In previous Dance Mix columns, we’ve covered
white noise as a tool for creating
whooshes, percussion, and other effects to
spice up your track. But there are oodles of
other uses for noise. Since white noise
contains all frequencies at equal amplitude,
it’s well suited to brightening leads and
looping riffs. What’s more, with a few
automation tricks, white noise can be used
to take a tiny sound and make it massive –
perfect for builds, breakdowns, and peaks.
To illustrate this approach, we started with
a basic house drum loop from Sample Magic’s
new Funky House Grooves 2 library (available
at bigfishaudio.com) and added a simple synth
pattern using Reason’s Subtractor synth. From
there, we’ll apply automation to transform the
sound in ways that may surprise you.
Click the images below to see them bigger.
Step 1 (click for audio). Start with Subtractor’s super-basic Init Patch and lower the cutoff frequency
slightly. Then create a simple, looping, one-bar riff.
Step 2 (click for audio). Now, using automation, add a classic, eight-bar filter cutoff build to
the riff by increasing the cutoff frequency as the riff plays. You can create
better-sounding automation by using multiple points in your automation
envelope, rather than by simply applying a linear build.
Step 3 (click for audio). Here’s where the noise comes into play. Keeping the existing filter swell, add
another lane of automation for the noise volume and change the noise level over the
same eight-bar duration. Done correctly, this will add energy and intensity to the riff.
Step 4 (click for audio). Finally, we’ll add one more automation lane for the amp envelope
release. This will make the combination of filter build and noise swell even
more dramatic as it goes into the peak — or the next section — of your track.
Finally, click here for an extended audio example of the final mix, dressed up with a bit of reverb and delay.