In this instructional YouTube segment, J. Anthony Allen walks through a rapid‑track‑creation workflow that starts by building the "big moment" of a song—typically the chorus—by stacking multiple elements (synths, drums, bass/808, strings, piano, hi‑hat/snare) to make a thick, impactful section. Once this dense section is crafted, he demonstrates how to deconstruct it: pulling individual layers out, duplicating them, and rearranging them to form the rest of the arrangement (intro, verses, bridges). He shows live DAW actions such as moving drum patterns, isolating strings, adding piano, and using the 808 as an intro element, illustrating how a single riff can seed an entire track. Throughout, he offers practical tips, expresses enthusiasm for the method, and highlights the flexibility of replacing or tweaking parts (e.g., drum beat, bass line) while maintaining the core idea.
Chapters
Okay, so we've started a track. We got something up and running, right? That's the hardest part, really, is just getting going. I can mess with this all day and ultimately end up with something super different. I'd like to replace this drum beat entirely. I kind of dig that bass line, even though it has that weird out of key thing, which I kind of like. The string stuff is okay. So I've got a start to something here that I could work on for a while yet. And then, of course, all the sound design stuff. Now I want to. Before I leave you, I want to give you one super big tip on how to produce tracks quickly. This is something that everybody does. Not everybody. A lot of people do this. So if you want to make a track quickly, here's what you do. Start working on it like we've worked on it, and make this as big and thick as you can. So, you know, we're going to add more synths, we're going to add more layers, and we're going to basically make it have a lot of different layers. This is going to be the big moment of our whole track. Okay, so we're making the big moment first. We're not making the beginning first. Cool. So once we have it, once we have this as our big moment, what we're gonna do is we're gonna move it out. Let's say this is the chorus. Okay? Let's do that. Let's make it happen twice. Then you're gonna build the rest of the song by deconstructing this. So you're gonna say. Okay, I'm gonna start with. Well, let's not say start, but let's take this drumbeat, put it there, and let's use. Oops, we didn't bring our this with us over to here. Okay? And I don't want that. Okay, so here's. Here, let me get rid of this. Okay, so here's all our stuff. So put my drums back here. Let's maybe add just the strings here maybe twice. And then let's go to just the kick and our bass line. And let's maybe do just the piano before that. And we'll put maybe just our hi hat and snare. So basically what you're doing is you're building the big onion first, and then you're peeling off layers and dispersing those out to build the whole track. So now, just from this riff, I built out almost an entire track. I left my 808 just hanging over there. Maybe the 808 by itself is the intro. I don't know. I kind of want piano to be here also. And let's maybe start with the piano. Okay. I didn't line everything up totally, right? So let's do this. Let's start it right here. Let's say this is our beginning. Okay? So let's just hear what my super random arrangement has made for us. Oops. Where did this come from? I think this was supposed to be up there. Yeah, We're still looped. I do that every time. Okay, here we go. Sam. Sa.
