Hey Producer! As you already know, melodies are the key element of every beat. Most producers tend to make them way too complex, which causes issues in recognizing and vibing to your melody.
So in this guide, I will show you step by step how you can create super catchy melodies using just one shot sounds, no fancy plugins needed.
Make sure to take note of all important steps and feel free to copy and paste our melody-making system to craft endless melodies for your beats and instrumentals.
It will not be super easy. But trust me, once you understand the concept of a good melody, you can create endless melodies that all sound perfect! So read carefully and follow all the steps.
✅ STEP 1
To get started, you definitely need a great sound selection. Pick a highly organic one shot like you find plenty of them in our sound collection. Something like a pluck/bell or synth one shot would be amazing to start composing your melody concept.
✅ STEP 2
You can start by creating basic chords, but how can you craft those advanced-looking chords? It’s not advanced… it’s really simple. Here’s the trick:
- Start by placing a random note in your scale (white notes)
- Add a second note to your composition that follows along the first note
- Complete your chord by adding a third note
💡Tip: If you don’t know where to place the notes, simply place a random one and leave one white note out and then place one above.
But your composition may not look as good as this one down below right?
To make it more complex: Copy the note, that is in the middle of your chord and paste it one octave lower. For example, copy C5 and shift it down to C4 to create more depth. You can leave the original middle note untouched or simply shift it up one octave higher to create the exact same chords that I have down below.
✅ STEP 3
Right now your melody is pretty simple (thats good), but definitely NOT unique (thats bad). To change that, simply open your one shot sound by clicking on it and copy the following settings in the “Envelope” > “Mod X” settings. This will activate a filter to make your one shot sound even more interesting. To get started, you can copy my settings here:
- Envelope Decay (DEC): 27%
- Envelope Amount (AMT): 100%
- Mod X: 29%
💡Tip: Play with the Mod Y to give your one shot a special analog touch.
Try something like 35% here.
✅ STEP 4
Now it’s time to shape the melody to your liking by shortening your notes and then adding extra notes. Try playing them in on your keyboard if you have one to make them sound more natural. If you don’t have one: Just play around with the timing and velocity below.
I’ve highlighted some red notes. That are our basic chords slightly changeg up from step 2. All green notes are added by me to make the melody more dynamic and less static.
⚠️Important: Even at this point, your melody should follow the chords. Always try to use notes that are next to your chords.
⚠️Also important: As you can see, I’ve added about 3-4 notes per bar. Keep it simple and repetitive.
💡Tip: The first and second parts are very similar. Try copying all the notes and just changing some single notes to create a variation that will keep the listener attracted to your melody.
✅ STEP 5
This is a simple but super effective way to add a dreamy vibe to your melody.
Add the following effects and copy this settings:
- Reverb (as the first plugin in the mixer chain)
- Wet to 100%, Dry to 65%
- Mod 20%, Speed 45%
- Size 100%, Diff 100%
- Dec around 2.5 – 3.0 seconds
- Damp 8.5k
- EQ (after the reverb)
- Low cut (350Hz) & high cut (1600Hz) filter
💡Tip: Add a chorus before the reverb to give your melody that extra dreamy sound.
✅ STEP 6
To add more depth to your melody, choose an atmospheric bass sound and layer it underneath. The bass sound should be in the background, so make sure it’s not too loud. For warm, lush bass pads, I like to use the Flooic BA – Atmospheric Bass 3, which you can find in our Pro Sounds Select collection.
💡Tip: Keep things super simple. Just follow the root notes of your chords (often the lowest note of each chord).
💡Extra Tip: If you really want to level up your bass, try adding slides using the Slide Tool, located in the upper left corner of the Piano Roll.
✅ STEP 7
The ultimate “secret” to spicing up your entire melody loop is to record atmospheric vocals and place them in the background for an organic and textured sound. In the next section I will show you all the effects. Don’t miss them, or your vocal sound will ruin your entire sample.
Apply the following effects to your vocal mixer channel:
- EQ (first plugin)
- Low cut (290Hz) & high cut (3900Hz) filter
- Compressor (second plugin)
- Threshold: depends on your vocal loudness (you can start with -22db)
- Ratio: 1.5:1
- Attack: 0ms
- Release: 600ms
- Delay & Reverb
- Adjust to your liking
- Pitch & formant shifting (most important)
- Set the pitch to +12 (1200 cents)
- Stretch pro: Drag formant down to -12 (1200 cents)
✅ STEP 8
Your loop should now be finished. To add more texture, simply place an organic percussion loop underneath the melody loop. These loops will make your melodies super interesting and unique. You can find many high-quality percussion loops in our drum pack, which is included in our sound collection.
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