The Drop

[FSTZ]

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[narcissus]

that makes sense to me...

i do my drops more like this

aaaaaaaaaaa.... AAA aaaaaaaaaaa.... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!! FFffffFFfffffFFfffffFFFFFFF


boooooooooooooooo


WOEIFJAWELKFJWEALKSFJDSAFAJSDFEW

[thrush]

another thing I've started doing is after the 16-32 bar intro....have a sort of minimal drop for the next 8 bars instead of the actual drop. so it kinda is like "wow what a weak drop....this is womp womp"....and then after that 8 bars the bass and all the things them come like BOH!!!!

original sin - therapy is primo example

[JFK]

Something I don't do enough is making sure that the sounds you're using, if they're going to be used as a constant, full part of the track, used at the beginning being a tiny bit quieter than they will be in the rest of the tune.
Say... the drums (I typed drugs there unconsciously lol), the atmospherics, the melodies etc.

We need a "tip of the week" award...
This one is fucking awesome.
I'm opening a thread, with nominations and everything, poll at the end of the week (friday) with the 3-5 best ones.
Winner gets to brag about it in his sig

yeah, no?

Hell Yeah!!! Good idea

[kejk]

[eops]

Just to try and drag this thread back toward the subject ....

Lately Ive been getting into doing a kinda reverse drop ... for extra deepness

Instead of making everything massive when you come back in Ive been playing with trying to increase the tension with lots of confusing sounds etc and then dropping in the bass and breaks afterwards in a stripped down fashion ... kinda keeps it mean and a bit less obvious (maybe)

Check the sig for example

Not a roll or rise in sight ... just to try and do something different

[FSTZ]

that makes sense to me...

i do my drops more like this

aaaaaaaaaaa.... AAA aaaaaaaaaaa.... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!! FFffffFFfffffFFfffffFFFFFFF


boooooooooooooooo


WOEIFJAWELKFJWEALKSFJDSAFAJSDFEW

[eops]

*gives up and walks away*

[Debaser1]

I wanted to start a new thread about drops but found this and thought I'd give it a bump.

So far in all of my tracks I have either a sweep, kick roll, or pause as a drop. But I want to do something more creative with it.

Is it literally just experimentation?

[Mortal]

Soundcloud

gets me every time

louderlouderlouderlouder

little gap

BASSSSSSSSSSSSSS


absolutely magic

[X_S_]

extra deepness

Instead of making everything massive:t:

I like this topic because I feel it becomes pivotal in ones work. Do u cater to the dancefloor? Do u produce what will get play on dubstep Internet radio stations? Do u make music that simply sound good to YOU??

I go to dubstep nights occasionally and what comes after the drop gets quite the reaction, I dig it and understand it, but I don't listen to it at home.

As big as a role as the drop plays in dubstep musics , I feel it can negatively impact the replay value of a piece in the wider music scheme. I know I'm speaking from my own perspective but it can be limiting. Don't get me wrong, dance music to me, with all it's quirks, formulas , and tried and repeated patterns is a f'ing religion. I really mean that. I just dig producers who drop in different ways.. Aphex twin, zomby.

[looney]

I wanted to start a new thread about drops but found this and thought I'd give it a bump.

So far in all of my tracks I have either a sweep, kick roll, or pause as a drop. But I want to do something more creative with it.

Is it literally just experimentation?

have you tried a sample of a man saying a bad word. pretty creative imho

[legend4ry]

Space, Pace, Bass.

Theres nothing wrong with dropping everything out of the last 2 bars of a intro and then when it hits, the suspense and tension is much greater.

I think it took me about 5 months after I was confident when making music to realized, kick rolls = shite for tension. Silence is golden, as they say!

[makemerich]

well for your track specifically , your drums hit pretty hard right off the bat so many try eqing the life out of them until they hit the drop.
also i cant hear sub bass cuz im on laptop speakers but that always helps.
good quality trak tho.

[Trichome]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
and i thought noone else would want their alias to be TRAIN(W)RE(C)K
change it, or corndance





you have been warned.

[MikkiFunk]

- Filter some wide noise that builds up to the drop, then drops out really quickly at the end of the bar. Then the drop...
- Automate FX send amounts such as reverb and delay to rise as you build up to the drop. Obviously bring these back down again, that is, unless you want parts of the song to sound like they're being played in wembley stadium with the roof on and every surface made of glass
Filter things in using a low pass or high pass filter. Works good on busy drums with things like bongo's in them (bongo's sound so great when filtering through a LPF ), works great on things like piano, white/ pink noise, and basslines with lots of frequency content.
- Use things like low strings to sit in the back of the mix, nice reverb so they sound real lol. Its proven that subtle sounds of a lower frequency build tension and emotion more effectively. Increase the amount of tension possibly by setting a pitch bend to rise on the string slowly. Very effective. Remember that rising string sound that came on whenever heath ledger appeared in The Dark Knight? Great example of a really simple tension builder
- Use things like reverse crashes leading into standard crashes, with big reverbs and delays and things like wider panning. Maybe sidechain reversed crashes or noise to your kick so it pumps so it builds!

Good luck

[Grumblex]

a big crash with some reverb on helps give some impact as it fills out the higher end of the spectrum very fast

[Basic A]

Jees man its all about the context of the tune, but, I know you pop up on my soundcloud sometimes, so you know what context ill be explaining these techniques from... a dark, spacious, subby one... different styles, different tricks though.

1> downward shephards tone accross the bar right before the drop, just mixed in low enough it almost gets drowned by the dithering noise, but still sort of subconciously audible... it makes you feel kinda like you are falling towards the bassline, quickly becoming one of my new favorites...

2> pitch bending sine sub accross first beat or two after the drop... take a normal sine wave, automate it to pitch up or down and octave, and then set a volume envelope on it with a ridiculous short attack, full sustain for the length of the note, and just enough decay/release to keep it from zero crossing, so its really thumpy/punchy... throw it between the first kick/snare after the drop... one of the oldest tricks in the book, but damned if it doesnt work wonders...

3>Make a nice white noise-filter-riser thing, but set the filter to descend the spectrum instead of ascend, so it starts high pitched and sweeps down... layer this in somewhere in the background where it sits nice, make it a few bars long... Really, this works best if your going from like one bassline/pattern and going to transition to a different patch or whatever to keep things rolling, rather then on the initial drop, but, it works alot of the time on initial drops as well...

4> Random Parting Words Before Im Out... A good buildup goes further then whatever comes after it in terms of impact. It cant hit harder/louder if the spectrums already full. Yes, intro pads need the low end rolled off. And always eat your wheaties.

[eops]

. And always eat your wheaties.

Knew there was something I was getting wrong

[Rubik]

During the build up I bring the bass tones down on an eq (don't silence them just slide them down a bit) and since I work with a lot of wide stereo I also use a stereo plug in to but out a lot of the wideness (don't bring it all the way down to mono) and often use a rising synth to build pressure and then when it drops, kick the stereo back in as well as the bass.

Sometimes if there's an aggressive bass patch triggered at the drop i'll hit a kick at the same time and leave the rest of the drums out until the second snare of the first bar