How to complete full pop song music arrangement in 60 minutes

I have heard about professional music arrangers who are capable of completing his arrangement task within 2-5 hours. Most beginners are amazed by the speed and quality of those final products –beautiful music arrangements of simple pop songs. Don’t be surprised, every musician with enough practice can do it too. Here, I will give you some guidelines how I can do it within 60 minutes.

Preparation and skill requirement

In order to be able to complete a full pop song music arrangement in 60 minutes, you must have these abilities and pre-arranged requirement:

Familiar with your sequencer software: - I am using Cakewalk Sonar. There are others very powerful DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) such as Cubase, Logic Audio, Protools etc. Just use the one you are familiar with. You must learn the most frequently used short-cut keys. Knowledge about MIDI programming is the basic before you can use the mentioned sequencers.

The song is already written completely: You might want to arrange one of your own compositions, or some other songs which are completely written. I won’t touch about song writing here. Before the arrangement works get started, I will at least had the demo ready. The demo can be a roughly recorded version, with or without any instrument accompaniment. The important part is the recorded material can reveal the song melody clearly. If there is no recorded material, a lead sheet will be fine too.

Know the basic theory of harmonization and chord progression: If you don’t know about this basic requirement, it will be a nightmare for you to do music arrangement. It’s almost impossible to get the job done. Music arrangement is about harmony, rhythm, and composition.

Capable to play keyboard or guitar well: Keyboard is more powerful in music arranging. Guitar would be secondary. If you know both, it is even better!

Start working!

If you already possess the above requirements, congratulations! You are qualified to complete a music arrangement within 60 minutes if you follow my tips. Yes! It can be done for a normal pop, radio friendly song which is 3 to 4 minutes long. When you are facing tight deadline, this tips will be helpful to you. Here is how I do it:

Open a customized template file (1 minutes) – I have a few templates saved with the regular settings I use. When I open the template files, Sonar loads all the MIDI tracks, the plug-in effects, plug-in instruments, and also the window views I preferred. All the regularly used sound patches are loaded together too. For a normal pop song, the frequently used patches are acoustic drum, bass, piano, guitar, strings and some other solo instruments. You must get these templates ready. It will save you a lot of time.

Set the tempo and record the melody line (8 minutes) – I tap the tempo and find the most suitable speed for the song. Then I will record the melody guide track by referring to the recorded demo or lead sheet. I will do it phrase by phrase — listen and memorize a phrase, and then recorded it in Sonar by playing the phrase at my keyboard. If you have perfect pitch and relative pitch ability, this part will be a piece of cake for your. I normally use flute as the melody guide because the sound is sustainable.

Lay down the chord progression and the sequence of the song (14 minutes) – this is the most time consuming step. Here I will finalized the chords I use for each bar and beats. I will write it down, by drawing the chord at the melody score. I do it using the “staff view” in Sonar. It is also necessary to determine the structure of the songs: intro–> verse –> chorus –> interlude –> verse2 –> chorus2 –> bridge –> chorus 3 –> outro. This is the normal structure of a pop song. Use cut and paste function to save time.

Choose the appropriate music instrument patch (3 minutes): Sometimes the template patches might not be perfectly suitable. It is important to finalize the patches I use in the song. I might change the drum kits, or some solo instruments.

Build the foundation – drum, percussion, bass (9 minutes): The rhythm section is the foundation of a song arrangement. I lay down the drum track using “piano roll view”. You can also use drum loop to save time. Most of the time, I start programming the final chorus part, which is normally the fullest part or the climax of the song. Then I copy the drum track and paste it at the verse. Reduce some layers of drum hits and it is done. After laying down the percussion, I will play the bass line by referring to the chords written in melody track.

Build the harmony – piano, guitar etc (7 minutes): I normally use piano more than guitar. I am very good at playing the piano. Normally it is only 1 or 2 takes to complete the piano tracks. After laying down the piano track, the song is almost done!

Fill in the solo instrument (5 minutes): I will fill in the empty part – where the vocal won’t be present with some solo instrument. I use some synthesizer leads, or other acoustic solo instrument like saxophone, violin etc.

Add the sustaining patch – pad, strings (5 minutes): I always lay down the strings or pads only after I completed all the above. By adding sustaining sound patch, it will increase the warmth of the song. It will make the song sounds soothing, rich, and full.

Listen for the final adjustment (5 minutes): Find and modify out-of-tune notes, and fine tune some parts that are necessary.

Export to a wave file (3 minutes): I use 100% software plug-in nowadays, so that I don’t need to mix down the outboard gear by recording them into Sonar. It really saves me a lot of time waiting for the recording to complete. Exporting a wave file from Sonar takes a few minutes only.

This is how I complete a full pop song music arrangement in 60 minutes. I used to do this when I got a lot of projects on hand and the due dates are near. However, in order to deliver a great job, 60 minutes is never enough. (Don Sebesky)

Taike. Looking from another direction.
Creating a song from the PC using BIAB. Once the chords are entered, give or takes 2 minutes. BIAB will generate the song with full backing Drums. Bass. Piano. Guitar. Strings within 10 seconds. Save as Midifile, load into keyboard and play the melody live. A lead sheet with chords is quickly printed if required. Completed time 5 minutes.

Thanks folks, I've found this post very interesting. I look forward to others contributing so as to expand my knowledge (starting from around zero level!)
Keith

nice one taike.
can you find something about mixing all this instruments togheter, also with the proper effects on them?

Something like this, Adimatis?

By Craig Anderton

“OK, now I know how to get a track into my host; how do I make it sound good?” was a column topic suggestion from the Keyboard Corner forum.

It would be convenient to say “add this amount of compression, this type of EQ on these instruments, and you’re done!” But if it were that easy, every recording would sound great. Instead, we’ll have to be more general.

Remember: these are tips, not rules. For example, most producers say that mixes should have space, and I agree. But then there’s the Stones’ “Exile on Main Street,” whose cluttered, chaotic mixes are a thing of beauty. Which brings us to tip #1:

1. Let the music tell you what it wants. This is something that recording sensei Bruce Swedien emphasizes in his master classes. The music will tell you what it wants, but you have to listen. Rather than trying to sound like something else, bring out what’s unique in what you have.

2. Pay attention to the details. Listen to every track, in isolation, before you start mixing. With hard disk recording/editing, you can massage each track to eliminate any little pops, clicks, hisses, etc. This can make a big difference in the overall sound.

3. Always consider the context. A common mistake among newbie recordists is to solo a track and add EQ and effects to make it sound fantastic. Then they solo the next track and do the same thing. But there’s only so much bandwidth and dynamic range: Mixing all these “rich” sounds together can result in a mess. Each track is a piece of the puzzle, and needs to fit with the other tracks.

4. Differentiate instruments with EQ, not just panning. I always start mixing with all tracks panned to center, then use EQ to carve out frequencies that step on each other. For example, in a dance mix where the kick should hit hard, I’ll shave some low end off the bass while emphasizing its pick or filter attack. But with something that’s more old-school R&B, I’ll keep the bass full, and instead accent the kick drum’s mid and beater. Once you can clearly differentiate all the instruments in mono, bring on the panning.

5. Automatable EQ is your friend. Drop some of the piano midrange during the vocals so they don’t compete with the piano. Increase the upper mids a bit on the guitar solo so it “cuts” through the mix, then drop it back when the part reverts to rhythm guitar. Even changes of one or two dB affect the overall sound, and most hosts allow EQ automation.

6. Remember dynamics — ride the faders. When recording, there’s a tendency to use the maximum available headroom. You can restore a sense of dynamics by playing the faders as you mix — subtle changes in dynamics can make a mix “breathe.” And while mixing with a mouse is great for editing and touching up, it’s lousy for performing. Spring for a hardware fader controller to add some human feel.

7. Always be in “record automation” mode. As soon as you start mixing, enable automation recording. Sometimes your gut hears music better than your head, and your emotional, initial reaction toward a song might be what the music wants.

8. Be brutal when you edit. I’m ruthless about cutting out whole sections of songs if they don’t work. Keep the pace moving, while of course respecting the dynamic flow. Recommended listening: “Shhh/Peaceful” from In a Silent Way, by Miles Davis. It was edited down from far more material to create a beautiful, concise listening experience.

9. Don’t try to master while you mix. A lot of people will slap a multiband compressor across the final output bus and go, “Okay, it’s mastered now!” Wrong. A good mastering engineer can make a good mix sound great, and a great mix sound transcendent. Although I’ll switch in some compression on occasion to get a rough idea of how mastering will influence the sound, when it’s time for the final rendering to stereo or surround, compression is outta there. To me, mastering is a different discipline than mixing.

10. Optimize your room acoustics. This is the foundation of a good mix: Mixing great music in a room with poor acoustics is like trying to make a great dinner in a cockroach-infested kitchen. If your mixes sound great in your studio and not-so-great everywhere else, you definitely need an acoustics makeover.

Jargon Jockey

Multiband Compressor: A multiband compressor splits its input into several frequency bands (such as lows, lower midrange, upper midrange, and highs), then compresses each band individually. With a standard compressor, something like a thumping kick drum may trigger compression that affects all frequencies, which you might not want; using a multiband compressor will restrict the kick’s compression to the low frequencies, and leave higher bands untouched.

Thanks Taike
fascinating.

Unfortunately thru lack of talent on my behalf ( haahaa),
I'm using the method Graham suggested, ie BIAB. I can put together a backing track in a matter of minutes, then use Powertracks 12 for further editing or adding additional tracks. Main reason for using PT12 is it uses the same "real drum" audio loops that BIAB 2007 does.

best wishes
Rikki
ps.
Thanks for bringing up some great topics.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Taike:
[B]

taike,
you're the man!
yes, somthing like this... is great!
thanks!

Best ultra fast system I ever used was to use BIAB for the basic arrangement, then mute and replace every single part one by one.

It's quick, avoids the repetitiveness of BIAB and arrangers, but always gives you a full sounding arrangement to play to, which IMO is the key to making the parts YOU play more coherent.

Alternatively, you can MIDI record your arranger, but the important part is to replace EVERY single part with your own playing (or whoever else is helping!).

It can also help to replace the drum track with a nice loop with the 'feel' and groove you want. Then all your 'inside' playing will have the same 'feel'. Then go back, mute the loop, and work on that drum track (or even better, use a MIDI drum kit and a REAL drummer!)...

You're more than welcome, Adimatis. Wasn't sure it was you meant.

Rikki,

So what you, Diki and Graham are saying is that the end result will be the same? Interesting, I had no idea. Thank you.

Taike

Graham's system actually USES the BIAB tracks in the final production. Mine just uses them as 'guide tracks', and the final product is all 'real' playing.

But whatever works, I say!

Very interesting the article about mix and mastering.
In my case it is very useful;i have a Pa800 wich offer eq per track;we are waiting for a Master EQ with the new OS,too.
This informations help me a lot to obtain betters results for the "final product".
I think that will be interesting to talk more about the effects;i would like to to know wich effects are reccomended to use for drums,for bass,for acc.
thanks

Dani, maybe you'll find something here:
http://www.keyboardmag.com/section.asp?navcode=105

There's a lot of info on that site.

Taike

Wowww,Thank a lot,Taike!!
Now i have to turn off the kb,and read....here is a lot to read ).
thank for the link
Daniel

El placer es toda la mina, Daniel.