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Making the Dance music Whoosh! Many Dance records feature a whoosh or reverse sound. Ian Waugh shows you how to do it backwards and where to put it... One of the most popular effects in Dance music is the reverse sound. It starts quietly, builds up to a crescendo and then stops abruptly. It's most commonly used to lead into a new section such as a verse or chorus and the most common reverse sound is the reverse cymbal. If you have a General MIDI sound set you can find the reverse cymbal in Preset number 120 in the main sound bank. We'll see how to create reverse effects from audio samples in a moment. Playing for position Positioning the effect is important; not the start but the end. The end needs to be at the beginning of the new section. This will usually be at beat one of a new bar so you need to adjust the start position of the note that triggers the reverse cymbal so the sound finishes exactly on the first beat. It's unlikely that you will be able to place the note on an exact beat - we're interested in the end not the start and the placement will depend on the length of the reverse cymbal sound and the tempo of your song. It will most likely have to be placed completely off the beat. There are no hard and fast rules here but you shouldn't have any trouble positioning the note by ear. It may help to switch off any automatic quantisation while adjusting its position. Audio whooshes You can make your own custom whooshes by creating a reverse sound from any audio sample. The "secret" is in the amplitude envelope. Most "normal" sounds (that is, most musical instruments and naturally-occurring sounds) build up to its maximum volume and then die away. Think of a piano note that reaches maximum volume virtually as soon as it's played and then slowly dies away. A string sound builds up more slowly (it has a slower Attack period) and dies away more quickly. Reversing these "normal" amplitude envelopes produces a reverse envelope effect. It sounds odd - that is, unnatural - because the sound ends abruptly and this does not happen in our normal acoustic environment. Reversing Some audio editors have a Reverse function which does the job for you quickly and automatically. Ideally, this requires a percussive sound with a long decay period - such as a cymbal. Reverse can turn this...
into this...
The only other thing you need to do here is to cut off the "empty" section at the end so the sample finishes at its maximum volume. Not fade away You can create a reverse effect with almost any sound by applying a Fade In function. This will produce a similar sort of volume envelope as the reverse cymbal. This sample is at a fairly standard volume throughout...
By applying a fade in, the volume envelope starts to look more like the reverse cymbal.
Again, you need to trim the end of it so it ends abruptly at it loudest point. Lin and Log Some editors have a Linear and a Logarithmic Fade. The above example is a Linear fade. The Log fade is more severe but it more accurately represents the way we perceive sound so you will usually get a better effect with it. Here's what the curve looks like:
And here's what the audio looks like after the fade has been applied...
However, do experiment. The effectiveness of the Whoosh will also be determined by the sound sample itself. As with the Reverse Cymbal MIDI sound, you need to position the Whoosh on a track so the end corresponds with the start of the new section. Don't try to line up the start on a beat because it probably won't work. Finally, if you're creating your own Whoosh sounds, try mixing some noise with the original sample to give the effect a bit more, er, whoosh...
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