How do I make drops that really hit hard?

V

vikkijoes

New Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Location
Oxford, UK
I'm happy with the arrangement, build up and overall sound of my tunes but whenever the drop hits it always seems slightly weak. It's always such an anti-climax. Anyone got any quick tips to make my drops hit harder?
 
Try working from the drop backwards if u no what im saying? its much easier to take strength away than add it.
 
If you've given away your hand already before the drop it wont have as much of an effect. This is why at some time every other tune had a liquid kind of, melodic intro and when it dropped it turned into wobbles or something like that. If the drop changes very much from the intro, it will be considered much more powerful.
 
Simply D. said:
Or add in a bar of silence before your drop. 100% silence.
Click to expand...

Nah, more often than not, this sucks.
I'd rather hear a nice transition than... nothing. :P

Yeah, as Kama said, I try not to use the main bassline or other such elements in the intro, as you will already know what's coming! Try and switch things up, different directions etc.
 
I think a big part of it is in the build up, gota get that right. a 3 or 1 beat pause works nicely too. reversed sounds are good. depends on the tune tho man.
 
drum fills, white noise uprisers, high pass your master, risers, snare rolls, a 1db drop in vol in your buildup, *what kama said* and good eqing with regards to your kick n sub...and
BOOM! DROP!
 
A lil 'trick' i do is when I make my sub bass I kinda do like an 808 thing where i put a VERY VERY VERY slight pitch drop at the beginning so it has a but more thump when the notes hit... also mess around with a very slight attack on the sub, and then have the sustain be like 85-90% of the initial sub hit, then a very slight release to help keep pops from happening and whammo you gotta hella hard hitting sub that will make your drops hit harder. Another thing I do is on the drop I just have the following sounds playing - Kick, Snare/Clap, Bass for like the first 8 bars then I'll bring in the hats and then few bars later the melody etc... if you bring to much in on the drop it seems to loose impact to me. It's been mentioned already but the bar or 2 bars before the drop you need to build tension... you need to make the listener go "here it comes" in their head but draw that tension out... make them WAIT for it make them WANT it and then the psychological impact just helps the physical impact =D
 
Thanks so much for the feedback everyone, I'm new to this forum and it's been so helpful :D Big thanks to Kama my tunes sounds so much better when the drop surprises you. Thanks to else who replied too, some great tips here
 
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