How to Write Better Hooks: 3 Production Tips for Singers and Non-Singers
- Emma Brenner
- May 8
- 2 min read
I want to re-visit this video from the 2024 12 Days of Creativity Challenge because there are great tips in here for producing hooks! Have you ever wondered how to get the right vocal structure for yourself?
Open Ableton Live, and even voice memos, and you can follow along in my video!
If you are working in Ableton Live, start by creating a track, and record enabling it.
Singers, and non-singers open to experimenting: If you are starting in voice memos, you can record the vocals for Tip 1 and drop the audio tracks into Ableton, before moving onto Tip 2.
For my non-singers, in Tip 3 we will also go over how to convert an audio sample from your phone into a vocal hook, and this does not have to be you singing. It can be anything you find interesting!
Tip 1:
Say it, Mean it, SING IT!
My tip for finding that good vocal hook is that you are saying the lyrics to yourself.
1) Say the short phrase like you mean it
2) slowly add a musical feel to it, which starts molding it into a hook!
3) Sing it
Yelling it also helps! See how I find the right energy for my own hook at timestamp 2:17
Tip 2:
Backing Vocals and Mood
The plugins I use on my vocal chain are
Vocal Bender from Waves
Spaced Out from Baby Audio
Butch Vigs Vocals
Antares Autotune Pro
The backing vocals add atmosphere!
You can see where I do this at 3:31 in my video. A quick tip to add harmonies:
I duplicate the first melody and make it an octave (-12st) lower.
Tip 3:
(For Non-Singers) Convert Audio Sample Into a Vocal Hook
See how I drop a clip, I chose one of my mom counting in Finnish, at 4:57.
Noise-Reduction Tips:
Gate: This is the easiest way to get rid of noise in a track if you do not have de-noising plug-ins.
EQ Eight: To remove more noise, use more bands and make the Q of them narrow for better results. You can follow along with my process from 5:45-6:26.
Plug-ins that I recommend:
iZotope has de-hum and de-noise
Baby Audio also has Smooth Operator, which automatically eliminates the hard resonances and brings out clarity
you can experiment with cool presets too, like vocal tightener, and vocal smoother
I like to reverb and test out different textures too!
Warping:
We can adjust warp markers to make sure the clip audio matches the tempo of your track
Pitch Shifting:
This way we can make sure the pitch is at the same height as other features in the track.
Other tips:
I also love the Comeback Kid from Baby Audio, especially the Flavor feature. This makes it sound a bit crooked and cheap.
See how this fits into my track at 8:46. There is a cool energy drop here and this adds to it!
Want to go deeper?
LNA is an Ableton Certified Trainer and has an amazing collection of online courses here.
Join my Patreon community!
For insights on neurodivergent learning, creativity, and overcoming creative blocks, check out my book, Creative Confidence and Music Production.
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