Song writing woes..

[ChainsawAkimbo]

I have couple frustrating problems for music creation. First is that i´m not that great of a songwriter, i´m more of a riffmachine. Other is that i absolutely HATE making drums, so boring and for some reason i just lack imagination in that department. Don´t really know where to find some inspiration and ways to improve. Here are couple examples of stuff i´ve been doing in the past couple days. First one has decent riffs but they are pretty much like from many different songs.. The second one is a promising start but haven´t a clue where to go with it or how to develope it. Both also have basic drums and i can´t stand the thought of actually editing them to something proper. argh. Any ideas where to suck some interesting information about composing drums and songwriting is welcome..

EDIT:Oh btw i hate mixing too.  Damnit.

[Will]

Both songs are pretty good, but yeah, as you said song one seems a little generic.

I'm guessing you're not a drummer and using a program like Mulab to make drums? (they sounded pretty real though so I may be wrong).

Learning a few songs on drums or alternatively writing up the drum parts a few songs on a program would probably help with your drum writing. I like to use drums to emphasise my rhythm riffs.

As for where to go with song 2 maybe a solo.

[ChainsawAkimbo]

Well the first one is just a collection of riffs, second one is something i´d like to do advance somewhere with. Yeah i use Steven slate drums 4ex and i can play drums a bit too, i guess thats the problem.. i´d need to play it instead of doing midi with controller/editing, just don´t have the money for e-drums atm. I propably shouldn´t have posted the clips, since i actually can do so much better if i put some effort in, kinda had a moment of frustration i had to air out.  I don´t think i´ve ever "published" anything like this before (i must have 200 clips like that but only few finished songs). I swapped back to Reaper from Sonar X3 yesterday, kinda helped my workflow and editing drums isn´t that much of a chore anymore. For some reason, even when i´ve had Sonar for 3 years i just never got comfortable with it. Thats money wasted there. All i need is a deep breath i think.  And no.. not really thinking a detail like a solo on the second clip, thinking more of the big picture.. you know.. song structure and vocals and shit. Gonna get back at it with a rested brain i suppose.  

EDIT:Thanks for the comments btw, i forgot manners! Much appreciated.  

[Will]

25 minutes ago, GrayscaleDawn said:

Well the first one is just a collection of riffs, second one is something i´d like to do advance somewhere with. Yeah i use Steven slate drums 4ex and i can play drums a bit too, i guess thats the problem.. i´d need to play it instead of doing midi with controller/editing, just don´t have the money for e-drums atm. I propably shouldn´t have posted the clips, since i actually can do so much better if i put some effort in, kinda had a moment of frustration i had to air out.  I don´t think i´ve ever "published" anything like this before (i must have 200 clips like that but only few finished songs). I swapped back to Reaper from Sonar X3 yesterday, kinda helped my workflow and editing drums isn´t that much of a chore anymore. For some reason, even when i´ve had Sonar for 3 years i just never got comfortable with it. Thats money wasted there. All i need is a deep breath i think.  And no.. not really thinking a detail like a solo on the second clip, thinking more of the big picture.. you know.. song structure and vocals and shit. Gonna get back at it with a rested brain i suppose.  

 

Even though I have a pretty good drummer I'm still using synth drums because drum mics and e-drums are damned expensive. I was thinking that the second song was an instrumental, kinda made a dumb assumption there.

37 minutes ago, GrayscaleDawn said:

EDIT:Thanks for the comments btw, i forgot manners! Much appreciated.  

Anytime.

[FatherAlabaster]

Since the songs aren't up, I can't comment on them, but programming drums takes a ton of time and patience. Hours per song. I  take my own samples and I never use loops - I prefer building songs hit by hit - so it takes me even longer than it could. If you know how to play drums, then you already know how things should feel, which is an advantage; focus on the feel and the sound of the parts, and the flow of the song. 

Being a riff machine is a great thing, that's half the battle. Make sure you're considering variations of the themes in your parts - tempo changes, key changes, time signature and phrasing changes, melodic elaborations, whatever helps you make the most out of a good idea. Playing around with buildup to a favorite riff, and different ways of extending it, can teach you a lot about how to make it feel like the focus of a song, and how to use it to the best advantage.

I like to keep things moving. A lot of what I do in songwriting is based on a handful of ideas - to see how far I can get the song away from a focal point like that and still have it feel like I'm coming back home when I return to it, to avoid repeating parts too much, and to save something special for each song that only happens once. 

If you do have anything you want to share, feel free to start a thread for it in the promo section, I'll definitely take a listen and try to give feedback.

[ChainsawAkimbo]

Well heres the start of a song i am hoping to get something done out of. I did send it to a female singer i know who will be doing some vocals for me at some point, if she comes up with few vocal melodies that will help me get an idea how to build up the song. It definitely needs a tempo tweak, dragging on quite badly as is. The other was just a shitty compilation of some riffs.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/knezc4lkybaz06o/2017 JR project 05a.mp3?dl=0

A big part of my problem is that i tend to compose a riff at a time, without bigger picture.. something to improve on for sure. I know the trouble with the drums, i´ve been doing it mainly by hand for 15 years or so, just never found it fun. I think i will try a method where i imagine what i would play with drums first and then start programming. I just usually tend to follow guitars somewhat and then play the bass to match the drums. That way is really hard to get any natural flow and feel to them. I sometimes play parts with midi keyboard, and at one point i had some crappy e-drums i could use but mainly just by hand. I am pretty decent getting some variation to my riffs, and i often like to use 2 guitars to kinda complete and sometimes compete eachother.  

Heres something bit older, basically shows whats the level of my drums when i bother to spend some time, still not that amazing. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgp6bmw8jz64nw5/Projext X03 Take01.mp3?dl=0

This here just because i used an 80€ Telecaster, had to prove that it´s somewhat usable for metal.. not the heaviest shit ever though.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekhhbll5yvlk2qt/Evilgrin - Just a short one.mp3?dl=0

There are also couple completed song i posted somewhere here, in the gear thing i think. 

[ChainsawAkimbo]

Spent couple days at first soldering guitar pickups back and forth, what a pain in the ass, ended up with what i had allready.. EMG HZ, tried a Dimarzio in between. I was meaning to only fix an issue with the grounding, but thought that since it´s apart allready anyway.. Took quite few hours then today i´ve been testing just some guitar tones and mixing stuff, recorded bunch of random riffs with palm muting, open notes etc. so i can try to find something that works in every situation. My playing is not superb in this one but it wasn´t the point anyway. Some annoying shit, not to mention i´m getting an Ibanez later this week so i propably have to go this all over again. Oh and the result still aint that great. I HATE MIXING!  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sd6g67xpxv1nnnx/2017 JR project 06f VST Test song.mp3?dl=0

EDIT:Had a wrong link at first. :/ 

[FatherAlabaster]

I'm about to go through something similar with my vocal sound, I did two songs with one setting and then had to tweak the channel in order to record some acoustic guitar (because the other channel of my tube pre is messed up right now) - thought I could get it back easily, but apparently not. I'm not happy with the sound of the mic in the mix either, it's a bit too "grainy" for my taste. It sucks because the performances were actually good... I may have to keep them and just do my best to even out everything in the mix! I like mixing, but this promises to be a pain in the dick.

[ChainsawAkimbo]

Well, good luck with that.  

 I think i will wait until i get the Ibanez until i do more tweaking, seems i´m also getting back my Tokai Les Paul which i sold some time ago. It´s an awesome guitar for some cleans and mild distortion. I really wish i could just play and be done with it, unfortunately thats the least of the time you spend doing when trying to do some music.