SkillShare Sound Design Sub Drops and Downers TUTORiAL

Learn how to Sound Design your own downer effects

What are Downer Effects? This is the term I use for the kind of sounds that fall in pitch over time. Basically it serves the opposite purpose of a riser effect. It can be anything from a slow, long fall...to a faster drop into the sub bass frequencies....

You can add rhythm, movement and control the response curve of the fall in pitch over time to shape the downer effect.

Another method that you can use for downer effects, as well as risers, is to instead of gradually sliding the pitch...use steps. Meaning stepping notes downwards instead of sliding. Either Arpeggiating downwards on chords or scale notes...or even stepping down chromatically.

These types of sound effects are great for transitions when you want to bring the energy down, like when going from the chorus into a breakdown, or when you want to transition to the final outro. They also work particularly well for drops, and sudden breaks in the music composition, before a new section hits. The downer effects has a sense of finality to them, that brings the energy and tension down. Almost like an engine slowly powering down, and coming to a full stop. In fact, that exact sound could very well be used as a downer effect in your track.

Downer effects are heavily used in EDM music, and cinematic style music. But you can use them in almost any genre. Especially sub drops are amazingly effective for transitions, and short breaks before a new section hits.

I will give you my best guidelines and tips for creating downer effects, and I will even show you practical live examples and demonstrations: on how to create your own downer effects in various styles. So, are you ready to create some downer effects, right now!

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