Tarekith Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 New post about some of the more common arranging issues I hear in people's songs: http://tarekith.com/common-arrangement-issues/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetLab Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 Thanks Tarekith, good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev. Juda Sleaze Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 Hmmm... I can't really speak for dance music, but if you're thinking in terms of albums, then you're going to have tunes that are slower to build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlosUnderground Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 I think this is valid for all types of music, give or take a few bars. Simple stuff, but important. The devil is in the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev. Juda Sleaze Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 The devil is in the details. The Devil is in the context! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlosUnderground Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 The devil is in the details. The Devil is in the context! s#!+, it's in my bed too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetLab Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 I thought the devil was in the tritone. Damn, now my music theory is all confused Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhys Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Great read, enjoyed it. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tristancalvaire Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 One thing regarding long intros for DJs- generally in commercial music, a song is sold in a 'radio edit' format for the masses and an 'extended mix' for the DJs. The radio edit gets right to the point; the extended mix has your hour of kick drums/hi-hats/what-have-you for beatmatching (and the DJs who just like to slam percussion layers on top of each other) at the start and end. iTunes will carry one, Beatport the other. As for producer workflow, sometimes creating the extended mix afterwards can provide nice possibilities (as you already know how the song will turn out- one thing that's really fun is to chop up some vocals that come in later and mess with them in your intro), whereas other times starting right from creating the extended mix can help you get boring things (like choosing percussive samples) out of the way. Either way, I suggest throwing in as much melodic content as possible just to mess with DJs who know nothing about harmony. Repetitiveness? I adore Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You and cannot speak on this matter ^^; Long fade outs? Yikes! I didn't know anybody did this anymore, but if they do, I agree that it's a terrible idea. The only recent song I can remember fading out is the radio edit of BT's The Emergency, and that's only because BT is a compositional genius and whoever was editing his song for the radio was lazy XD (Edit: Unless of course you simply meant letting the tail-end/release and reverbs of instruments fade to darkness, in which case I've heard quite a bit of it) Too much happening at once- I feel like, personally, I've had the opposite problem. My mind gets stuck in the punk rock band mentality even when making EDM- I can have one bassline, one lead-line, something playing chords, perhaps a vocal melody with the lead, percussion and that's it. I feel I miss out on some really fun textures that could be created with complex arrangements (Infected Mushroom did some fun stuff on their new album with two basslines, one for the mids and one for the sub, as well as call-and-response leads). Still, having a thousand synths each with their own independent delays and reverbs does seem like a bad idea. Regarding fills and transitions, a big problem I used to have is that all my music would be made with the same percussion throughout the entire song. Four-on-the-floor kicks, claps/snares on the 2 and 4, hi-hats in between- and then that repeated for the whole thing. What I find fun is, when I'm about to add in something new, perhaps I'll put my fourth kick in a measure off an eighth, or double two claps, or use some sort of reverse clap before my last snare/clap of a measure that's before a transition to vary things up. I try to make my percussion as nuanced as possible throughout a song- and always have some sort of kicker into the next passage. Even a subtle, sharp noise sweep in the background, not loud enough that the listener consciously notices it (unless they're trying to hear it), can really help move things along. Anyways, just my amateur 200 cents. Thanks for the posting- I certainly enjoy reading up on what other people are doing and noticing in music creation, so that I may improve my own skills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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