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Transistioning in uplifting trance track


leeguirado

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I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to transistion from the main section to the breakdown of an uplifting trance track? I know it is a vague question but i always get stuck at this point. I have my bassline, plucks, acids etc. but it sounds really repetitive leading upto where i will want the breakdown to start and doesn't seem to have a direction. Would the plucks and pads start changing midi at this point to compliment the melody that will come in at the breakdown? Should the sub bass change? Does anyone have any tips on arrangement and when certain sounds should be introduced? Any suggestion would be great, thanks :D
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I can help you with more of a methodology. I would take 4 or 5 uplifting trance tracks that you like made by pro producers. For each one, I would pull them into iTunes (or even an audio editor) and focus in on the transition that you are stuck on (main section to breakdown). Open up a Word document, or a spreadsheet, or even just grab paper and pencil, and "map out" the beats and measures for the main section, and the beats and measures for the breakdown. Make each measure look like a little block, so like:

 

[main] [main] [main] [main] [breakdown] [breakdown] [breakdown] [breakdown]

 

Now that you're sort of looking at a track in a new way, jot down little notes of when exactly elements start changing. Examples: kick drum goes away, lead sound starts pitching up, snare roll begins, a sub bass hit and pitch down comes in... etc.

 

When you annotate all 4 or 5 tracks, you should start seeing patterns. Most upbeat electronic music tracks follow roughly similar patterns and transitions.

 

This method really helped me with song structure, and making transitions for interesting. I hope it's of some help! :)

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3I3's advice is excellent.. I've done that for a long time.. I graph out songs I like, each instrument with a block line to represent where it's playing and silent.. I often use made up symbols, for vibrato, scale up/down. pauses.. I use graph paper (paper lines up/down - let/right..

So I can make graphs that are accurate reflections..

 

Notice where key changes come in.. does the song transpose to a higher key..

Sometimes, it gets down to things like the original hi-hat pattern is the rhythm of the riff that comes in later..

Sit and listen to a piece you like, and write down as many things as you can discern about it..

 

After a while, you will keep discovering more 'bits' you weren't aware of in beginning.. Some times I go in piano roll editor and modify even 16th notes, to be shorter, softer, than the odd notes.. It's a lot of 'detail' work.. Subtle at first, but can really polish a piece up once you've done it to several tracks.. You want various points, where different instruments 'come up to the surface', and then go back down a bit, to make sonic room, for 'awareness' of something else..

 

If all tracks are 'flat out' in volume, filter, the brain gets used to it, and it ceases to find the piece interesting.. There are times, when you do want everything 'full out', but for an effect.. You might try 'hi-pass filtering' a part or in/out, with volume level..

 

I worked with a form producer/partner on doing this.. We'd tack each track one by one, and work, re-edit it slightly.. Just things like duration, velocity, filtering of that track.. He'd cal it 'polishing the turds'.. Do that enough and even turds look/sound good.

 

You may have noticed that, you start to backwards engineer a music piece you like, track by track.. and realize some parts, and passages, just have to take a back seat, to make the driver look better.. That's why bridesmaid dresses are never as pretty as the brides.. She's the center of attention.. You want to be clear what track, section, passage is the 'center of attention' at any given point in time.. Good luck..

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3I3's advice is excellent.. I've done that for a long time.. I graph out songs I like, each instrument with a block line to represent where it's playing and silent.. I often use made up symbols, for vibrato, scale up/down. pauses.. I use graph paper (paper lines up/down - let/right..

So I can make graphs that are accurate reflections..

 

Notice where key changes come in.. does the song transpose to a higher key..

Sometimes, it gets down to things like the original hi-hat pattern is the rhythm of the riff that comes in later..

Sit and listen to a piece you like, and write down as many things as you can discern about it..

 

After a while, you will keep discovering more 'bits' you weren't aware of in beginning.. Some times I go in piano roll editor and modify even 16th notes, to be shorter, softer, than the odd notes.. It's a lot of 'detail' work.. Subtle at first, but can really polish a piece up once you've done it to several tracks.. You want various points, where different instruments 'come up to the surface', and then go back down a bit, to make sonic room, for 'awareness' of something else..

 

If all tracks are 'flat out' in volume, filter, the brain gets used to it, and it ceases to find the piece interesting.. There are times, when you do want everything 'full out', but for an effect.. You might try 'hi-pass filtering' a part or in/out, with volume level..

 

I worked with a former producer/partner on doing this.. We'd take each track one by one, and work, re-edit it slightly.. Just things like duration, velocity, filtering of that track differently as the piece evolved .. He'd cal it 'polishing the turds'.. Do that enough and even turds look/sound good.

 

You may have noticed that, you start to backwards engineer a music piece you like, track by track.. and realize some parts, and passages, just have to take a back seat, to make the driver look better.. That's why bridesmaid dresses are never as pretty as the brides.. She's the center of attention.. You want to be clear what track, section, passage is the 'center of attention' at any given point in time.. Good luck..

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It's been referred to as: "listen critically." Grab the music that you like and listen to it "as though you are trying to see how the trick is done." (As, in fact, you are.)

 

I've heard a lot of music in this genre which, quite frankly, bored me to tears. I think that's because it simply didn't have enough creative variety to hold my interest. (As the Peanuts comic strip put it, "Beethoven comes in spray cans." Don't write a spray can. Please.)

 

Plan your transitions with advance knowledge of where the music is starting from, and where it is going. A few bars before the transition begins, something(s) should "foreshadow" it, and when the transition is complete the music should settle down again. You can achieve "uplifting" in many ways ... change of key, addition of brighter notes in a new part, the inevitable "riser." But you don't have to send the track "endlessly upward in pitch, and/or endlessly faster in tempo." A transition, like everything else, is relative to what's immediately proximate to it.

 

And, "try different things." Block out the composition sans transitions, then experiment to see which "spices" seem to taste just right. Try different ideas in different places.

 

Now, the ear does like "repetition," so it's probably a good idea to re-state some ideas from a previous transition in the next one(s), "but with a twist." Transitions are sometimes a place where an actual "musical motive" appears, taking the song from one area to the next, but "not quite in the same way, each time."

 

The usual strategy for "uplifting" is to raise the pitch, increase the tempo, or both. But you can "wear out a singer's vocal chords" that way, even when there isn't a singer involved. It's also "uplifting" when the sound spreads out, with a part that's going-up even as another part is going-down. It's "uplifting" when "something new" comes in, as another "something old" drops out. "A changing of the guard" is, or can be, "uplifting."

Edited by MikeRobinson
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