On 31.03.2006, at 19:03, misterioso270 wrote: > wondering if any songwriters/composers can give me some > workflow tips/ideas. > > I have a tune for instance, where the Arrange page is a mess > at this point. I like to try re-hamonizing sections, so I > have tracks of reharms... and then to hear the different > versions - I mute them. However, the Arrange page gets > cluttered... and I find I want to try transposing sections... > then reharming those - or changing the melodies on the chords... > anyways... my Arrange page is a mess. It is a matter of organization and depends on the type of songs and your personal working style. I can just tell you how I do it. I have usually a couple of audio and audio instrument tracks. My autoload contains 16 of each but I start with 4 of each for the first ideas. Audio and audio instrument tracks have different colors. "Vertical clearness" comes from a proper order and naming of tracks. I personally do not change the order of the initial tracks by moving them up or down but rather take the time to move regions and reassign plugins if I want to insert a track. But I use rather the audio mixer than the track mixer and like to see instantly which track is where. You might not care about that if you use the track mixer. For "horizontal clearness" I glue organic parts together on the audio instrument tracks. And once the basic arrangement is more or less done I start to use colored markers which are named "Intro, Verse1, Chorus" etc. I start rather early with recordings and the markers help a lot to discuss the parts with a creative partner. I try not to have too many versions in one song but rather divide the work into "phases". I have folders named "Phase 0, Phase 1, Phase 2" etc which contain different song versions. The names describe the state of the songs. In Phase 0 are rough ideas, often just a bass line or a riff or something else. Phase 1 has basic chords, a melody, probably a bass line, some synths to try different sounds. Phase 2 contains a finer arrangement and first recordings. The phases are not always the same but I try not to do too much within one development phase. I have some self-made rules like "no arrangement in phase 0", "no panning and automation until phase 3" and something like that. Hope that helps, ___ Peter Ostry