New Producer Series Questions: Part 2 Arranging

[markos]

Okay so here is the second part of a series of questions i have that may or may not help you but if your a beginner like me then reading the replies from others may help you.

My second questions is about arranging.

What advice can you give myself and others on arranging house music, techno, or minimal?

I am more of a techno producer, but what are some basic rules you go by when arranging a track?

[Rogue Scrunt]

you need to study chord progressions and point counter point.

this more of a music theory question than a production question.


http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id57_en.html

[Filterheadz]

Analyse your favorite records for arrangement & structure.

Open a track in a new liveset and rebuild the entire structure underneath it in (empty) midi blocks. Try to be as detailed as possible.
Take a new miditrack for every element. For example: For every 8 bars of kickdrum you draw an 8 bar midiclip named "Kick"
Do this for all the elements...
Listen how tension is build by adding or leaving out elements. Listen for filter movements and volume changes. Listen to the use of fx (delay, reverb,...). Listen for timbre changes, etc, etc...

Good luck!

Bert

[DJMillsy]

I agree with filterheadz, you may also find it useful to write notes about the track in the text boxes of each track and use markers to detail different sections.

[markos]

Analyse your favorite records for arrangement & structure.

Open a track in a new liveset and rebuild the entire structure underneath it in (empty) midi blocks. Try to be as detailed as possible.
Take a new miditrack for every element. For example: For every 8 bars of kickdrum you draw an 8 bar midiclip named "Kick"
Do this for all the elements...
Listen how tension is build by adding or leaving out elements. Listen for filter movements and volume changes. Listen to the use of fx (delay, reverb,...). Listen for timbre changes, etc, etc...

Good luck!

Bert

Great advice.

i think once you put in the effort and time to do all that you have a pretty good template to work with.

I think another good idea would be to use the arrangement markers and rename them with notes or reminders.

[Filterheadz]

text boxes + arrangement markers are great ideas!