Songwriting
Let's start with a pop song. The chords were picked from the Palette. The melody was originally improvised along the playback and later refined by modifying and transforming Figures. Synfire was a great help while trying dozens of different bass lines and instrumental phrases. Instrumental melodies were sketched with broad strokes. Vocals by Solaria, lyrics human-made.
Only an hour later we finished this piano version by dropping phrases from a library and tweaking them.
Leaving Orbit City
Cinematic build-up for piano, brass and hybrid instruments. Composed from a hand full of phrases, manually edited and tested with different harmony progressions until this came up.
Snippets
This piece was prototyped in real-time using Snippets. Like all examples here, it is not a finished production. In fact your production will start from here.
Phrases As Starting Points
Just one or two phrases can get an entire song started from scratch. This example takes two phrases generated by Factories that were taken from the Example Piano library (The Pale Rider, Entangled Lines), splits them by symbol type and uses the resulting lines for different instruments. Listen to the generated phrases first, then a few parts that were arranged based on them.
This rudiment was arranged a bit further and has evolved to become the example track The Pale Rider .
Orchestral Mockups
This demo is based on phrases taken from a library. Assembling longer phrases from short elements works especially well with orchestral music that is driven by a narrative. You can literally compose build-ups simply by dropping more elements on the phrases in your arrangement. A tutorial video explains in detail how you can do this yourself.
Natural Phrase Synthesis
Generative factories do not make any assumptions about genre or style. Their internal rules are universal and the range of expression is vast. You will never get clichés or stereotypes, except by pure chance. If you want standards like reggae, boogie, or bossa nova, you'll probably get results faster with an auto-accompaniment arranger keyboard. If you want striking and memorable expressions as building blocks for your work, use Synfire. Here is a medley of generated phrases (that happened to fall into many different styles).
Tip: The parts of a piano phrase (left hand, right hand, chords) can be played by different instruments. A simple trick to build consistent textures or patterns that may become the basis of a great song. With Synfire Pro you can generate thousands of phrases and render them against as many different chord progressions.
Atmospheres
This atmospheric opening is based on a few very simple phrases and a Factory-generated harmony progression. Sketches like this can be done in under 30 minutes if you already have an idea which sounds you want to use.
Another variant with a slightly altered Harmony parameter, a refined melody, and all electronic sounds.
Harmony Is a Parameter
Since harmony is a parameter, it can be replaced at any time. Sometimes this radically alters the mood and narrative of a score. Below are two variants of a more elaborate piece. Nothing demonstrates the dynamism of music prototyping as impressively as replacing harmony: Dropping a progression from a library was all that was needed to get from the first track to the second track.
Polishing a result in the DAW is far easier than doing all the composing by hand. But most importantly, you can quickly try different prototypes and decide where you want to go.
Cinematic
Amazing pictures of Scotland accompanied by music composed with Synfire Pro.
©2019 Ruchir Shah. Footage sourced from Pexels.com
Electronic
This example features 10 instances of the virtual analog synth Sprike that you can download for free from our site. Electronic music often builds on short loops arranged in ever changing combinations. This is relatively easy with Synfire. This piece was arranged in a few hours.
This piece also lends itself to real-time arrangement using the Snippets feature (Express, Pro). Snippets are somewhat similar to live loops in a DAW, except Synfire can render them against any harmony you select during playback.
Developing Grooves
Rhythm is more than drums. Dropping phrases from a library on instruments in a simple arrangement ensures that you can test variants quickly and find one that works best for you.
Transformations
Starting point was this fragment based on Claude Debussy's "Reverie". A Shift parameter was added to create a human steal-time effect (rubato). The chords were changed to those of "Angel Eyes". Took around one hour to complete.
A Classic Transformed
And Reused For an Electronic Jingle
This is a marketing jingle we composed with Synfire based on the same phrases that were used above.
And Reused For Pop
This song now uses the very same phrases to accompany pre-recorded vocals. This prototype took only a few hours to make, although decent mixing and production would certainly take longer.
Acid Jazz
Ok, the trumpets sound flat and cheesy. But that's not the point here. This example shows what can be built from a simple progression, a melody and bass line in relatively short time.
Compose Around a Given Melody
Here we had only a vocal take and nothing else. The rest was built around the melody with Synfire. Using the Harmonizer, a chord progression was found that matches the melody. Then the arrangement was filled with phrases (bass, drums, organ, E-piano, etc) and edited.
Walk In Space
Simple Input, Organic Output
This example is a demo showing how only a few short phrases can make up a dense and lively "hand made" texture that can make a great foundation for a song or soundtrack. (Read the entire tutorial here). The piece also features a very unconventional key change near the end that was a pleasure to compose using the Palette feature of Synfire.
Rikko
Jazz Study
This study was built on phrases from the example library, rendered against an edgy oriental harmonic progression.
Jazz Study A
Morphing
Morphing allows for musical phrases to be crossfaded (blended) continously, resulting in new musical material that practically appears out of nowhere. In conjunction with other techniques that Synfire has to offer, one is able to build lively and complex compositions in no time.
This example is based on three piano phrases blended with the morphing technique. As a result the piano player seems to improvise new phrases all the time. The flutes were "borrowed" from a Bach concert and copied into this piece. They are playing in 6/8 time while the piano is in 4/4. The possibilities of what can be combined are simply amazing!