What makes a good song?

[Smokey]

In your opinion what makes a good song? What do you check for in your own songs before you release them?

[NOTactuallyPENDULUM]

Expressing what ever it is you feel like expressing at the time.

Unless you mean something popular. In that case its got to be at least 2 and half minutes, with a beginning, next part, middle, next part, and end.

Chord sequences make most songs far as i can tell, unless you mean dirty techno, in which case chords and melody arent the most important things to the song.

In short, if its got noise in that you like, and no noises that you do not like, you've made something good :)

[Khuskan]

In my eyes... or ears, it's less about what I like and more what abides the rules of music of what should sound good. You'll get a lot more people to like your music if you shape it around the already predefined rules of what hundreds of years of baroque through romantic has said to sound 'correct'.

I know that dosn't sound creative. When I read it back it seems like i'm saying that 'in order to make art, you must use a paintbrush'. Its not that you can't be creative, its just that to get people to belive what you have done is new and creative, you have to be a tiny bit non-creative.

[mhb]

any song that isn't so technical that it loses all sense of emotion is Good music.

examples:
most jazz - very, very bad. no emotion what-so-ever 'cause it's too damn unsycopated and utterly pointless beyond the fact that the jazz musicians just play everything to they're own beat and call it music. fuckin' morons.

most everything else - pretty damn nice. still has technical elements but didn't lose emotion by all the musicians tryin' ta show off all at once like most jazz musicians do.

catch my drift?

[Kirizzle]

Components and rules of a good song.

Teh Composition Itself

- Beware of dissonance and off notes. Only use dissonance if it adds some flavor to your piece, most of the time it won't though, so you be the judge of whether it sounds appealing or annoying. Use dissonance with caution and moderation! Unless you're composing something atonal.

- Having an intricate and/or complex composition is good. Four bar chord progressions are boring and over-done. Songs in the C Major and A Minor scale are too. So most importantly: syncopate and don't be timid around sharps and flats (like I am =/). Using poly-melodies in your song is also a big plus.

Keep Things Diverse

Keeping a song diverse means doing many things, such as:

- Using several different elements (real instruments, synths, FX and etc.)

- Having good song structure, such as intro, verus, chorus, brigde, chorus and outro. Make sure to have good transitions between those as well. (Although that structure is typical for most commerical rock songs, here in the AP you can do it anyway you want. Some of my songs don't have a chorus and others do. Some of them have an outro or intro and others don't. You shouldn't worry about your song structure too much, it'll come to you as you make the song.)

- STRONG AND VARIED PERCUSSIONAL WORK! This is quite important, since no one wants to listen to "boom shucka boom boom" for 2 minutes straight. Add fills and possibly snare rolls, make it interesting and complex.

- Change-ups, such as tempo or time signature changes.

Try to be Creative

This isn't manditory, but it sure can't hurt. Try being creative or unique with your song, add something that wouldn't normally be there or do something that wouldn't be expected. Some of these things are:

- Sound clips of whatever fits, whether it be hitler or whale calls.

- Fuse two or more genres together, have an electronic orchestral or a salsa techno, the possibilities are endless.

Teh Mastering

This is probably the most important of everything I mentioned so far since the clarity of a track can make it or break it. Strive for clarity and make note of this advice:

- Use the EQ. It's important that you isolate your instruments and synth sounds into appropriate frequency ranges. It's okay, and even good, to have some overlapping of instrument/synth frequencies in similar ranges but not too many, or else that'll make your song sound "muddy." Furthermore, you wanna go for wholeness, meaning: Have ever frequency between 20Hz and 20Khz playing for as most of the song as you can. If you have a gap anywhere, or you're missing the low or hi end of your song, it'll sound empty or as if something is missing. Just as Rucklo mentioned in another thread, this EQ thing, it's sorta like a puzzle.

- Volume dynamics, have them, no one wants to listen to a track that's blaringly loud for 2 minutes straight. Also, diversify the volume levels of your individual instrument/synths. Usually, whatever is playing the melody should be loudest. (If you want something louder, the general rule is to lower the volume of everything else, and then you can eventually maximize the whole track. By doing this, you avoid accidentally over-powering any particuler instrument/synth.)

- Maximize and limit... but don't over maximize.

And finally...

Don't be stupid, use your ear to determine whether what you just changed, modified or added sounds good, and if not, take it out and try again.

Phew... did I miss anything? I know I didn't mention anything on compression, but that's because I didn't know of anything to say... ah well.

[Smokey]

^ k.... that was interesting.... now..... will you tell me where to get a snare drumroll or how to make one out of a single snare hit?

[Khuskan]

Apply snare roll onto sampler VST
Set sequencer to 4/32
draw dot every 1/32th of a bar
Profit

[attemptedperfection]

good music, like beauty, is almost entirely subjective.
it's all about culture context.
I've found that, generally, there is no set of components that will cause me to think,
"hey, this is some pretty damn-good music!"
It's all about whether or not the music speaks to me.
I value originality, but some of my favorite songs are far from original.
I value talent, but some of my favorite songs show very little talent.
I value inteligent lyrics, but some of my favorite songs have horrible lyrics, or none at all.
I suppose if I came across a song that was unoriginal, talentless, and unintelligent, then yes, I would probably find it repulsive. Otherwise, there's really no telling what's going to appeal to my taste...

So I guess my answer to your question is "soul."

could I be more vague and ambiguous?

[No1r]

A good song must have "good ideas", imho. :)
And possibly a good sound too. Sound also intended as -feeling- in the music, more in the live played.

Music is great..

[DigitalCollapse]

Awesome drums, a good bass, and a sexy melody.

[CapnCrunchDaPimp]

Definately the intro, it has to grab the listeners attention, and grab him by the BALLS so the listener won't wuss out and stop listening 1/4 of the way through, and right when it gets boring, GUITAR SOLO, and a drum solo to end it all xD

Also, killer vocals and bass lines

[Kirizzle]

At 10/15/06 08:38 PM, CapnCrunch-1 wrote: Definately the intro, it has to grab the listeners attention, and grab him by the BALLS

The intro has to be a woman nagging about something and saying that if it isn't fixed by the end of the day then they ain't gettin none tonight?

[Syntrus]

Experimentation.

[wafflesman]

everyone has their opinion, make what you think sounds great!

[IQ-3000]

I definitely agree with the intro making it a good song. In fact, that how I judge songs. If the intro doesn't get me, then the song has automatically lowered my score I was going to give them by up to 1 point. Peoplt don't really care about endings; all you have to do is just stop the music while at the chorus or melody-only part.