A Song Is Born Ep.2 | 80s arranging - pop music | tutorial/workflow

In this episode we'll start building up the arrangement of the song. We'll start adding drums, bass and some keyboard parts. We'll look at how a song would be transformed from a demo to the pro studio in the 80s and we'll use both samplers and old sequencing hardware. Atari ST, Akai etc.
Watch episode 1, where we compose the song, in real time, here:
• A Song Is Born Ep.1 | ...
If you have questions you'd like me to answer, maybe something from the video you'd like me to repeat and expand upon, or something else of this nature, I'll be available on a live stream each Monday after the episodes. At 9pm CET.
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A big thanks to the sponsors of this series: Antelope Audio, AMS Neve, Golden Age Premiere, Stam Audio, Audient.
Also a big thanks to Anders Jensen for letting me have some of his gear during the production of this series.
I must emphasize that all the sponsored gear came from me contacting the makers of it, asking them to provide it. This is the gear I wanted to use and I knew the gear from before. No sponsor dictated what I could or couldn't do, say or don't say, iwhen it came to the use of it.
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[@prewinder]

Thank you. This should be saved for the future as a music history lesson. That conga sound was my Madeleine cookie trigger today. Kicked me right back into La-Isla Bonita memories of hanging by a wall in a disco hearing the last notes of another last dance that never got danced ring out.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@prewinder]

@@EspenKraft Well actually I was always sober in my youth ;) But merry Christmas!

[@davidryle]

Not rushing the composition. These are instinctive rules the veterans use. The open segment between the chorus and verse is a good idea at this point.

[@Songwritersbehindthecurtain]

A demo is an informal recording of a song, usually made before the recording that is released. Sometimes a demo is developed into the released version of the song. For an extreme example, Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” is a whole album he made as a demo, but the producer decided to release it as it was.

[@markinnes4264]

Thank you, Espen for your effort producing these videos. I love them! The sound really captures the times.

[@EspenKraft]

Many thanks Mark! :)

[@ChrisCeeStylzChavez6155]

Everytime i hear & See you u using gear the sound its so welcoming like a kid in a candy store. I couldn't afford this gear back then now think about is it worth it luv that analog sound keep rocking Champ.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@antondhondt9851]

Not all 80s musicians had porta-studio setups. I am reading Gary Numan's bio ("Praying To The Aliens" book) this autumn. Gary used to compose his songs on an old piano (!!!) and then, with a song's draft prepared, he used to visit a kind of cheap indie studio in order to record a song with his band. Gary amusingly describes this interesting phenomenon of cheap British indie studios for some 80s synth-pop bands. Only after getting rich, Gary had invested in his own studio gear with a tedious way to go with PPG wavetable synths and other synth stuff, but it's a whole other story. This comment is not intended to correct you, Espen, because I have nothing against your true story about portas, which were actually the case for 80s bands - the comment is just about some interesting facts from the British synth-pop history!

[@EspenKraft]

Not at all. I'm very grateful for comments and stories in regards to this series. In my weekly livestream which I do after each episode, I go through these comments and talk about it, which helps to elaborate more of what I've said in each episode. Cheers

[@cortical1]

Love it! This is exactly what I've always wanted to see more of from you since I enjoy your music all the time and hold your composition and production in the highest esteem. Your music is consistently some of the very best sounding music I've ever heard from someone creating in a home studio. The results speak for themselves. Cheers from SoCal.

[@EspenKraft]

Happy to hear it my friend. This is rreally the content I wanted to make when I started the channel, but for some reason I ended up with tons of gear reviews instead. ;-) Cheers

[@issiewizzie]

I guess things progressed quickly from 86 on wards 😊 Remember all these like it was yesterday

[@stringsnare]

thanks for this series, i just discovered it. this is a wonderful workflow, im going to copy this. i make drafts in front of my DAW/on my DAW, and its absolutely (for me) the worst way. i get distracted, too many plugin options, etc. have you ever experimented with using a Boss 505 for loop/arranging? that is another way.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! No, I never work like that.

[@SunJetViking]

I felt some Pet Shop Boys vibes in this song. As usual interesting content Espen.

[@VladoT]

Because Espen IS the 80's I guess IS Pet Shop Boys also.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@peterj.9713]

I like the part with the 4track and the Atari very much. In 1990 or so I used an Amiga with some sequencer software but I don't remember the name and sometimes a Tracker software ,Soundtracker or Noisetracker with Samples and Midi.Cheaper than a Sampler and a lot of fun. Thank you for the Videos ,you put a lot of work into it :)

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks for watching!

[@polmorgan3533]

The HR16 is such a reat thing to use i loved this when i had one, very logical to program. .....captain...

[@davidryle]

The truncated bar is a fun idea but I think you missed it by a bar (bar seven might be better maybe). As you can tell, I'm giving feedback as I go in this tutorial. Nothing concrete I know but fun to bounce ideas.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks David. I'll address this in my weekly livestream. We all have our ideas of what we'd do differently when we hear songs, that's very natural I think.

[@polmorgan3533]

Nice Emulizer...

[@timothydahlin5321]

EP 5. Alan Wilder stops by the studio and redirects the song's atmosphere through his expertise on the Emulator II.

[@EspenKraft]

Let's see. ;-)

[@80ssynthfan48]

Looking forward to hearing the final track, and appreciate what has clearly been dozens of hours of work to bring us this series.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks for saying! :)

[@kropjesla01]

those old notator screens bring back memories! altough i was never a fan of the pattern-based songwriting. that being said, it does force you to think in certain ways... in my experiece limitations always lead to creativity. Thank you very much for your video!

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@JFredrikAndersson]

This brings back memories... I (as many of us) used an Atari 1040 ST in the late 80s (and 90s). I went with the Pro24, though. Still uses Steinberg 30+ years later... I remember getting a sync-thing to be able to sync my Fostex X28 to the Atari. To be able to fast forward the tape and get the Atari to know the correct position when you pressed play was pure magic! It is going to be interesting to hear the end result of this. I myself have a hard time to "ignore" the end result when recording. I want it to sound as the end result directly, which makes the process slow when I get distracted by sound and mixing choices during recording. So this is (probably) a more efficient workflow. Good work! Looking forward to episode 3!

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks man! Lots of cool stuff coming up in the next episodes.

[@bubuAudio]

those drum samples sound incredible !! 🤩 and I loved watching C LAB sequencer in action !! this is a great episode !! 🤩❤️

[@EspenKraft]

Many thanks! :)

[@RogerBrenon]

Just listened to your review on the JD990. That was SONIC BLISS. You make me want to buy old gear again. Do you master your own music? Would love to see how you complete this tune.

[@EspenKraft]

Yes, I always master my own music. I'll show my workflow in a later episode. Cheers

[@bobjoe7508]

The drum part at about 25:09 reminds me a lot of the drum arrangements used by Toshiki Kadomatsu in the mid to late 80s. Absolutely loving seeing this song production series

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks man!

[@bubuAudio]

22:27 niceee !! it seems to be right there

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@_P_M_]

Really enjoyable series. Did not expect to see a 4-track pulled out for a scratch demo, but there it was. Also loved seeing the Atari in use. Kudos for your completeness!

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks man!

[@davidryle]

Thanks for sharing your reservations about the top chorus line. The discretion is the most important part of your production for me. Thanks again!

[@tihinter]

Kawai Q80ex, nice to see that one again! I was a huge fan of MC50 back in those days. I could program it blindfolded. I was faster typing in numbers than writing text on a typewriter. Loved how everybody was forced to concentrate on what you hear, not what you see on screen…

[@EspenKraft]

Very true, ears are sadly missing these days.

[@nilsondosreiscunha8150]

Rapaz! Meu sonho é conhecer um estúdio desse.

[@t.henricus9971]

Loving the series, so happy to have come across it via the patchbay tutorial! Fascinating to learn about the demo process and see the portastudio in action.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks!

[@Kalejto]

Ciekawy materiał filmowy. Pozdrawiam

[@tailtrap8975]

Love this series format! Keep it up! 🤘

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers my friend!

[@productionneuftrois9488]

This is great, but I hope you'll show us an analog tape machine with timecodes sometime )

[@EspenKraft]

I have that video done already. It's right here on my channel. It's two videos actually. One showing tape sync and one showing SMPTE.

[@ColdGrayMorning]

What model of microphone do you use for your vocals?

[@EspenKraft]

It varies. I go over all that in episode #5 Vocals.

[@vegsozoltan5283]

Espen Kraft is the new Neil Tennant.

[@Songwritersbehindthecurtain]

So what is this formula? Well, he believes that it's all about telling a story without the lyrics, telling the story. He calls it lyric-less storytelling, basically. And it's conveying story and feeling through the production, the arrangement, the elements of the song, the voices, the frequencies used, the mix. It's all conveying a story to you that is moving in such a way that grabs you and pulls you in. And it's addictive to listen to it's addictive to keep listening to, and that you don't turn it off.

[@josejuan4405]

I keep my first multitrack recording from 1987. I used two mono lo fi cassette machine one in front of the other, recording sound with the lo fi mono built-in mic. Progressive addition of 3 tracks, live mix with the third track to get final result. 35 years later I run a 96 audio channels system, with 75 sepparate midi lines. Amazing to experiment the limitations of currently available equipment at a certain point, in opposition to the excesive amount of available possibilities everywhere nowadays, no matter social groups. Teorically, more tools allow the recording of outstanding compositions as sublime as never known before. Teorically.

[@gregrobinson2877]

A wonderful series and really enjoyed it 👍

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks!

[@normalizedaudio2481]

I find those demos at yard sales. They send them out to some goof to listen. Don't even take the time them self. Screw em. I found all my friends demos.

[@meilstone]

Espen, you look so young in these Videos - were you already producing music in the 80s? Like a child prodigy? Thanks for all the great content!

[@EspenKraft]

I was 20 in 1989. I will elaborate a little more on what I did musically in the 80s, in my weekly livestream following each episode. Cheers :)

[@polmorgan3533]

I remeber going to a guy from christalis in th mid eighties and i had put so much effort into my demo and he listened to it on an old junk boom box with one speaker missing, he put the tape in fast forwarded a bit then listened for about two seconds and that was it. i had travled three hundred miles to see him. . Were so lucky today to have the opertunity to record with a much better sound in our home studios than records we used to listen to. Thanks Espen for another great memory lane rerun of the old days. Nomatter how much effort i put in to my tunes i always sound like the eighties. but you are the eighties. all the best.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks man! I remember exactly how it was to go from door to door with demos, only to be laughed out of the office of the A&R man. ;-)

[@robertfoy5886]

This is incredibly interesting. Thanks for putting in the effort. ✌

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! :)

[@krz9000]

that atari st remark was unnecessary ;)

[@EspenKraft]

What remark?

[@krz9000]

@@EspenKraft the supperiority over the amiga...😉

[@EspenKraft]

It's a fact. In the pro studio world the Amiga was not used at all, the Atari ST reigned supreme over it. In the demo scene and with tracker software, the Amiga had its domain.

[@krz9000]

Your right...i just brang it up since i really enjoyed the banter back then as a kid between the two systems. No one i know took it too serious

[@lonelyfireband7758]

And how does it work nowadays?

[@EspenKraft]

That's not the focus here.

[@chloedevereaux1801]

can i have one more go????? one more try!!!!!! sounds better..

[@chloedevereaux1801]

the chorus sounds too much like " the sound of crying " by prefab sprout........

[@EspenKraft]

Interesting observation. I'll address that in my weekly livestream. Cheers

[@outpostbabu676]

This series is just sooo good!

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks!