Recording - April 2016 - 39

You can also search words in a specific position of the
phrase, such as beginning or end.
Have it your way
One of the main selling points of MasterWriter 3.0 is that it
allows each songwriter to work in his or her own very personal
way. You can start by associating words and saving your
results into a new project (or an older one), or you can choose
to start by uploading some audio files and reviewing them to
see where the music leads you. It is entirely up to the user to
decide in what order to write (music or lyrics first, verses or
chorus first, etc.), how fast to write, or how many songs to work
on at the same time.
This brings me to another point: once you have something
like 20 songs in progress (a common reality for many songwriters), organizing and keeping track of your progress-or
lack thereof-can be become a challenge. MasterWriter 3.0
lets you handle that and much more. No more indiscernible
scribbles on napkins, loose audio fragments floating on your
iPhone, or ideas from a song mistakenly placed with materials
from a different song. With MasterWriter 3.0 the songwriter
can neatly store all of this information and much more in a
specific file and name it as desired.
You can even get picky with how your material's presented in
the program. For instance, is the type too small for your to see?
Would you like to underline, bold, or color-code some or part of
a line on a verse or chorus? You can manipulate your fonts and
writing style much as you would on a word processing program.
The user can also choose to see the screen in Split mode,
which allows for the collected group of words (along with your
verse, chorus, or whatever you have written so far) to be right
next to the new search that is currently being done. Once the

user finds something useful, he can just double click that word.
It will appear together with the collected material, creating a
palette of choices to develop the song.
The true power of this program lies in lyric development. The
number of choices, combinations, and routes the songwriter
can take are virtually infinite when it comes to words. But how
about counterpoint melodies, suggestions for chord substitutions, examples of common harmonic cadences and such? For
that, you are on your own... MasterWriter doesn't offer a plugin that substitutes for practice, discipline and dedication!
Wrapping up
Songwriting is as personal a process as you can encounter.
The beauty of MasterWriter 3.0 is that it helps the songwriter
create without getting in the way of creativity. Good organization skills are usually not among the traits of creative folks, and
songwriters are no exception; it's easy to argue that
MasterWriter 3.0 helps to clear a major obstacle on the road
to songwriting success.
In the days of the Brill Building (as well as before and well
after that), songwriters needed at least pen and paper as well
as a recording device. Now, you can keep your audio and
lyric ideas all in one seamless platform and develop them at
the same time with ease, reliability and in your own way.
Other than hits... what else can a songwriter ask for?
Price: varies by licensing period (see above)
More from: MasterWriter, www.masterwriter.com
Rodrigo O. Sánchez (rodrigo@musicopro.com) is a recording musician, songwriter, and engineer. He is a past Editor of
Recording's Spanish-language sister publication, Músico Pro.

http://www.masterwriter.com http://www.cras.edu http://www.audiorecordingschool.com/consumer.html

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2016