Ralf Diederiks

Any photoshopping program should work fine. I made the cover for this using nothing but adobe programs (I recall one being called Adobe Photoshop). However, everything I did with it is probably just as easy to do on free programs like GIMP 2. If it doesn't have all the effects you'd like to use (which I doubt), you can always download more plugins to go with it.

There are plenty of drum loops available on sites like freesound. Oh, and you can use a DAW to change the bpm, if desired.

Thanks! It's good to see that this forum lives.

Hi, my name is Ralph and guess what, I just joined the forum. I don't consider myself a professional songwriter, as I haven't finished a lot of songs, apart from all my teenage crap, but I write sometimes and am very interested in the craft. I'm also a solid arranger and composer with decent skills on the piano and on the guitar. I'm also exploring the world of producing. Lately I've been feeling kind of intimidated by the quantity of songs that professional writers seem to put out, while my songs take forever. It makes me really want to boost the creative process in any way I can so I can make good music, as opposed to average or decent music. My favorite genres to write for are pop, rock and folk. I'm a perfectionist. I think about every lyric and every note and how they work together. I try tons of slightly different harmonizations, until I find one where everything just clicks. Some of my great examples are big mainstream writers like Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Emilie Wright, StarGate, Zedd and RedOne, and lots of recording artists they've worked with. Some songs that are, in my eyes, perfect are "I Am Light" by India Arie, "Breakout" by Cryoshell and "Fight" by The Dirty Youth. Wheww, that's it I guess. Thanks for stopping by. See ya.