Building good breakdowns/FX transitions.

[River]

I need some tips on this, somehow I just cant get my noise-swooshes and reverbs to give the same amount of energy as I'm hearing in a lot of productions.

I'm using massive to play a long note with the evelope off so its totally constant, then using an LFO to automate the noise-colour a little synced to give it movement, then filtering it up with Live7s auto filter.

What tools/techniques are you guys using to introduce a new phase/section of a track or in breakdowns?

[tomflynn]

To be honest, anything is fair game, i like to just pull up a load of percussion one shots in my sampler, put a really long reverb on the track, long time, fully wet no dry signal, play around to see what sounds nice, then bounce one i like, get the audio and reverse it.

You should then get a nice long swell that you can play with. Adding a wee bit of sidechain will give it a nice 'pumping' feel too.

Sometimes i'll just crank up the reverb send on my percussion buss as i go into a new section then bring it back.

Pulse width modulation always sounds good, starting slow and then cranking up the lfo speed so it gets faster and faster. Working the detune knob will often give a decent 'humm' to the proceedings too.

Personally i'd stear clear of these 'pre made' loops of uplifters and falls, although they're good and easy to just plonk in your arrangement, 1 - you don't learn how to work a synth and 2 you just can't fully satisfy your needs with them. Oh and 3. useuall the person who did them has put stupid ammounts of sidechain on them that doesn't match the 'pump' of your groove.

Be creative - set up a stupid chain of effects, run a sound through them, bounce it, mangle it again, reverb it, filter it, stop and have some tea, mangle it some more, you know the score.

Hope any of that helps.

[deepstereo]

River, what you do sounds quite cool. Perhaps layering several fx together could do the trick to increase energy. I tend to use sidechained white noise or reversed cymbals for breakdowns but I'm still searching for that sound.

[dramirez]

Get hold of the EOS reverb plug in from Audiodamage - it has an Infinite button for the never ending reverb of doom effect!

Also get hold of the last copy of Future Music as i did a whole piece in there on building interest and creating build ups and creshendos in breakdowns

[River]

Wow that sounds like the perfect article for me! I have the one with the bass feature and Thomas Gold (FM224 march) any idea which number the articles in?


I also discovered the ableton reverbs have a 'freeze' function which sounds a lot like the infinite one. It just keeps the reverb going forever and i've been playing around with sidechaining and pitchshiting the reverb once its 'frozen' and thats sounding pretty sweet.

I do have a track done now with a huge gap in the middle where I cant come up with a breakdown though :rolleyes:

[The Fox]

River,

The FM issue Dean is talking about is Issue 222 page 52...Its an eye opener :)

[meanstreetsmusic]

Which issue exactly was this?

[scottb]

I need that issue! 222 must be January as I don't have that one.

I've been experimenting with with layering sines/saws (modulating) with noise but i just can't get them to sound like one sound. Feel like I'm in the ballpark but there's something missing.

[meanstreetsmusic]

I love the EOS!!!

[meanstreetsmusic]

Dean.. Would you have second to let us know what a basic Bus Template is for you? Dont need the exact model of Reverbs or delays..