Most commonly used EDM effects?

Hi Ross!

Do you mean techniques, or actual effects plugins?

If you're referring to techniques to "fade in and out of tracks effects and build-ups" can you maybe paste the YouTube link to a song that has an example of what you're asking about? :)

I think he means "risers" and "downers". maybe?

Yes risers and downers i believe (specifically on apple logic x). How to access these? Please and thank you :) Ross

I think there are two ways you can kinda think about making risers and downers.

One would be to grab them off of sample packs. There are SO many out there but off the top of my head I remember using plenty of cinematic slams, uplifters, downshifters, risers and falls from Wave Alchemy SFX Collection 02. You just drag and drop the ones you want to use in your track, and if you want them to sound different than "stock" just manipulate and mangle them to your heart's content!

Another way would be to build risers and falls yourself using synths and effects. Even if you opt for sample packs it's never a bad idea to try making these things from scratch to broaden your skillset. Here's a nice tutorial for Logic Pro X to get you started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9V-TaauI6s

Hope this helps :)

here's some stuff I've synthsized / made whatever that will help with downers and risers, gotta a hall kick in there, some analog white noise, some digital white noise (ud probably like Whorse_White Noise 128BPM.wav for edm), some other things too snare build ups, and a couple synth build ups.

http://grahamphisher.com/downloads/downersrisers.zip

there pretty raw to so you can add your own fx processing, mess around with low n high pass filters, phasers on noise, just simple 4x4 sidechain to get a pumping effect.

i think the best way to do it tho just take synth like in the video on top, change the pitch bend value to 6-12, and have it just rise up over 8 to 16 bars.

That's great whorse thanks for sharing!

I found a cool riser I had laying around, what's a good site to host a small .wav file? One where I can just upload it directly without it being reprocessed or converted?

they call those downers and risers? Huh. I usually do that with the roland MKS or a plugin that does PWM and subtractive using envelopes or a ramp/saw LFO for pitch and filter cutoff/resonance. When I still had the electrix filter factory I liked to run into that bad boy and manually sweep a bandpass from about 100hz up to around 4khz (estimated) while reducing the resonance (Q) from max to minimum... sometimes it can be fun to run that into a distortion plugin and automate the gain up as it 'rises' or 'downs' to add harmonic content. In the mix I am quite fond of panning the track out 50% and running a detuned ping pong slap delay at about 2ms to thicken it... it can also be cool to throw a softsynth that's all white or pink noise in the center when you do that with a similar filter sweep but no pitch change and then slap a mono flanger on that, disable the LFO and automate the manual control and regen....

shit, I am giving away all my old tricks! you didn't read this, you didn't read this!

alright, here's one more trick:

no one is going to tell you this, but another classic trick pioneered by Depeche Mode and used in everything from synth pop to trance is GATED REVERB like on AC/DCs "back in black" LP. What makes this work well in EDM is your ability to sync the reverb's pre-delay to about an 8th or 16th note and then gate out the decay so it adds to the pulse of the song as well as adding ambience. Its less overt than rhythmic multi-tap delay... if you are doing this "in the box" a good way to go is to set up an FX send, place an effects you want before the verb on the send (I recommend a vocoder tuned to compliment the key of your song), then you want either reverb, or if you're reverb doesn't sync its predelay to the tempo of the song (and you don't want to do some basic algebra to figure out how many ms to use) just throw a delay plugin outfront set to 100% wet), set your verb to 100% and tune it however you want but don't give it a super long decay unless its a downtempo tune., then you need a gate. Start out with the gate wide open and once you like the sound of all your rhythmic tracks hitting that reverb, start fucking with the gate until it really adds to the rhythm of the tune. You can use the fader to adjust the level of the whole FX send inthe final mix without fucking with the rhythmic verb effect itself... you will also want to throw an EQ at the end to be able to shape what you've created so it fits into your bandwidth neatly, thickening the song without masking anything.

you may wish to set up a second effects send with the same chain sans gate for more sustained sounds to keep the sense of ambiance consistent

That's great whorse thanks for sharing!

I found a cool riser I had laying around, what's a good site to host a small .wav file? One where I can just upload it directly without it being reprocessed or converted?

your welcome.

soundcloud, now soundcloud whenever someone plays it, itll play back as a converted mp3, idk what the current kbps is right now but last time I checked its 128.

BUT. heres the deal when you enable downloads for the file, the user will download your wav file and it will be un touched. they only created a 128kpbs copy for playback.

(which works perfect for me, I like to inject the ID3 / mp3 meta info to the fullest w/ hq art adds at least 2-3mb, it leads a lotta people back tho who dl'd onto their phones.)

if you just get a lil side account on there just for hosting samples you can fit a lot on a free account.

I do the same thing with my supporting drums and repetitive vocals. Thts trick to the cut off filter you gotta work the res too, thts something a lotta people who do house today are missing which made house back in the 90's and early 2000 great, they just set the res in one spot and work the cutoff, you don't get that pulled from water / mud vibe.

N yea I'll sometimes throw a delay in too (a synced one tho.), only time I use un-sync is to breathe a lil more life into the environment processed into a channel with a wider stereo image.

I've never tried tht noise technique your talking about, I'mma have to give tht a try when I get some down time.

and I just read your second post too, imma throw tht into a list of things to do too.

I do the same thing with my supporting drums and repetitive vocals. Thts trick to the cut off filter you gotta work the res too, thts something a lotta people who do house today are missing which made house back in the 90's and early 2000 great, they just set the res in one spot and work the cutoff, you don't get that pulled from water / mud vibe.

I don't listen to a lot of EDM anymore so I had no idea people forgot how to swell a filer correctly... if you open/close/sweep the filter and reduce or increase resonance into distortion or a limiter you get a lovely squeezing, slurping effect that will make all the druggies flip out

N yea I'll sometimes throw a delay in too (a synced one tho.), only time I use un-sync is to breathe a lil more life into the environment processed into a channel with a wider stereo image.

I am way into detune/delay for overt automatic doubletracking type sounds, but I am a giant Beatles fan, so...

I've never tried tht noise technique your talking about, I'mma have to give tht a try when I get some down time.

I love white and pink noise.

and I just read your second post too, imma throw tht into a list of things to do too.

gated reverb with synced predelay is going to blow your mind.... you can filter the whole FX send to do some amazing "risers and downers" just on the reverb sound during transitions.... add in a reversed 808 ride synced to a half bar, gradually decrease the resonance while opening the LPF and you are all set...

what tricks do you have WHorse? I am dying to know, your shit sounds pretty damn good.

Swedish House Mafia-style flanged riser, if anyone wants to pick it up! (download enabled)

https://soundcloud.com/equipboard/swedish-house-mafia-style-flanger-riser

just a whole lotta side chaining not to just whole channels but certain bands within channels so I can get the most outta every sound its a certain technique doesn't have a name yet that I know of but I call it frequency priority, I designed a flstudio mix template of it that I sell to other producers for $150, the hook "the only mixing you'll have to do when it comes to house music is adjust the channel levels, or sometimes click activate on some plugins if you want to change the sound up." people seemed pleased and I'm decently happy with how the mixes turn out, nice thing is you can just jump into writing.

n I have a few channel presets I designed for fl studio using native plugins that act as a mod matrix for my analog synths which allow me to get a lotta the wild crazier sounds u hear with a lotta soft synths in edm / dance music today. my mentor (a award winning audio engineer) that i use to go raving with for like 6 months told me to never get analog cus I wouldn't be able to get certain sounds but with this digital mod matrix technique I proved him wrong.

those are the only things I really think are unique about what i do, I still very much just think of myself as a student.

pretty coo, nce lil marketing technique for the site, would be coo to some samples from specific types of gear, like live drums, analog samples,and all tht kinda stuff, sorta driving home the whole unique selling point of equipboard "show case of gear" than with the soundcloud extension "the sounds of the gear". would be nice for seo.

I'm a big fan of saving channel, send and bus presets too. If I have a routing setup I really like across the whole mixer I will re-save a project under a generic name, zero the faders and then delete all the tracks and automations so I can start new pieces with the mixer set up the same way. Working analog I really love SSL consoles and some of the digital live sound boards for this reason. The recall is such a time saver setting up a mix session. When I did this for a living I was a stickler for recall sheets for the outboard gear even after a mix was printed and sent to be mastered so that I could reuse any ideas I had while mixing on the next artist. Or better still I would do recalls for another mixer I was assisting so I could reuse their ideas.

All that sidechain compression reminds me of a trick I learned recording rock bands. Its a variation on New York compression where you toss different compressors with different character on 3 to 4 sends and then sidechain their response or even just throw an EQ before the compressor to tune the whole send to low shelved, bandpassed or high shelved. Then you can compress whole groups of tracks in parallel across specific frequency bands and blend the FX return in as much or as little as you want for each 'band' to reshape the frequency response and dynamic range of the mix simultaneously without losing any of the punch or immediacy on the individual tracks. It allows you to just peak limit while recording and then leave pretty much everything but vocal and bass uncompressed. I am not sure what thisform of parallel compression is called because I only know a handful of guys who do it.

It used to be only for mixing with a big console and analog gear because of latency issues, but there are so many compressor plugins with great blend controls now that its easier to get away with in the box if you are careful. You can still get phasing if you don't create a dry bus that compensates the dry tracks for the little bit of latency from the FX send though.

With mixing any type of music we are all students. Every song is a learning experience. You can reach a point where you know it all when it comes to recording or sequencing the music, but mixing is like the visual arts, always more techniques to discover or to learn. If it sounds great it is right, so anything the gear or software can do should be explored thoroughly when mixing to keep thigns from sounding stale.

Swedish House Mafia-style flanged riser, if anyone wants to pick it up! (download enabled)

https://soundcloud.com/equipboard/swedish-house-mafia-style-flanger-riser

EB has a Soundcloud? Damn!