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I highly recommend this book "The Addiction Formula" for song progression (arrangement).


https://www.amazon.com/Addiction-Formula-Captivating-Commercial-Songwriting/dp/9082391309


The author also has a Youtube channel called Holistic songwriting that I'd suggest you subscribe to! He's very articulate in the way he explains his concepts and he's got a bunch of videos on different artists' styles regarding composition and melody writing, and just overall arrangement, chord progressions, etc. In the book he conceptualizes song "progression" as the combination of hype (intensity) and flow between sections ( i cant remember the exact word he called it now but essentially the type of transition between 2 sections). I've found this approach to be really intuitive and easy to understand.


As far as layering theres definitely some things to take into consideration to strategically layer sounds. First off, why are you layering? Is it to beef up a sound, add a new texture to it, emphasize a part of the ADSR, etc. For example, if I'm "layering" two sounds that sound really similar, it might be better to hard pan them so you get a really wide sound. If I'm using a really soft lead sound and it's lacking some intensity I might look for a layer thats grittier, or maybe a pluckier kind of layer to bring out the attack more, etc. Maybe I've already established my main sound but in a different section of the song I want to give it more depth so I'll find 2 sounds to tuck back into the mix and hard pan them so the main sound gets just a lil "pick me up" later on. Maybe the same line played in multiple octaves so I'll use a sound that sounds good an octave down and one an octave up and have them compliment my main lead. The possibilities are really endless.


It's hard to articulate exactly how to layer, and I'm sure someone could explain it better than me but my advice is to think about what you're trying to achieve with the layering and then flip through lots of different patches and find which compliment each other best for your intended purpose. Layering is a great way to progress your song and keep an idea fresh throughout.


Underbelly runs an awesome and very entertaining channel which I'd recommend checking out as well. Check out his video on layering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXB2t0tNHU


Hope that helps!

There is a kindle book, that came first. We made it first as a book, and then as an app. Maybe for IOS users for now it may be interesting. Kindle book is a little better, because it has all words in categories. For example word Compression and all relative terms to compression, etc. So, just put a link if anyone interested.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Musician-production-engineering-terminology-ebook/dp/B072M8QRLN/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1498901012&sr=1-1&keywords=good+musician

Good starting point - https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Bobby-Owsinski/dp/128542087X

I use an old M-Audio mtrack (link below), its got a warm analog signal path, never has failed me, AND its cheaper than a Scarlett

https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-M-Track-Two-Channel-Portable-Interface/dp/B00BQ6KSK4