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Here's a cool trick I've recently started using to add a little bit of magic to a drop. I'm not sure whether everyone else will find it a) completely obvious or b) totally useless, but it seems worth punting out there.

The basic idea is to add an almost imperceptible amount of white (or pink) noise to the tune before it drops and then shut it off immediately as it drops. The point isn't to have something audible like a backwards cymbal or a whoosh, it's more to effectively degrade the sound quality in the buildup to the drop so that when you un-degrade it again everything sounds a tiny bit brighter and shinier and more effective. Fading it in gradually seems to be the best plan so it's not obvious when it starts but more obvious when it ends.

This seems to work best with the sort of drop where you've got continuing percussion building up to the bass coming in, rather than the sort where you have a vocal sample, four seconds of silence, a reverbed gunshot, three seconds of silence and then everything coming it at once.

I'd imagine that you could get similar effects by other means, like using an EQ or a bitcrusher or a lowpass filter to very slightly degrade the sound in the buildup as well...

Noone interested then?

Dunno but your Old Doverhouse is cracking with a bit of Butler's Reserve Cheddar mate. Top work.

all about the reversed cymbal delayed out with a 240-11440Hz sine sweep and a little zoop or zing on the E of 4

Like it!

May well use that haha

Sounds interesting, any audio?

Used a couple of times on Cerealist, the first tune on my Virb. Although listening back it's maybe a bit too subtle, I'm not sure I can actually distinguish it on computer speakers....

Bob: glad you liked it! We've been rocking it with Montgomery and Keen's cheddar all christmas.

white noise is your friend

I was a lp filter fan myself but this method seems interesting so i'll give it a shot later on and see how effective it is, nice one

I think pink floyd used a similar method back in their day from memory. Def works.

Slothrop wrote:Here's a cool trick I've recently started using to add a little bit of magic to a drop. I'm not sure whether everyone else will find it a) completely obvious or b) totally useless, but it seems worth punting out there.

The basic idea is to add an almost imperceptible amount of white (or pink) noise to the tune before it drops and then shut it off immediately as it drops. The point isn't to have something audible like a backwards cymbal or a whoosh, it's more to effectively degrade the sound quality in the buildup to the drop so that when you un-degrade it again everything sounds a tiny bit brighter and shinier and more effective. Fading it in gradually seems to be the best plan so it's not obvious when it starts but more obvious when it ends.

This seems to work best with the sort of drop where you've got continuing percussion building up to the bass coming in, rather than the sort where you have a vocal sample, four seconds of silence, a reverbed gunshot, three seconds of silence and then everything coming it at once.

I'd imagine that you could get similar effects by other means, like using an EQ or a bitcrusher or a lowpass filter to very slightly degrade the sound in the buildup as well...

Got an example for us ?