Designing Risers/Downers: NEW SFX Posted to the Sound Design Section!

For those of you reading, thank you. Lately, as you may or may not know, I have been working on my first K-POP tune, and I hope to increase my skill in this genre as it is my goal to develop a hit in the genre for an artist someday. So far, I think I have a pretty good ear for tunes but I am still getting some of the procedural aspects of getting music down. Basically, I am like a machine with a few good working parts, but they're not connected together efficiently enough to churn out good, A-list pop tunes at a good pace... That's the level I want to get to.

As you also may know, K-POP incorporates a lot of EDM elements and especially some varying song structures. One of the elements I would like to talk about today is what is called the "downer"... this is similar to the riser, which is that rising whoosh sound heard during the buildup before the "drops" and main melody/key points of the song. EDM songs, and by extension K-POP, use these sounds as transition elements between sections of the song, or when new elements are added to the songs. For example, between the first movement of the verse and the second movement of the verse a bass sound may be added for dramatic effect. When this element is added, a riser usually alludes to it. Moreover, this is done in sections where you hear the melody and rhythm rising... adding tension before the big moments of a song.

Where do downers come in? Downers often signal a cooling down point of the song... this especially works nicely during a section called the pre-melody, which can be used to blow off some steam after the excitement of the verse, consequently creating dynamic contrast between the sections.

Not to be a downer or anything, but downers are developed synthetically in several ways and this offers a detailed level of control over how the sound will progress and evolve (modulate). The ways I know of are as follows:

1. White Noise Sweeps:

Using white noise (the same sound that comes out of your TV when there is static "snow" on the screen) is one of the easiest ways to develop this sound. On the most basic level, what you can do is play white noise through a cutoff filter (as seen below) and automate the filter to gradually open up (allow more and more higher frequencies of the white noise to be heard). That is the basics of it. However, there are a number of other effects we can use to make this sound more interesting and this is where more of a holistic knowledge of affecting sound comes in because I usually thing of testing a few different effects on the fly as I am inspired to do so why looking through my tools, hearing other songs, or hearing my own song I am developing. It is a little difficult (more so time-consuming) for me to describe some of the different ways to affect the sound (one example would be a phaser). Lastly, macro modulators are another way of adding spice to the sound much as in the same vein of drone design.

Using white noise to make a riser/downer

2. Synth Risers (Arpeggio or Constant):

Using a synthesizer is another way to create a riser. This can be done by playing a sound constantly or my using an arpeggiator to make a series of notes that will repeat. This pattern can also be put through a filter, and a saw or supersaw wave is a very good one to use because of its addd harmonics. Additionally, since now rhythm and pitch are available in the sound, we can use pitchshifters and other ways to modulate (change) the pitch of the sound. Generally this would be an upward shift in pitch for the riser and a downward change for the downer or faller as some may say. Also if the rhythm is modulated faster and faster... that will result in building tensions and the opposite is of course true for the downer.

3. Swells (Reverb and Otherwise):

Using swells is another way to make a riser or a downer. To do this, first record any type of sound, drench it in heavy reverb and reverse it... well, that is the gist of it. Pretty self explanatory. I used this technique twice in my latest song I am working on, and I used a layered sound of different metals for one and a guitar for another.

4. Granular Synthesis on Samples:

Lastly, I designed a final riser and downer/faller for my song using a real sound from one of my field recordings. I then tried a few methods on affecting this sound, but the only one I would like to go over now is granular synthesis. Granular synthesis takes a sound source and divides it up into "grains". The grains are then modulated several ways by the software (which you can adjust of course) such as the grain/slice size of the sound, their position and length, offset, space between, etc.

All of these ways of designing have their unique characteristics and are good for different situations. I didn't even touch on the topic of comb filters or guitar pedals and boxes and the like, but I think this is a good introduction for some readers who may just like getting a taste of how this is done and for those who may be motivated/inspired to delve deeper. I will post some of my results to the sound design section of this website. Please click on the picture above to go there.

Best regards,

SCOPS