Approaching Song Composition

I feel that the approach of a tracker is unique, especially with its rigid time structure (not very easy to switch from duple to triple and back). What do you start with when you begin composing?

I tend to start with a harmonic progression I want to use, which lends me melodies to sound a wee uninspired. :blush:

Im no expert at all but I would say its good to choose a scale to work in first, then work out all the chords you can make from that scale so you have a bunch of them to choose from, then just experiment inside one pattern with chord progressions to get the main idea and work from there. After that start to think about key changes…just experiment by transposing the whole pattern and see what key changes sound the best. Also use the 200 breakbeats pack from the forums. That was the best gift ever for the nicest drum sound. Dont rely on ducking…make space for the drums.

for duplets and triplets its good to use either 12 LPB or to use phrases…

Check out my posts on tuplet definitions and tuplets as phrases…renoise is better than any other sequencer for tuplets. Its because the phrases can create ANY tuplet, even tredecuplets and crazy shit like that…

tuplets definitions

https://forum.renoise.com/t/naming-different-types-of-triplets-tuplet-explanation/48844

tuplets as phrases

https://forum.renoise.com/t/all-tuplets-as-phrases-method/48440

( at the time when I wrote tuplets as phrases I got duplets, quadruplets and octuplets wrong…I didnt understand dupets are 2 in the space of three, quadruplets four in the space of three or six and octuplets eight in the space of six…those are only used in 3/4 time anyway, so yeah fix it up a little if you are working in 3/4 )

Also think about song structures like this ( its just taken from a guitar site about song structures ) :

Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

Verse / Verse / Bridge / Verse

Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus