Master Music Arrangement: Learn to Structure Tracks with a Reference Track

[00:00:00][Music] hello Music Makers welcome back so Arrangement you've all been asking for an arrangement video I can certainly see why we've all been there got a nice idea on Loop maybe a beat and a baseline but no idea what to do next Arrangement is what to do next let's go in a basic sense Arrangement just means taking the various elements of your track drums bass lead Etc and putting them in a certain order sounds simple enough but what order well if you're not a live gigging DJ yet you won't have an instinct for this it's pretty hard to predict what's going to make a crowd go off without trying several iterations in a real life setting luckily for me even though I'm just a studio hermit that rarely touches grass I get to work with producers that do know that stuff but what can we do when we don't have that easy let's steal one don't worry there's nothing illegal about this there's no copyright on the structure of a track this is just another form of referencing we don't just have to reference for mixed purposes like judging the bottom end we can have a reference track purely for arrangement and the good news is because we are only referencing the structure of said track we don't have to worry about sounding like this reference right here is the one I have chosen it's left to right by oddmob the reason I've chose this track is well well first it's a banger secondly it does a lot with very little so for all of you who often find yourself making that excuse that the track isn't finished yet because it just needs one more thing this is for you odd mobs left to right is also great because it just uses all the simple DJ tricks basically all the tools you would have to hand on a typical DJ mixer and that means a lot of what I'm about to show you is universal across pretty much any club genre so let me talk you through the track now I won't be able to play the original on its own for too long without getting a copyright strike so I will have to talk over most of it if you want to study the original without my interruptions obviously there'll be a link in the description okay 128 beats per minute by the way that means eight bars is exactly 15 seconds so nice neat chunks of time we can divide this up into so our first 15 seconds is just drums nice and simple we can ignore this brass sty hit thing because DJs are going to be mixing this in at this point no one's going to hear that so we keep it nice and simple for the DJ there's not too much busy percussion there's no potentially clashing musical parts still here this is just drums and a very simple version of the drums we bring in more drums later so this is just the kick drum the Clap The Tom and the high hat the main Groove if you will at 15 seconds a few things come in so the main hook comes in which in our case here is a vocal right right some extra shakers and the sub the bottom end of the track comes in basically this track doesn't have a baseline it's just a sub Rumble you can hear at this section it doesn't have it and then here it does if I cancel out the kick drum you'll hear it so at 15 our bottom end comes in little bit of extra percussion and our main hook Starts Now in terms of what we can apply to our track even if we don't have a vocal if our main Hook is a synrift or an ARP then we bring that in filtered that's what we're going to do so filtered main hook starts there at 15 that whole thing runs at 30 seconds and then at 45 seconds we have a build I've put build in inverted commas here because it's probably the most minimal build ever it's just a single synth note comes in and holds a single note for tension and the main Hook is still coming out of its filter right left right left right right that's all it is a held synth note or string if you will and the main hook coming out of the filter now at the minute we hit our first break so this entire first minute this is the extended mix obviously we're referencing a club track here so this is the extended mix I'm using the DJ can use this entire minute to mix in this track doesn't have to be just the first 15 seconds or the first 30 we've given them a full minute to get this track in and by a minute the track will be fully mixed in so this is where the track starts Parts if you will and oddmob has decided to be super Brave and it's just the main hook it's just the vocal right left right right under the filter and for this entire 60 seconds here we just open the filter and add some delay I think I can hear a little bit of white noise coming through unless that's just the busyness added by the delays right right just opening the filter adding more and more delay till it gets really chaotic and that lets us drop nice and what I call dry so we're going to take that delay away and just drop with all the elements that we've teased so far back in together the bass the beat and the vocal out of its filter but without all of the effects on now I will say the only reason oddmob can do this expose the hook so bravely and just basically add a delay and open the filter for an entire minute the only reason he can do that is because the Hook's really good the vocal has a great Rhythm which lends itself to the delay basically gives it extra percussive [Applause] properties gives it that Rhythm and obviously vocally it works for a dance crowd basically giving them a dance move to try all kinds of things going well for this so we might not be able to steal this directly just expose our hook like this we might have to run some drums but the principle of just having a build here that's what we're going to steal and then we drop the only difference to this drop and say like the intro the vocal is out of the filter now but there's an extra hit right that base dong that's pretty much the only Basse part in this entire track That Bass dong is just there to Mark the drop that's all it is it doesn't have to be that it doesn't have to be a bass it could be a another brass stab hit like in the intro uh he could use that in fact he does on the second drop it could be a crash symbol it could be a white noise blast anything just put an extra hit there for impact there's many ways we can do that so the important thing is everything we teased comes back in together with an extra impact our first drop is basically 30 seconds long for the second half of that we have what I call the [Music] pickup and all that's happened here is an extra ride symbol we can pick up in many ways it doesn't have to be extra percussion like this ride symbol here we can add an extra musical parts arpg we can add something to the hook like a question and answer there's all kinds of ways we can pick up the important part of the arrangement is that we've picked up interest basically you'll notice aob has basically added some kind of stab or noise every two [Music] bars just picking up interest as well as that extra ride percussion and then that gets us into the second break the second build if you will this time we do run the drums but we take all the low end out right right right again another way of building tension remove something so we can add it back and we also build with delay this is also a kind of delay but it's it's a different type of delay it's a very fast one it sounds like a ringing so just building with that more and more and more also we are fading in the second hook because we're about to swap to the second hook for our second drop and that's this different vocal so we bu out of the old hook fading the new hook and swapped with for drop two again there's an impact stab all the bottom end comes back in again we don't have to have a vocal here this could be another hook another musical thing or even percussion depends what the lead of your track is like the lead element that's what I'm referring to as hook and then again same idea on drop two we pick up halfway through laser noises we don't have to take that noise element directly to our track if it's appropriate to our genre sure but again the point is we're adding interest for the second half and then essentially the track is over here at 3 minutes 30 here this is the outro this is where the DJ is going to mix out we also give the DJ by the way an opportunity to mix out here this is why the drums run here right because if we just want to do a one drop if we're performing this live we have the opportunity to mix out here but the outro right right right back to the first hook and it's going to actually it doesn't Fade Out I would normally fade this out but um odd mob just runs the hook for 30 seconds and then back to drums for 30 seconds it's your discretion the producer will usually fade the hook out for 30 seconds and then you usually just leave them some drums again nice and simple drums so that they can mix out and get the next track in cleanly so that's the main princip of our Arrangement let's apply it to one of our own okay so my track sounds nothing like odd mobs what I'm going to do is take the row minimal loop I built this quick row minimal Loop for the Reverb video sounds like this so it's nice and simple we've got some simple drums I have pickup options here I've got just high hat and clap I've got shakers I can bring in obviously this is row minimal so everything's going to be much lower energy than the odd mob track keep that in mind here's my right symbol type pickup and I'll have to judge it later but that might not be enough so I've got another loop here which just adds a little bit of texture used to that ride symbol then I have some extra percussion you can see here I've got just a bunch of percussion noises what I did was use a random acid generator actually to make me a pattern and then also on this track I've got random percussion just randomly different bit uh basically just it's going to be a layer of Interest which is kind of unpredictable our base end is basically a Tom part let me play it with the main beat so you get the idea and then again I was listening to randomly generated baselines and I just picked out some very sparse notes which I liked [Music] and then I got a bit greedy I wanted some subtone so I've got this bendy it's just a filtered sore wave gliding between these notes basically and that all together sounds like making sure none of them overlap so that's kind of our main Groove here are some extra elements I can bring in and out I've got um a similar Basse dong type FM note to OD mob so I can use that if I want and then I've just gathered a bunch of noises and hits you probably need around 10 for enough interest for two drops it's literally just all kinds of noises going through a lot of Reverb because I want this Ro animal thing to be quite chill we got some hits got some kind of syn stabies I've got a random arpeggio I've got the dub siren from garage I've just got a random pitched whistle going on there some vinyl noise there's some percussion hits a cord I've got two chord choices here as well I've got I've got the roads going through a filter which is all on random little bit of bit crushing here and there that's going to change every time I play it if I find a good one I might just sample it I've got these just random Melody notes [Music] so every now and then it might select one of these five notes that's an option and then I've got this arpeggio which I'm going to make one of my hooks it's kind of a a techno thing it's actually an FM synth so I'm going to make that one of my hooks because that's one of the more active elements I have a single note AR here so I'm thinking I might use that as a pickup or we might just use a tiny section of it for one of the adding interests I've got a held note for tension and then I found some various vocal samples so we might use a vocal one is this so that could act as a percussion pickup maybe I'm not sure about a hook but I did find these words I liked the in the back room back in the back in the back or the other part of that vocal was this move a little closer little closer move little closer little closer move little closer and I've got this might be equivalent of a kind of a [Music] symbol it's just a noise I did lots of Reverb to and then I have a tiny bit of white noise that I can filter for buildups and that's all of the elements probably not going to use all of them but as you can see I've got plenty of options so let's get on with that okay let's steal so start with my main drum Groove probably leave the Shakers till here let me start with the Tom throughout the whole thing 15 we'll bring in the sub and the Shakers to emphasize that I might actually so here's our DJ box of Tricks we've got a high pass filter that removes the base I've just put eight things together in a rack so it's it's nice and easy let me show you what they are so here's my cut it's just that removing the low end slight bump so we we keep some um kind of chest frequencies doesn't go too weak actually remove some slight highs as well so that when we drop without it we get a little bit of the sizzle back the Polish at the top helps it drop a tiny bit better there's a filter it's just a low pass put a little bit more resonance on as it goes lower there we've got a delay on dotted eighth notes see delay timing dotted eights this other kind of sloppy delay which if you didn't know it's just it's just another delay but you set it to very fast milliseconds instead of timing it to the grid there's a flanger just using ableton's built-in effects for now Reverb build what I call the smudge I've put a chopper in that might come in handy on something like the vocal so that's my DJ tool box so for the first 15 seconds what I'm going to do is add the cut there on the master Channel take all the low end out then when we hit it 15 seconds now I think I remember OD mob adding a hit at 30 seconds yeah there is a little hit and we need to bring our hook in as well don't we it's going to pick one of the noises from this selection that one will do now what's our main hook going to be I think we'll take this vocal for now a little closer we move little closer so I'm going to start bringing that in and we're going to filter it up going to grab a copy of my DJ tools put it on the vocal group here right let's filter now we need to judge is this too much at 15 seconds the only reason I'm asking that is because our vocal is in a much lower range than the one on left to right so I'm thinking we might need to fade this and have it properly coming at 30 seconds really just so it doesn't get in the way of the low end too much and speaking of that actually I might just EQ out the super lows just in case it's got any clashing down there that should be everything we need for the vocal little closer little closer need one of those we move a little closer we move a little closer then we need our high held note for tension Closer Closer Closer oh also I forgot yeah the at the end of every eight bars odd mob removes the sub I'm going have a longer one here so we know the brak's coming closer now we run our main hook for a minute filter has to come back down we going to start adding delays I might add a Reverb as well I don't think our Hook is as interesting as his too low a little closer move a little closer we move going to start adding the delay already in the first 30 seconds move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little Clos some Reverb move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer very loud now they delay Closer Closer Closer little closer we need to build some tension Closer Closer Closer Reverb definitely [Music] helping I'm going to put the high pass on as well and then we're going to drop so just before it drops like OD mob did we're going to remove our effects it's like a foreshadowing a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer that's probably too fast let's do it there move a little closer a little closer a little closer we move a little closer okay let's drop so full beat in oh I forgot our other base actually I'm going to leave that to come in only in the full drop so then we get a nice change and we're going to add that we can pick one of our hits but I'm going to take the base [Music] dong let's run our hook Closer Closer move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move we're going to need a hit of Interest here add [Applause] one I think I'll take thater closer might be a bit L move a little closer we move a little closer we move little closer move little closer and then we can choose the subc comes out here um I might just take a kick drum out just subtle things now we want some other hits bring the dong back what else do we have let's have one of those closer closer oh our percussion needs to pick up as well we added the ride symbol here don't we little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer let's add four of these in fact I'm going to swap those around and what can this one be that l I want the chord yeah so Closer Closer little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer closer cool just lots of little bits of Interest okay and then run the drums for 30 but we take the low end outs at this section 30 [Music] seconds now we're going to fade out our main hook actually I don't think oddmob does fade his out he adds that extra delay doesn't he so I'm just going to straight steal that idea I've called it the blap resonant delay I'm not sure what you want to call it move little closer move little closer move little closer closer little closer I'm going to keep the Tom in Little Closer little closer little closer little closer let's get the delay going move little closer move little closer move little closer move closer I will add more Reverb again closer be how we wash it [Music] out I'm going to fade it slightly let's try 6 DB something like that for now I'm got to build the second hook in so I want that to be that ARP thing which is triggered from this midi this thing so let me add the DJ tools box to that now we're going to filter it [Music] iner closer we're going to have to fade it too move a little closer move a little closer move a little closer Clos closer just hinting so you can hear something new is coming [Music] closer to add that resonant delay [Music] thing and the other delay the doted eight [Music] delay and I think I'm going to just stop the drums here and then second drop so to take these drums uh actually yes I know what I'll do I'll I'll add that drum for the pickup keep the rise symbol in let's bring all our bases back but now with our second hook [Music] okay you probably got too loud just before the build and I want it to be a bit louder once it drops that is now our main hook this is hook two and I want the vocal to uh wash out further so let's just turn that [Music] down I think I've went a little too loud but that's working we need another hit let's pick a new [Music] one oh I like that one I'm just going to copy these over for now and then whatever we choose to mix out with we take a minute of drums two lots of that I will probably take our ARP here and fade it maybe filter but Fade's probably enough uh we need to take some low end out just before the the the outro here let's keep the tons we keep the uh sub for this section we're going to roll that all the way through but we will leave one kick jump out there oops I might fade those shakers out just to keep it again simpler for whoever's mixing in maybe I'll start the fade there that's basically our Arrangement done obviously I can change details maybe I don't think our Hook is as strong as odd mob so move a little closer move a little closer move a little closer I'm not too sure if it's strong enough to hold for an entire minute so I could reduce that to 30 seconds or maybe I could just run some drums underneath just showing you some options we got to run these under a filter and then we'll check if it still drops it should do it's mainly because not on the correct drugs whilst making this I can't judge this is it enough tension is it too much tension uh we probably have to try this out live closer closer closer Clos the F to open up all the way until we [Music] drop reever build Closer Closer Closer little closer closer in fact I'm going to mute this here closer little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer we move a little closer I like it so there's our little r minimal thing taking odd mobs Arrangement now like I say if you've not got a vocal for your lead you can just use whatever your lead Hook is and if you don't have a sub Rumble for your base you would just put your base part in there whatever your main base is so we just take the equivalents in our track we add interest where they add interest we build where they build we remove the low end where they remove the low end all these decisions which a DJ which has gigged for a long time will'll be making instinctively at this point we can take their experience and apply it to our own track ideally we need to test this out live now or hand it to a DJ that can and that's us done okie dokie that's all for today hopefully you learned something if you did you know what to do hit some buttons for me there's also a link in the description to buy me a coffee if you feel so inclined and until next week I will see you in the comments bye-bye [Music]