Hey guys,
I’m struggling with Arrangments. I’m producing techno / tech house tracks since a while, but always struggled with the transition from 8bar loops to full tracks. At some point, I used “track analysis” to somehow mimic arrangements of others and such stuff.
Some of the results are here :
My question now is : how do you create your arrangements ? Do you have any tip you wanna share with me ?
Thank you very much and have a nice we
Patrick
I just go with the flow - never have a plan in my head - BUT - something I do alot is to make a pattern ( 4 or 8 tracks > AK + A4 ) - copy it and make some changes in just 1 track - copy again - make some more changes ( maybe in another track ) - copy … and so on.This makes it allmost obvious to have good transitions between patterns.
Second step is jamming with these patterns for sometimes weeks. Slowly an arrangement starts to show up - but most of the time I won’t go into songmode before I have the ARR. sits in my fingers. ( meanwhile lots of adjusting into the patterns and sounds ).Ill record this in my Zoom.
Third step is putting the arrangement togheter from what I remember and listening to the recorded second step ( again adjusting patterns and sounds ) >>> and perfectionig transitions +++ starting to program the performance buttons ( I only work with the AK - A4 ).
Not that I’m following this as a script or very consious - it’s your question that made me realise my workflow. Maybe there is somthing usefull in there for you. 
I’ts the music who is telling me what to do - not a plan.
That’s why I never work with presets - but allways make the sounds ON THE FLY 
Sketch out as many layers as possible in a short amount of time as you can get to fit together without mixing.
Mute a few of them, and then keep going with adding extra layers. By the time you’re ready for the next bit, it should sound like an absolute cacophony. If it doesn’t, then you’re not ready to move on.
When using a DAW, use markers to set out a basic arrangement (peak, bridge, middle 8, blah blah blah).
Copy & paste those 8 bars a bunch of times, and then start deleting layers. - randomly assign layers to various parts, and randomly see what fits together. The sooner you can get it in song format the better.
Leave the fiddly bits such as automation, glitchy bits & fills until you’re mostly done. Otherwise they’ll end up derailing the whole thing.
Leave the mixing until you’re done. Start it with a fresh session.
Set yourself a time limit to write a track (doesn’t include mixing). If you’re not done by then, it’s probably going nowhere. 20hrs works for me.
Music theory is your friend - the more you know, the easier it is to create variation & movement i.e. add interest.
Check out Ill Gates - I went to one of his seminars when he came to australia (free for sae alumni), and he talks a lot about breaking out of a loop.