Goa Travellers
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Jul 1, 2014 23:31:28
Hello,
What technique would you use to create complex melodies such as this one at 7:49:
I'm talking about the main lead.It looks so rapid and complicated, moreover, there are additional effects on top. However, I'm confident there's a trick to compose these fast melodies more easily than it seems. Any idea? Would you be able to recreate similar melodies?
-Goa Travellers
Drifting through the galaxy...
knocz
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Posted : Jul 2, 2014 02:35
Nice lead! Sounded a bit simple at the start, but it does evolve nicely
First, there's rhythm. Then, melody. Compose everything so it all fits together in the same context, mix appropriately and you're done
So, try making a nice trancy rhythm. Forget which notes are being played, and notice when they are played Think about repetitions and patterns, and deviations from those patterns. Things out of the odd, things placed in to make it groove and move and trance you out.. Also, there's a lot of Question->Answer in the rhythm sections, and more books on rhythm than melody and harmony combined.
After having a rhythm that evolves and can go on for two minutes without sounding monotonous, build up on the melody. In this example, it starts off really slow, with most notes hitting the root note, and small deviations appear over time. Then, it evolves into a complex and intricate melody, with focus on the bass note (usually played once in every beat). I usually like to think in intervals, so I might say go up 1 (over the root note), then later go 3-root-1, then later root-3-4-3-1, and build on that. With this, the mind can go wild and just play whatever you feel like, exploring composition.
But, you'd just need to move your notes in your rhythm up and down the piano roll, to taste. If you feel it would sound good to make some notes shorter and some longer -> go for it!
Now, the exact notes you are actually playing when you think in intervals depends on the scale you are using. So, in a major scale, the 1st interval over the root of C is actually D (two semitones above), being the next note in the scale. The 3rd interval is F (5 semitones above the root), and so on. It's like selecting only the scale notes in a piano roll in your DAW and using the fold to only see those notes But, using a major scale makes it sound too darn happy -> maybe a phygian or a spanish ghypsy to get a more goa like tone.. or a hunharian minor for some more darkish gothic melodies. Or, a minor Or, deviate from the scale whenever you want and just do what sounds good to you.
Now, for the harmony, you could also do the same with your bassline, making some beats in another note of your chosen scale -> in this situation, you can adjust your melody accordingly. Say your bassline is now playing the 1st interval, you can shift all your melodies by 1 interval, and it will all fit in harmonically Or, chose different intervals, say your bass ad a 5th and the melodies at a 7th, to create more complex harmony and blow all our minds out!
For last, feed that into a synth with some detuned saws/squares, some delay to help make even more notes to make it more complex, play with some effects and filters.. maybe feed it all into a distortion unit to taste. Focus on the filter envelope, play with the filter frequency, filter envelope amounts, sustain, attack and decay, and throw in a long LFO a bit on he filter freq just for fun.
knocz
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Posted : Jul 2, 2014 15:17
Quote:
On 2014-07-02 08:12, Goa Travellers wrote:
Thank you. Any material (books, links) on scales?
The internet is your greatest manual But, there's nothing a book can teach you on that, except what the scale is called, which notes belong to it (aka, the intervals) and where the scale has been used in the past - what's really important is how you connect to the scale, and how you can make it sound, how it relates to you.
And, for that, you just need to practice. Experiment. Do stuff with it, nothing more and nothing less - as the major scale, for instance, is "happy", but I've heard the most saddest music written in a major before.. so it's not the tool or technique, but how you use it that matters.
And, even if you try playing with a scale, and it doesn't sound good, it might just be your current context - come back to it in a few years, after your eats have been more trained and your brain more saturated of hearing the same things, with more experience and knowledge, and you'll find new things to do with it, more things that now sound good Super Banana Sauce http://www.soundcloud.com/knocz
Goa Travellers
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Jul 2, 2014 19:41
Nice lead! Sounded a bit simple at the start, but it does evolve nicely 
