How I create songs without "song mode"

I know many, including myself have been asking/wishing for a basic "song mode" like many other groove stations have.

But I wanted to share how I make songs, so you know it's not impossible and that I'm not sitting around waiting for song mode lol.

I know scenes are a little different but once you understand them and how to manipulate them you'll be off and running.

Basically I work on my main sequence, this will usually have everything or most of the things I want in the track. That will be my "chorus"

From the software, I right click and copy the scene, then I paste it in the next scene.

The trick, so you don't have tons of scenes, is to expand your scene to match parts of your song.

Example.

in the verse part, I will duplicate a pattern in one of my groups so that it becomes A2.

I then double it however many times I need to get to 16 bars. Now that scene will play for 16 bars, the length of a standard verse.

All I have to do then is copy my chorus and verse parts to where I want them. Most of the time I end up with only 7 or 8 scenes.

intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chrous-outro

or something like that.

I will make a video showing how I do it, but it's pretty simple and easy to mix and match patterns. Just remember if you want to change a pattern only for a specific scene you need to duplicate it and use a different pattern, otherwise it will apply the changes across all your scenes that use the same pattern

I personally like to use maschine in standalone mode more than opening it up in a daw and sequencing vsts. The maschine environment is probably the closet thing to how I am used to working coming from hardware...ableton is close, but my workflow is much faster in maschine, especially with chopping samples manually...I like that better than autochop

Now, if I can just keep pestering NI devs to build a "bridge" of some sort so I can use my other NI plugs in the maschine environment lol. It doesn't even have to be all from the hardware...I'll use the software to pull them up I promise :lol:

 

Good stuff. That's kind of how I do it too.

 

me too.

sowari

 

cool, I just wanted to put it out there since I am one of the ones asking about "song mode"

there are ways around that, and it's not a show stopper, just a different way of working.

 

agreed

sowari

 

I'm new to MASCHINE, but this is how I do it as well. Once I noticed how the device/software worked this is what makes sense...


I got a question for the authur or anyone here. He mentioned chopping slices manually, are you doing this with MASCHINE? If so, how are you doing this?

I don't see a way of dropping slice points and creating loop points within the device/maschine leaves a lot to be desired as well. It seems to me it only works when you've used MASCHINE slicing, allowing you move loops points on a slice at the point as opposed to being able to draw in a loop.

 

you can place a Sample on a Sound, put it into Sample Edit and move the Start/End points and also - if you activate Loop - the Loop Start/End Points. you can do this without slicing.

but maybe i am not quite understanding you?

sowari

 

I think you are and that's what i'm aware of... I speaking in terms of freedom to assign the loop point like in most audio editors where you simply create a loop by left-clicking on the sample and creating loopd by left-clicking and dragging... or creating a slice by being able to drip the mouse on a point in the sample, right-click, and insert slice mark...

 

okay well you can't do that.

but you can use your Maschine Controller to move start and end points turn on Loop and move the loop start and end points. for me this is fast and intuitive

sowari

 

I can dig it... i'd trade all that in right now for two working displays on my MASCHINE... Right now I have nothing

 

Like sowari said, I just put a sample on a pad, edit my start/end points, then duplicate it to the next pad and move like that. It's very quick.

I don't make slices to have the loop play back at different tempos, I do my slicing so I can put together the parts of the sample I want to use, that may be where our methods differ.

If you just want to slice the whole sample so you can be able to play with the tempo, then it's probably easier to let maschine do it.

 

i'm trying to get more in this habit anyway. slicing samples was never really about me being able to work at any tempo, it's just the first way i learned to do things... I really wish I had of started out with an MPC years ago, but that's neither here nor there now... I trying to work on my album (I sing and wrap as well as create) and i'm working with a few other producers (I add myself lightly to that title, I do know the difference between beatmaker and producer) and for the most part anyone i've ran across with an MPC background works as you describe. i think it makes for a better sound that way to.

 

no right or wrong man, many people do it just so they can "timestretch" a sample, it's all good man!

shoot, that's what REX files are all about

there are many ways to work, I just find it quicker to work this way, especially on the maschine...

and I rarely just loop a sample anyway so, it's all good man.

just have fun and make music, there are no rules!

 

So are you all basically using the Maschine as a DAW exclusively and composing entirely in Maschine? I've done that for beat-tape and bass songs, but I really like Ableton Live. I am having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to incorporate Maschine.

 

I switch back and forth lol. For just basic sample chopping, loops, and random instruments, maschine is fine.

When I want to use all my vsts and such, I Open ableton, those two programs are my favorites.

I haven't tried maschine in ableton yet, for some reason I'm just not interested in doing so lol.

I wouldn't say I'm using maschine as a daw, just as a production station. I really like using it standalone as opposed to in plugin mode.

 

ok so saintjoe and the rest of the maschine fam...

im trying to figure out the scenes and patterns but im kind of lost!

like ususally for example i had bpm and it synced up perfect with my timeline in cubase 4, but with maschine i dont get it?

like when i open a maschine as a vsti do i just create 4 bars and pay no attention to my time line or what?

im just trying to figure this maschine out because i really like it!


like saint joe said how he create a song is how i would want to do!

Can someone help me please?


so basically lets say i have a vsti with a 8 bar loop?

then i add maschine but its not going along with the timeline in cubase

where would i start in maschine? im a lil lost, sorry


thanks in advance for you all help

 

well basically maschine will keep looping over and over until you build up scenes. I really don't use it in vst mode to tell you the truth, I think it's easier to just export or create loops and drag and drop the audio.

Someone else may have a better explanation but basically it's the same way I did it, you just have to make your scenes the same way to go along with your other tracks

 

hey man ill be glad when u make that video! That will help me out...

thanks for the info

 

Me too, that video would be incredible.