Structural headspace

Ever written the sickest 16-bar loop on the planet, only for it to all fall flat once you arrange it out into a full song? It’s a common problem, but one that can be avoided…

Put simply, a track isn’t a track unless it’s laid out properly over the course of three to eight minutes, which means the best way to stay out of a loop is to keep that arrangement in mind at all times, from the moment you fire up your instruments and start writing. How can each individual element in your track serve your arrangement? Perhaps opening out the decay of your hi-hats will ramp up the intensity of your groove, or that bassline’s cutoff can be opened and closed in rhythmic ways at different points in the track? Maybe those vocal chops can work smarter in the track once you apply some rhythmic delay and automate those parameters a bit? There are myriad ways to embellish each track element, so get your head in the ‘arrangement mindset’ straightaway and imagine how each element can work harder for you.

This is why hardware and MIDI controllers are so useful in the studio: during the writing phase, you can grab parameters and twist them, or mute and unmute sounds on the fly, which will plant ideas in your head and give you a bit of a vision for how the track will progress later. When creating dance music, the absolute best way to get that arrangement solidified is by setting up some kind of ‘live jam’ scenario, whereby you punch record and lay down all these arrangement moves in one or two takes.