Write Arrangement Prompts with Clear Instrument Roles

Replace instrument lists with five roles

A Style line that lists eight instruments asks everything to play all the time. Assign roles instead: pulse (drums/percussion), foundation (bass), harmony bed (pads/keys/guitars), lead color (hook instrument), and vocal lane (protected space).

One sentence per role is enough. If two instruments share a role, say which one leads.

• Pulse: “tight dry drums, light shaker in chorus only”.
• Foundation: “round electric bass, simple root motion”.
• Harmony: “muted clean guitars, no busy arpeggios in verse”.
• Lead color: “short synth hook answering the vocal”.
• Vocal lane: “lead vocal dry and forward, doubles only in chorus”.

Separate parts by register and articulation

Masking is often a register problem. Keep bass low, harmony in the mids, lead color above or beside the vocal — and say so in Style. Articulation helps too: short muted notes leave holes that long pads fill.

Map energy by Lyrics section

Tell Style how the arrangement grows: sparse verse, added percussion in pre-chorus, full pulse and doubles in chorus, thinner bridge. That arc should match the Lyrics section jobs.

Protect the transition into the hook — many weak takes fail in the last bar before the chorus, not in the chorus itself.

Evaluate masking with Split Music

After a take, run Split Music to hear vocals vs instruments. If the instrumental stem already feels complete as a karaoke track that sings itself, your midrange is too busy — cut harmony detail in Style and regenerate.

On paper, mute one role: if the song still feels crowded without it, that role was noise.