Song Re-Creation Exercise:

This exercise is taken from our Introduction to Audio Engineering course:

Here is a really fun exercise for you to try as a producer. 

This is more for the instrumental part of a song. Not necessarily the vocals or lyrical content.

First:
Find a song that you like and are familiar with - 

Download it as an MP3. 

Start your favorite DAW that you use for producing.

Start with a blank session, Name it (Reference Rebuild or something) - Don’t start with a template - That’s cheating.

Import your reference track onto a track in your blank session. You will use it as a reference.

Next: 

Start with finding the tempo and the key of the reference song. To give a starting point for your version.

Start intently listening - Listen for the first thing you notice about what makes this song special for you. Or listen to what hits you first. It could be the kick and snare pattern, the bass line, the synth melody……

Pick out ONE thing and try to recreate it. Try to find a similar sounding kick drum that matches. Then the snare, high hats, etc. You may have to manipulate these into place. You may find that you have to use an EQ, and a Compressor to get your kick to sound just like the one in the reference track.

Then move on to the tone of the bass. Is it a synth bass, or a bass guitar? Is it a sample? Just try to get your sound as close as you can to the reference. 

Do you see where we are going with this exercise?

This exercise does a few things for you:

• It gets you used to listening intently to one piece of the reference track at a time which helps with your ability to focus on tone, frequency, compression, etc.
• It helps you to navigate around your DAW a little faster by getting you to find things that you may not normally look at. Plugins that may never use or even tools that you didn’t know that you had.
• It helps you understand when a client is asking you to - “Make my song sound like this reference.”
• Plus, it’s a lot of fun.

Try to do at least a verse and hook of the song. Bonus if you can tweak it and make your version even better. 

Who knows, Maybe you’ll come up with a track that “Sounds Like” one of your favorite songs, and maybe your clients will want to buy it from you so they can write to it.

Go forth and create that Re-Do song. And remember to have fun with it.

Let us know in the comments how you get on with your versions.

Happy Producing!