MIDI Arrangement

[The Pezman]

Alright, so I've taken my first real steps towards remixing. I have FL Studio. I have a song I want to mix and think I can do justice to. Now I need a MIDI to work with. Since it's a new PC game, the odds of there being a MIDI I can work with (NOT rip) are pretty low (well, there are none on VGMusic anyway). I could link to the song, and perhaps I will, but for now I don't want to because I want to know how one goes about arranging a MIDI generally. Jose the Bronx Rican just arranged the Metal Gear 2 Boss Theme for me (comes in at 0:36 here) and my jaw hasn't put itself back together yet. I imagine it will be quite some time before I can arrange anything like that (ie the rest of the Metal Gear 2 soundtrack) but even for something simple, how do you do it? How can you split up the voices if you don't have a chiptune, for example?

Also, I know I'll probably have to change the MIDI significantly once I start remixing it. But I figure if I'm comfortable actually arranging the song, then I can start to do stuff to it.

[Harmony]

Personally, I think the best way to go about it is by listening to the parts and trying to reproduce them by ear. It really doesn't take as much practice as you might think, just start with something simple, like a bassline. Take it note by note if you have to. Load up a bass sound in FL and play (or click) around until you find the first note of the bassline, then move to the second, and third, etc. If it's a complex or fast part, I usually record the section I'm trying to reproduce as an audio file, then slow the audio down to the point where I can wrap my head around what's going on in the mix. I also use the trick of EQing out certain instruments. Want to hear the bass without all of those whiny synths, or blaring lead? Run a lowpass filter over the source tune and you're golden. If you want to isolate the lead, you can usually do so with a good notched EQ around the mids combined with a high pass filter to cut out the low stuff. Experiment.

Besides, if you do it by ear rather than finding and mangling a midi, you run a much better chance of coming across cool remixing ideas as you make "mistakes" in trying to find the right notes. You'll also get practice effectively using your samples and synths, as well as invaluable practice with listening for detail in songs.

[Undefined]

Well, I'm actually at the (roughly) same point as you - I've made a few cover-ish midis, but I have not come much further than that. What this means is I shouldn’t be talking a lot of shit about stuff I don’t know anything about, but since we're on about the same level, I could tell you what I'm doing. Maybe you'll find it useful.

Personally, I do what Harmony said; I listen to a song and enter the notes, one by one, as I go along. Start with either the bassline or melody, depending on the song, because they're easiest to make out. I would advice you to mute the other tracks when starting a new one - you want to hear what you're doing. Of course, you should also listen to them together to make out any flawed harmonies. Typically, when a sequence is correct, it 'clicks' with the other tracks.

As for chords and harmonies; you should be able to make out the root note, and then... maybe study theory and extrapolate from there? That's what I'm trying to do, anyway.

For anything more advanced than that, such as automation, I’m not your man.

[Tensei]

I couldn't agree more with Harmony on this. At this point, starting early with developing a good musical hearing will be invaluable for later on. By learning to transcribe by ear you'll get a very good image of how each individual elements like percussion and bass work in the context of a song, and what conventions you have to hold on to when you're sequencing them.

I admit it slows your workflow down a lot, but you get back a lot for it; I spent my early remixing days tabbing out commercial Rock/Metal songs, and it was invaluable for my drum sequencing. Midi-ripping kind of promotes laziness and songs often tend to sound too coverish when they're based on a midi-rip.

[Zephyr]

Another thing I'd recommend before starting (if you haven't done it already) is to take the time to really get to know your DAW, in this case FL Studio, set aside a time when you figure out and watch tutorials for the mixer, then the same for the sequencer, the playlist, the piano roll... etc. Then move on to other more specific things; eq effect, delay effect, piano roll velocities, layer channels, delay... etc. again.

It'll help you know how to do certain things in a mix and make everything easier overall. Also (again, if you haven't already) familiarize yourself with some synths and musical terms, I'd recommend synth1 and crystal for free ones and words such as dry, wet, reverb, feedback, panning, gain, frequencies, etc. for the third time.

For myself the best advice in getting started was to try some original songs first, the conceptual music competition is a good spot for that, originals are easier. Good luck.