using reverbs to create build ups/climaxes

pallepille

ok so here goes, Im making a track at the moment with a sorta tribally electro feel to it, so i had a whack at tryna re-create somethin which ive heard being done very effectively in some recent techno/tech-house tracks ive picked up. What it basically seems to be is in a breakdown using a reverbs settings (maybe dry/wet & decay) and automating them over a certain period of time so as to create a kinda surge up to the point where all comes back and it (the reverb) seems to trail off (sorta like opening an amplitude envelope release/decay/sustain over a bass or synthy sound, sounds amazing when done right)................................................ Anyway ive got a kinda tom-ey sounding sample on which i have a fairly nice sounding reverb as a send effect. I gots my settings more or less where i want them for the majority of the track (not too long so it sits well enough with the kick/bass etc)................................................ So (more than likely in all my naiveity) what i did in the breakdown was automated my reverb decay from its static value up to its max setting (over an 8 bar period) and cut it clean back to the settings i had it at when i bring the kick and everything back in. It sounds kinda cool with filters on the bass opening (which are automated in aswell). But admittedly isnt exactly what i was going for.................................. What im wondering is if anyone has any experience working with this type of effect or has come across a certain technique which might work when tryna create this kind of sound or even somethin similar ???????...................... Any helps or anything much appreciated thanks

jtsuited

i do this trick in a good bit of my newer tracks.

it's really easy. All ya do is set is automate the send level to the reverb (as in ramp it up).
If you do it by using dry/wet automation after the breakdown you won't get that nice trail off.

hope this helps.

pallepille

yea thanks so much that makes complete sense, just when i think about it now im nearly certain i automated the dry/wet back down aswell which would have made me lose that, thanks man thats brilliant................................. Have you happened to come across any certain types of reverbs this will work better with (i know i know how long is a piece of string, or in this case a reverb hehe) but for example in this case coz it was kinda percussion sounding i thought it sounded better with a sorta plate reverb setting if you know what i mean ?.

jtsuited

yeah a plate reverb is fairly standard for this. Might need to eq a good bit of the bottom end out of the reverb just to stop it getting muddy.