Below are several mistakes to avoid when arranging songs.
First, a back story: Years ago, I sat with a session drummer and went over one of my early songs. His first words were: "This riff is great, but I am already bored." I was a beginner and the whole exercise was an eye-opener. It was the first time I thought about arrangement seriously and understood that three chords and a riff do not make a song.
I am now working on one of my first songs – an even earlier one. It has issues.
Vocal melody is too much
The vocal melody is too complex. I sang E D E G E A/A# A# A G E just in the first measure, with multiple walks per syllable. I can almost sing this, but just almost.
I am not a proponent of fix-it-in-the-mix strategies. It is possible to tune the vocals, but, with this complex vocal melody, it must be done very carefully and is time consuming.
Harmonies repeat the main vocals
The vocal harmonies are interesting, but they often go through the same notes as the main vocals. This is OK for now. But I expect that when both the main vocals and harmonies are gain staged there will be a problem that will require creative EQ or gain automation for some mix clarity.
Bass and guitars play the same riffs
There is nothing wrong with this in principle, but it happens too often in this song. I suppose my original idea was to give some weight to the guitar and the song, but the result is mid-range mud. I have already put some effort into this by removing some of the mids from both instruments, changing the bass for a portion of the song, and compressing for a faster bass decay. But the mud persists.
The original song was written for a voice and an acoustic guitar. Throughout portions of the song, the acoustic guitar and the vocals joined in the same melody. This worked well with the acoustic guitar, which has less mid-range and does not interfere with the vocals. But an electric recording creates the exact same problem as with the bass and guitar. The vocals and the electric guitar clash. They are difficult to untangle.
Repeating riffs and patterns
There are two guitars in this song that play two different riffs, but both repeat these riffs throughout the song. The song is repetitive and will not keep the listener's attention. I have opted to simply drop both for extended portions of the song, leaving the vocals and bass to drive the song. It is an easy fix and an interesting one, but I wonder if I should be putting more effort into figuring out better changes.
Two things happen when you drop the guitars. First, the bass may need a mix for those portions that is different than the mix for portions with guitars. Second, there is nothing to anchor the vocals. It is difficult to sign correctly without an accompaniment.
Very slow
The song was recorded at 58 bpm. This is both OK and not OK. Songs can be slow and engaging. This one, however, already has problems engaging the listener.
It is not the job of the engineer to solve this. It is a nagging issue though if you are the composer, performer, and engineer all at the same time.
authors: mic
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