whiteboarding an arrangement, before heading into the studio

[PopTodd]

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 almost see the 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:

http://hoponpop.bandcamp.com/track/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)?

[lost highway]

I think there is a pop music mythology that anything worth writing/performing exists in your head and in a visual/auditory conversation with other musicians. But, of course using paper, or any writing system frees you up for greater complexity.

 

In your case you used it to layer rhythmic concepts for a greater rhythmic complexity. I've personally only used it to arrange parts for multiple instrument voices to get a lot more moving 4 or 5 part harmony between horns, keys etc.

 

Your song is really cool because you have a percussion section driving the song, instead of just a drummer on a kit playing a groove. The trick produced a different kind of song, and the whiteboard was what was necessary to both map and communicate it, without having 3 or 4 drummers in the room to provide examples.

 

Of course there is music with even greater rhythmic complexity than your song that is done in an oral (non written tradition), but it is done by a load of percussionists who have a lifelong tradition of play complex polyrhythms, coupled with a cultural vocabulary that is rhythmically richer. The important point is writing something down allowed you to communicate musically in a way you hadn't before, which is fuckin cool.

[Cam Jones]

My bands last record we recorded demos very very close to how we wanted them recorded. When we got to the studio we wrote out a check list on a white board of different instruments on each track and check them off as they were recorded. Great way to keep organized and cuts down on time tracking