What Are You Arranging For?

Arranging Tips: Beyond the Basics

Before you start arranging, do you know if your arrangement will be performed live? Or is it going to be for a studio recording?

I’ll explain the importance by the end of this, but the best way for you to understand is to hear some of the differences for yourself. Take a look at these 5 songs:

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Song 1: Sing (PTX)

This was one of the first songs that made me realise why songs that sounded good as recordings didn’t sound as good when performed live. We’ll analyse it thoroughly because it’s the best example I know of.

Here’s some of the reasons why the live version sounds weaker:

1) Not being perfectly in tune. This is specially prominent with huge jumps in vocal range (eg: This is how we do it now // Go and roll them windows down and // Sing Sing Sing Sing) or really high parts (eg: first verse, Scott’s part)

2) Chords don’t lock as well; the individual voices stand out and hence the song doesn’t sound as tight

3) Needing to breathe more (especially with singers moving around the stage) leaving awkward gaps

4) Hard to hear the pitch of the bass => doesn’t fill up space as well when the other singers breathe

5) No one to do beats while KO is rapping

6) Arguably the most important point: There’s way more than 5 parts going on simultaneously in the studio version.

I’ll explain this last point a bit further, as you might not be able to hear it yet. It’s likely you’ll need your earphones for this.

The most obvious place to notice this is the choruses. In the studio version, there’s this constant “aah” or “ooh” going on that fills up space, making the chorus sound full and big and epic.

There’s plenty of other examples as well.

Whenever they chant the word “Sing!” there’s often more than 5 parts at once. As a beatboxer, I can confidently tell you that there’s no way KO can make all those percussion sounds simultaneously.

Or you could listen to the 2nd chorus: Scott’s singing the “this is how we do it now” part but he’s also singing the “down down down” part. Can you hear it?

No matter how talented you are, I’m pretty sure you can’t sing two completely different parts at the same time.

Those are some of the secrets of studio recordings, but they don’t work for live performances.

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Song 2: Can’t Stop The Feeling

Let’s make the studio tricks a little more obvious shall we?

I’m using this particular example to introduce you a few key things that make studio recordings a poor representation of what can be performed live:

1) Can you hear him echoing after himself at the first line “I got this feeling”? That’s the reverb/echo effect. In this case it’s used stylistically, but later on in the song the reverberation is used to create the echoey lingering feeling of the pre-chorus.

2) Octaver. He even acknowledges it at the end credits. The original singer can’t really sing that low, but the Octaver effect makes his voice appear an octave lower. This makes the sound a lot fuller/more epic sounding, but it’s often not available for live performances.

3) Autotune. Who in the world sings an electric guitar part so unnaturally in tune? Distortion aside, notice how the pitch changes are unnaturally snappy and precise? That’s autotune at work, and in this case it’s really quite overkill.

I personally really dislike this version. It’s quite poorly balanced and the guy doesn’t even use the correct chords for the pre-chorus (my favourite part, ruined T.T), which is why it sounds a little weird there. Got to hand it to him for enthusiasm and stage presence though.

I’m introducing this version because I want to draw your attention to the Octaver. Can you hear it kicking in at the part “Sunshine In My Pocket” bit? Notice how its presence makes the song sound more epic, full and intense from then onwards.

Also, can you hear that there’s definitely more parts than there are singers? The lead singer is the most obvious; there’s parts where he’s singing the melody while also singing some freestyle solo “yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhh” thing.

But overall, this arrangement was built for the studio, and I think it turned out wonderfully 🙂

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Song 3: The Greatest Show

Now that you’re aware that studio recordings tend to use more parts than they have singers for, what do you hear in these versions?

In the PTX version, you can easily hear that they have far more parts singing at once than they have singers. That contributes greatly to the scale and intensity of the arrangement.

This version by Fever Dream Creative has a very nice video, but they (almost) never exceed 5 parts going on simultaneously. Also, they don’t use an Octaver (which I can respect).

Much more performable than the PTX version, but that also means they can’t create the gigantic sound needed to make songs like The Greatest Show sound epic. So those bits end up sounding a bit disappointing/underwhelming.

(I also have a few other comments about why I don’t really like this arrangement, but that’s for another time and another post).

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Song 4: Can’t Sleep Love (PTX)

Much better, no?

Although the studio version does include extra parts here and there, this song works excellently when performed live, because it’s arranged to be simple yet effective (more on exactly why in a later part of this series).

That being said, do note some of the differences between the studio/live versions:

1) Higher 3 voices (Scott, Mitch, Kirstie) are unnaturally well-balanced and blended in the studio version. In the live version, also listen to 0:38 and you’ll hear Mitch being too loud (cos of the mics)

2) The bass is quite weak and quiet in the live version, unlike the studio version

3) To compensate for the bass not filling up the space, the beats have to be more intricate and continuous in the live version

4) The “uh huh” and “yeah” of the studio version sound very robotic/auto-tuned, unlike the live version. Debatable, but I personally feel that the song doesn’t quite sound as interesting without it

All in all, still a very solid song when performed live because of the way the arrangement was structured!

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Song 5: I Need Your Love (PTX)

You might notice that the PTX version deviates greatly from the original, yet stays very epic and enjoyable throughout!

In this case, the original arrangement was excellently crafted, and the studio recording only served to make it even more perfect.

Notice also that there’s always only 5 parts (maybe an extra layer of beats in the studio version), just like the Fever Dream Creative medley thing above (song 3, 2nd example). And yet, the song never sounds empty or awkward because of how it was arranged (more details in a later post).

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Just a quick recap of some of the studio tricks we’ve observed:

1. More parts than singers
2. Autotune
3. Octavers
4. Reverb

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So now we know that there’s a lot of hidden tricks in post-production, but those tools simply aren’t available for live performances. We’ve also seen that some arrangements excel regardless, while others disappoint without the studio magic, and some still disappoint even with the studio magic.

But what’s the point of all this apparent digression?

Two points actually.

1. Studio magic doesn’t solve everything. Your arrangement must inherently be well crafted and thought through, else it’ll still sound lacking.
2. If you’re arranging for a live performance, your arrangement has to be crafted even more carefully. You have to utilise the strengths of the human voice, while working around the limitations.

What these strengths and limitations are is the topic of another part of the blog 🙂

~ Andrew