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Track Arranging 101 - from loops to magnum opus - Part 2. Reported by voodoobass / Submitted 16-02-09 07:55 Welcome to the second part of this two part series where Tarekith the US breakbeat producer, remixer and engineer in association with voodoobass part of the HarderFaster production team take you through the ins and outs of all things production. So settle down, grab a cuppa and lets get down to the business of those essential production tips. The next step is to translate that energy chart into the parts of our song we've already written. As mentioned earlier, we already know that the peak of the song will be when all the parts are playing, so that section of the song is already done! Let's look at the beginning of the song next, because we already know that this is where very little is going to be happening in relation to the peak. This means that we won't have too many audio parts playing at the same time, so pick a couple parts of your loop elements that are interesting, but not the core parts of the song. Maybe a percussion part, some pads or ambient sounds, something to catch people's attention but not give away the plot so to speak. I find that 16-32 bars is usually a pretty good starting place for the intro, though some dance music will probably work better with more bars. Another consideration for club music is that you want to to have a really strong rhythmic element in the intro too, so that the DJ can cue up the track and beatmatch it if necessary. In this case it's not uncommon to have the kick drum playing right from the get go, though in my example I'm going to wait a bit to introduce it. Here's what I came up with for this song: As you can see, a few element of the drums, and some of the less important (or less 'strong' might be a better term) synth elements. The same concept applies for the ending of the song too, we only want a few elements playing at once, something to ease people out of the tune and bring the energy down a bit. And again, for club music you'll likely want to leave rhythmic elements playing until the end, to give the DJ something to mix out of. Here's where we are now with the example: In this example I've also gone ahead and create some locators to help guide me on where the various parts of the song will be, just some visual reference points. Again, refer to your energy chart to see where these should go. I tend to stick with putting song sections in multiples of 8 bars (i.e. 16, 24, 32, 48, etc) as it's what most people are comfortable with when listening, it's where they expect changes to happen. No reason you can't do something different if you feel the need though! Sticking with the low energy parts of the song for now (and because it's easier to shape these parts initially), let's look at the drop section next. Again, the point here is to bring the energy of the song way down, so that when we come out of the drop and into the peak of the song, it's super exciting and really gets people's attention. So remove all but a few audio parts for the drop for now, play around with different combinations of parts, using the mute buttons in your DAW to help you audition which parts work better together than others. You want to give people a taste of the peak to come, but still tease them with the bare minimum. You can see in my example below that even though I have only a few elements playing together during the intro, ending, and drop sections, I take care that I use different combinations of sounds for each section. This helps to keep things from being too familiar and repetitive sounding in the lower energy portions of the song. Already starting to look like a real song I think! Let's tackle the build down to the ending of the song next, as it's a relatively short section, and will leave us with only the build up to focus on later. Again, I'm taking away parts that relieve some of the energy of the song, without dropping it so much that it feels like the end of the song yet. A lot of times this is where I'll take away the main lead sound, or use a different (and less strong) version of it. Also be aware of sounds you've maybe had playing for too long already, you don't want people to get sick of hearing the same sound throughout the entire song. As always, listen to what you're doing, and don't be afraid of trying out different combinations of sounds to see what works best. Don't just listen to the section on its own either; listen to how it transitions from the previous part of the song, and how it transitions into the next portion as well. Sometimes you need to spend a lot of time doing this, trying to make the song flow from one part to the next without sounding like it's too abrupt a change. Take your time, play around to get the best results. Here's where we stand now: All that's left now is to work on the build up leading into the drop, in my opinion usually the hardest part. The point here is to really hook people into the track, but again without giving away all the elements. I'd leave the main lead parts until the peak, focusing on adding more parts slowly, while making sure that no one part gets too repetitive. This is usually where I start listening to the song from front to back, making sure that it doesn't sound too much like the peak or breakdown sections during the build up. Keep in mind that when you introduce stronger elements into the song, they will most likely over-shadow weaker parts. Or worse, the weaker parts will distract from the stronger ones giving them less impact or making things sound cluttered. For example, I introduce a strong part called "Sync Lead" at bar 49, and at the same time I take away the guitar, some percussion, and some synth sounds to make this part stand out more. It also helps to keep the energy a bit lower during this part of the song, to avoid sounding like you've hit the peak yet. I then replace a few of these parts right before the drop, to build it up a little before we go into the drop. Here's the completed Build Up: So there we go, our song is all done, right? Well, actually, no, although many people do stop at this phase and wonder why more people don't like their track. You see, this is just the basic rough outline of the song and not really a finished product in my mind. The song sections are only roughly defined, and the transitions between sections are abrupt and frankly probably a bit boring. The real key to getting a song to sound interesting and making people want to listen to again and again is how you work the transitions, how you build up to them and make the whole piece of music flow. This is where you focus on adding fills, effects, synth automation, and anything else you can think of to keep parts of the song not only from sounding too static, but also working with them so that they lead up to the next section. You want people to anticipate what's coming next, even if you plan on throwing them a curveball and doing something they DON'T expect. This is what makes a song interesting, when you can get people to subconsciously predict what will happen as they become immersed in the music, so they feel like they are the ones shaping it to some extent. There are countless ways to do this, I can't even begin to touch on all of them, but I'll just give you a few pointers: - Use drum variations and fills. In slower parts of the song, don't be afraid to use different variations on your main drum sounds. Fewer notes in the pattern is one way to do this, as is using quieter drum hits. Use drum fills to signal a change in the song, a quick snare roll in the last measure before you switch sections for instance. - Record new effects sounds. Use some synth swells, fading in the volume over a measure or two to lead the listener up into a new section. Record a drum hit with a lot of reverb, then reverse it so the sound of the reverb swells up to the transition. Don't just lead into transition points either, make sure you lead out of them as well. Let that drum hit fade away using the same reverb, it makes things sound more natural. - Automate something like filter cutoff. It's a cliched thing to do, but it works well when you slowly open up the filter cutoff to add interest as the song progresses. You hear it all the time coming out of drops and into the peak part of a tune - it's a simple way to go from dull to exciting. Try other parameters too, and even try doing it in real-time via the knobs on your synth or controller, you don't necessarily need to draw all the changes in via automation. Try and keep any one sound from getting too repetitive and keep it constantly evolving, even if only a little. - Spoken word samples. Added at just the right place and not repeated ad nauseam, they can be a great tool to signal a transition (i.e. "here we go"). - Effect changes. Try using different effects on the same part in different sections of the song. Maybe a little bit of flanger in the build up, but some heavy chorus in the peak. Be creative, but don't go overboard, subtlety is the key. - Volume automation. Use the volume of each part to your advantage. Even slight changes in the volume can help to signal a change coming up. Or instead of just stopping or starting a sound, fade its volume in or out to make the transition less abrupt. I think you get the idea. It's these little bits of ear candy that can help everything gel, and add interest not only over the course of the song, but moment to moment. There's some songs where I try and add something every 8 bars, so that the whole song flows and people hear something new each time they listen. More than anything, you want to keep the listener INTERESTED! If they get bored, your number one priority has not been met, no matter what genre of music it is. So listen to your song many times all the way through, trying to spot parts where things are sounding similar for too long. Chances are if it bores you even a little, or you find your attention wandering, it'll happen even quicker to other people. Focus on those areas, try different sound combinations, or add something to make it more exciting. Listen to how the song flows as a whole and ask yourself plenty of questions. Does it meet the requirements you outlined at the very beginning? If not, is it better this way, or do you need to rework it some more? Take your time, and take breaks often to get back some objectivity. Stopping for a few hours every once in a whilelets you come back to it with fresh ears. Always listen to the entire song after these breaks, don't just jump right back in to working on a small section. Make sure the tune as a whole is working, before you focus on any one part. Remember that the goal is to make a whole song that's interesting, not just a few bars of great stuff with a standard intro and outro, otherwise, we're right back to Square One! I hope you found this useful, and don't forget to check out my website for more hints and tips! Peace and beats, Tarekith Harderfaster would like to thank Tarekith for allowing us to reproduce this excellent guide. You can find other helpful tutorials and all kinds of goodness on his website Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By voodoobass: Notes from Glade 2012 The HarderFaster guide to Production: Reason - Part Two The HarderFaster guide to Production: Reason - Part One Track Arranging 101 - from loops to magnum opus - Part 1. There will be mud! Waveform Festival: Reviewed The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments:

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