Making white noise sweeps NOT suck1? :(

[amphibian]

Having a lot of problems creating really nice swooshes/sweeps.etc. to fit a tune. And tbh, I've never really gotten it right. Anyone have any good advice towards creating sweeps and making them fit nicely? I do all the usual stuff - white noise/band passed - reverbed, saturated.etc. but it never sounds so nice and ... I dunno "full".

[tylerblue]

Try widening it with chorus or some other stereo widening tool?

Edit: Have you tried a short, bright reverb as well? If not, shorten the room size/delay time and up your early reflections (if your reverb will allow it).

[Mortal]

go nuts with different effects...flangers, chorus, reverb etc. its just something youve got to keep trying with.
but keep the whole thing quite subtle, otherwise it sounds like arse.

[wub]

I usually use my sweeps to underpin a transition, as opposed to being the transition themselves. Switch up the percussion, run a white noise sweep underneath it sidechained with a slightly longer decay than usual so it breathes itself in and out around the hi hats or whatever?

[sketchyderek]

Whitenoise always sounds cheesy when I use it, so I just use reverse reverb instead.

[amphibian]

yeah that's my problem as well sketchy - good ideas though the rest of you, will give that a go. Flanger on white noise could actually sound rather interesting... hmmm

[erratech]

Modulating comb filters can work well. The beginning of this track uses it (from around 24 seconds). http://soundcloud.com/aneurythm/aneurythm-known

[mitchAUS]

I've been high passing mine with bi-filters anolog hi-pass filter. Sounds gritty/semi aggressive and not cheesy at all. Any anolog style filter will do. or u could use like a analog modled eq. I've used psp noble with results. and instead of reverb I've used like amp modelling. i just throw guitar rig on it and find i nice cab and it gives it a earthier tone. Oh and telephone filter shapes can sound cool.

[ComfiStile]

I make the white noise with my mouth and use the filter on the sample. Like once.

[Manic Harmonic]

I usually just use reverse cymbals/snares/reverbs, but in the song in my signature I used a standard white noise sweep, and I threw a rotary speaker effect on it and it made this really tense sounding harmonic sweep. I also layered a reverse cymbal on top of it. Also, I haven't done it in literally years (hm thanks for reminding me), but I used to just recorded my breathing and get louder right before a transition.

[LordBid]

im all about white noise - band pass filter - delay/reverb maybe some flanger in there as well, seems to work well for me and as was said earlier I usually dont let it stand out too much its mostly a transitional aid in the background.

[djake]

stereo delay and a heap of reverb, always does it for me.

[the dub lemon]

My 2 tips for risers/sweeps...

Synthesizing with Massive
Add a Massive track in your chosen DAW and draw in a note as long as you want your riser to run for.

Next add an automation lane for one of the Massive macros and make is sweep up from 0 to max during the length of you note.

Now open up Massive and assign that Macro to anything & everything. Some good suggestions would be oscillator pitches, filter cutoffs, lfo amounts & rates, oscillator & noise & phase amounts, distortion & effects amounts, etc.

Finally add some effects, chorus/flanger/phaser are good, along with reverb or delays.

Time stretching samples
Take a small sample, maybe a cymbal, or a piano note or anything you like.

Some where in you DAW you should be able to pitch bend a sample, apply this bending the pitch up or down as you require.

Now time stretch that sample to the length you want it to sweep over.

Add some effects for width & movement. You can also add layers with subtly different pitch bend curves panned to different places to add some nice width.

Bonus tip
Layer sweeps, take a few different sweeps made with different methods and layer them on top of each other.

[mitchAUS]

Synthesizing with Massive
Add a Massive track in your chosen DAW and draw in a note as long as you want your riser to run for.

Next add an automation lane for one of the Massive macros and make is sweep up from 0 to max during the length of you note.

Now open up Massive and assign that Macro to anything & everything. Some good suggestions would be oscillator pitches, filter cutoffs, lfo amounts & rates, oscillator & noise & phase amounts, distortion & effects amounts, etc.

Finally add some effects, chorus/flanger/phaser are good, along with reverb or delays.

Thats a siiiik idea. I always do sound design for sweeps separate then like drop them into the track... this way u actually hear what ur making context. sweeeeeeet

[FuzionDubstep]

I usually use my sweeps to underpin a transition, as opposed to being the transition themselves. Switch up the percussion, run a white noise sweep underneath it sidechained with a slightly longer decay than usual so it breathes itself in and out around the hi hats or whatever?

Exactly what I do, usually to bring in something new every 8 bars I use a sidechained white noise patch to tie the sections together..

To get it sounding 'good' I just add some reverb and chorus try getting the dry/wet balance right or else it may end up sounding a little metallic.

[bassinine]

stereo delay, long + short reverb, band pass/reject sweeps.