If you always find yourself reaching for the same old risers, try some of these more characterful techniques
Reverbed reverse
1Swamp a reversed sound in reverb, then reverse the rendered ambience signal. Bet you’ve never heard that tip before, eh? Well, you can obviously go further and make the classic ‘reversed reverb’ trick your own: timestretch the reverb ‘riser’ to quadruple its original length; pitch up the reversed reverb by an octave or two; or coat the new effect in even more reverb, then you can reverse that!
Make noise
2Noise is a staple tool for building FX sounds. Filter some white noise and you’ve got the classic ‘noise sweep’ or synthetic ‘wind’ effect: easy. Alternatively, throw your favourite flanger or chorus processor over some noise for strange, metallic timbres. And although noise doesn’t have an inherent pitch or tone, you can always try pitch- or frequency-shifting your noise for odd timbral sweeps.
Chain it up
3Piling up multiple signal-processors is a rapid way of transforming a vanilla sound into something far stranger. We’re fans of purpose-built multi-effects and channel-strip plugins (like Soundtoys’ Effect Rack and Unfiltered Audio’s BYOME) that allow you to freely stack up and reorder individual signal processors in a modular fashion. While the fun is in experimentation, try a standard signal path of distortion, into band-pass filter, into reverb and delay.
Repurpose
4One of the best ways to inject personality and coherence into your latest production is by designing your FX sounds and ambience using distinctive sounds taken from the track itself. For example, if your tune features a vocal part, chop out a segment and repeat it over steady 1/4- or 1/8th notes on a new track. Once this loop is running, use all types of processors – distortion, filters, delay, granulators, etc
– to build an element that seems to emanate from within the existing parts of your track.
Sidechains
5Once you’ve designed an epic FX sound, it may well swamp your track and fill up the midrange and top end of your mix. A good tip, therefore, is to apply heavy side-chain compression to this cavernous signal, keyed from a prominent percussive element in your beat. Crank those compression settings up to create dynamic ‘whips’ and swells that expan
