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Hop On Pop
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9/6/2012 6:18:52 AM
Whiteboarding an arrangement.
You ever do this?
This is a tune that I whiteboarded the whole arrangement before heading into the studio. I had an arrangement that was directly inspired by working with ProTools for the first time. But it was a bit obtuse, so I literally drew out the arrangement, using pen and paper.
I knew that I wanted a bunch of polyrhythms happening over this very, very simple (hell, simplistic?) song. So I devised this sort of theoretical studio experiment, where I worked out having 4 simple 1-measure drum patterns, one after another, then looped and duplicated onto other tracks to create a sort of percussion fugue.
Drums in rounds!
I tried to explain this my old band's lineup, but none of them, even my drummer, had any idea what I wanted I finally went into the studio with just myself and the drummer, and we started piecing it together in ProTools. I built almost the entire thing around a click, and then brought the drummer in after it was all laid out for him
I actually saw the moment when he finally GOT it! I saw that look on his face when that proverbial light bulb turned on! It was during mixing and his face just lit up. Eyes got all wide. Super cool.
This is the result of our efforts:
"Hey"
I also mapped out where the keys and other backing instruments came in, too because I knew that I wanted all those layers.
Anyway, have you ever have an arrangement like this? Where you just had to map it out ahead of time.
Did you use pen and paper? Computer? Or did you just keep it all in your head?
How did you communicate what you wanted to the recording engineer (if you even used someone else to record you)?
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Hop On Pop
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11/13/2012 6:28:01 AM
This conversation came up in another forum, so I wanted to bump this up in here to seed if anyone had anything to say about the topic.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
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Andy Broad
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11/13/2012 7:19:39 AM
I built a tune once from an arbitray loop in a tracker on my Amiga. The loop hung arround for ages, then got changed to midi, then a mixture of guitar and midi tracks then drums replaced the midi and it became Ottamon Blues
Ottamon Blues
It's not quite the same thing as you are describing, but ...
Most of my music particularly that with Walker Broad evolves more organically.
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Hop On Pop
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11/13/2012 7:28:05 AM
No, it's not quire the same thing as I was talking about. I was really considering more planning than happenstance; not just working with electronic manipulation.
But that doesn't change the fact that this is a nice tune. Sounds very organic. (That part is by design, I imagine!)
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Voodoohead Productions
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11/14/2012 10:53:22 AM
hey Todd,
anyone I recorded with for actual studio sessions was always mapped out.ahead of time, with lead sheet and where certain musician parts came in, specific places one laid down their parts. sometimes of course we get a part to listen to ahead of time and learn it. not sure if this is what you are talking about, but I know your thing is a excellent way to tackle a project / song etc , i think you are almost doing up a CPM
Critical Path Method that is used in the construction industry. of course not quite the same although the principle is similar.. I know in a number of songs i have done without other musicians I lay out ideas on paper, and have even scored it out on major classical undertakings.....a lot of times though, i work from the inspiration aspect and develop something that way without any structure except by knowing how things should work melodically and musically, but again, most of my works are instrumental, some with parts added in, and others totally organic and unplugged
anyways, I like your idea. nice one and good tune,. like it
bryon
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