Making "Hit" arrangements

get real instruments and players and record them with high quality mics
 
The man asked for tips on arrangement, not recording quality. My advice is to listen to classical music. The one thing that's helped me the most in my beats is my classical background.
 
I'd say first lay down a beat, a bassline with mostly root notes and maybe a simple piano progression (you can take this out after if you want) it's just so you know where your gonna be taking the song.

From there listen to music with horns, i'd say listen to hiphop (or wutever genre your producing in) because horns in hiphop are usually very simple lines and not nearly as complicated to comprehend for a beginner as classical would be.

Listen to some Outkast etc. and try to notice little things like how the horns generally don't get too much in the way of the rapper/singer when there singing, for example on "The way you move" on the chorus you hear a basic supportive line during the "I like the way you move" lyric, but right after that is when the melodic line comes in.

This is why I'd say listen to hiphop first because classical music doesn't have to deal alot of things that we do. I use classical music for inspiration too but you can't forget that it is a completely different genre and the 'rules' are therefore different.

If your playing triads in the horn lines they usually line up something like this:
(These are just basic guidelines)

The trombone or tenor sax plays the bottom note.
The tenor or alto sax plays the middle note.
The trumpet and/or alto sax plays the top note.

If you wanted to play seventh chords, you could add a baritone sax or bass trombone to play the bottom note of the chord and put the other instruments on top in the same order. Selecting your instruments in this way will give you a richer sound than just using one keyboard patch and playing the chord tones in.

Hope this helped a little
 
looks complicated, but jsut make sure you stick to the ranges listed on this diagram, it helps things keep sounding authentic.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musrange.gif

use expressive samples, you need to have a raspy sound on brass rather than a smooth tone.

layer up everything, i use a few of each instrument with varying modulations and velocitys and envelopes.

this applies to all orchestra emulation to be fair, a large amount of effort required.
 
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You should focus on panning and levels, and also the counter melodies and all that, you should listen to some classical stuff also just to get an idea how certain sounds come in etc.
 
FenixOZ said:
looks complicated, but jsut make sure you stick to the ranges listed on this diagram, it helps things keep sounding authentic.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musrange.gif

use expressive samples, you need to have a raspy sound on brass rather than a smooth tone.

layer up everything, i use a few of each instrument with varying modulations and velocitys and envelopes.

this applies to all orchestra emulation to be fair, a large amount of effort required.


good lookin' on the diagram
 
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