FX to accentuate a build-up ...

[brianroche]

Hi,

I'm looking for some decent plugins or Ableton effects, or chaining of effects, that would help me add some extra spice to a build up. At risk of quoting someone that I believe utilizes effects such as these quite well, similar to what Sasha does to accentuate a break down.

I'm not looking for exactly what he does, but rather ideas along the same lines. If anyone knows how he accentuates the builds I can duplicate that then start to modify the process adding my own personal flare etc ... (not into copying someone else no matter how impressive their effects are).

I've tried using Resonator and all the filters and delays etc. I've managed to create a pretty cool flanger (Phaser) effect and I'm happy with that. I'd be happy to share some of the effects I've worked out but I'm sure people have way better ones.

Any ideas folks?

Thanks
Bri...

[Durgal]

I dont know if you have ever seen Junkie XL - but he does some made build up sounds done with white noise and reverb - simple but effective in a big thumping set .

[brianroche]

I haven't actually seen what he does, but I had been thinking of creating some white noise with Operator and adding some effects to it. Thanks, I'll check out some recent live sets from Junkie XL and see if I can get some ideas ...

[Michael-SW]

A low pass filter that slowly opens up is the typical build up effect.

[Inductive]

Try to build some tension. Tons of tricks for this kind of thing. Pitch ramping (up or down) works good too. Like, the typical snare roll during a break before it kicks in is a snare that speeds up untill its almost a retrigger sound. If you do it with impulse play with the master transpose envelope. Maybe start the impulse out like an octave low and slowly ramp it up to where the song kicks back in, but a few beats before it starts again, drop the pitch hard like 2 oct's (or more, or raise it) to get that uh... whatever you want to call rushing sounds before a heavy drop.

Also, get a ride cymbal sound, streatch it to like a 2 bar length, flip it backwards. Make sure the sound ends right as the rest of the track kicks back in. Thats an old trick. Pitch that sample too maby.

Throw some effects on the master track, have them off for the whole track then have them turn on during the breakdown and go from dry -> wet then turn off when it kicks back in. Chorus / flange / delay works good.

If you have a wav editor (if not get one, a free one is fine google it up) resample the breakdown section, open it in an editor. Make sure its cut exactly to length, no silence padding the begining or end or anything. Reverse it, add some reverb, start with some short slapback style verb with 0 predelay to see how this works. Apply whatever reverb effect you have with 100% wet 0% dry. Reverse it again (so its in the original direction) then load it back into live and add a volume envelope of a slow fade in from 0 to 100% (or a slow fadein to like 30% and the last 2 or so beats from 30% to 100%). That gives a strange backwards reverb buildup. Add some effects to the backwards reverb. I dont know why I said to do that in an external editor though... it works fine with the built in verb resampleing right in live. But the other way is usualy faster for me.

There are just a few ideas. Combine them, think of the sound in the breakdown parts as a single blob and just try to push it up against the first beat of the uh, drop or whatever, where the beat comes back. If you need more ideas let me know, I'll have a scotch and make a realy long winded post :)

[mr-e]

- run some vocals/instruments/whatever to a ping-pong delay , raising the feedback and dry/wet during the buildup , while playing with the frequency and repeatparameters

- create a long note synth that keeps rising during the buildup , let it reach the high note (in tune with the rest of your song) a bar before the drop , and mute it rhythmicly after the drop

- check out the free dub-siren vst

[ILTK]

Also those swooshy wind sounds, don't waste time messing with adsr on a synth patch, takes to long to fit to tempo/build length, just sample 8-16 bars of white noise, when you need it slap it on a track and use a volume envelope, way easier to fit to time that way, put a filter on and you can automate the sound character to pink noise and make it fit sonically, chorus/flanger works well on this to.

[Patch]

Hey Inductive - nice post!!!

Please, have a large Famous Grouse on me. (Looking worward to your long post!)

[brianroche]

Thanks everyone! This is excellent, lots of stuff for me to try. A lot of the ideas are exactly what I'm looking for. Ideally I'd like to be able to configure a plug in that I can throw on a track that I can change the parameters of (master or any other) channell during the breakdown right before the song kicks back in.

That's one of the reasons why, Sasha's effects were some what appealing to me. I noticed that he created a large amount of almost fluttering effects (low building to high) in the mix prior to a build up. I recently started reading about sends and noticed that I think, throwing a plugin (with the required effecting) on a send channel and turning up the send had the effect of effecting the sound, but yet still allowing the main song to play normally. I guess, just creating tons of little sounds in the background.

I've yet to come across a nice configuration of plugins to achieve this effect but I think sends might be one possible answer.

Does anyone else do something similar?

Once again, thanks to everyone! for all the great posts. Soon as I get home I'm going to play and incorporate all of the ideas!

[Inductive]

Looking for one program / setting / method to do this though is even worse then wasting time. I'm not trying to sound like some kind of music dick or something, but like, if there was a 'sound like sasha' plugin, it would defeat the point of trying to sound like sasha. Diffrent sounds respond to diffrent effects diffrently. I will try realy realy hard to be motivated enough to do a few demo's and upload them somewhere tonight. But you have to promise to only use them as starting points. Well, you dont have to promise, but you should always try to do things a little diffrently whenever you have the luxery of time. Then 6 months from now when your hung over and trying to finish some track for some party in 45 minutes, well, then you can steal your own ideas. Stealing you own ideas isn't something you should do too much either :) I dont efven remember what I'm trying to say now. Dont look for acual presets and machine groups and patches, look for ideas. Experiment with a bunch of the free chorus effects out there, delay, distortion. Get something like synthedit when your bored trying other people's stuff and make your own. I will work on some breakdown exit stratagy ideas for you. I dont know what kind of music you want to make, but I garentee its not the type of music I make :) But the ideas apply to all electronic music. Check back in like... a few hours maybe...