Reference Artists For Arranging

[paistyboy]

dubstep: the widdler
reso
drum and bass: anything signed by hospital
electro : boys noize
soulwax

[paravrais]

+1 for the hospital producers ^^^

Also the widdler, Mala, Skream, Venetian Snares, Nathan Fake maybe Nightmares on Wax too...just off the top of my head, i'm sure I have loads of people in my music collection that have fantastic arrangements.

[Genevieve]

Myself, but when I check back, most of my transitions and arrangements seem to be influenced by metal bands (though my music doesn't (usually) sound very metal influenced).

[silkpantsman]

I use Live and find finalizing arrangements quite hard because there is no end to the expression and creativity that can be added (i always try to keep things simple but my head wont let me). Rather than fight it i try look to artist with similar arrangement styles Mount Kimbie, FLy-lo. They have a good grasp for really expressive but still cohesive as a whole.

[Hurtdeer]

venetian snares, meshuggah, aphex twin, wagawaga, flying lotus, eskmo the rest of the mothers against noise crew, and myself

mainly. anything that just has really good grooves, and a flow to the tune that sounds like it was just kind of jammed out live, made up as it went along from start to end. i like dat. complicated shit too. i also like dat

[silkpantsman]

^^ thats a sweet track. the hats are epic

[Hurtdeer]

^^ thats a sweet track. the hats are epic

nice one man, thanks!

[deadly_habit]

autechre

[SunkLo]

Speaking of hats, referencing my inner drummer now, slicing up drum patterns every bar and changing velocity and timing like I would if I was playing (and was hella tight) Small variations are definitely one of the key aspects to keeping a passage flowing.

Something else I picked up from listening to Bonobo was using even a very short break to diminish the monotony of repeating a section over again. A one bar tag with dub delay, or an alternate ending with different harmony added on to the last part will draw the listener's attention away from the fact that you're repeating the same part again. You don't need to necessarily have an 8 bar verse in between choruses, sometimes a few little short breaks will add in enough variety and will keep the vibe up.

Another good reference artist: Rush. I'd wager the majority of my approach to arranging was influenced by prog bands. Good examples on how to get in and out of different parts.

[skimpi]

i dont really reference them when making my tunes, like i normally reference with more straight forward arrangements like joy orbison or julio bashmore, but i really like the arrangements fly lo and mount kimbie are rocking, like how they just have the first part of the song leading into the second which is almost totally different.

I also like mosca's arrangements, it seems like he is constantly changing little things to make it different, and greena I noticed his tunes dont really have build ups, or things to prepare you for a different section, they just happen but still sound good.

[volcanogeorge]

Mr Scruff and Skream mainly

[zonetrooper5]

Skream
Benga
Rusko
Burial
Datsik
Excision
Hospital Records

Probably more but I can't think of any.

[paravrais]

How could I possibly have forgotten Emalkay??!?!? Defo him too!

[deadly_habit]

[nowaysj]

Benga has a real tight way of just doing little variation and little pauses and just little shits in all the right spots to keep the energy going. Really homie is amazing at that shit.

But all the music we like has good arrangement. I don't think any of us like music that is arranged poorly. Some of it may be standard, sure, but not bad.

Name a track that you like that has absolutely shit arrangement.

[Bodega]

This track, from (oh lord) 8 years back, is a classic example of a track that hardly does anything but still manages to be interesting (on a dancefloor at least):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnvOcwYA4lg

It builds to a plateau and stays there for a few minutes hardly changing, then changes the string pattern for a few minutes, then changes back. Ten easy minutes.

[SunkLo]

Name a track that you like that has absolutely shit arrangement.

Been thinking about this for a minute. I want to try an find one but you're right that we're probably not going to like music that's arranged poorly. Emphasizes how important it actually is.

The last couple of days have been a lot of laying down listening with my eyes closed. It's already hard enough to be objective but even more so when you're looking at the screen and watching things take place. It's impossible to truly gauge how much anticipation is being built or released when you're looking forward at the next 8 bars.

A lot of very minute things can have an effect on the energy, evidenced by all the hihat tweaks I've been doing lately. Even small changes in velocity will give things a more human feel and reduce the 'looping midi pattern' effect. Some of this stuff verges on subconscious which is why it's kind of hard to pick it out in other artists' work.

[Hurtdeer]

autechre

yeah man autechre live was


incredible

[Phigure]

Lol yeah we're on about arrangement not mixing. The art of moving from one part into another, seamlessly joining together contrasting elements into a stream of perfect ebb and flow of energy

Shit's hard sometimes

Straight up, the hardest.

yup

it's the bit with which i struggle most as a producer

got the rest pretty much nailed down but my projects folder has 10000 projects almost all consisting of 8-32 bars

i really struggle with taking something somewhere without losing the feel and vibe i was going for



what helps though is to listen to the stuff that's a little more "out there", ie, autechre, aphex, venetian snares, pretty much all of the brainfeeder guys, etc. helps getting away from the boring 16/32 bar chunks

[green plan]

Milyoo has dope progressions. Submerse too. All the obvious ones as well, obviously.