If you're wondering how to make a riser effect FL Studio (or really any DAW)
this tutorial will show you 3 different ways to make one.
Like how to handle percussion, white noise, and synths in a riser.
As well as all of the effects you can be used to make a riser more interesting.
Here's an example of one of them that we'll be making in this video.
[how to make a riser effect] [Build up tutorial fl studio 20 (or any DAW)]
Hey everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
If you're not using FL Studio, you'll still be able to take away pretty much all of the
techniques I'll be going over in the video.
But, I will be focusing on this DAWs workflow,
so adapt it to the options that are available to you in your DAW.
The first riser I'll go over is simply going to use white noise.
These kinds of build-ups are great for adding some thickness to other sounds
as it fills up the frequency spectrum.
I'm gonna to use 3xosc for this as it's extremely light-weight,
and by that, I mean it doesn't take up much CPU.
Set the first oscillator to white noise (which is the dice) and don't worry about the other two
since their mix level should be at 0 - essentially muting them.
Then go into the piano roll for the white noise plugin and draw out a note to the length
you want the riser to last and put the pattern in the playlist.
After you get all of that set up, you'll need a cutoff filter (in the case of FL Studio,
I like to use Fruity Free Filter).
You can't find this plugin in the main menu so you'll have to go to "more plugins" option
and then down to the search bar.
And you can enter "free" since it's the only plugin that has that in its name.
Double click on the plugin and there you go.
Keep it on "Low Pass" and drop the frequency down to 10 Hz (which is just the lowest it will go)
and set the Q to just barely have 1 bar.
Up to the top left, you'll find the hint panel and you'll be able to see how many bars it has there.
You might want it at this setting because if you have it too high
it will start to sound a bit like a sine wave,
and if you have it too low it will kind of suppress the white noise.
You can just leave the gain where it is.
Now, right-click the frequency knob and "create an automation clip".
Starting from 0 drag the end to where you want the riser to stop at.
You can always increase the "Q" setting if that's the sound you're after.
Okay, so let's quickly go over what you can do to percussion to give a riser more of an impact.
Then, we'll go over making a synth riser.
When it comes to the drums, it largely has to do with the timing of each note,
playing it faster and faster as the riser progresses.
But, I'll show you another trick to make it sound even better in just a moment.
Take the percussion and start them off in the same way they play in the rest of the track
for about 2 bars.
Then, double their speed for the next bar.
And double it again for the last bar.
It's really up to you though, you can double the speed every bar or even faster if you'd like.
Now for that other trick I was talking about before.
Automating the pitch of the drums will make it sound pretty cool too.
You can set the max to anything but at 12 or 24, you can hear a significant change.
Again, right click and create an automation clip and bring it from it's original
(which is 50%) to the max.
You can even change the position of this curve to make it more unique.
Whether that's the position of the automation
or the tension of the curve.
Time for the synth riser, and for this, I'm going to add in quite a lot of effects to make it.
After you found a sound you like, whether that's making your own or finding a preset,
It's then time to automate some parameters.
I'll start off with the cutoff frequency.
If you're using a third party plugin you'll need to handle it a bit differently from native ones.
But it is simple, just change the parameter a bit and then go up to the tools menu
then down to "last tweaked".
From here you're able to create an automation clip for the last and second last parameter you changed.
For this riser, I'm going to start it off muffled and then make it brighter over time
(and this can start or end at any value).
Next, I'll create a similar effect with reverb.
Starting from 100% wet, I'll create an automation clip just like I did with the cutoff frequency
and move it from wet to dry.
If you're going to leave a bit of silence directly after the riser to create tension,
you might want to go the other way, bringing it from dry to wet.
Cool, now I'm going to turn this into an arp (or arpeggio) and start its speed off slow.
I'll use the arp feature built into the plugin wrapper (which can be used on any plugin).
First, select the direction of the arp.
Having the "X" selected means it's off, I'll just use up.
Then, pick the chord the arp will play in, such as Major.
The range determines how many octaves the arp will travel.
And don't worry, I'll explain what an octave means later.
Now all that's left to do is automate the speed of the arp
and it will go down since the lower the value, the faster it will be.
If you're going to have an arp play right after the riser as a main element in your music,
you might want to bring the riser to the same speed to make a smoother transition.
And that brings me to the last technique I'll be using on this riser, which is pitch shifting.
Now, I mentioned it before with the percussion but I want to go a bit more in-depth with it for the synth.
With FL Studio, we have a pitch control right in the plugin wrapper menu.
Keep an eye on the hint panel (usually in the top left),
you'll be able to see the value of what we're changing.
The knob will change the pitch (in cents)
and the number to the right will change the pitch range (in semitones).
Each note is separated by 100 cents.
and each semitone is just a single note (including both black and white keys).
That's why when you have it set to 100 cents at 1 semitone, it's at the max
(because it's only one note).
At two it will only take up half, and so on.
I'll set the range to 12 making it an octave.
An octave, by the way, is from one note to the same note in a higher or lower pitch.
Okay, enough of the terminology.
My point is, I'm going to bring the riser from a lower octave
to the same note the melody starts off with to give it more flow.
Now with it all together, this is what it sounds like.
Don't be afraid to mix and match the effects and techniques I mentioned in the video with
different kinds of risers and try to find new things to automate as well!
Oh, and let me know in the comments below if you like it when I explain things in-depth
like when I was talking about semitones and octaves.
Give the video a thumbs up and subscribe for more tutorials like this.
Not only does it keep you up to date but it tells me to make more content for you.
As always, thanks for watching. [Consider sharing the video!]