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In the process of dissecting a song atm in an effort to understand what it is that makes this song :- fun to mix, sound punchy as hell, make people move on the dancefloor.

So far, I have only figured out basic structure and arrangement of percussion parts and I've learned so much that I can apply to my own music.

Anybody else done the same? have you seen any major improvements in you're writing since you've done it?

My apologies for flooding the production forum with my thoughts atm, I seem to have a lot I want to talk about

Never done this. Sounds like a good idea. How you doing it? Are you taking one part of it and trying to recreate it?

I do this.
I try to find a track that really grabs me and it's not always Dubstep too. I try to work what happens when, where and what am I doing that is different. Not trying to recreate sounds but trying to work out how certain elements sit with each other and how certain things are brought into the track. I find that good pop is great for this. That shit is popular for a reason

i've tried this, but halfway through i end up making it into a tune. (or trying to make it into my own tune).

one day i will stick to it.

hm, I feel like I do this every time I listen to a song to be honest.


Curse of the producer's ear...it's made me love and hate different music than I would if I didn't produce

for like 6 months in 2005 i had a chart i made of high contrast's "racing green" on my desktop. that arrangement is PRISTINE.

if it works-- copy that shit!

gnome wrote:Never done this. Sounds like a good idea. How you doing it? Are you taking one part of it and trying to recreate it?

No basically, start off by importing the original song into the daw and making sure it's lined up to the grid (doesn't take too long & a metronome helps)

Then I just create my imaginary parts (hihat pattern 1, hihat pattern 2 etc) as audio tracks and add in blocks where they happen.

It's more for structure than anything, I'm not really looking to recreate the instruments, but choosing something similar to the style you want to write in seems to make sense.

So your basically taking arrangement? As in intro >drop>break>drop>outro?

Or patterns of the music like hi hat shuffles?

sure, i dissect songs all the time. if i'm listening, i'm dissecting and learning

I think it is extremely helpful to try and recreate an entire track, from the ground up. This is a rigorous activity, but well worth it.

gnome wrote:So your basically taking arrangement? As in intro >drop>break>drop>outro?

Or patterns of the music like hi hat shuffles?

Arrangement but looking at the smaller blocks that make it up,

e.g hihat pattern 1 (16 bars), hihat pattern 2 (16 bars), rise for 8 bars etc

if you wanna be schooled in arrangement listen to squarepusher - go plastic. every track on there has incredible arrangement and structure. favorites include boneville occident, go spastic and greenways trajectories.

I've started to do this recently due a friend(who's doing very very well in the trance scene) recommending it. He basically said sit at your computer with notepad open, and play a track you like from beginning to end all the while writing down exactly what happens where. I worked in 8 bar sections all the way through so would literally be " kick,clap,loopA,- 8bars crash loop b open/closed hats, synth a effects, 32 bars bass drop " etc etc etc all the way through.
If you do this to a few tracks by your favourite artists you'll quickly learn ALOT about arrangement that you can apply to your own tunes.

lowpass wrote:

gnome wrote:So your basically taking arrangement? As in intro >drop>break>drop>outro?

Or patterns of the music like hi hat shuffles?

Arrangement but looking at the smaller blocks that make it up,

e.g hihat pattern 1 (16 bars), hihat pattern 2 (16 bars), rise for 8 bars etc

Might give this a try. You guys seem to be getting good results

Matt_Damage wrote:I've started to do this recently due a friend(who's doing very very well in the trance scene) recommending it. He basically said sit at your computer with notepad open, and play a track you like from beginning to end all the while writing down exactly what happens where. I worked in 8 bar sections all the way through so would literally be " kick,clap,loopA,- 8bars crash loop b open/closed hats, synth a effects, 32 bars bass drop " etc etc etc all the way through.
If you do this to a few tracks by your favourite artists you'll quickly learn ALOT about arrangement that you can apply to your own tunes.

I do this ALOT! Basically i find songs that work for me and i try to find out why they do. So in one song i may pick out the kick snare pattern, then go to another song with strong percussion etc constantly picking things out and implementing it into a song of your own. This is a great way to learn about arrangement, especially for beginners