It would be good to set up a creative forum of hookpad users where we could see and hear the results of what can be done on Hookpad. The main benefit will be to increase the Hookpad community experience in a creative way. For example, I am a blues guitarist who, after fully accessing Hookpad, managed to compose reasonable good House music after a very short period of time (example below - all music was composed and exported straight to mp3 without use of a DAW).
Best Paul
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Hey Paul,
that’s a great song! I had a look through your album on Youtube. Are all those songs created with Hookpad only, or did you mix in some other instruments?
Regards!
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
All songs (except Trapp) 100% on Hookpad. I’m a complete rookie when it comes to mixing. Hookpad has changed my musical world with regards composition. The fact you have developed great sounds and instruments just make it more fun. Your core product allows pretty decent tunes to be composed and exported.
Best
Paul
Hi Paul,
that’s amazing. As I produced all Hookpad Sounds myself, it’s always great to see how others use them in a creative way and bring them to live.
I think your mixing is not bad, but at parts a bit inconsistent. Let me give you some tips:
For this kind of music I would start to have the drums on the same level through out the song. You can have of course parts with no drums or reduced drums, like only the snare or a clap sound on the backbeat. Try to think more black and white, more like full drums vs. no (reduced) drums.
After establishing a consistent drum level, find a bass level that fits to those drums and stick with it. Here I would also think in black and white. Use full bass, or for the parts with no drums, no bass.
Apart from the drums the melody should be your main focus. Make it as loud to stick out but not mask the drums. Tuck the harmony instruments behind the melody. The less volume your harmony instruments have the clearer the mix will sound. Find a good balance there between having a nice ambience and muddying up your mix.
Melody and harmony instruments should be a consistent package, too. If you have no melody, make the harmony a bit louder. When the melody comes in, make the harmony a bit quieter to create more space for the melody. If a second melody comes in, make the harmony and the first melody a bit quieter to avoid masking the drums.
Please forgive me for forcing a lots of tips onto you if you didn’t want any 
Dennis
Many thanks Dennis, your tips are well received. I love your sounds as they provide a great platform to compose really great music.
If I try and export to Ableton (for fine tuning and further composition) I find I am unable to produce the same/similar sounds without a huge amount of work: I like yours!
Here are a couple of my ideas for Hookpad:
- Partner with the big 4 or 5 Daw providers and have them hold your finished sounds on their platform. Benefits both Hookpad and the Daws for new business
- Build seemless exports to those companies that allow your clients to have a near finished product with minimum fuss. (Should enable you to build higher fees for Hookpad)
Of course this all takes a lot of resource but I think it could be something to discuss with your team.
Many thanks again Dennis, I’ll give you some feedback once I’ve actioned your advice.
Best
Paul
- Altenatively - you hold on to access to your sounds and charge an added fee for the service.
Thank you for your kind words! Yes, I have often thought about creating a sound font which will load all Hookpad instruments into a DAW. There are some hurdles to overcome but I’ll definitely will think about a bit more.
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This audio project is made 99% with Hookpad sounds and is edited in the DAW Mixcraft10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgQ70wftZS4
I don’t know how to insert the YouTube video directly.
with few exceptions, all the instrument programming (drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, etc) is created in Hookpad, exported as MIDI, then rendered in Cakewalk Sonar using a variety of virtual instruments (including the vocals). sax and guitar solos are mostly created in BIAB.
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Wow!!!..I’ve heard some tracks and the work is exceptional and very, very professional. I would say that I have no doubt that you make a living from music in one way or another. I remember having tried BIAB a long time ago and I barely managed to understand a little how it worked and yet you are able to use the parts that suit you and add them to your project produced in another environment…amazing… It’s not clear to me if the voice is yours or not. I really liked all the songs I’ve heard. When I compare them with mine then I see what stage I’m at, that is, my projects are good but they don’t sound complete or professional, it’s also true that I’m not and that I don’t even know anything about music theory but it’s curious how it shows between the lines. Very good, really, I’ll keep listening.
Congratulations.
Greetings.
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