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I know this is a very vague question, but I'd appreciate some tips nonetheless. How do you guys go about adding all these little embellishments to your tracks, like weird noises, song transitions and so forth? I'm quite comfortable with drums, bass, lead, pads and whatnot, so I can make a proper song, but all the really good ones have these extra little sounds, noises, crescendo kinda parts... I know you need samples and synths, but I can't quite imagine all this stuff in my head so it's difficult for me to add these subtle extra layers to my songs. I hope this makes sense. Sorry for not having a specific question, but maybe there are some universal tips or some cool free sample libraries that you'd recommend? Cheers!

Noise is good for FX.

Generate a noise Osc in your synth and play around with filters and LFO to give it some shape and rythm. Then add some delay/distortion/reverb. Bounce and do it all again

Bounce as in export as audio and insert again? I keep seeing this method being mentioned everywhere, what's so good about it? Why can't I just keep on adding effects to the original file? Why export as audio and add effects to that, instead of just adding them straight away? Sorry for being a noob but I'm really starting to feel like I'm missing something.

Its good CPU saver, as otherwise you could end up 10+ plugs on one channel. Which will affect your production when you say have 30+ channels running. Do you really want a soft synth running the whole time just to generate noise?

Also you can do different things with an audio file like Timestretching (which is awesome for FX) and reversing the file which you cant do with MIdi

Check this out
Might be helpful for you

http://www.tarekith.com/assets/transitions.html

krispy wrote:Check this out
Might be helpful for you

http://www.tarekith.com/assets/transitions.html

all good stuff in the above, i always use random noise's for fx. anything from drills to car alarm beepers...
check out siege on my soundcloud and listen out for the car alarm beeper!

For this particular task I prefer to work with samples rather than sticking to synths as they're many things you can do to samples you can't do with synths : cutting, looping, timestretching, pitchshifting (and enjoying the resulting artifacts), reversing, etc.
It can be random noises that I recorded myself, samples from video games or random sfx created with a synth.
For instance, Massive has several wavetables that are great for making bleeps/sfx. Spend an hour making a lot of them. Resample those and play further with your sampler.

This is a great question, with no easy answers. You are onto something trying to figure this out. This is where the magic lies. Not magic like purple unicorns farting dollar bills for the world's impoverished, kind of magic, but actual magic, the ability to control people's attention. The classic example being the disappearing goat. A pretty woman walks unexpectedly onto the right side of the stage, at the same time the goat walks off the left. Hey presto, OMFG! That goat was there, and then it wasn't, it just disappeared!

I've got no advice on actually how to do this. I think it's very hard and takes a lot of practice. Any noob can throw a noise sweep in the back before a transition or a little mini break, but that likely isn't going to be enough.

I can tell you that Benga is very good at this. First class magician. I never see the goat leaving, it's all pretty lady.

See if you can focus on his beats long enough to actually hear the kinds of sounds that he uses to do this. Pretty informative.

Wish some of the elites would shed some real light on this with some concrete techniques, rather than moaning about how this forum is beneath them.

Oh and for risers, check this thread : http://www.dubstepforum.com/how-to-that ... 41186.html

nowaysj wrote:This is a great question, with no easy answers. You are onto something trying to figure this out. This is where the magic lies. Not magic like purple unicorns farting dollar bills for the world's impoverished, kind of magic, but actual magic, the ability to control people's attention. The classic example being the disappearing goat. A pretty woman walks unexpectedly onto the right side of the stage, at the same time the goat walks off the left. Hey presto, OMFG! That goat was there, and then it wasn't, it just disappeared!

I've got no advice on actually how to do this. I think it's very hard and takes a lot of practice. Any noob can throw a noise sweep in the back before a transition or a little mini break, but that likely isn't going to be enough.

I can tell you that Benga is very good at this. First class magician. I never see the goat leaving, it's all pretty lady.

See if you can focus on his beats long enough to actually hear the kinds of sounds that he uses to do this. Pretty informative.

Wish some of the elites would shed some real light on this with some concrete techniques, rather than moaning about how this forum is beneath them.

I agree, After looking at some tracks that use this I'd say that a lot of them use delay to fill out the space in the track, using it as a rhythmic element as well to keep the track moving.

best advice i can give you, my friend is this: less is more. take that to heart.

that and the fact that when making DUBstep, delay never hurts... especially when you filter it

Sorry brah, u funny.

Listen to this benga track. Good example, cause it's pretty damn minimal, and Benga wrote this when he was like what, 9? So maybe he wasn't quite as good as he was 6 years later...

nowaysj wrote:

Minimal is laughable noways?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0hYhmBzNYY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaU-pnassYM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntRTRkp2GY

Basic A wrote:

nowaysj wrote:

Minimal is laughable noways?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0hYhmBzNYY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaU-pnassYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntRTRkp2GY

no i think he's trying to say there is a lot more going on in minimal tunes that most people fail to notice
ie: the point of this thread background incidental fx and subtle changes

It's harder to pull off, theez noizes in minimal arrangements. The stage is emptier. Easier to see the goat exit stage left.

Basic, I had a pit bull that started acting like you. I had to cut his balls off. He got much better after that, real chill.

deadly habit wrote:

Basic A wrote:

nowaysj wrote:

Minimal is laughable noways?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0hYhmBzNYY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaU-pnassYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntRTRkp2GY

no i think he's trying to say there is a lot more going on in minimal tunes that most people fail to notice
ie: the point of this thread background incidental fx and subtle changes

ahhh seen.

at op...

best I can say if your on about cinematics and incidental effects, is to build your entire main element progressions, bass, drums, ect. YOu said this you have no problem wiht.

Well I was same way till most recent tunes I started on, my breakthrough man, was to build my main progression up and then mute almost everything while you do cinematics. People like us, we think in the instruments, and as you said, youcan make nice progressions instrumentally. The key is going to be getting those out of your way long enough to focus on just what makes that skeleton under the track of drums n stuff work, and then adding incidents while everythings bare.

This all really ties in with what everyone always says about keep each element interesting. Strip your tune down with mutes to just the drums, and then go crazy with reversed reverb tails up to certain hits, little one hit pans and flanges and stuff the headphone crew will like, ect. Now mute all that which is drums and drum incidents, and turn the basses on. Get your white noise out and plan sweeps, falls, ect. Turn on synths, only, ect.

Then turn it all back on.

Latest strategy because I was digging myself more n more minimal and rudimentary, next, maximal phase.

Basic A wrote: Well I was same way till most recent tunes I started on, my breakthrough man, ............
Then turn it all back on.

Latest strategy because I was digging myself more n more minimal and rudimentary, next, maximal phase.

Sounds interesting, mate, I think I'm going to try this next time!

Jason

Benga comes up twice in this thread.

But it was him going about keeping each track its own element but at the same time keeping it interesting and progressing.

Its harder to balance then it sounds.