and have full access to this tutorial today!
What Do You Want to See on Premium?
Is there a specific technical aspect of audio production that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?
We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to [email protected]. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch audio experts to teach you!
{excerpt}
Read More