MusicRadar

The arrange page in your DAW could soon be as busy as this one.

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Arranging can broadly be defined as the process of transforming a collection of musical ideas into a complete track. It can involve everything from writing harmonies, re-arranging parts, adding parts, removing parts, planning the structure of a song or even adding effects from time to time.

If there's one absolute truth about arranging, though, it's that it's the stage where you have to stop making excuses and start making firm decisions, whether these be about which parts to leave in or out, where to put them, or whether you need to add a whole new part altogether.

Consequently, for many, arranging is also where music making stops being fun and creative and starts feeling a bit too much like pressure and hard work.

This needn't be the case, though - with all the power and versatility that modern technology gives us, the possibilities are endless and the process can be relatively painless. Here are our 22 top arranging tips:

1. Listen, listen, listen. There's absolutely no substitute for experience, so be sure to analyse the arrangements of all your favourite tracks. Listen to what other producers have done and try to figure out why it works (or why it doesn't work, as the case may be...).
2. Don't feel like you have to use a dull old fade-out at the end of your track. If it's an album or radio track, you can have an abrupt finish, or one that's not at the end of a bar. If the music just stops dead, people will notice and may better remember your tune.

3. Try fading in a track through the intro, perhaps over a sound effect, such as running water. The classic late-80s house cut Sueno Latino uses this technique to stunning effect.

4.You don't have to have an intro at all - a number of tunes, particularly hip-hop tracks, do perfectly well without. A popular technique is to have the vocal start slightly before the instrumental parts, with the beats and music kicking in quickly on bar 1, beat 1.

5. Layer, layer, layer! This really is the key to getting a pro sound. While layering is often used to add fatness to your parts, in this case it's more a question of sonic variation. If you have a plinky lead riff, for example, use a more rounded synth part with a more sustained envelope playing the same pattern over the chorus (and try compressing them together for extra oomph).

6. If you happen to have a decent guitar part in your arrangement somewhere, why not begin the track with it and kick everything else in afterwards? All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks serves as a great example of what we're talking about here.

7. If you want to liven up your chord voicings in different sections, try having various synth pads play the notes of your chords, one for each note.

8. Never underestimate the power of vocals. Don't be shy of dropping out everything but the vocal in sections of your arrangement.

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