I've noticed this effect in a lot of modern electronic music I hear on the radio and in bars and elsewhere. I think I first heard it ten or fifteen years ago.
The effect is the volume of everything (or a large proportion of the tracks) dipping in volume on the beat. As if the kick drum was so loud that your ears are compensating.
I imagine the effect I'm talking about could be made in a couple of ways:
- The low-tech way would be to dip the volume of many or all tracks briefly on every beat (some tracks have it every beat even if the kick drum doesn't play, others have it only when the kick drum plays).
- The higher-tech way might be to have the kick drum really loud in the mix, and then apply dynamic range compression on all tracks so everything else dips briefly whenever the kick hits.
An example where it's heavily used: https://youtu.be/8uevnY9V08U?t=10m18s (listen for ten seconds or so and you can hear the volume dips even when the kick drum isn't playing).
A more subtle example is in One More Time by Daft Punk: https://youtu.be/FGBhQbmPwH8?t=47s (most noticeable perhaps in the vocals, which where the attack and release curve very aggressive, but the difference in amplitude isn't enormous).
I've also heard the effect used very sparingly in some metal music, such as in a few isolated spots in the album Alien by Strapping Young Lad such as here: https://youtu.be/3Faw4mj1Vfo?t=2m13s on the lyric "yeah", and again at 2:55.
Does this effect (particularly in the electronic, rather than the metal) have a name?
Submitted September 19, 2017 at 08:15PM by tremby https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/716z5t/what_is_the_name_of_the_effect_where_volume_dips/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Tuesday, September 19, 2017