I'm struggling very hard to do good sounding transitions. There are many different kinds but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make my transitions sound professional.

I really want to know how to to a proper rise and hit transition or like a "drum roll"-transition, heck any kind of transition at all, I'm just so bad at it. Are there any good tutorials for this or would you guys mind sharing your secrets of how you do your transitions?

Also, are there any recommended FX transition packs/drum roll transition packs out there that might help?

Any advice is appreciated!

 

Firstly think about what you want to achieve with a particular transistion. Build tension? Decrease tension? Slide into the next scene? Punctuate the last scene? The list is endless.

 

The thing is I always have the idea in my mind, sometimes even a particular song that has a transition that I'm trying to replicate. But it just sounds so awful and amateurish when I make it myself, so obviously people are creating them in a whole different way than I am.

 

You mean whoosh effects? You can make these ones for instance by reversing the sound or by giving it a longer attack so that it slowly builds up. To give it some extra interesting feeling you can automate it with a volume knob or with something else that slowly goes from low to high.

 

Yeah like intro-verse, verse-chorus or verse-bridge, even ending transitions is what I'm struggling with. So a whoosh would probably be the simplest kind but I'm just bad at making it sound interesting and I'm not sure what kind of sample to use in the hit at the end of the whoosh, is it a cymbal? Snare? Clap? Layered samples? Are they supposed to be reverbed and so on. I've tried everything but it still doesn't have that big impact that everyone have in their songs. Also haven't found any good whoosh/FX sound packs, if you could recommend any I would appreciate it greatly!

 

Endless Smile might help you get started or give you an idea or two

http://www.dadalife.com/new-audio-plugin-endless-smile-is-out-now/

 

use and automate an arpeggio with a Snare drum and change the rate to make a climbing snare roll

 

This actually looks very interesting, very expensive plugin however. Thanks for the tip, definitely something for the future!

 

That promo video was hilarious. I'm not sure if Endless Smile is suitable for my type of productions though, I really appreciate the suggestion!

 

Hmm, never thought of that. That's a great tip! Thanks!

 

If you watch that you'll see some useful info how to build your own

 

D Y N A M I C S is what will make transitions in music sounding good,
so you can help it by using volume automation,
and kill it by using too much compression

 

These typical big impact hits that you see for instance in films are mostly coming from percussions that are layered, yes. It also could come from metal hits, wood hits, car crashes, explosions, etc. It could be anything, including guitars and so on aswell. Yep, reverb is used a lot I believe. With reverb you can make impacts much more bigger.

Any good whoosh/FX sound packs. Well, you could check something out from Audio Imperia.

 

hi @Bullcount, more info would be helpful

what daw are you using?
what kind of music are you making?
more the sound aspect or theory ?

there are tons of tutorials available, the hard part is to find the useful ones for you


have you tried some sample packs ? they have all kind of good sounding risers
for example Vengeance Effects shhh


some basic stuff:

whooosh effects are usually made with white noise, literally any synth can do this, all the magic is done with automation and FX

you make 4 bar long note with just the noise, then automate filter cutoff to create the sweep, add some reverb
so it doesn't stop abruptly but rolls off nicely at the end, creating a tail

a snare fill is just a lot of short notes stacked together with the same filter movement/reverb
to get fancy just add some pitch automation


there are a lot of tutorials on youtube, pick one for your daw to understand things easier/faster

search for: build up/riser/white noise/drop/fill/transition + tutorial + your daw


again, get some fx sample packs for quick results

 

If you wanna have a listen to this (not mine)

This uses

• arpreggio/wind chimes
  
• woosh
• SFX

 

Hear that a lot. I'll make sure to focus extra much on the dynamics on my next track. Thanks!

 

Alright, I just have to find those kinds of impactful samples then. And thanks, I'll check that out!

 

Hey, thanks for your advice and tips!

I'm using Logic Pro X and do some EDM but lately I've been focusing on afroswing/afrobeats (Afroswing is basically rap music but with an african inspired rythm in the drums, very popular in the UK. And afrobeats is a bit harder to explain but basically dance music with african rythm). Also trying to learn trap/hiphop beats. So it varies depending on what mood I'm on.

Didn't quite understand your third question. But if you're referring to what kind of advice I'm asking for, the answer is both

Do you have any favourite FX sound packs you think I should buy? I greatly appreciate you taking your time to write that long answer, thanks again!

 

hmm, not sure about that afro/trap thing but as already mentioned you could give Vengeance sample packs a shot,
they are very good quality, a bit "overused" but helpful nonetheless

just search on the sister site for "Vengeance Effects Volume 1-3" .
there are a lot of sample packs available there, "afro" and "trap" yields results as well.

usually all sample packs contain some "risers" and all kind of FX as-well.


here is a very simple basic vid, in essence, this is how its done, you can apply this to literally any parameter in rise ups/downs.

basic noise riser:

a step further: