Arrangement

At School of Synthesis we cover ARRANGEMENT in a small class of between 1-9 students to ensure you develop a thorough understanding of this vital technique for music production.

Course Overview

Taking your music out of “loop phase” and transforming it from a basic groove or idea into a complete song, story or ‘product’ is one of the key challenges faced by all music producers. This course sets out to approach the task in both conceptual and practical terms, by first analysing a number of effective arrangements to identify useful elements and techniques, and then by applying these techniques where appropriate to your own arrangements.

Course Level

The course is suitable for most people from beginners to those with experience in music production. This course covers basic and advanced techniques and benefits those who are already attempting to finish tracks or songs.  Please contact the school if you have any specific needs or requirements.

Course content and features

• Concept of form within an arrangement
• Established structures of specific genres
• Techniques for analyzing a reference arrangement
• Use of sound design, production effects and resynthesis methods to create variations of an initial musical idea
• Compositional techniques for developing a motif
• Techniques of dynamics, frequency and spatial modulation to create more compelling musical parts
• Use of automation to create a more dynamic and interesting arrangement
• Creation of transition effects such as risers, sweeps, pitch downs, impacts and drum fills
• Subtle modulation techniques for making an arrangement sound less programmed and more fluid

Course objectives

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Analyse a reference arrangement
• Design your overall structure
• Use techniques of melody, rhythm and harmony to create a composition out of an initial idea
• Apply sound design and production techniques to expand an initial idea into an arrangement
• Use automation to control the energy in an arrangement
  Create transition effects from scratch

EXCLUSIVE LEARNING TOOLS INCLUDED

Permanent access to our guides and articles in our Content Portal:
Each student gets access to detailed notes and references covering all courses and providing a valuable ongoing and updated resource to aid learning reinforcement.

Carbon Electra:
Each enrolment includes a software licence to use the award-winning Carbon Electra, one of the world’s leading synthesizers.

School of Synthesis Producer Pack:
Each enrolment includes a carefully selected VST/AU plugin pack for Windows and MAC OSX with everything you need to get producing, including some of the best EQs, Compressors, FX and Limiters available.

Analogue Sequences:
Each enrolment includes an authorised download of the Loopmasters Analogue Sequences pack designed by School of Synthesis trainers.

SOS Loopmasters Pack:
All SOS students receive 2 gigabytes of samples from the award-winning Loopmasters collection.

Educational Discounts:
As an SOS student, you will be eligible for student discounts from Ableton, Output, Fabfilter, Rob Papen, Plugin Boutique and more. Information on educational discounts will be sent to you via email upon enrolment.

Learning methods:
Each session commences with a group demonstration and discussion, followed by solo work on one of our eight Mac workstations where you will practise set themes and techniques derived from real-world applications of the technology. Upon demonstrating your command of the necessary skills you will be further encouraged to add originality to your recreations and save various versions of your work.

Additional resources and materials:
All hardware and software is supplied, though we recommend students bring a storage device (eg. a portable USB drive) to save and back up all work, and a pen and paper to take notes. We also recommend students own a PC or MAC. Students can bring their own laptops to class so the tutor can assist with setting up software like Rekordbox.

Assessment and feedback:
You will save successive work and will receive regular support, encouragement and feedback from your tutor. All students will receive a t-shirt, sticker and completion certificate upon the successful completion of the course. At the conclusion of the course, you will be invited to leave feedback and evaluate your experience, at which point we’ll email you a link to a suite of exclusive sounds and various discount offers from the School and its partners to say ‘thanks’!