Opinions on a tight song arrangement or jam style

[psicomagia]

So, I usually arrange all my songs within a metric, repeating 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars. But I usually enjoy much more the process of jamming than I do enjoy arranging manually.

What are your opinions on this? Do you think releasing tracks that are jams and don't follow strictly a metric of loops is a no-no? Or it can be a cool thing, to record with the liveliness of the moment and maybe make some arrangement adjustments further. I still only released tracks that are tied to a metric somehow, but not necessarily all elements follows it, it's more in terms of groove and organization.

[ozias_leduc]

depends on the song! and the type of techno i suppose

sometimes a really "live" type of flow works well, i'm thinking stuff like stanislav tolkachev, where the songs are very hypnotic and after a short while you can't even tell the meter anyway

sometimes the energy a live arrangement captures is exhilarating

my main concern is that live jams are often so unrefined they are just a bit shit, and perhaps if longer was spent on the song (arrangement included) it could be more compelling

but at the end of the day i don't care which way it is, as long as the song has something interesting about it!

[Ben Kohonays]

Do you think releasing tracks that are jams and don't follow strictly a metric of loops is a no-no?

I often find stuff that doesn't follow a strict metric can be more interesting.

[Lost to the Void]

I jam everything out and edit in clever stuff later.
I absolutely hate building a tune from scratch in an arrangement window. It feels very unmusical.
It has to feel right and capture the energy.
I use a lot of evolving/generative elements so often when I jam I react to what is happening which sometimes doesn't fit to the standard 8,16,32.

Jam and edit seems like the best of both worlds.

[psicomagia]

Do you think releasing tracks that are jams and don't follow strictly a metric of loops is a no-no?

I often find stuff that doesn't follow a strict metric can be more interesting.

me too , but I was told by a label owner once that the mixdown has to be perfect in metric. lol

I jam everything out and edit in clever stuff later.
I absolutely hate building a tune from scratch in an arrangement window. It feels very unmusical.
It has to feel right and capture the energy.
I use a lot of evolving/generative elements so often when I jam I react to what is happening which sometimes doesn't fit to the standard 8,16,32.

Jam and edit seems like the best of both worlds.

I agree 100%, however sometimes I have a hard time editing these tracks where I had some modulation going on, regarding the modulation tail on reverbs and delays). However sometimes I do like the effect these edits give when I edit and some modulation tails are cut in the process.


but thanks for the responses, I thought I was crazy for thinking like that.

[2latuile]

I'm not very good at jamming with machines yet so I usually end up programming part of the arrangement on the MPC, jamming other parts, AND editing the (multitracked audio) result

And no, you're not crazy - building the whole arrangement on a timeline does indeed suck, and doesn't leave much room for the unexpected...

[jordanneke]

I don't jam. I find it just gets too introspective and I'm not good enough at it. I 'rock' a 10 min track, and I'm like to my wife 'DID YOU HEAR WHEN THAT HI HIT CHANGED PITCH!???'. She is unimpressed. Then I listen back and it sounds shit.

I make a loop, maybe 8/16 bars if it has a chord progression (or me pressing a bunch of keys), then listen to it for a while. A long while. Maybe occasionally taking elements in or out.

If it passes that test, then I arrange backwards, always backwards. But then again I don't have any gear, and my kids have wrecked all the knobs on my controllers.

[-GeO-]

I think Lost to the Void is on to something here... It feels so stale and clinical to start with your pencil tool in an empty arrangement view. I often burn out on the track before I get it in a place that I like it. I feel like the inspiration happens when you jam with the machines. Then when I really like what's going on, I'll stop and record and record a rough take and use that as a template going forward. It's so much more fun when you have inspiring parts to bring into the arrangement and a lot of the work is done already at that point. Cheers!

[Thomachine]

I like to jam out my arrangements. Get something going, and then record everything on individual tracks. If i feel it has potensial i use that as a template for the rest of the work. If i arrange in daw i feel it gets to "ridgid" and doesnt have that groove i like. But that is very subjektive and i sometimes feel the edited jam looses its soul too. But when i listen to it a couple of days later, preferably as a mixed down wave without looking at the whole arrangement it hasnt lost anything. It was an important realisation for me as i have scrapped alot of stuff because i lost the groove while editing them into something more finished. But its more that I look at it differently when everything is lined up in my DAW.

[Amøbe]

I used to jam, but then it tended to get kind of rubbish. Then I tried tight arrangements, and that got stale.

Now I do something along the lines that I jam out different versions. Then the one where I like the distribution of energy the best is sort of used as as a blueprint of a new arrangement. (which is very much a lot of copy/paste and going lego about arrangement). With this arrangement I'll add some markers of where I think some stuff should happen. These markers are then used as a sort of score for automations, which I record live on top of the arrangement.

...this seems to give me the best results.

[over9000]

I used to jam, but then it tended to get kind of rubbish. Then I tried tight arrangements, and that got stale.

Now I do something along the lines that I jam out different versions. Then the one where I like the distribution of energy the best is sort of used as as a blueprint of a new arrangement. (which is very much a lot of copy/paste and going lego about arrangement). With this arrangement I'll add some markers of where I think some stuff should happen. These markers are then used as a sort of score for automations, which I record live on top of the arrangement.

...this seems to give me the best results.

I do it the same way

[Trom]

I'll start most tracks with a jam, get a good loop going. I'll record the loop over 10-15min while tinkering with the hardware and pulling things in and out. Then I'll chop up the audio files and move them around while also playing with the various elements and effects until I find the progression and combinations I like, some form of blueprint in my mind of how I want the track unfold.

From here on out I work very methodically, building the arrangement piece by piece and even drawing much of the automation by hand. Sometimes I'll jam new parts on top but mostly I'll go fully ITB ones I have all the main elements laid out. It seems to be what works best for me but sometimes I also wonder how much of my process I stay with just because it became a habit

[borg]

I used to jam, but then it tended to get kind of rubbish. Then I tried tight arrangements, and that got stale.

Now I do something along the lines that I jam out different versions. ...

Must give this a go more often. I rarely do this, but know that whenever it happens, something good comes along. Usually talking things away works best.