Songwriting tools: The definitive guide for EDM music production (2023 edition)

Image credits: Bravo & Brave

Songwriting tools: The definitive guide for EDM music production (2023 edition)

Databases / Search Engines

Bravo & Brave (3.37 euro / hour, no monthly commitment)

Bravo & Brave is one of the few music theory databases currently available and suitable for players of all levels. Bravo & Brave, an Italy-based technology company that creates and categorizes data for musicians, offers music producers and songwriters collections of harmony progressions that can be used in modern compositions and also allows them to improve their proficiency with music theory.

The music catalog is the product’s core feature, easy to use and very intuitive, it includes a large number of harmonic progressions and categorizes them by genre, country of origin, musical style, emotional impact, novelty, and much more. For experienced songwriters, it can expedite workflow, and for novices, it offers the opportunity to try their hand at composing music. It’s then easy to export the MIDI file from the catalog to any track and import it into your DAW.

Founder/s : Lorenzo Brizzo

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Hookpad ($4.99 monthly subscription. $49.00 yearly subscription. $149.00 one-time subscription)

Hookpad is songwriting software made by Hook Theory, a company that provides interactive learning materials to help musicians create amazing music and gain a deep understanding and intuition for how music works. Hookpad was developed to improve the quality and accessibility of track editing and music composition. With the program’s built-in music theory feature, users can easily write melodies and chord progressions for songs and create music like never before.

This type of music technology has been a blessing for those wanting to break into such a previously closed-off and complex segment of the music industry. Hookpad has opened up new doors for aspiring musicians, songwriters, and composers by facilitating opportunities to learn and expand their talents.

Founder/s : Chris Anderson / Dave Carlton / Ryan Miyakawa

VST Plugins

Scaler 2 ($59)

Scaler 2 is an inspirational and powerful music theory workstation that gives you access to a world of new ideas, expressions, and melodies. With powerful detection and analysis of MIDI and audio files, Scaler 2 can determine what key and scale you’re in and suggest chords that match your music. The plugin helps you discover the perfect melody with performance expressions, and can even suggest ways to change from one key to another. Scaler 2 makes finding chords and progressions intuitive and fun! It’s a comprehensive but easy-to-use toolbox that will help anyone make better music.

Founder/s : Davide Carbone

Captain Chords ($79)

Captain Chords is the heart of the Mixed in Key software company. In essence, it lets you select a key/scale combination and then offers you a palette of chords that fit the chosen key/scale. You can then use various tools to develop the chord sequences for different sections of your song. In Logic Pro, Captain Chords is available both as a virtual instrument and as an AU‑based MIDI effects plug‑in. These provide very similar functionality, but the former gives you access to the Captain’s internal instrument sounds, while the latter functions as a MIDI effects plug‑in on an existing virtual instrument track. Both versions support drag and drop of the MIDI data for the created chord sequences. Under the plug‑in’s title strip are six tabs: MIDI In, Play, Verse, Pre‑Chorus, Chorus, and Drop. The last four of these allow you to create four different chord sequences (which can be in different keys if you like); the controls running down the left edge of the user interface can all be configured individually for each of the four-song section tabs and applied to the whole sequence within the selected tab.

Founder/s : Yakov Vorobyev

APPS

RhymeZone (free for Desktop, $2.99 for iOS, and $3.99 for Android)

RhymeZone is another great tool for finding rhymes and inspiration. Simply input a word and browse a list of its perfect rhymes, near rhymes, synonyms, descriptive words, and much more.

Founder/s : Harvey Beeferman

SUGGESTER ($13.99 / free lite version, iOS and Android)

Suggester helps you choose chords that work well together. You can try out different chords to see how they sound and build progressions that give your song the exact mood and emotion you want to create. It’s perfect for songwriters who aren’t well-versed in music theory but want to be able to experiment with a wide range of possibilities.

Founder/s : Mathieu Routhier

WEBSITES

MUSIC 21

Music21 is a set of tools for helping scholars and other active listeners answer questions about music quickly and simply. If you’ve ever asked yourself a question like, “I wonder how often Bach does that” or “I wish I knew which band was the first to use these chords in this order,” or “I bet we’d know more about Renaissance counterpoint (or Indian ragas or post-tonal pitch structures or the form of minutes) if I could write a program to automatically write more of them,” then music21 can help you with your work.

Founder/s : Michael Scott Cuthbert

With these songwriting tools in hand, you have everything you need to improve your songwriting skills. The only thing left to do is establish a regular writing routine and practice your craft every single day. Best of luck with your songwriting and don’t forget to use these tools while you continue practicing your guitar and piano skills!