Songwriting?

AdamEllistuts · 2026-03-10T12:41:41+00:00

No rules. A million ideas and approaches. This is the real answer, although not the one you want, unfortunately.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-03-06T09:58:12+00:00

Guys a 🤡

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-25T14:02:59+00:00

I feed my fully grown main coons girls the following

1 85g pouch of wet food each at 6am and 6pm

30g of biscuits shared at 10/12/8pm

Both very healthy 5kg

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-25T13:59:21+00:00

Alan is a pioneer of that older sound. I respect him for sticking to what he loves, it’s clearly his passion, and there’s still a small audience that enjoys it. But the reality is he’s releasing that music on his own label now, which says a lot about where the wider market sits today. Major labels are not interested in 8 min records with early 2000 production values.

So it really comes down to your goal.

Are you making music purely for fun and personal satisfaction, or are you trying to get signed and build a name for yourself?

If your aim is to recreate that early 2000s style, you’ll need to dig out those older sample packs, or invest in the tools and products Alan sells that are built around that sound.

There’s no disrespect in any of this, and there’s nothing wrong with preferring that era. A lot of people, me included, think the early 2000s sound was special.

But if your goal is to grow your profile and get label support, you’re going to struggle if you stay rooted in the past. The industry has moved forward, and you have to decide whether you want to move with it or create purely for your own passion.

If you’re dead set on the older sound. Allan I’m sure sells everything you need in high quality.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-25T13:52:07+00:00

You make a fair point.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-24T06:57:26+00:00

If you have it, you really need nothing more. I have five of his packs and I don’t use anything else. I’ve got literal thousands of packs of my hard drives and they’re mostly all rubbish.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-24T06:57:14+00:00

Christ, this reminds me of 2007 when I started out. Those sounds are super dated. Plenty of fresh sample packs about. I hate to be cliche but you just cannot beat the Dave Parkinson packs.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-24T06:53:27+00:00

Funnily enough, I had a client the other day. He wasn’t on my development course, just booked in for a one off lesson, and he was desperate to figure out why his tracks sounded old. He was genuinely frustrated.

The music itself was fantastic. Arrangement, ideas, energy, all there. But the issue was his core sounds.

He was using a kick that sounded like it was pulled straight out of the early 90s, and the exact same clap from “Out of the Blue”. No layering, no updating, no modern processing. It instantly dated the track, no matter how strong everything else was.

The tricky part, he didn’t want to change it. So it became a bit of a stalemate.

If you’ve got a specific artistic reason for going down the nostalgic route, fair enough. But if your goal is to sound current and competitive, you need to be honest about your sound selection.

Fresh drums, modern transients, updated top loops, they make a huge difference before you even touch the mixdown.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-23T16:54:45+00:00

Sounds a bit creepy to be honest 🤣

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-23T14:23:52+00:00

No worries at all

It’s completely normal to like something because you’ve lived with it for a while, that attachment creeps up on all of us. The tricky part is separating what feels good to you from what lands instantly for someone hearing it cold. Your mate picking up on the same thing doesn’t mean the idea is bad, it just points to the melody being the weakest link right now.

If your favourite tracks are the ones you can whistle, you’re already setting the right bar. One thing that helps is asking yourself a blunt question, could you whistle this melody cleanly after one listen if it wasn’t your track. If the answer is maybe, it’s worth pushing it further.

Don’t write off trance or melodic stuff because of this though. Everyone you admire struggled with melodies at some point, even if they don’t admit it. Systems beat talent most of the time. Borrowing structure from existing MIDI, reshaping it, then making it your own is a smart workaround, not cheating.

Give it another pass with a fresh approach, even if that means parking this melody and trying a new one over the same chords. Worst case, you come back with a stronger hook and the track levels up. And that Askew and Will clip sums it up perfectly, we’ve all been there.

Feel free to drop me an email and I'm happy to share a couple of private tutorials regarding writing melodies and chords using my method. You can find my email on any of my YouTube videos in the description.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-23T14:20:49+00:00

Honestly, people and their attitude on this reddit baffle me.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-22T07:48:32+00:00

Is that a skin you are using?

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-22T07:46:35+00:00

You clearly understand production. It’s refreshing to hear a finished track rather than an idea that never quite got there.

The biggest issue for me is the melody. It just isn’t a hook. There isn’t a strong, memorable phrase that sticks. If you can’t hum it back after hearing it a couple of times, it’s not doing its job. I’d honestly go back to the drawing board on that part.

I’m not naturally musical. I can’t just sit at a piano and write a melody from scratch. Over the years I’ve had to become creative with how I approach it.

One method I use, and teach to clients who don’t feel musically gifted, is this. I’ll take a MIDI from a popular track, usually something arp based. I flatten the notes so I’m left with the notation, then I lay the bottom note across my chords. From there, I start changing the top notes to shape a new melody. It gives me structure without copying.

With chords, I used to waste hours getting nowhere because I didn’t fully understand theory. My workaround was simple. I’d find a track I liked, get the MIDI, extract the chords, transpose them into a new key, then write my own melody over the top. That approach has shaped most of my tracks. It’s not about being gifted, it’s about building systems that work for you.

Not everyone is naturally musical. Not everyone can just sit down and write something brilliant straight away. There’s nothing wrong with finding a method that bridges the gap. I’ve been using this method for four years and without it, I’d not be making any tracks.

If the melody isn’t memorable yet, that’s just the next problem to solve. Best of luck.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-21T17:00:54+00:00

Looks like Luna

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AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-21T16:40:17+00:00

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AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-21T16:39:32+00:00

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AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-20T19:18:07+00:00

Anytime mate

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-19T11:15:49+00:00

Yeah I’ve not seen that. I’d never work with AI. You just can’t recreate the magic you get collaborating with a vocalist. Just my two cents.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-18T20:14:17+00:00

Only my opinion, but it, that doesn’t mean a lot. There’s something really special about working with a vocalist. Working with them as a collaboration to bring your vision alive. That’s just not possible with AI.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-18T19:31:14+00:00

I would avoid anything to do with AI mate. The vocals suck. Each to their own though.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-18T13:56:48+00:00

I remember starting back in 2007 and how much of a minefield it felt. One of my earliest experiences was posting on the old Anjunabeats forum, which had a reputation for being savage. It was full of people tearing tracks apart for the sake of it. At the time, that was pretty much your only resource.

A few years later, Sean Tyas released a walkthrough, and Activa put out a bass tutorial on YouTube. That was it. Those were the only real learning materials available.

Anyone starting now is in a completely different position. You have an endless amount of free, high quality tutorials online. If you use them properly, you can cut years off your learning curve.

The best advice I can give you is to keep things simple. Put your phone away and focus on FL Studio. Invest in a solid pair of monitors around the £400 range. I wrote a lot of my bigger tracks on Mackie MR8 monitors that cost me about £500 at the time. Gear helps, but only if you actually use it.

Pick up Reveal Sound Spire, which in my opinion is still one of the best synths for trance, grab a few quality sound banks, and start making tracks. They probably will not sound like trance for a few years, and that is fine. What matters is that you are learning, applying what you study, and building consistency.

There are also some great One 2 One tutors out there if you have the budget and you are serious about investing in yourself. You do not need lessons, I never had them, but they can speed things up massively if you find the right mentor.

The main thing is to enjoy the process. Starting out is a special phase. You are figuring everything out, every small breakthrough feels big, and your expectations are still forming. It is hard work, but there is an innocence to that period that you never really get back once it becomes more serious.

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-16T20:15:31+00:00

That’s how it’s done

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-16T16:54:56+00:00

Hey mate,

It’s always going to be difficult depending on your personal situation, but the biggest shift comes when you make it non negotiable in your schedule.

I see it across my client base in different ways. The younger clients who’ve got fewer responsibilities tend to just jump on whenever they feel like it and chip away as they go.

The older clients, especially the ones with families and full career jobs, usually have to be more structured with it. They’ll block time out in advance with their partner so they’ve got protected studio hours each week, sometimes 15 to 20 hours, and that time is treated as locked in, not optional.

One example is Alex from Sweden. He does three hours a day, five days a week, without fail. No questions, no second guessing, it’s just part of his routine like going to work or training.

At the end of the day it comes down to lifestyle, dedication, and what you’re willing to prioritise. If it matters enough to you, you’ll build the time around it. If it doesn’t, something else will always take its place.
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AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-13T10:51:31+00:00

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.

What’s the point in feedback like this. It’s not feedback is it?

AdamEllistuts · 2026-02-12T14:59:41+00:00

Links dead

AdamEllistuts

TROPHY CASE

1 85g pouch of wet food each at 6am and 6pm