Making music that is easily editable

[Library Musicman]

Hi,

I’m wondering if anyone can chip in to offer advice on how to best make library music that is editable as it’s something I’m finding difficult to do with my music and I believe I’m not selling so well as a result.

I’ve been recommended the following, but wondering if there’s anything else I should be doing:

• Provide 30s, 60s and underscore versions
• Try to keep the track to a single idea i.e. don’t create too many changes throughout the track
• Have a clear intro and ending

I wrote a track called The Happy Life a while back that I’ve found is highly editable and I think that’s why it’s so popular, but I don’t seem to be able to reproduce that kind of ‘editability’ in my other music.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

[Musicmatters]

Frequent start and stops to the music will help. Keep in mind harmonic resolutions, cadences and that sort of thing. Try to think in phrases and try to give a moment of silence between phrases. Hope that helps 🙂

[PolarSounds]

Also some good info here:

Cue Tips

[Library Musicman]

Thank you both for the advice.

@Musicmatters – how frequent would you recommend stopping and starting? I’m assuming at key points like 30s, 1m and maybe 2m? I tend to keep my tracks around 2m – 2m30s in length, but I’m wondering if I should be aiming for longer…

@PolarSounds – great post, thanks for pointing me to that!

[Dave]

In my opinion, if you don’t incorporate pauses in the original track, then a remix is needed for the shorter cues of 30, 15, and 5 seconds to sound the most professional.

[ChuckMott]

…or even chord ring outs between sections that allow you to drop in a dead stop , in addition to or in place of stops and starts. I I swear sometimes keeping tempos in multiples of 30 helps.

[Author]

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