Learn About Sean "LiveWire" Smith

There's always ways to fix up your music. One way is effects. I realize that I've already mentioned effects, but I never really explained them. Effects are basically additions you can make to a sound to make a sample seem longer, softer, sharper, harder, basically anything you want it to sound like. After you try out the different kinds of effects, you'll find out which ones to use in which situations. Reverb tends to make a sound have an echo sound to it, such as the sound you would get in a cave. Chorus tends to layer sounds and change the overall sound of it in the process. Overdrive tends to make a sample sound more and more like an electric guitar. The equalizer works like any equalizer. Sequencers and sound editors will have many kinds of built-in effects to use on samples or whatever you want to use them on. For example, you can try adding a reverb effect to the string sample you're using for the beat in this tutorial. Or, maybe add an Echo or Delay to the piano. At least, that's what I've done.

Another way is note tweaking. I won't suggest any actual note changing for this tutorial's beat because I believe that I chose the notes carefully. However, you can add shortened notes to make the beat sharper. I don't normally suggest it for beats that you already like, but I guess I can add it just as an example of how it's done. Due to the fact that I don't want to come up with a way of displaying half notes and fourth notes, I'll just add it into the final beat. For those of you eager to try it, go ahead. Either do that or add it according to the notes in the final beat. For this beat, I'm only going to add fourth notes at the ends of certain notes of the piano, as to not overdo it.

One more way is transitions. Transitions are a way to move into a beat smoothly. for this tutorial beat, we will add two types of transitions. One as a transition into the main piano beat, and one as a transition into the main drum beat. For instrumental transitions, it is most common to hear notes leading up to the instruments first note. In percussive transitions, it is common for one of the drum instruments to introduce the main drum beat. I normally use snare, so that is what we'll use. So, its about time we add patterns ten and eleven, then add them to the playlist. NOTE: There are some slight changes in the playlist in adding the transitions, pattern ten (trans1) and pattern eleven (trans2), and a change in the last bar for pattern eight (piano3) and pattern five (hats2).

PATTERN 10

PIANO
   =	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   #	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   =	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   #	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
C5 =	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   =	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  *|_ _ _  _ _ _ *|
   #	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   =	_ _ _ _  *|_ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ *|_
   #	_ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _
   =	*|_ _ _  _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  *|*|_ _ 

PATTERN 11

SNARE	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  X - X X

PLAYLIST

Patterns
1 (drums1)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - -
2 (drums2)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - -
3 (drums3)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - -
4 (hats1) 	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  X X X X
5 (hats2) 	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - -
6 (piano1)	- - - -  - - - -  X - X -  X - X -
7 (piano2)	- - - -  - - - -  - X - -  - X - -
8 (piano3)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - X  - - - X
9 (string1)	X - - -  X - - -  X - - -  X - - -
10(trans1)	- - - -  - - - X  - - - -  - - - -
11(trans2)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - X

Patterns
1 (drums1)	X - X -  X - X -  X - X -  X - X -
2 (drums2)	- X - -  - X - -  - X - -  - X - -
3 (drums3)	- - - X  - - - X  - - - X  - - - X
4 (hats1) 	X X X X  X X X X  - - - -  - - - -
5 (hats2) 	- - - -  - - - -  X X X X  X X X -
6 (piano1)	X - X -  X - X -  X - X -  X - X -
7 (piano2)	- X - -  - X - -  - X - -  - X - -
8 (piano3)	- - - X  - - - X  - - - X  - - - -
9 (string1)	X - - -  X - - -  X - - -  X - - -
10(trans1)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - X
11(trans2)	- - - -  - - - -  - - - -  - - - X