Smarter Spark: leads that sound like hooks

Spark is the button at the heart of the Studio: one press and you get a whole trance loop, in key and in time. The chords, bass and drums have always held up, but the lead was the weak link. Each note was picked as a random step from the one before, so melodies wandered, never settled into a tune you could hum, and often rubbed against the chords underneath.

That's fixed. Here's what changed.

Leads that sound like hooks

Every lead is now built the way trance hooks are written: one short motif, heard four times.

• Call, answer, call again, resolve. The first chord states the hook and the second answers it. The third brings the hook back, sometimes climbing higher for a lift, and the last brings it home.
• A shape you can remember. Each idea picks a shape for its hook: an arch, a fall, a climb, a wave, or a pedal riff that keeps returning to one high note.
• In tune with the chords. Notes on the beat, long notes and the ends of phrases always land on a note of the chord playing underneath. The notes in between move by step, so nothing clashes.
• No more drifting. The hook stays in one register instead of wandering up or down, and it moves smoothly from chord to chord.
• Rolling 16ths that roll. Fast 16th-note leads now play broken-chord patterns, the classic uplifting trance riff, instead of random runs.

If you'd like to write hooks like this yourself, How to write a trance melody walks through the same ideas.

The right sound for every part

When you press Spark, re-roll a part or turn one of the big knobs, each part now gets an instrument that suits what it's playing:

• Lead: big held notes get the wide supersaw, quick riffs and rolling 16ths get a pluck, and dark, driving lines can get a squelchy acid sound. In a breakdown the lead turns soft.
• Chords: the supersaw pad, or a soft pad when the energy is low.
• Arp: slow arps play as supersaw stabs, fast ones as plucks, or acid in darker ideas.
• Bass: the rolling saw bass, a deep sub for darker, slower grooves, or acid in harder ones.

Only one part plays acid at a time, so the low end stays clean. You can still pick any sound yourself with a part's Sound knob.

In the Lead Melody Generator too

The Lead Melody Generator uses the same new melody writer, and its Pluck riff and Breakdown styles now play on a pluck and a soft lead.

Ideas you've saved or shared keep their chords, rhythm and sounds, but their lead now plays a new melody.