arrangement

name	arrangement
description	Bar-by-bar arrangement coaching: intro/build/drop/breakdown/outro structure, energy curves, phrasing, transitions, where to place tension and release. Use when the user says "how should this be arranged", "my arrangement is flat", "what comes after the drop", "draft the arrangement", "/arrange", or wants a structural plan. House/EDM defaults; works for any genre.

Arrangement

User has a loop or section and needs structure. Or has a full song that doesn't move. Either way: a bar-by-bar plan with an energy reason for every section change.

Inputs

• 4-16 bar loop (audio or MIDI): design the full track around it
• Existing arrangement bounce: diagnose where energy stalls / peaks early / drags
• Description only: produce a starter map

If a bounce is supplied, run ebur128 short-term LUFS over time to see the actual energy curve. Then read the curve back to the user before redesigning.

House/EDM phrasing defaults

Section	Bars	Purpose
Intro	16-32	DJ-friendly, kick + maybe perc, no melody
First break / pre-drop A	8-16	Introduce hook
Drop 1	32	Full energy
Breakdown 1	16-32	Strip to vocal / pad, build tension
Drop 2	32	Bigger: add a layer, change one thing
Breakdown 2 / bridge	8-16	Last surprise
Outro	16-32	DJ-friendly tail

Total: ~5-7 minutes. Adjust for trance (longer), tech house (shorter), hard dance (faster phrasing).

Output format

Energy map: ASCII curve, one row per 8 bars:

Bars 0-7    ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁  Intro: kick + perc
Bars 8-15   ▁▁▂▂▃▃▄▄  Build: add hat, filter pad open
Bars 16-31  █████████ DROP 1: full
Bars 32-47  ▂▂▁▁▁▂▃▄  Break: strip to vox + pad
Bars 48-79  █████████ DROP 2: + 5th layer
...

Bar-by-bar plan: markdown table:

Bars	Section	Elements in	Elements out	The one move
0-15	Intro	Kick, top loop	None	Filter slowly opens
16-23	Pre-build	Sub, perc roll	Top loop	Snare roll last 4 bars
24-31	Build	All synths	Kick (last bar)	Riser crests, silence on beat 4.4
32-63	Drop 1	Everything	None	Bass layer drops in at bar 40
64-79	Breakdown	Vocal, pad	Drums	Pad swells, kick returns at 76
...	...	...	...	...

Save this table to ~/Music/Producer/arrangements/<track-name>_arrangement.md.

Heuristics

• One change per 4 bars minimum: if nothing changes, the listener checks out
• Drop 2 ≠ Drop 1: add a counter-melody, change the bass octave, swap the lead with a vocal chop, or half-time it
• Build with silence, not noise: kill one element 2 bars before the drop for half a beat
• Transitions are subtractions: reduce before adding
• DJ math: start and end on 32-bar phrases; intro/outro mostly drums
• Test with a DJ filter: does it still groove when high-passed?

Section-specific moves

Drop won't land

• Snare roll in the last bar of the build, then 1 bar of silence under just kick + sub
• Drop the bass in 8 bars after the drop hits (delayed gratification)
• Sidechain everything harder for the first 8 bars of the drop

Breakdown feels dead

• Lift one element from the drop (the lead, processed differently) and let it sing
• Add a vocal sample, even a chopped one
• Modulate the pad → filter sweep + chorus + reverb 80% wet

Outro doesn't end

• Last 16 bars = drum elements peeling off one at a time, 4 bars apart
• Final 4 bars = kick + reverb tail of the lead

Connectors

• Ableton MCP: session-bridge to mark locators at section boundaries in the actual Live set
• Spotify: reference-curator to pull 3 references with similar arrangements and time-stamp the section changes
• search_videos for arrangement tutorials specific to the genre

After

"Want me to (a) actually place locators at every section boundary in Live (session-bridge), (b) write the build-up MIDI (midi-lab), (c) design the riser for the build (sound-design), or (d) pull a reference playlist of similar arrangements (reference-curator)?"