Send/return busses offer a speedy way to create variations between track sections, especially when used with delay or reverb plugins - and itвЂ™s simple to render these tracks out for finer editing. NEXT: Pitch variation Prev of 11 Next Prev of 11 Next You can also mute everything for just a few beats, and drop a new track element such as a vocal snippet, cool sample or bass stab into the created вЂemptyвЂ™ space. One particularly great trick (with origins in hip-hop) is muting drums or whole tracks for the very first beat or bar of a new track section instead of the last. This selective muting technique can be used in many different ways: you can mute a single drum element - such as a kick or snare - to lead into another track section or entire track groups, such as drums or bass, can be taken out of the arrangement then dropped back in. The ear becomes accustomed to repetition over time, so by removing a repetitive element for a split second using simple editing, you can create dynamics and interest. One of the easiest and most effective ways to transition between two sections of a track is to create rests and pauses by muting certain elements of the arrangement. NEXT: Selective muting Prev of 11 Next Prev of 11 Next Introducing saturation over time can also give snare fills a bit of extra beef and subtle flanging, phasing or chorus can be mixed in as well, for a touch of weirdness. To spice up your roll, try automating the samplerвЂ™s pitch/transpose control for a distinctive pitching up or down effect. Some volume automation also introduces the roll, but this doesnвЂ™t always need to be a radical shift - often an increase of just a couple of decibels is enough. Automating the sustain to rise over the two-bar duration opens out the rolling snares gradually. Set the samplerвЂ™s amplitude envelope decay to around halfway and its sustain to minimum. By using a snare hit in a drum sampler, we can automate the samplerвЂ™s parameters for control over the rollвЂ™s progression, giving it more life and dynamic movement. HereвЂ™s how itвЂ™s doneвЂ¦ДЇirst, program a 16th-note snare pattern over the final two bars of an intro section that leads into a bass drop. NEXT: Crashes and reverse cymbals Prev of 11 Next Prev of 11 NextД®lectronic music afficionados will recognise the classic 16th-note snare roll, but programming a smooth and effective transition using one isnвЂ™t always as easy as it sounds.

You'll find tutorial videos for all of our tips with issue 208 of Computer Music magazine, which is on sale now. What's more, these techniques aren't at all genre-specific, so you can follow along and brush up on your arrangements no matter what style you're producing. Rather, we're demonstrating a variety of ways in which you can bridge the gaps between separate sections in your tracks. Our examples are by no means exhaustive, and we're certainly not trying to suggest that there's any 'one-size-fits-all' approach, as every track and situation is different.

Having said that, there are many tried-and-true methods that, when employed correctly, never fail to connect with the listener - and we're going to show you ten of them here. Placing a crash cymbal on beat 1, muting track elements and inserting crazy drum fills are just three ways to join disparate sections of a song, but arrangement-bridging methods come in a vast array of forms, depending on the context in which they're used - especially as new plugins emerge and techniques evolve. You will have heard many of them - indeed, there was probably at least one in the last song you listened to, whether it was a smooth segue between verse and chorus, or an attention-grabbing fill before a drop. Transitions and fills can be defined as passages, riffs, rhythmic sections or sounds that connect contiguous musical sections together.

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