Intensity

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Newbie dude

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It seems, in my songs, the level of intensity and excitement is the same on my instrumentals throughoutt the whole song. How Can I change this? Is It a matter of volume, or a matter of adding in different elements such as an orchestra compisition or synth in the background.

If it is a matter of volume, should I put my choruses on seperate tracks after I record the song and turn them up higher? Does the volume of drums have alot to do with intensity, because all my drums are MIDI.
 
Newbie dude said:
It seems, in my songs, the level of intensity and excitement is the same on my instrumentals throughoutt the whole song. How Can I change this? Is It a matter of volume, or a matter of adding in different elements such as an orchestra compisition or synth in the background.

If it is a matter of volume, should I put my choruses on seperate tracks after I record the song and turn them up higher? Does the volume of drums have alot to do with intensity, because all my drums are MIDI.
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Hi newbie dude.

I'm not 100% across what you are trying to find out.
Are your compositions lacking something somewhere?

Your comment "the level of intensity and excitement is the same on my instrumentals throughoutt the whole song" is something that many dance producers would love to achieve! :D

Are you looking for more dynamics in your songs? ie; louder and softer parts, a bit of variety in the 'energy' of the track between verses and choruses?

Dags
 
It's kind of hard to answer this one without hearing your work, but here are a few general concepts IMHO hold true to me:

Before having to make a chorus louder or turn up the dbs on tracks, consider widening the dynamic range of the whichever instrument drives that part of the song.

I'm not sure if you are using guitars, programming, drums, synths whatever but with virtually any instrument, to some degree you can get contrasting tones in there. It's best to get the feel sometimes in your performance, instead of relying solely on pushing up the faders up and down during mix down for this.

Definately backing off the gain on say a guitar amp on the verses as oppossed to the choruses might give you that effect, for example. Or even just doubling the vocals, or the guitars, or synths, or even quadrupling any of those just during the choruses will give you that effect. Again it's very hard to tell without hearing the song or what type of music you are doing...

It can be something slight like just boosting up the whole mix a db during the choruses (like u said), or it can be something more distinct like playing the drums a little lighter during the verses (or even no drums on certain parts) and then letting it rip during the chorus... a lot of Nu Metal stuff is written in that vein of like an 'ocean'... the wave swells up and builds then crashes, only to start forming again...

Hope this helps

Try posting an example of your stuff if you can
 
It seems, in my songs, the level of intensity and excitement is the same on my instrumentals throughoutt the whole song.

Is this a recording problem or a song dynamic problem? If it's the later, and I mean this in all seriousness....try silence. What you don't play may be just as important as what you do play. It can build up as much tension as a volume swell and usually whatever comes after the silence is something listeners focus on.

Just a thought, J.P.
 
well it could be anything, but you can start from the root and work your way up the heirachy...


what about the tracked performances? Strong performance? or lacking in emotional intensity?
 
Maybe it's a matter of songwriting/composition than it is recording techniques? Listen to some Pixies records - Frank Black is the man when it comes to dynamics.
 
Thanks guys. I just don't really know how to wexplain what I'm saying. It's just, like, in the choruses, there's no....emotion, i guess. As for the type of music,mainly just different types of modern rock.
 
well, what you might be expriencing is simply a lack of "creativity" in your songwriting.


I don't mean this in a bad sense. I think what you are trying to accomplish is more a sense of songwriting/producing/preproduction work than actual engineering.


From the engineering standpoint:

You can go as far as adding cool FX, automating your verses to be a few db lower than your choruses to create "dynamic" (relative loudness) and/or anything else that entails the engineering end.

Remember, relative loudness is a powerful thing. A mouse compared to a grown elephant will make a bigger statement than a baby elephant compared to a grown elephant.

From the producing/songwriting standpoint:

You can go as far as asking "what can I do to make my chorus jump out more?" Should I add another layer of FX? Introduce another guitar line?


In terms of song structuring (for pop music), you should think in 20-30 second intervals. Your verses being no more than 30 and your choruses being no more than 30.

-Did you know that having at least two different chords per bar creates a sense of motion?

-Did you know that to grab the attention of the average listener, your hook needs to come within 30 seconds and your first chorus should come no later than a minute into the song?

All these are good questions to ask yourself.
 
invisiblenemies said:
Maybe it's a matter of songwriting/composition than it is recording techniques? Listen to some Pixies records - Frank Black is the man when it comes to dynamics.
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100% on that and to a lesser extent the stone roses were masters of taking you up and down with the first album. It's all about dynamics and Frank Black understood that very well
 
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