Don’t Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers is the second tutorial in our series that will demonstrate how to develop standout parts of songs. We aim to help provide some understanding behind how a song works and how we can help you quickly assemble the sound. These tutorials are aimed at beginners or those without an understanding of music theory. For our Quick Tutorial series we’ll try to steer clear of any advanced techniques and try to provide enough background to build up your skill set.
What Song? Don’t Let Me Down
Which Artist? The Chainsmokers feat. Daya
What Key? G#m (G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E, F#)
Which Piece? Melody
What’s Unique? 160 BPM
Here you’ll find the keyboard roll of the melody structure for Don’t Let Me Down by that Chainsmokers. The key signature for this song is G#m at 160BPM, which is a little a little goofy. However, don’t let seeing so many sharps scare you because the more sharps/flats a song has the easier it is to make it sound great. This is because (for the most part) the only key that you cannot make a chord with is the tone next to your primary key. That said, this melody only uses 5 different notes and is easy to follow.
What’s the secret sauce to this melody? Two things: a good filter (as always!) and one of my new favorite things in Ableton, the moving string pad. This particular filter (EQ Eight) is set up to let the highs pop without losing some of the mids and lows. This filter along with some strong reverb, alows for that tinny pluck that you hear when the high notes are struck.
As for the moving stringpad, this is just a fun device to add a little more depth to the melody. It’s a combination of a few different tools all rolled into one, so i highly suggest playing around with it to understand everything going on. What did we specifically use it for here? First and foremost, the plucked string sound itself. Second, the very tiny vibration sound that follows (AKA the Excitator). This gives a slight bounce that acts almost like a shadow for each key being struck. Fair warning, it’s a fun little kit that can be very easy to go overboard with!
Click here to check out the sound.