How to Make an “Empty Head” Chord Progression

► SAMPLE PACK: Open World Vol 1
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► SONG: Virtual Goober - Breezy Beach
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⏰⏰⏰ CHAPTERS ⏰⏰⏰
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - Level 1
1:53 - Level 2
3:08 - Level 3
3:50 - Level 4
6:37 - Level 5
7:40 - Ableton Project
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LMAO there’s no way this is only my 3rd video I’m posting in 2024. My plan is to make more videos like this one and tie it to a song release. I really like making music like this and I’m not sure why I stopped making the Wii type beat videos that I made a while back. If you go and listen to the other demos for the pack, you’ll get a preview of what the next two videos are going to be about…
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#varsitybeats #Wiitypebeat #emptyhead

[@prettyface77]

you coming back with a tutorial feels like 2014 Christmas 🙏🙏🙏

[@VarsityBeats]

6:54 is actually C13(b9). The C somehow disappeared when I was analyzing the chords lol. The reasoning behind this chord is it's the "5" of the next chord, F.

[@user-uy1ko9ob5j]

Goated video

[@quietHugs]

thank you. the demo song is really cute

[@VarsityBeats]

thanks!

[@user-uy1ko9ob5j]

crazy good

[@Max-DuBois]

Sick video.

[@VarsityBeats]

thanks!

[@racktooblatch2273]

dope video dude

[@disdjsad]

can u go in to melodie writing

[@GuacaFlockaFLAME]

Thanks! This was informative and helpful! Love empty head music compilations and I've been wanting to make this kind of music. I'll definitely check out your sample pack! Question: I have Ableton but not Serum. Would I just put the oneshot samples into an instrument rack to use them with MIDI? Sorry, I'm still kinda new at this stuff😅

[@VarsityBeats]

(I can only speak for Ableton 10, idk if this is the same across all versions)
Ableton has two instrument plugins you can do this with, the "Sampler" and the "Simpler," you can drag and drop oneshot samples onto either of them and play MIDI through them like a regular synth. They are located in Browser->Categories->Instruments. I prefer Sampler because it gives you more controls to mess with. There are a few parameters in Sampler you’ll want to tweak after you load in a oneshot:
1. sustain mode - if you want the oneshot to loop or not (Sample tab)
2. loop start/end/crossfade - where in the sample you want it to loop (Sample tab)
3. Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release - the shape of the volume when you play a note (Filter/Global tab)
4. Pitch bend range - this is usually 2 or 12 but for some reason it loads in as 7 (MIDI tab)
5. Vibrato - you have to manually do this: Turn on LFO 1 in Modulation tab. Set Freq anywhere from 8Hz to 10Hz. Set Pitch to 4%. In the MIDI tab, set the ModWheel destination A to be LFO 1 Amt Pitch and set it to 100%. What this lets you do is move the ModWheel parameter to increase vibrato, or the wiggly pitch sound. This sounds good on some synth and lead sounds.
I recommend setting this^ up to load as your default preset when you open Sampler, that way you don’t have to do it every time (specifically the pitch bend and ModWheel steps). All you have to do is open the sampler plugin (don’t load in a sample yet), do steps 4 & 5^ and right click the top bar of the plugin and select “Save as Default Preset.”
My normal workflow when I use one shots is to move them onto my samples folder and then I’ll go to the Ableton Browser and click “Add Folder” in the bottom left. After you select the folder where your samples are, it will always show up under your “Places” tab in the browser. When you select that folder, it should show all of the samples and you can click on or use the arrow keys to listen to the audio preview of the oneshots/samples.
I saw you wrote instrument racks -- When I first started out on Ableton I used instrument racks for everything but it's not the best workflow- I never got to the bottom of why but it would slow down my computer a ton. If you want to have stacks of instruments playing the same notes like you can with instrument racks, I recommend just using separate channels and just copying the MIDI from one to the other. I hope this helps!

[@GuacaFlockaFLAME]

@@VarsityBeats Wow! Thanks for taking the time to answer in detail! Very helpful and I greatly appreciate it👍 I'll definitely save this info somewhere. I bought the Open World pack last night and I've been loving the sounds. Great work! Can't wait to make songs. Also, I appreciate the demo videos on the pack store page cause they were good previews. Thanks again and have a nice day!