No matter what type of electronic music production we do, whether it be banging progressive house or deep brooding techno, if we want the listener to have any emotional attachment to the music (resulting in them weeping, dancing, or reaching for their wallet) we need to understand the subtleties of energy level within the track. By “builds” we are talking about an increasing tension and anticipation until the listener is begging for a release. These can be gratuitous or they can be subtle, but when well-timed they are the points in a song that make the listener’s pulse race and get them hooked. No matter where the music is played, be it a sweaty Berlin club, a Miami pool party or a hammock in Ibiza, the music should take the listener on a journey. In this electronic music production tutorial we plan to help you with key concepts to make it a good journey – as the old adage goes “it’s the journey, not the destination that matters”.

Below are three ways to use effects to create builds of tension and energy in dance music.   For each we’ve described it, given the steps for how to go about creating it, and then there are examples out of the record box.  As always the best way to learn is to understand how others do it and then make it your own, so we cant stress enough how useful it is to get listening critically and really dissect those tracks that you love.  The timing of the builds and releases are crucial but for now we’ll just concentrate on how to create the builds and save arrangement for another day.

In all of the below we’ve tried to explain how to make the sounds as best as possible.  However, the best way to understand is to have a project right in front of you to play around with.  We’ve created one based on Elliot Wright – Salsafy (Darzh Liebek Remix) released on Forbidden Fruits that is self contained and can be downloaded below and also at the bottom of this article (requires Ableton Live 8).  We have decided to charge the princely sum of £5.00 for this for two reasons:  the time it took to edit and customize the track so it is useful to others, and so only those that are serious about using and learning from it will download it. Hope you enjoy it.

Buy Ableton Live 8 Project – Builds (£5.00) 

Instructions: Click the “Add To Cart” button and the page will reload.  Scroll down and there’ll be a Paypal button for you to pay with (if you dont have a Paypal account it will let you pay by card too). After you have paid Paypal isnt always auto-redirecting to the download page.  If this happens you need to click the “return to forbiddenfruit22@gmail.com” then this will take you to the redirect page and the download.  Any problems, just email us at info@lostinmusik.net.

1. The Riser

This is probably most obvious in current commercial progressive house music but is used throughout the electronic dance music styles.  Typically it involves a synth increasing in pitch rising up to the root note.  The sound used can range from melodic to noise (the latter being more characteristic of more minimal and techno styles.

Here are two examples, one obvious and one more subtle.

Dirty South & Thomas Gold feat. Kate Elsworth – Alive (0m45s into the sample)

Matt Lange – Bad Year Blimp (3m50s into the sample)

So what are the ways of making those kinds of sound?  Obviously there are loads of pre-made samples out there but who wants to sound like everyone else?  To make an original riser from scratch record a sustained note of a good synth sound to audio and then use the transpose function in the DAW to increase the pitch over the duration of the sample (probably 2, 4, or 8 bars).  The energy can sometimes be increased by using a loop of the synth note rather than a sustained note so that the looping is audible and rhythmic – try a half-beat loop, or even starting at a half bar loop and shortening as the build goes on.

For a more subtle riser like in Bad Year Blimp above we ideally want some white or pink noise (I use NI Massive but there’s a free vst called TestTone here) and then automate a LP or BP filter over the duration of the riser.  Side chain compression or LFO effects like in the Camel Phat VST (which ranges from subtle to brutal) can work really well, especially if there is a lot of other stuff going on in the track.  Use a long reverb tail to smooth out the sound or maybe some panning to work the stereo field – increasing the pan frequency high can have interesting tonal results too.  Notice that in both the examples the riser is actually quite low in the mix – it doesnt need to be centre stage for it to have an impact.

However, if centre stage is the plan then here is a more obvious example in the form of Chris Lake – Secrets In The Dark.   There’s a tonal, breathy riser starting at 4m25s and continuing to rise after the beat comes in.  Nice, original, and energetic.

Finally for the risers, here’s one of the first remixes I ever did that illustrates a layered riser.  It starts at about 4m20s with a the semitone knob of an Access Virus C turned way down so the original basic bass sound is almost just a low popping.  As the transpose knob is increased the pops become closer together and the tone of the synth starts to be discerned.  Once the synth note rises to a high root note it is sustained and a new one starts where the other left off so there is now a new riser beginning a few octaves below the first riser.  This can be useful for really stringing out the builds without having the riser move too slowly or reaching ear piercing frequencies.

2. The Delay

Essentially, a delay just repeats what passes through it at a specified interval with a specified amount of feedback (how much of the delayed signal gets fed back into the input).  There are stereo delays, filter delays, distortion delays, you name it.  One of the best creative delays I’ve found is the Ohmboyz Ohmforce, I will never get bored of that toy.  There are also some great effects in the Native Instruments arsenal, especially some of the kits for the discontinued Kore (which will no doubt be going cheap on eBay now).

So how is delay used to create a build?  A crescendo can be created using rhythmic delays and  adding more and more feedback to create a cacophony of sound .  A good setting is a 2/16th and 3/16th delay on the left and right channels of a stereo delay, these are relatively fast and give a nice complexity.  Often once the feedback has been increased to over 80% then sound can become a little unwieldy.  One way to rein it in is to HP filter it to thin the sound out.  If the build is in the breakdown and leading into a chorus then it is ideal to remove the low end in this way so there is an impact when the kick and bass return.

This classic track Pryda – Remember (the soundclouder has named it wrong, Audiofly just used the same sample as Prydz) is a great example of using a filtered delay on a vocal sample to build tension.  At 1m50s it is audible as it builds into the break and then also at 3m50s coming out of the break.  These kind of filtered, resonant delays are exactly what the Ohmforce unit can produce (this delay is used at the end of the track too to delay away to infinity).

Another type of delay used more often in more minimal and tech tracks is the “free” delay that is not tied to any rhythmic pattern.  The delay time is usually measured in milliseconds (ms).  The sound gets more metallic as the delay is decreased below about 60ms which can create a sense of convergence and also the higher frequencies can give the sense of a build.  Below about 20ms it is difficult for our ears to discern the original sound from its delay and new higher frequencies are introduced as the delay becomes shorter and shorter.  Going the other way and increasing the delay time (with quite a high feedback setting) can create random effects as the space between the delayed notes becomes longer and longer until a point is reached where the delay becomes rhythmic (a delay of about 118ms is a 1/16th note at 128bpm).  This can have a really nice effect as the rhythmic frequency is approached and the delays begin to stack up on top of each other.

This is just one of the many effects used in this Max Cooper – Echoes Reality track.  At 0m50s the delay on the twinkling synth sound gradually shortens converging before the beat returns.

Here is an example of the effect used in reverse.  The delay starts at a few milliseconds to give a tonal property to the sound and then the decay is lengthened until it becomes a rhythmic pattern (2m20s into the track).

3. The Release

Increasing the length of a sound can also create anticipation that something is about to happen.  With a synthesizer this is usually controlled by the Release part of the ADSR envelope (but can also be done going from a short to long Decay).  The build effect often works well as part of an arpeggio seen as arpeggiated notes are often short and build part of a chord sequence.  Going from short, separate notes to long, overlapping notes increases the general volume as well as combining the tones together to build a sustained chord.  Reverb can also be used to create a longer tail to the sounds.  This technique generally pushes the sound into the background in the process as the dry/wet knob is increased and can have quite atmospheric effects.  Increasing the decay time to over 10secs can lead to a “wall of sound” effect as all the notes pile up on one another.  Closing a HP filter over this to remove the low frequencies can give a great lift before dropping the lower frequencies back in.

Here is an example from Pryda again using reverb on his main synth arpeggio to create a build and tension (3m25s).  Notice how this effect pretty much carries the track with only a small amount of percussion in this section.  Create a great sound and when used well it will really will hold the track up (also note that the arp used is on the dotted 8ths which gradually rolls in and out of sync with the 4/4 timing, this creates a really hypnotic effect and is characteristic of many great electronic tracks).

Pryda – Madderferrys

If you’d prefer a more housey example here is one from Butch, the massive Relief track.  In this sample you can hear the reverb being used on the drums from about 1m00s to create a build before the drop when everything becomes nice and dry again.

And here is a progressive house example of the release being opened up on the arpeggiated plucks in this Sasha remix of Spooky – Belong.  The release on the plucks starts opening from about 1m00s and then closes again before the drop.  This is quite a subtle example of the effect.

To conclude, here is a remix of a track from Elliot Wright called Salsafy on Forbidden Fruit Recordings.  I remixed this last year and pretty much used all of the described builds in it (people have been known to call me Gratuitous Dave…).  In the break there is really short delay on the dotted 8th note lead (Lead Pluck in the Ableton Live project) that is gradually increased to give a sense of falling apart a couple of times, and then right before the drop it is reduced right down to a few milliseconds rapidly to give a sucking in effect (and also an increase in pitch).  There is also a white noise riser (Noise Sweep in the Ableton project) with an LFO on the filter rising and falling in the breakdown (2m33s), while the release of the bass notes are increased over the breakdown.  Finally, the plucky lead is morphed into a metallic riser (Lead Pluck in the Ableton Live project) which continues after the drop (3m16s) to keep the energy building.  If nothing else, this track is a veritable banquette of techniques to create a sense of building in a track.

The best way to learn the technique and tricks in this article is to be able to see what others have done.  We’ve packed up the stems and effects of the above track into a neat Ableton project.  If you want the project file of this track to see clearly how each effect is made (and a bunch of free samples) then just follow the link below.  We have decided to charge the princely sum of £5.00 for this for two reasons:  the time it took to edit and customize the track so it is useful to others, and so only those that are serious about using and learning from it will download it.

Buy Ableton Live 8 Project – Builds

Instructions: Click the “Add To Cart” button and the page will reload.  Scroll down and there’ll be a Paypal button for you to pay with (if you dont have a Paypal account it will let you pay by card too). After you have paid Paypal isnt always auto-redirecting to the download page.  If this happens you need to click the “return to forbiddenfruit22@gmail.com” then this will take you to the redirect page and the download.  Any problems, just email us at info@lostinmusik.net.

We hope that helped shed some light on building energy in your dance music tracks, and as always feel free to leave comments and questions on a postcard below

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