Reid Rosefelt
Well-known member
Microsoft OneNote - Everything I put in here, whether on my regular computer or music computer, iPhone or iPad, is available on all the other devices, and online. Mainly I use it when I think of lyrics when I don’t have my notepad with me. It can transcribe what you say. If I come up with a lyric, or make progress on a chord progression. I can work on it in all the other places. If I think of a melody while out and about, I can sing into OneNote and it will sync up when I get home. I’m currently working on a song about a real person. I have a collection of photos of her and they’re accessible from all my devices. I use it for too many things to mention: lists of software I need to update, or ones I want to buy before a sales deadline, etc.
Word Hippo – This is a central place for all kinds of word exploration. It has a rhyme dictionary, but it’s also a thesaurus and antonym finder, a dictionary, and a translator. You can search it by word forms like noun, verb, adjective, and adverb, but also plural, singular, past and present tense. You can search for words that start or end with something or have it in the middle. My favorite feature is “sentences,” where you can see your word used in numerous sentences. Sometimes I find my best ideas for lyrics here. Word Hippo is free online, but I use it on my devices, where there is a small fee—I think to remove ads. Word Hippo is far from the ultimate Rhyme Dictionary, although it is very good. I usually look for rhymes more than one. I will do a post on my favorites at some point.
Suggester 2 – This is a very simple tool for exploring chords. If I’m writing a song in the key of C, would I consider, Am9 or Am11 or G13 or Em7b9? It’s a fast way to hear chords I rarely use on various pianos and guitars and see the way they are played. You can also assemble a song, and it will “suggest” the next chord, as many programs will do. Suggester has all the advanced features of inversions, voicings, alt Bass, intervals, that you find in Scaler. For Mac and Apple Devices.
Scaler is not on my list of favorites, although I think it is the best deal in music theory software. It's not on my list because I almost never use it. But that's a topic for another discussion.
Band-in-a-Box – Once I get my songs into decent shape, I put them into BIAB. There I work on the structure, and play with the key and BPM. It’s easy to move things around and add an intro or outro. Then I draw on my collection of Styles, which allow me to hear how my song might sound in different genres. It is true that BIAB is not interested in much music that is less than 40 years old—80s Electro is about as contemporary as BIAB gets—but from what I can tell about songwriters online, they are not tuned into the music of the last 25 years anyway. As the parts in the BIAB algorithm are played by first-class session musicians, the quality is very good. Many people just put on their vocal and use BIAB as their final arrangement. I use it as a foundation to build my song. You can output the separate streams as audio files.
Fadr – MIDI conversion - This is a new discovery, but I will sign up for a month whenever I need drum MIDI converted. On the song I’m finishing now, I liked the BIAB drum and bass, but needed to change them. I used a website called fadr to transfer the drums into a General MIDI. I put that file in Addictive Drums 2, set AD2 to accept General MIDI, and the kick, snare, cymbals, hats, toms, were all in the right spots. That's an AI that I can use. But at this point I could change the drum sounds and edit the MIDI. I have always found multi-track MIDI files to be hard to get, even from Melodyne. There are many places that can transfer a mono track well, but I used fadr for the bass. I pay $10 a month. And it is $100 for a year.
Synthesizer V - I use Synth V to create a guide track for my vocal. It’s done very early in the process, before I record my vocal. While I move forward with with my arrangement, I hear the vocal over and over and over. When I hear any lyrics I don’t like, I rewrite. When I can listen to all my lyrics a few dozen times and still like them—I consider them done.
I also use Synth V to compose counterpoint for my backing vocals. I’ve never used a third or fifth—maybe someday. I like to use the second vocal as another melodic element.
What do you use?
Word Hippo – This is a central place for all kinds of word exploration. It has a rhyme dictionary, but it’s also a thesaurus and antonym finder, a dictionary, and a translator. You can search it by word forms like noun, verb, adjective, and adverb, but also plural, singular, past and present tense. You can search for words that start or end with something or have it in the middle. My favorite feature is “sentences,” where you can see your word used in numerous sentences. Sometimes I find my best ideas for lyrics here. Word Hippo is free online, but I use it on my devices, where there is a small fee—I think to remove ads. Word Hippo is far from the ultimate Rhyme Dictionary, although it is very good. I usually look for rhymes more than one. I will do a post on my favorites at some point.
Suggester 2 – This is a very simple tool for exploring chords. If I’m writing a song in the key of C, would I consider, Am9 or Am11 or G13 or Em7b9? It’s a fast way to hear chords I rarely use on various pianos and guitars and see the way they are played. You can also assemble a song, and it will “suggest” the next chord, as many programs will do. Suggester has all the advanced features of inversions, voicings, alt Bass, intervals, that you find in Scaler. For Mac and Apple Devices.
Scaler is not on my list of favorites, although I think it is the best deal in music theory software. It's not on my list because I almost never use it. But that's a topic for another discussion.
Band-in-a-Box – Once I get my songs into decent shape, I put them into BIAB. There I work on the structure, and play with the key and BPM. It’s easy to move things around and add an intro or outro. Then I draw on my collection of Styles, which allow me to hear how my song might sound in different genres. It is true that BIAB is not interested in much music that is less than 40 years old—80s Electro is about as contemporary as BIAB gets—but from what I can tell about songwriters online, they are not tuned into the music of the last 25 years anyway. As the parts in the BIAB algorithm are played by first-class session musicians, the quality is very good. Many people just put on their vocal and use BIAB as their final arrangement. I use it as a foundation to build my song. You can output the separate streams as audio files.
Fadr – MIDI conversion - This is a new discovery, but I will sign up for a month whenever I need drum MIDI converted. On the song I’m finishing now, I liked the BIAB drum and bass, but needed to change them. I used a website called fadr to transfer the drums into a General MIDI. I put that file in Addictive Drums 2, set AD2 to accept General MIDI, and the kick, snare, cymbals, hats, toms, were all in the right spots. That's an AI that I can use. But at this point I could change the drum sounds and edit the MIDI. I have always found multi-track MIDI files to be hard to get, even from Melodyne. There are many places that can transfer a mono track well, but I used fadr for the bass. I pay $10 a month. And it is $100 for a year.
Synthesizer V - I use Synth V to create a guide track for my vocal. It’s done very early in the process, before I record my vocal. While I move forward with with my arrangement, I hear the vocal over and over and over. When I hear any lyrics I don’t like, I rewrite. When I can listen to all my lyrics a few dozen times and still like them—I consider them done.
I also use Synth V to compose counterpoint for my backing vocals. I’ve never used a third or fifth—maybe someday. I like to use the second vocal as another melodic element.
What do you use?
Last edited:
, pen 
, guitar 
, and a cassette recorder 
