MusicRadar

Now that's what we call power sequencing.

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Although you can go a long way by using your DAW at its most basic level and never getting out of your comfort zone, your music is likely to benefit if you explore some of your software's more advanced features and think about your sequencing in different ways.

Here, MusicRadar suggests 19 ways that you can do precisely that…

1. Steal the feel
Many applications enable you to 'steal' the rhythmic feel from an audio performance and apply it to a MIDI sequence. For instance, you could use a tool such as Propellerhead's ReCycle! to lift the groove of an audio drum loop, export the MIDI data for it to a track in Reason and then reassign that track to another batch of drum sounds.

2. Make your strumming a success
A strummed guitar is among the most difficult performance techniques to imitate. No matter how brilliant the guitar patch in your favourite ROMpler, it'll be very hard to play convincingly. While there are some great dedicated strumming simulators available, you can do a pretty good job on your own using nothing more than your DAW's piano roll.

Study the notes of a guitar chord (all of the notes, not just the fingered ones), and recreate them in your piano roll, carefully staggering them from lowest to highest note (for a downward strum) or vice-versa (for an upward stroke).

3. Easy on the quantise
Don't be afraid to shut off the quantisation for a more natural performance. If you can't play a passage by hand, slow the tempo of the song down, play it slowly and then speed it up again. If you must quantise, try only doing it to some aspects or sections. For instance, you could quantise the timing of a performance, but leave the velocity information intact.

4. Look inside MIDI files
Standard MIDI Files represent an excellent source of useful grooves, licks and riffs for future use. Some sequencers (such as Sonar and Logic) enable you to categorise and search for MIDI clips in their built-in loop browsers. Use this facility to create a database of MIDI clips that can be dropped into any project. From drum beats to arpeggiations to guitar strums, you need never find yourself at a loss for material!

5. Experiment with fills
Fills can play an important role in any song, 'filling' the space left when the vocalist or lead instrumentalist isn't playing, and signalling changes in the arrangement. They create tension and drama and can add considerable interest to a track.

Traditionally, fills are played on drums, though you may also hear a somewhat clichéd reverse cymbal or trailing echo. Shake things up by getting creative with your fills. Try copying a pre-fab drum fill pattern to your bass track and then shuffling the notes around, for example.

6. Think about your instruments
Convincing replications of instrumental passages can be enhanced through thoughtful consideration of the source and careful sequencing. Take woodwinds, for example. If you're going to sequence, say, a flute or oboe solo, be mindful of the fact that your passages should be monophonic and that the notes should not overlap. All of which isn't the easiest thing to do when manually entering your part on a keyboard!

However, if you play it naturally (but only one note at a time), then you can open the sequenced passage in your piano roll editor and remove any overlapping notes. While you're at it, try listening back to the passage and holding your breath for the entire length of any continuous sections. Can't do it? Neither can a woodwind player. Pull some notes out.

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