What do you use for "candy" in your songs?
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@siebass Mar 2022
I don't know if there is a defined term already, but I use the term "candy" as in "ear-candy" to describe extra flourishes, one-shot sounds, bonus tiny hooks or otherwise small elements that are not critical to the structure, sound, or feel of a song, but just add a little something nice to a song. Examples of what I use on occasion are literally one-shot sounds that occur once in a song from sound packs (like samples from Mars, they have a lot of fun one-shot sounds), or occasionally reversed reverb used as a swell leading into the first line of a verse or chorus (e.g. the intro to "All the good girls go to hell" by Billie Eilish), and extra beat, an extra measure, and extra breath, hard panned vocal asides or vamps in a bridge/chorus/outro, that kind of thing.
What do y'all use for candy in your stuff, if anything? Is this a concept that is only in my brain, or a more broad element to composition? -
@leka Mar 2022
Especially in live situations, I tend to use "dramatic" breaks, some spoken words to explain upcoming verses or something like that.
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@headfirstonly Mar 2022
I actually play rises on hardware synths a lot these days (the Korg M3's joystick makes things really simple.) NI's "Rise and Hit" is indispensable. I also use their "Action Strikes" a fair bit. Ableton Live has a lot of rises and hits and whatnot that you get by default. But even using an autopan plugin can really make the ears perk up. Those little touches act as signposts to the dynamics and the dramatics of the song, and they can make an incredible diffference to the emotional hit that a song delivers.
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@sherrycanary Mar 2022
@siebass what is a one-shot sound?
There is so much I don't know.
I have never approached music like that, but it is the nuances that add that extra life.
If you YouTube Aimee Nolte, she breaks down all the songs that are up for Academy awards in a very interesting way. One is a Billie Eilish song that is phenomenal. Based on your post, I think you would enjoy it. -
@phenola Mar 2022
make your own one-shot sounds
i) take a sound, e.g. a piano note
ii) put it through a ring modulator
voila, brand new sound
many examples in my electronic tracks -
@guatecoop Mar 2022
A well constructed drum kit part that adds elements as it goes, parts of songs that sound new because I am combining elements of other sections of the song, a similar part played differently, just about anything through my Leslie speaker, tremolo or vibrato either up front or in the atmosphere, some keyboard part that weaves through, and I do love auto pan! I am always thoroughly satisfied when some of these elements have the effect that I’m hoping for, as it can be transformative and really thrilling.
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@nadine Mar 2022
On pop music I'm a fan of layering vocals and ad libs. I leave my rock and metal music as plain as possible. Electro needs plenty of risers, impacts etc. But I don't do these myself cause sounddesign ain't my strength.
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@headfirstonly Mar 2022
To answer some of the questions above:
A "one-shot" is a thing (like a sound, or an audio effect) that only happens once in a song. It's there to make things more interesting, and to increase the amount of engagement the listener has with the song. And as the name "ear candy" suggests, they're sweet, high-energy goodness!
Autopan is an audio effect that takes a sound that was sitting in one place in the stereo mix and moves it around so it AUTOmatically PANs the signal to left and right. Plugins can do this so that the movement synchonises with the beat of a song. The same sort of idea can be found on some delay/echo units, which move individual delays left and right (they're known as multi-tap delays.)
It sounds like I have a subject for Sunday's Twitch show. I'll run through a few one-shot ideas and show you how you can make them happen in your DAW.
Sunday, 20th March 19:30 UTC/GMT 15:30 EST
https://www.twitch.tv/headfirstonly
