How to write a simple techno song
Some knowledge of musical theory is needed (sorry...it
isn't much tho')
I'll be writing a song as I write this. Red text shows
what I've done.
The first step in writing a techno song is getting the tools.
This can be a full mixer desk or just a computer program. Personally, I use
either Fruityloops Pro, or Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 (although this is for MIDI, it
can still be used-keep reading)
It is possible to do it with just a sound editing program, such as Cool Edit or
Goldwave (which are useful tools anyway), but it's fiddly and annoying as you
have to copy and paste mix your samples, so I won't go into that. A tape deck
can even be used, if you don't have a computer, providing all your samples can
be recorded to the tape...the quality would be extremely low, as you have to
record one sample to the tape for the whole song, then rewind and copy the tape
while recording the next sample over it. Very, very annoying and you need a good
tape recorder. I'm only mentioning this for interest (and to fill some space...)
The first step in writing techno is to write some riffs or
loops. This is just a simple musical theme which is repeated sic ad nauseam
throughout the song. With Fruityloops, the basic loop is four beats long. (Four
is a very important number in techno as it is the basis of most western music
and our brains are tuned to it, I call it the rule of fours)
A nice riff (in semiquavers) is 'C-Eb <Bb A-B-rAb---Bb-B->'
(Note-"<" means go down to the next octave and ">"
means go up to the next octave. "-" is a semiquaver rest)
The riff can be any speed, so long as there are four clear beats and it should
repeat cleanly (ie It doesn't run down 4 octaves then skip all the way back
again-actually, you can do this, but a nice bass type groove is good).
Once you have your riff, make another version of it that is slightly different
at the end.
I changed the last four notes to 'Eb-C->'
This is so the riff can be repeated three times then finished with the
variation, fitting it into the rule of fours. When you want to muck around a bit
you can always change this, but once again, it sounds good.
After doing this, do it again. You should now have two
'riff-riff-riff-variation' blocks. Next bring in the kick...just a loop of 4
kicks, each on a quaver. The 'variation' on this one is pretty simple and is
just an extra kick inbetween the last two so you have 'K---K---K-K-K-K-'
where each "K" is a quaver length kick. For each loop of the kick,
play a loop of the riff at the same time. When you reach the variation of the
kick-play the variation of the riff! Easy!
This time instead of two repetitions, one is enough.
Now to bring in the full beats - Keep the kick and riff going, but add the snare and hihats. The hihats fit between each kick (Where you had 'K---K---K---K---' you will now put 'K-H-K-H-K-H-K-H' where "H" is a hihat-usually an open one). The snare just hits at the same time as every second kick. Now repeat it all together twice over...
This is all you really need for a very simple techno song. I'll keep going to the end though if you want something you can actually listen too...
The next step is to have a change, something different to keep
the song going. Basically this is just different riff and variation on using a
different sample or instrument (you can use the same one, but it in my opinion
this doesn't sound as good). Make sure you change the drumbeat as well!
My 'change riff' is 'C-<B->Eb-G-<Bb-G->Eb->C-<'
(I've tried to make these easy to follow- I know they aren't great, but it's the
best I can do). The variation is the last four notes changed to 'C---'
My 'change drum beat' was just half of the normal beat played at half the speed
or 'K---H---KS---H---' (KS is Kick and Snare together). The variation just had
an extra kick at the same time as the last High (the last four notes change to
'HK---')
To connect the change to the original, play the change twice
over, but on the very last 4 beats change the drumbeat to something to 'break
up' the beat-'X---X---X-X-X-X' is good (X is Kick,
snare and hats at the same time). You'll notice that this is the same as the
kick variation, with every instrument. This works nice.
Now play the original riff, but instead of the full drumbeat, go back to just
the kick for one repetition, then to the full drumbeat (like at the start). Play
the original riff and drumbeat through once again. To finish, play the riff and
drumbeat one last time, but only play the variation of the riff-cut the drums
out completely for the last four beats.
And that's it! This is the basics of a basic song. You can add to this by Paste mixing sound samples like voices and the like into the song. Below are a few pictures that may help and an mp3 of the song I wrote while doing this file, using all the riffs and beats written above.
This is how the song looks in Fruityloops...each coloured block represents a
different loop (ie the bluish coloured block divided into three at the top left
is the original riff and the green block beside and below it is the variation.
If that makes sense.)
Download the song in .flp (Fruityloops) format here
Download it in Mp3 format (it's only 535kB) here