About Us

Our Process

Music in our home is more than just background noise. For us, it is an opportunity to expand our world both musically and topically. An album usually starts as a question or curiosity from our main collaborators, our children. "How do sea turtles find their way home?" "Did t-rex eat stegosaurus?" "How do reindeer fly?" We then take their interests and combine it with a sound we want to explore, creating a clear concept for the album.

Once the concept and purpose of the album are clear, we break down the individual songs. Each track's lyrics are developed one at a time, ensuring that the words our children listen to (and sing along to) are appropriate, meaningful, and engaging. We research the musical genre, its instrumentation, the things that make it unique and think about how we would like to bring our perspective to that space. From there we work through the musical composition of each song. Tempo, melody, instrumentation, chord progression and rhythm are crafted to fit the song's lyrics and the album's vibe. We are not interested in making something that already exists, our intention is always to create music the world has not heard before.

At the next stage, AI tools help us produce and shape the music, bringing sound to our concepts and lyrics while staying true to our creative direction. Our work with the AI is an iterative process, as we continually refine the prompt and the lyrics to get to the sound we want. Often we'll combine elements from multiple generations during post-production to create the final track. Every track is polished through multiple rounds of revision and review to make sure the song is just right. Here is an example of a prompt we have combined with our lyrics to create a song:

60bpms calm japanese folk track with sparse ambient rhythms, Instrumentation is very sparse with empty space used often, lyrics are woven into the song, more like another instrument than the main melody, no more than two instruments at one time, Melody evolves C4 D4 E4 D4 C4

Through-composed arrangement, Continuous evolving composition with no distinct verse-chorus structure, Music unfolds organically through subtle variations, No obvious section changes, No full drum kit, No pop drums, No rock drums, No hip-hop beat, No trap hats, No snare backbeat, No driving percussion, sparse organic downtempo rhythmic patterns instead, Gentle synth pads, plucked koto, very sparse gentle organic textures

Deep smoky contralto female vocal in a low chest register (G3–D4), warm velvety tone, minimal vibrato, intimate close-mic performance, restrained phrasing, almost androgynous timbre, never belts, Rounded vowels. Smooth edges.Almost no harshness. vocals intimate not in studio

Then we put all the songs together into an album to ensure it is consistent with our creative direction. Our albums are intended to be distinct audio worlds that can be played from start to finish much like a playlist. We want each song to be distinct while keeping the overall album cohesive. Many times we will go back to tracks and refine based on how they sit with the other songs in the album. We also will set a tempo arc for each album. Depending on the energy we are trying to create, we will build or decrease instrumentation and tempo to make sure the album flows.

Our kids are our final review. We are always playing new music for our children. We see how they react to the music. Does it enhance their play? Can we leave it on in the background while we go about our lives in the house? We only release music signed off by our own children. At the heart of Little Tune Lab is a simple mission, expanding what children’s music can sound like while creating albums families can enjoy together.